Builds 1973 Mercedes R107 build (1 Viewer)

[Gumby]

Big folder of receipts and paperwork. Looks like it was purchased in 1989 from the original owner. She kept all her receipts as well. The next guy spent $4500 on the car, then another $6k fixing it. .Trans rebuild, head rebuild. New glass and seals. Lots of body work to get it in primer. It's a Tobacco Brown car. The new color on the hood, deck lid, fuel door and sunroof is a Nissan color. It's a nice silver, but it's not right.
Looks like work stopped in 1991.

 

[Gumby]

The bad stuff is the seats and door cards are gone. Carpet is bad and orange. Dash, headliner and interior trim are mostly there. Center console is present and pretty good. Chrome trim on the outside seems mostly there. Some new bumper parts, but the big center sections of the early euro-style bumpers are gone. Somebody took the grille recently, along with the headlights and tail lights. One rust spot behind the drivers front wheel, and one fender didn't get primed. The rocker trim is missing. Chrome cowl grille is missing too. Probably best thing is to find a donor with no title, bad body and junk engine, but perfect interior and bumpers. There's not a w116 in Michigan for under $10k currently, but there's one sitting in a barn someplace.

Headlights and tail lights look just like r107 parts and I had some pie in the sky hopes, but they are different enough my spare parts stash isn't going to be much help.

Ran when parked, but that appears to have been 35 years ago. Going on the hoist today to check the fuel situation. Prolly needs the tank flushed or replaced. Plans are to put a speeduino stand alone in it.

 

[Gumby]

Tobacco Brown w116 for reference

 

[Gumby]

Cleaned up.
The underside is good. Drivers floor was replaced. The rest is all original. Wheel arches are all great. Just the left front jack point forward on the rocker.
The belt trim was all there with a bag of MB trim clips. A pillar trim is missing inside and out.
The console is pretty good. The Cognac interior is fairly orange and the carpet is toast. I glued it to the console anyway. swapped in a better shifter and knob. The bushing was gone, so thats fixed too. Missing the shifter console top. It's narrower than a 107. Might try to print one. Seats are audi seats from the 107. They don't fit and clash bad, but they are better than nothing and take up less space on the shelf.
Checked the fuel tank. It's crusty, but dry. I'll pull it and give it a clean. Fuel pump looks pretty bad. Hosed it down with PB and pulled the relay. I'll just put in a new pump and filter.
Hooked up a battery and it cranked. Cranked with the coil wire off until the battery got lowish. Put the charger on. Checked the valves and it had oil. Cleaned the points. Hooked up the coil and gave it a shot of fuel. Fired right up.

 

[Gumby]

Tank

 

[NCFJ]

Another distraction. Owning a trailer leads to poor decisions.

Amen brother. There was a time I owned 13 Land Cruisers. Sold them all off but a few 80 rollers. Made money on all of them. LCs are an appreciating commodity.

 

[Gumby]

Tank is out. It's gross, but it's solid. There was some red brown goo at the bottom that was still liquidish. Drained off the varnish. It was left with a more solid goo. I've got it soaking in a gallon of mineral spirits I haven't found a use for. I'll get more aggressive tomorrow. The filter screen came out with an impact. It was nasty. I have a couple new ones. New hoses, clamps, filter and pump. New check valve and cap nut. Sandblasted, rust converter, and wrinkle coated the mount. New rubber feet mounts. Used suction damper from the parts car. The old one was not usable.
First sign of rodents behind the tank. Solid metal everywhere.
The fuel neck grommet is in the sonic tank. Seems to soften old rubber right up. It came off in one piece. It was very clear the tank has not been out since 1973.
The sending unit is also in the sonic cleaner. The float doesn't move. There was 3/8 inch of solid fuel silt on the bottom, but nothing on the tube.

 

[Gumby]

2 gallons of muriatic acid made some nasty soup, but only got the goop out of the bottom. Didn't touch the rust there. The sides came pretty clean, so I got another gallon and did another round. Powerwashed it out and was pretty happy with the result.

Installed the tank after cleaning and rust prepping the trunk tank well. Pretty easy to service and in a very safe place above the rear axle.

Plumbed up the fuel module and wired the pump. Tried to start, but wouldn't catch. Swapped out the injectors with the set out of the other d-jet 450. Started up and idled mostly, so I drove it out into the yard where I wouldn't get asphyxiated. Started to run bad and stalled. Figured it was not picking up fuel and put in another couple of gallons. When I loosened the cap it sucked in air hard. Ran better with the cap off.

I had to replace most of the cloth hoses under the hood as they were leaking through the hoses. I'll replace the rest before it goes on the road.

Drove it around the yard. The brakes were soft but pumped up. Didn't blow and hoses our lines. Trans worked well at least up to 10 mph. Wipers didn't work. First rain the car has seen since 1991.

