Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Today has been a bit of a mess really, not helped by me having a day where I spent a good half hour apparently having completely forgotten how to drive. Made myself look an absolute and complete idiot about half a dozen times in as many minutes. Thankfully it didn't last long nor actually have any lasting effects, but I generally hold myself to a pretty high standard so was well hacked off with myself for hours.

Grabbed a couple of photos of the Merc at one of my usual spots this afternoon, realised I really didn't have any from the rear. A shame as I think this is one of the better looking estate variants out there.









There were enough people about I didn't bother trying getting any more than that.

Something I have made a start on tackling is the rear headlining trim panel, which has looked like this probably for a number of years.



Not ideal.

I'm trying the simple approach first, which has been to wet the fibreboard down thoroughly in the affected area and clamp it to more the shape I'm after.



Somewhat to my surprise when I removed the clamp after a couple of hours the trim actually didn't just spring back to the original shape...so I've wet it down again and clamped it again.



What I'll probably do tomorrow is the same again, but exaggerating the curve I want, hopefully meaning once it's released that it will just sit against the headlining.

I'm slightly puzzled as to how they intended rear speakers to be fitted as there are no obvious attachment points on the metalwork...so I think attaching them to this trim is the only real option...not the end of the world as I can route the screws through the holes already there without damaging anything (the perforated area is far bigger than the speaker would be). Not an ideal setup though.

Sadly it doesn't look like there's any existing audio wiring loom either so I'll need to pull that through the whole length of the car. Blarg... she's a long old car too!

On the subject of headlining, anyone got a diagram of how this is meant to be assembled?



That's above the driver's door. There's a little metal clip visible there but I can't find anywhere that it's meant to locate. Passenger side looks just the same.



Reattaching the material to the board needs to be done too, but knowing how the panel itself is meant to sit would be useful!

[NewcastleFalcon]

The Mercedes Hub Cap its finest hour. I do like the "body coloured" hub caps.

REgards Neil

[Zelandeth]

Little DAB antenna splitter gizmo arrived today. Being me I couldn't let that tiny black box go without investigation.



A lot more in there than I was expecting. Was just expecting some sort of band pass filter, wasn't expecting active circuitry. Guessing this is necessary because it's using an antenna that's not designed for the purpose so additional amplification is needed...pure guess.

Pulled the head unit a bit further out this time while fitting it and had the joy that is finding prior audio wiring work that makes you scratch your head.



There was a lot of this going on.



Why they didn't just put that red wire straight into the white screw connector directly I have no idea...why connect another 2" long wire to it first by twisting the ends together? This loom reaches about two feet out from the dash too so it's not like they were absolutely desperate for the extra length.

Also found the main 12V feed twisted together when they had an open position on their terminal block...albeit with a stub of wire from its former life apparently.



It's not pretty now, but all the taped and twisted together wires are now dispensed with. I would have done this last time but didn't spot it as I never pulled the loom far enough out.

Unfortunately my satisfaction was short lived.



Apparently many DAB sets now use a tiny push fit antenna connection...so I need another adaptor to plug my adaptor in. *Sigh*

So off to wait longer for something else to arrive. Just put it back together for now. Not really likely to really use DAB anyway.

Hard to tell in the photo but I've fine tuned the display colour a bit so it matches better.



It looks like the mission to de-sag the rear headlining trim is working.



Will probably get it refitted shortly as it will be a while before I get around to wiring in rear speakers as it'll be quite a time consuming job.

[Zelandeth]

Before:



After:



Haven't bothered tucking it in at the edges as it will come out again to do the boot struts (if they ever arrive) and the speakers. Not sure why folks claim getting the locating pegs back in is a massive pain...took me all of about 15 seconds. Though I may just have been massively lucky this time!

It's not perfect if you look too closely, but is massively improved. If it sags again I'll probably just stick a bit of metal across the back to add some strength to it.

It's been a good couple of weeks since I'd last had TPA out...mainly because I'd buried her when getting ready for the vehicle swapovers happening with the Xantia moving on and the Merc arriving...so I spent about an hour unearthing her.

Quite rightly she was a bit irked at having been so unceremoniously buried, and made this displeasure known by getting a bit of gunk wedged in the idle jet. Thankfully this resolved itself after about half an hour of driving.



On the way home I managed to capture one of those odometer palindromes which please my sense of order.



