W116 450 SEL Restoration Project

[EDZ649]

Managed to get a few snaps of the old girl the other day...

Much more solid around the headlight bowls and inner wings.....

Front cross member needs a bit of work but nowhere near as bad as the other one....

 

[EDZ649]

The underside is pretty good...

but this...

Turned into this!.....

There is some work to be done on the rear wheel arches and boot wells where the rot has set in...

The rest of the underside looks like this so not bad all in all.....

 

[EDZ649]

I managed to take a photo up through the rust hole in the front wheel arch...

Note the original factory wax treatment inside the sill. Looks very solid in there thankfully

View from inside the passenger front footwell...

This is being cut out and plated early next week as the carpet was getting wet and I want to use the car while it undergoes some of the mechanical work.

 

[EDZ649]

I had the welding done to the passenger footwell. I thought it had rotted through from the outside. However, it now transpires that it probably rotted through from the inside because I still have a leak in the same area. Over the last few days I ended up with a lot of water in the footwell, a whole kitchen bowl full! The water was running down from behind the dash but I couldn't see where it was originating from.

So I decided to do some investigations yesterday and this is what I found...

This is the view from the top, just down behind the bonnet hinge. I have pulled the firewall insulation pad forward...

I removed the front seat, carpets, glovebox and heater blower to gain access from the inside. Note the new metal plate already starting to oxidise!

This is what I found. You can see the horizontal metal of the inner wing where the firewall passes behind it into the footwell. The cable to the top left is the bonnet release cable where it passes through the firewall......

This hole was full of fibreglass filler so had obviously been leaking for a long time and been bodged up. Fortunately the other side of the car where the fuse box is located is fine, just as well because it far more work to sort that side out.

This is the view from the wheel arch looking into the car...

To repair this it will need three plates made up, one on the inside, one in the engine bay and one in the wheel arch.

At least I have found the problem and can keep the car covered over until the repair is done.

 

[EDZ649]

After having all that lot sorted I discovered that the windscreen seal was leaking on both sides. The existing seal was badly perished so I sourced a new genuine seal from Germany and decided to get it fitted now. I was going to leave it until the bodywork was done but that will be some time away and I need to make the car watertight.

By chance I was at another local garage a few weeks ago and spotted a guy fitting a screen. I went over to have a chat with him and soon realised he was old school, just what I needed, someone who was sypathetic to my cause!

Anyway he said he could do it, at my risk of course and I booked him in.

I was dreading what would be exposed when the old screen came out. I was expecting to have to rush the car up to my mate at the bodyshop to do emergency repairs to the metal around the windscreen, but this is what it looked like......

Almost as good as the day it left the factory with only the slightest rust bubble high up on the drivers side, phew!

Nice new seal, expertly fitted....

And no nasty rust issues at the bottom of the screen like the donor car...

 

[312 Sprinter]

That's looking good, I like those. I used to have a LHD poverty spec 280S, wind up windows, carb and a manual gearbox. Weirdest S class I've ever seen

 

[EDZ649]

Update

Work has now started on the more pressing mechanical issues, primarily the rattling camshaft and blowing manifold.

One of the studs had been snapped off on one of the manifolds and I had been getting quite a lot of exhaust fumes inside the car. Unfortunately to get at the studs the head has to come off.

The left hand camshaft cover has been removed ready to replace the camshaft and followers. The fuel distributor has been removed to allow the inlet manifold to be taken off to remove the head on the right of the picture.

One of the broken exhaust manifold studs...

Inlet manifold removed. Note the straw between the 'V', probably from an animal having made a nice warm nest at some time in the past....

I pulled one of the injectors out to check the seals and this is what I found...

The lower seal was rock hard and just broke apart. The plastic sleeve around the injector has also split and the top seal is not much better. Fortunately these parts are available from MB, £15 for the full set of 8 top seals, 8 lower seals and 8 plastic sleeves. I guess they haven't done too badly for 30 years old!

The head is being taken to a local guy who specialises in drilling them out. New studs will be fitted throughout.

 

[EDZ649]

It's been a while since I have posted on this thread, mainly because of the crap weather over the winter and other time constraints. Not much has happened except that the car is back on the road and running well. She starts first time everytime on the button, even after standing for 3-4 weeks. The timing needs to be tweeked with a strobe and the warm up regulator seems to need an overhaul.

I'm hoping to get the bodywork done soon so will update when it's going in to the bodyshop.

Anyway today I managed to get the Penta's fitted, they need to be refurbished at some point but are presentable for the moment. I can't decide wether or not to lower it slightly, not pimp-like but more of a subtle drop. I'm sure you guys will have an opinion I'm liking the look of the Penta's, the original 14's just didn't look right somehow, always looked too small for such a big car.

 

[Dieselman]

Those pentas look fine while the others are being refurbed...

 

[d w124]

Yes please,lower it a bit

 

[Dieselman]

How did this car get through an MOT, it's pretty rotten?

 

[EDZ649]

How did this car get through an MOT, it's pretty rotten?

It's not rotten, the pictures make it look far worse than it is. A lot of it is cosmetic stuff. It went in for MOT today and only failed on front brake imbalance, happy days :bannana:

 

[Dieselman]

I'm confused. The car had pretty severe corrosion at the front bulkhead and floor just next to the sill, yet it had MOT.

 

[EDZ649]

I'm confused. The car had pretty severe corrosion at the front bulkhead and floor just next to the sill, yet it had MOT.

It's not the same car I had at the beginning of this thread. I abandoned the first car as it was more rotten than I initially thought. If you read through the other posts you will see that I bought an identical car late last year and intend to use the original car as a donor.

 

[Dieselman]

It's not the same car I had at the beginning of this thread. I abandoned the first car as it was more rotten than I initially thought. If you read through the other posts you will see that I bought an identical car late last year and intend to use the original car as a donor.

I understood that, but which car is in the pictures from post#22 onwards?

 

[EDZ649]

I understood that, but which car is in the pictures from post#22 onwards?

The second car. The rot in the passenger floor pan has now been repaired, so has the bulkhead and inner wheel arch. I didn't post pictures of the repairs but there is a picture in post #24 showing the heater motor on the floor and if you look to the left you can see where the floor was plated. This has now been painted.

The rot in the bulkhead wasn't visible until I started removing things and poking around. The same applied to the inner wheel arch, it had rotted from the inside out because of the bulkhead leak so from the outside the underseal in the arch all looked good.

 

[EDZ649]

Just got the car back from MOT, failed on front brake imbalance so I ended up getting 1 new caliper and new discs and pads. No advisories so really pleased with that :bannana:

Now the weather is better I'm going to start stripping the car of its lights, chrome, interior etc ready to go to the bodyshop. Just need to make sure I remember where everything goes!

 

[Deleted member 11979]

Good luck, as someone who has done this, badly, get lots of plastic bags and pots, and label absolutely everything, and take as many pics as you can.

I ended up with a box of bits and no ideas on my last W126, took ages to put it back together.

 

[Dieselman]

J
Now the weather is better I'm going to start stripping the car of its lights, chrome, interior etc ready to go to the bodyshop. Just need to make sure I remember where everything goes!

The clear ones on the front, the red ones on the back..

 

[Haris]

Look forward to the progress on this Definately want one of these in the future!