Little drip out of the return line at the tank when I was back in the shop. I had to start it to get it centered on n the hoist. When I pulled the hose it was pressurized so it looks like the return line is plugged in the tank. That's a problem for a future version of me after I find a parts car.

If nothing else i got a good drive train. Runs good enough to go in storage.

 

[fjc-man]

Injector trigger points could probably use a cleaning.

 

[Gumby]

Yeah. But I'm scared to touch it. Everything is crispy. If i get into more before I put it away, I'll see how the injectors are firing. I imagine there are a lot of vacuum leaks competing with a plugged return line for AFR. It might be a deep rabbit hole.

I partially got the car because it wanted to do another Speeduino conversion. Maybe with low impedance stock injectors since I have the resistors and the terminal connectors are in really good shape.

W116s are hard to find. It might be a while before I find a parts car. It's gonna be easier to have around now that it moves.

 

[Gumby]

2 parts car w116s on the faceballs. In 500 mile range. Dozens of 450sl. Should have stuck with the r107s

One in Knoxville, KY, 9 hours away. Clean body, but yellow. Big bumpers, US headlights and hubcaps. I'm a hard no on the US bumpers, ambivalent on either headlight and pro-hubcaps. Good interior. I'd be driving to get it if it was closer.

One in Flint, 2 hours away. I looked at it yesterday. He started at $2500, so it was worth a drive even though the pictures were terrible. I asked about the interior and got back the reply that it needed cleaning and maybe some seat covers. Yeah, no. Every seat panel was duct taped. The covers were trash. Dash was cracked a dozen times. Wood trim was cracked and swolen. Stock Becker Europa radio was missing knobs. Grill had duct tape all around the edge and no star. 4 flat junk tires. I didn't bother opening the hood. 2.4l with k-jet that was rusted. The steering wheel was even trash. He wasn't around so I messaged him that I saw about $500 in parts. He messaged back the headlights were worth $200 alone. Maybe that's what parters are asking, but even so, there wasn't another $300 worth there. I'll keep an eye on it if it gets down to what it's worth, maybe it's worth another drive.
He was also off by a factor of 10 on the mileage.
I drove the w116 into the barn and put the r107 on the hoist for the winter.

 

[Gumby]

Ater a week that w116 is down to $1k. Still not worth it.

Remembered I had a set of Benz rims with good 15s on them and swapped those tires onto the sweet 15" bundt rims from the w116 and put them on the 107. The nice rims on the 107 got tires dismounted today for refreshing over the long weekend.

Pulled the seats and center console to investigate the HVAC swap. The bottom line is don't buy a 78 or any model with the Chrysler CC. The whole thing needs to be swapped to go to the early manual HVAC. Just buy the right car to start with. Dash has to come out along with everything in the passenger footwell to get the evaporator and heater core out. Fortunately, I pulled all of it out of the parts car.

Printed some parts. The control lever had broken off the center vent flap controls, so I printed a new cover for the flap. The original bakelite looking stuff is riveted to the rubber seal i can re-use. The control levers ride on some plastic bushings. A couple were missing. I printed 5 new ones. I also have a pretty complicated lever that had broken to draw yet. I'm not sure how else to bond the knob that's broken off the curved lever. It's cast aluminum, I think. I don't think they used white metal. Either way it's not gonna weld. If i can figure out FreeCAD enough to build the part, I think the glass fiber impregnated ABS filiment will be strong enough.

 

[Gumby]

Printed out the lever and made a pretty good one first time. Radio box took a few more tries, but it came out good. Every r107 console has a busted out center console. You MUST take the parts out in the right order, starting with the ash tray. It's really easy to bust up the 50 year old plastic. I just printed a box with a flange, then added a wing to tie the console to the dash. I had to mock up the dash to tie the console in to make sure it would all fit. Once I got it right I printed it out of ABS-GF.

The heater box is a huge pain in the ass. Days of sitting on the floor fighting with every detail. I had to convert the vacuum system for the vents, but it's much easier to do the earlier system. Cleaned up and routed electrical and vacuum. Swapped over the 2 vent stuff which necessitated swpping the center vent controls and the black trim instead of the wood. Glove box and side vent trim needed changing too. The dash has a working clock in the tach so I'm going to put an analog AFR gauge in the clock hole.

Then I bought a parts car with a nice interior. 73 with good bumpers and, hopefully a good drivetrain with D-jet. Best case it can be the new beater with the grey cars interior and bumpers. Worst case i paid a good price for the parts.

The W116 is going to be parts too. I just can't justify putting money into it. Nice ones dont sell for what i would spend painting it. Even the 6.9s are crazy undervalued. I think the next generation was more iconic, better in most ways, and more plentiful. The rebuilt motor and trans are going in something after a speediuino conversion. If anybody wants a nice w116 roller with a title lemme know.

 

[Gumby]

Just a little bath. Buddy Tony inspected and picked it up, and even powerwashed the new 107.

Fixed the Tundra brakes again so I can go get it next weekend. Suckiest part about them. Replaced all the hoses and several lines this time.