Will have to make sure that it's not another three weeks before she's out again. Oh, and add "clean carb again" to the service to do list.

[Zelandeth]

This afternoon the Merc was being used as a proper estate car.



It will come as precisely zero surprise that the mechanism to lower the rear seats is clever and one of the easiest to deal with I've ever used. The rear seat base can be removed in seconds without any tools as well if you need an extra few inches.

This old desktop for scale is longer than I am tall.



All loaded up for a tip run





Gave me a good opportunity to confirm the self leveling works - appears to do just fine.

The amount of stuff you could cram in here if you tried is crazy.

Bit later in the day this happened.



Now we're talking.



Then with the wheel trim back on.



Could have done without the 25 minutes of soaking wet walking along the verge this caused on the way home though!



Apparently one wheel trim didn't get refitted properly. Thankfully I found it and it hadn't decapitated anyone. A set of safety cable ties will be implemented tomorrow.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Good job there wasn't anyone like me walking the dog round there, that wheel trim would have been straight in the "interesting roadside debris" collection in a flash

Odd that only the other day those wheel trims got their moment in the FCF sun, and a mere few days later they decide to take centre stage again

The Mercedes Hub Cap its finest hour. I do like the "body coloured" hub caps.

REgards Neil

[Zelandeth]

Good job there wasn't anyone like me walking the dog round there, that wheel trim would have been straight in the "interesting roadside debris" collection in a flash

Odd that only the other day those wheel trims got their moment in the FCF sun, and a mere few days later they decide to take centre stage again

REgards Neil

Not likely to find many dog walkers there... that's one of the reasons I got so wet trudging through the grass. Being MK the footpath is on the far side of the trees you can see - it's miles from the actual road. Not a bad thing as I really wouldn't want to get hit by one of these wheel trims that had ejected itself at speed. They're not light.

-- -- --

Out and about today to collect a replacement for my broken pressure washer, a friend on another forum had one more or less identical one to mine with a busted hose. Hose and lance on mine are fine, it's just the pump that expired violently a couple of months ago.

On the run over there a few things were confirmed.

1. I really need to fit a tethered box or something in the boot or things slide around all over the place and make a racket.

2. The new tyres have definitely reduced road noise and vibration.

3. Ride seems exactly as before, always a bit of a question with tyres these days given the tendency for them to have unnecessarily stiff sidewalls.

4. Wish I could say they have transformed the handling...but they really haven't. She still corners like a drunken elephant on a space hopper. Just isn't a car for pushing on in, she's a lazy cruiser. If I can reduce the freeplay in the steering a bit that would help I think, though she's never going to be a B-Road weapon.

5. I need to replace the felt seal around the sunroof. First time I've been out on a windy day with it closed and it makes a horrendous din. Does make you realise how quiet these cars must have been in their day though.



I ran into an issue setting up the new stereo due to the fancy pants new DAB+ head unit using a tiny (SMA?) Connector, rather than the screw in mini BNC one like the older ones.

As such I'd had to order up this adaptor.



Which lets me hook it up like so.



Nice and simple. Oh. Or is it?



After a certain amount of head scratching I managed to figure out that the issue is that stupid adaptor! Stuffing the antenna connection straight into the socket results in this happening.



The "DGTL" icon on the bottom of the display shows it is receiving through DAB rather than analogue. A quick test with the meter showed that there is indeed a complete lack of continuity through the centre pin. Will need to get another one of those ordered in then.

Getting really sick of getting DOA parts these days. This wasn't even a particularly cheap one - was picked because the seller offered next day shipping rather than because it's cheap. That worked out well then!

Looking forward to having this buttoned up for the last* time.



* Of course keeping in mind I'll need to be back in here to wire in the rear speakers anyway.

I know a lot of people say terminal strip has no place in a car, and for anything under the bonnet or mission critical I absolutely agree. For stuff like this though so long as the strip is good quality, the wires are prepared properly, everything is tightened down and nothing is strained it's absolutely fine. In 26 years of messing with in car audio I've had I think two speaker connections come adrift where these were used - and in both of those cases it was my own fault for making the wires too short.

I'll tidy things up a bit before declaring it to be finished.

I have done the solder and heat shrink thing on one car - and wound up cursing myself for it! Though to be fair with ISO connectors now being the norm nowadays that makes things easier.



The replica sticker pack I'd ordered also arrived this morning. This is the main one I wanted it for as it's got a lot of useful service data on.




