So, I bought a R107 :)

[SilverSaloon]

another couple of hours spent tonight dismantling the bumper... its taking a long time. the bolt that goes through that holds the little chrome join piece on each side of the bumper is just spinning and one end is flat so you cant grip it or anything. managed eventually to basically hack it off in t end..... but took ages and i was lucky not to damage the surrounding chrome.

after exhausting all 2nd hand routes to get some chrome, i may opt for a brand new replacement. still unsure... may get it re-chromed

any advice for this bolt before i start the other side?

 

[nick mercedes]

another couple of hours spent tonight dismantling the bumper... its taking a long time. the bolt that goes through that holds the little chrome join piece on each side of the bumper is just spinning and one end is flat so you cant grip it or anything. managed eventually to basically hack it off in t end..... but took ages and i was lucky not to damage the surrounding chrome.

after exhausting all 2nd hand routes to get some chrome, i may opt for a brand new replacement. still unsure... may get it re-chromed

any advice for this bolt before i start the other side?

There's a kit of all the nuts bolts and fittings needed for either front or rear 107 bumpers, it's best to give up on the old ones and replace the lot...

 

[219]

another couple of hours spent tonight dismantling the bumper... its taking a long time. the bolt that goes through that holds the little chrome join piece on each side of the bumper is just spinning and one end is flat so you cant grip it or anything. managed eventually to basically hack it off in t end..... but took ages and i was lucky not to damage the surrounding chrome......any advice for this bolt before i start the other side?

Yes , get an angle grinder ...... and a pair of safety goggles .

The grinder will cut off bolts in about 30 seconds that you'd spend about an hour with a hacksaw and skinning your knuckles into the bargain !

Good luck with the project .

Machine Mart have good deals on welders every so often .

 

[SilverSaloon]

thanks.

i have an angle grinder but dropped some parts of it into a junk box thats in the garage; hence me not using it. Looks like i'm going to have to try and find it. Not sure if using an angle grinder is wise for the main chrome link part - if i slip i could damage the expensive chrome. For this bolt i might persevere with the hacksaw... once the chrome is all gone then the rest of the bolts can come off with harsh angle grinding

i'm not sure whether using the genuine Merc bolts etc is a good idea - i'm thinking maybe a decent set of non-rusting bolts from elsewhere may be better and cheaper.....

i've got my welder now

 

[SilverSaloon]

latest update:

everything is off the front and rear of the car now. Both bumpers are fully dismantled and ready for restoration.

The wings will be coming off aswell before they are restored. There is some bad rust to fix on the wings but apart from that they are solid so I have more-or-less decided to keep the original MB wings and restore them rather than replace with pattern parts. Unfortunatly my budget wont allow genuine new MB wings. Removing the wings will give me better access to repair them properly and also to repair patches elsewhere.

these pics are a little different to the pic in Post 1 eh!?

 

[grober]

You're a brave man is all I can say, but I admire your attitude and the way you tackling what is turning into a major resto project.

 

[jaymanek]

reminds me of my W123 back in 2001... you will find a lot of hidden rust... hope you have practised with that welder!

 

[popuptoaster]

good luck and keep at it, i tend to tackle small bits at a time if possible and try and leave the car as complete as possible, just removing the bits as you need to, can really hurt your mojo if you take it all apart at once as you can then see how much work is ahead of you and its very easy to feel like giving in.

I find it helps to have some lovely shiny magazine pics of similar cars stuck up all over the walls in the garage.

 

[SilverSaloon]

My wife said the same thing about removing lots of the car, but all i've really removed is the 2 bumpers and the assocaated trim to get at the wings.

the bumpers will be rubbed down and treated this weekend. they needed to be completely dismantled to do this right. All the chrome has to come off and the old rusted bolts etc. Then i'll be treating the bare metal stiffeners and the underside of the chrome. Some new chrome will then go on.

the car is SORN and i have no plans or need to use it so i'm not bothered about taking it to bits; its all got to come off to (a) repair the bits properly (b) to gain access and (c) to avoid damaging bits that are fine.

got to be done.

Will look bloody great when finished though and i'm enjoying it.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Drivers side wing removed.

Good news; 90% of it looks good under there. I'll be welding a little bit of metal onto the top of the inner wing where the wing bolts to as it looks like its been repaired before (quite well) but the new repair has rusted a little at the very top.