I drove the w116 up on my trailer to go pull the drivetrain. Stupid car. It's too nice to scrap. A bunch of parts will live in r107s.

 

[Gumby]

Another giant folder of paperwork. Gonna have to do some forensic work to see what the history of the car was. The first big things I noticed was the rims are different from previous Bundt wheels I have. The upper hood hinges are bolts instead of pins as well. The titles held the clue to that. It's not a 73 450sl, but a 72 350sl. Manufacture date of 2/72, so a pretty early one.

107 is the model. 044 means it has the M117 4.5l v-8 so it was an American import. 1 means LHD. 2 is an auto. 003323 would be the sequential build number. Not super rare, and really doesn't mean much unless it was a 2 or 3 digit production number. Kinda cool it was so early and the interior is just minty.

 

[Gumby]

Washed it up on the trailer since it got all the way up to 36 after coating it with ice from the sky the night before. The 73 was in the shop and in the way. It wouldn't start. I had power and grounds every where so I plugged in the tuner laptop. Dead laptop. Let it charge while I washed the black grunge off with 0000 steel wool out in the cold.
The 73 started right up once the laptop communicated with the PCM. It must lose the tune if it stays unpowered too long. That's gonna be problematic on resale.

 

[Gumby]

I don't know if it's too rusty to save. The quarters are rusty where the trunk floor ties in and in the doglegs. Fortunately, all of it is available in patch panels, as is the left floor. The front is toast. The rear has been patched poorly.

The real problem is the cowl drains. The DS one rusted out the firewall and dumps water on the floor.

 

[Gumby]

The story on the car was that it had sat for 4 years. Then it turned out Dad died four years ago, but he had parked it because of the fuel pump some years before that. Damage mostly seems to be from sitting outside and under foliage. The trunk channel drains clogged and water ran into the trunk, down the fuel tank and onto the floor above the muffler. The top of the fuel tank is gone. I pulled the carcass and cleaned the well. It looks fine. I treated a little surface stuff after wire wheeling it. I have the tank from the green parts car that started this whole mess and the fuel pump, hoses, strainer and filter i bought for the w116.

 

[Gumby]

So why buy it? The interior is so minty. The dash is perfect. No cracks. The console is perfect. Seats are so good. Everything is great except the left floor. It'll all go in the 73. If this car runs, I'll put all the other not as good stuff in it from the grey car and have a driver while I paint the 73.
Top is junk. Frame was all seized and had broken the pins on two of the linkages, just like the 73. That car was also stored with the top down and hard top on. Hard top is very good and might just stay on. I had to pull the top to get in the soft top well to pull the sending unit wires. I pulled the soft top frame out too. The top well is solid, but the steel tonneau is not. I guess I'm glad I saved the 78 one.

The REO Speedwagon tape was prolly worth the 10 hour drive alone.

 

[Gumby]

Cascading problems on the 72 saw it getting towed out of the shop so the 73 could come in. New pump, filter, pre-filter and hoses. No pumpage. Relay was bad. Clicking, but not switching. Threw in a relay from the bins. Fuses are crusty, but are currently passing current. Fuel pump ran and several hoses leaked, but it started. Good oil pressure. Fairly good idle. Tightened several hoses. No more leaks under the hood. Fuel from under the car. The metal fuel line was just falling apart. The first repair led to the second leak and the replacement of the whole pressure line. Now it won't run. Pulled and freed up the throttle body linkage, then, while the linkage sat in rust desolver, i swapped in the perfect linkage from the W116 motor. Pulled the distributor, cleaned, tested and set all 5 sets of breaker points. Next up is the set of injectors i put on the W116.
1-3 inches of snow tonight and I want cars shuffled before then, so I got out the new tractor and the old wife and we towed it out under the lean to on the back of the shop. Hard top on. Tarp below and car cover above. Lots of mouse repellant and a floor of sorts put down. It's in way better shape than how it was left outside for the last several years.

I did pull the blower motor cover. It was a steel piece. That explains why it was painted body color. I wonder where in production that cover became plastic. The googles says it was always plastic. The drains were plugged, but the cowl area isn't terrible. The driver wheel well is pretty terrible. Water is coming in pretty bad there.

Tried out the HF steam cleaner on the seats, dash and door cards. The towels turned pretty nasty so it did something. The steam helped clean mulch residue out of the engine compartment after I sucked up a few pounds of gunk the garden center would charge big money for. I'm not unhappy with the purchase.

The W116 engine and trans are on the floor of the shop. I pulled the diff out too just because. Turns out it's a LSD. That'll be going in the grey car.

I think it's gonna stay grey. Not Arabian. The wife had a say and pearl grey metallic was the winner. I wanted a firm color because I'd like to paint the engine bay when the engine is out again this winter. Jams and backsides of panels too. Then the new interior can go in one last time.

Yet another distraction to keep me out of the shop over winter break. 4 dogs now. A good round number.