I wasn't quite prepared for how many other stickers were included!



I'm going to need to figure out where they all go... though obviously some aren't going to be relevant, being for other markets, diesel versions etc.

I'll try to get some better photos tomorrow, but I'm really blown away by the quality of these, if they had a Mercedes logo on the backing sheet rather than an Avery one I'd have believed they'd just been posted by the dealer. So long as they last they're well worth the asking price I feel.

These were bought from this eBay seller if you want to get some. No connection with them other than as a satisfied customer.

It's a small detail, but little things like that really can improve the feel of a car I think.

The main thing I need to get done before the engine bay ones can go in is of course cleaning it...especially as currently I've no hope whatsoever of being able to tell if we're still leaking oil and where from because it clearly has been for many years. The main thing holding that up was the lack of a pressure washer, which we've now resolved. I'm really looking forward to getting this car properly cleaned, reckon it will make quite the difference. Mean I can give her a bit of a shine up then too.

[Gibbo2286]

I had to fit one of those adaptors on a none standard radio in a Corsa, it left the head sitting out an inch from the fascia because the depth of the slot was just enough for the original.

[Zelandeth]

I had to fit one of those adaptors on a none standard radio in a Corsa, it left the head sitting out an inch from the fascia because the depth of the slot was just enough for the original.

Space here isn't thankfully an issue as there's bags of room in the console. This is the first time I've fitted a mechless head unit and I really wasn't prepared for how small they are - without needing to fit a CD player in there it's been possible to shrink the depth of the unit by about half.

-- -- --

Zip to show for today as 75% of the day was spent gardening, then a trip to Costco - showing once again how silly big the boot on this car is. Just under £300 worth in here. I know in the Jag this would have filled the boot and most of the rear seat, and the boot on the Jag isn't exactly small.



The eagle eyed may see that the trim by the tailgate has sagged again, as I honestly expected it might. I've got a plan to deal with that on a more permanent basis, just wanted to try the simple one first off.

Really hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to get some decent time set aside to do some work on the cars.

A good cleaning session for the Merc is first on the agenda, then I should be able to get most of the new stickers in place (still need to have a dig around to see if I can find a cheat sheet showing where most of them should go).

[Dormouse]

Yes. I did wonder about the first attempt as it has never worked satisfactorily for me without extra bracing. At least you realised it yourself so you have no doubt already started to plan for the second attempt. Are you adding rear speakers, because if so you might want to plan their mountings at the same time. I have used shaped dowelling and velcro to good effect in the past to keep errant trim located. A shaped plywood ring for the speakers could have lugs to help place velcro to support the outer ends if need be. Just a thought if you are going to be mounting speakers anyway. Another trick to reinforce the back of trim that needs to stay slim is to paint the rear with enamel and layer in shaped pieces of fibre glass mat and paint over again. The paint generally does not leach through the fibre board like resin can but still leaves a stiffened inner layer. Round boot laces laid under the mat make excellent stiffening ribs without adding too much depth. They absorb the paint and stiffen up well.

[Zelandeth]

Yes. I did wonder about the first attempt as it has never worked satisfactorily for me without extra bracing. At least you realised it yourself so you have no doubt already started to plan for the second attempt. Are you adding rear speakers, because if so you might want to plan their mountings at the same time. I have used shaped dowelling and velcro to good effect in the past to keep errant trim located. A shaped plywood ring for the speakers could have lugs to help place velcro to support the outer ends if need be. Just a thought if you are going to be mounting speakers anyway. Another trick to reinforce the back of trim that needs to stay slim is to paint the rear with enamel and layer in shaped pieces of fibre glass mat and paint over again. The paint generally does not leach through the fibre board like resin can but still leaves a stiffened inner layer. Round boot laces laid under the mat make excellent stiffening ribs without adding too much depth. They absorb the paint and stiffen up well.

Speakers shouldn't be difficult, a couple of bits of metal cut out with holes drilled in the right spot should do the trick. Regarding the stiffening of the board, version 2.0 was done today...I've had far more luck with this before. Actual fibreglass will get involved if it causes more trouble.

-- -- --

This bit of trim was really bothering me. Not just because it looks a mess but because it stuck out about an inch from the car and was just asking to stab a passer by.



Eventually I managed to "repair" this channel (read: Squished with pliers) to the point I could reattach it to the trim clip so it sits flat again.