Bad news; when the wing was removed, I started poking around by the ends of the sills and my screwdriver went through! I plan to cut out the rot here and weld in new metal. after the jacking point, the sills look fine so i think the rust is only in this area.... again it appears its been repaired before with new metal to a decent standard but rust has started to kick in again.

 

[grober]

Nice inspection lamp but how is the wife going to be able to read her latest Barbara Cartland in bed tonight?

 

[SilverSaloon]

Nice inspection lamp but how is the wife going to be able to read her latest Barbara Cartland in bed tonight?

LOL. yeah i was using that as an additional light. I do have a proper inspection lamp

 

[Druk]

Nice inspection lamp

You and me are on the same wicket Graeme . I posted exactly the same observaton on another forum. :bannana: :bannana:

 

[219]

Lots of useful air tools on offer at Aldi this week : impact driver , cut-off tool , ratchet , nibblers , shot blaster and more . Got some last year when they first went on offer and completed the set the other day .

 

[SilverSaloon]

Lots of useful air tools on offer at Aldi this week : impact driver , cut-off tool , ratchet , nibblers , shot blaster and more . Got some last year when they first went on offer and completed the set the other day .

hi yeah i considered the aldi air tools, but i'd need to buy the compressor aswell and didnt want to spend all that just on tools. my budget to do up the car is limited so i've got to live with the stuff i've got if i can. the powered tools i have should be sufficient to do what i need to do....

 

[SilverSaloon]

Minor update. I've been patching up the wing. I've tackled the surface rust on the top of the passenger wing - grinding down to good metal (and removing/grinding off someone's previous poor attempt at welding new metal ontop of rust) and then a good coating of POR-15. This wing is still on the car and i'll tackle the rest of the rust once i've got the wing off.

the drivers wing is already off the car and i've cut two great big holes in the side of it - it was completely rotton around where the side trim bolts onto, so about 3" square section has been cut out of it and a new piece of metal welded into place. As its my 1st proper weld job on the car i'm pretty happy with the result now its sanded down. I plan on treating the whole repair patch to a thin coating of POR-15 on both sides and then a little thin layer of filler to even it all out, then it should be ready to paint. Luckily the amount i needed to cut out didnt go too much into the wheel arch curve.

After i've finished this, i have a few other small bits of metal to weld in where rot has been cut out and the wing will be rust free.

i'm amazed by the thickness of the genuine MB wing. Its about 1.6mm thick.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Update;

drivers wing now fully repaired, new metal welded in and ready for painting after i've smoothed out with minimal filler....

some pics during the process....

pics of the rot cut out:

new metal going in an treated, and coated with Por-15 ready for filling:

 

[l5foye]

You are doing a great job. Personally I am not a fan of Por-15. After many years of restoration work, I find if you weld in patches, it is best to cover the area with glass fibre resin (just the resin). It forms a waterproof barrier -all other types of paint on stuff break down eventually.

 

[SilverSaloon]

You are doing a great job. Personally I am not a fan of Por-15. After many years of restoration work, I find if you weld in patches, it is best to cover the area with glass fibre resin (just the resin). It forms a waterproof barrier -all other types of paint on stuff break down eventually.

thanks for the tip - I read varying reviews on Por-15 but generally the response was positive so i thought i'd give it a go.

i need some more por-15, so i did think about using an alternative product on the other wing, and then see what one lasts the longest.

I was repairing the wings on the view i will replace with new wings at some point in the future - but after doing the work i'm hoping that the repairs should last well. They are genuine wings on there aswell so worth keeping vs pattern parts.

as you can probably see in the pics, i did use some glass fibre repairs on some small holes that had rusted through that were on curvy inner parts of the wing that would be hard to weld metal to and still keep the correct shape. I'm putting in new metal where i can though.

overall i'm quite pleased with the repair work so far - one minor dissapointment where the arch lip was but i will have to shape that a bit with the dreaded filler.

I plan on coating the whole of the inside of the wing with thick a underseal before putting back on the car. i also have obtained a pair of genuine Post-1985 wheel arch liners that should also protect the wings from the road grime.

i read on here somewhere about mixing waxoil with butimen?

 

[l5foye]

Regarding the arch lip, you should maybe consider using chemical metal. It will be a much stronger and longer lasting job than fillers.