The "cap" which would have closed that off would originally have been part of the rubber part of the strip so is long gone. My solution to that is probably going to be a bit of chemical metal...discovered the tube I had in my toolbox had turned solid so I couldn't do that today.


As I mentioned in my last post the headlining trim had done this again.



This wasn't really a surprise and I already had a plan B in the works for when this inevitably happened.

Panel was removed, clamped in the shape I wanted using a small batten, then I went after the surface with a craft knife, scoring the surface...



...So the resin I had mixed up could sink properly into the board to strengthen it as much as possible.



Left this in the garage to set up for a couple of hours. Result being a board which at least feels far more rigid. Let's hope it stays that way!



Was interested to find a major junction box for the wiring to the rear of the car above that panel. I'm more used to seeing things like this on older commercial vehicles than on cars.



Having conductors numbered like that will surely be a huge help if I ever need to chase gremlins around here.

I took a brief intermission here to investigate what had happened to my old pressure washer before transferring the Lance etc to its new (identical, secondhand) replacement. It died a few months back by surging briefly a couple of times then making a godawful loud bang and stopping pumping.

The fact that oil was peeing out of it when I pulled the pump definitely suggests something is far amiss.



No obvious splits in the casing, but I'm guessing something has gone catastrophically wrong internally in the gearbox. I didn't have a set of hex keys on hand today but I do intend to pull it completely apart later in the week to determine what happened and if I can, why. The moment I hooked the new one up it proved to me that there's been something amiss with mine from day one as the new one has far more punch.

Having a working pressure washer again meant I could start to deal with the proper cleaning tasks...first up the oil caked mess that was the engine bay.

Before:





After today's first pass:





I really need to paint that air filter housing...









I definitely need to get some rust treatment and paint in the general vicinity of the brake master cylinder and servo as there has obviously been a fluid leak here at some point and it's dissolved the paint.

Despite the terror a lot of people seem to express at taking high pressure water near an engine bay, the car started up perfectly after this. I then went for a half hour or so drive to dry everything off.

Still a lot to do as there's plenty of gunk I've missed (especially down by the alternator), but it's a thousand times better and I should actually be able to see which oil leaks are fixed or not now. Was kind of hard to tell with the 1/4" caked on gunge on the sides of the block before.


Last job for today was putting the first of the new stickers in place. This dog eared looking example was removed.



Then replaced with the reproduction one.



I need to try to pull that dent out of the bumper then see if I can get the rubbing strip to pop back onto its channel. The amount of gunk I blasted out of there was unreal...

Hoping to get the bodywork cleaned up and get the polish and wax out soon...oh, and the metal polish on the brightwork.

[Gibbo2286]

I've got a very old commercial Karcher pressure washer, when it went wrong I took it apart and found that the pistons in it were originally chrome plated, the chrome had lifted and torn the seals apart.
Karcher wanted £45 plus for each piston, three of them so I bought a length of stainless steel and had a local workshop turn them up for me, £8.00 for the ss from Metals4U and the workshop charged a fiver for the turning, seals from the local bearing factor and all back in business.

[Dormouse]

The bumper on your car is made from real metal - expect a tussle to tease the dent out. Nice to see the time and effort going into the Merc. Is the AC still huffing with her lack of attention?

[Zelandeth]

The most obvious thing in the engine bay which was making my teeth itch (aside from the horrendous racket from the knackered camshaft anyway) was the state of the air cleaner. It was a rusty, scabby mess which immediately drew your eye the moment you opened the bonnet.



That got pulled off today for a really quick and dirty respray. The high voltage warning sticker had seen better days too.



As had the foam in the intake silencer, so I pulled as much of that out as I could just to save it getting sucked into the filter. After a really quick rub down with a sanding block it was given a couple of quick coats of satin black. I think it was a really dark grey originally, and I will probably try to get it closer to the right colour further down the road - for now "tidy" is the main thing I'm after.





The results speak for themselves I think...it won't stick out quite so much once it's got a bit of general dust and such on it.





It no longer immediately draws your attention when you open the bonnet at least, which was the main object of this whole exercise. All 30 minutes of it. Happy with the result.


The replacement for the dodgy DAB+ antenna adaptor for the stereo arrived this morning (I did look to see if I could get one locally, but the only place I could find one was Halfords - and they wanted £35 for a whole antenna kit, so eBay it was in the end), so I finally have a fully functioning stereo now with both analogue and digital modes working.



Even though I know I'll probably never really use it, knowing it didn't work was going to bug me!

While I was out a bit later in the day I grabbed another couple of photos just because I could. These will be good for a before/after comparison after I've done some polishing and a few bits of paint touchup work.








A pretty major milestone was achieved for me today in that for the first time ever I have actually 3D printed a replacement part for one of my cars.



This (while it obviously still needs some finishing off and painting an appropriate colour) will be a replacement for the broken bonnet catch pull.



Yes I know proper replacements are about a fiver...but that's not the point. I needed to replace it and I randomly stumbled across the model for this, and it's a pretty flat part so took less than an hour to print...so this was a far more interesting solution than just buying a new one. Will clean that up, paint it and hopefully get it fitted tomorrow.

Really need to try to get a replacement for the broken bit of exhaust ordered in because that blow is really quite annoying - not a huge amount of places seem to have them in stock though (especially not at silly prices), and most of those seem to be the same brand as the systems I fitted to the van and Xantia. I'd really rather not buy another one of those as the fit on both of those was diabolically poor and involves massive amounts of swearing to fit. Oh, and the silencer on the van arrived devoid of any baffles. So it's quite likely that I'll just wind up getting a replacement section made up in stainless, especially as it's a pretty short bit that's affected and the rest of the system is pretty healthy.

[Zelandeth]

I wasn't 100% convinced I'd done a proper job of setting the valve clearances on the first pass (not least because I got interrupted halfway through the job and was dying from heat at the time) so went back today and did it again. Definitely was well off the mark in a couple of cases. No 4 intake in particular was way loose.

Has it made any difference to the noise? Maybe a little bit, but she still rattles, and will continue to do so until I replace the camshaft I suspect. Definitely hasn't made a night and day difference, but I feel better knowing the job has been done right for definite now.

The most annoying noise just now though is coming from this thing.



I need to do some part number comparisons to confirm that the mid section is shared between the saloon and estate as I'm struggling to find anyone with this in stock for the TE variant - though a couple of listings for the saloon are out there at not too silly prices. I know the tailpipe is different, but I *think* the mid section is the same.

While the valve clearance adjustment hasn't made a huge difference to the noise levels it has definitely improved running - my guess is because of that one really loose inlet valve which will definitely have been hindering breathing on cylinder number four.

I did discover one really nice little design feature while doing this job. Last time round I was working with a socket on the crankshaft pulley to rotate the engine. This is really pig awkward to do from a position where you can actually see the valve gear. Getting at the power steering pump pulley is a no-go because it's less than an inch from the fan shroud so hard to get a socket onto. The alternator though is a perfect candidate. It did demonstrate though that the belt needed tensioning (they're pretty well shot due to oil contamination anyway - new ones are en route) as it was just slipping rather than turning the engine initially, even with the plugs out.

Now this is a job which I'm used to being simple enough but fiddly and annoying. Generally because of having to find a way to hold the right tension on everything while tightening things back up. Some cars make your life far easier by having a threaded rod or leadscrew setup on the adjuster, the old Saab 900 was a good example. The Jag uses a similar setup but loses points because the threads are massively more fine than they need to be and two of the adjusters are sufficiently well buried that you have to work blind.

Finding this arrangement on the Merc was a wonderful surprise.



Loosen off the two mounting bolts a bit, a locknut on the back of the adjuster, then just turn it in the right direction...then nip the locknut back up, tighten the mounting bolts back up, done. Two minutes tops. It's a really simple design but has clearly been really well thought out. Someone really put thought into this as to how it would be used in the real world after the car left the showroom. Oh, all the nuts and bolts involved are the same size too.


After spending a bit of time filing the edges smoother and drilling the supports out of the mounting hole it was time to test fit the 3D printed bonnet release handle. It's definitely a good deal more discreet than the cable tie sticking out of the grill.



It pops out when the bonnet release in the car is pulled and is definitely a lot easier to get hold of than the aforementioned cable tie I had on here before.





It certainly feels sturdy enough, it's not a massively strong spring that you're pulling against after all. Now I've proven that it fits and seems to work just fine I'll splash some paint on it to make it a bit less conspicuous (I should have just not been lazy and swapped over to black filament before printing it...takes all of five minutes to do!).

Mission success there it feels like...not only have I 3D printed a part, it even fits and works!