A quick update on the latest in the Crayford department.
'Wasabi' has been getting some attention and is all the better for it.
When I got the car it was reluctant to start, and this was the easiest to fix.
Someone in the past had fitted a locking petrol cap (presumably as the central locking was not working), but it was sealed, ie no breather hole, and two minutes after I bought it, (as whenever I have bought a car the tank was empty) I pulled in a servo to fill up and noticed the big suck from the vacuum in the tank, I was surprised it ran at all!
Anyway, a standard petrol cap cured that.
I fitted a passenger side door mirror, as I prefer to have one, and I guess it was an option back in '75, so did not have one.
The spare tyre is now of the right size to match the others, there was a 185 x 14 in there!
The air-con was not working and the compressor was stuffed, but I had a good one on my parts car, and as I prefer to have a new timing chain fitted as insurance on any old car with no known service history, I asked Dave at PhilStar Motors in Wollongong to fit and gas the air-con at the same time.
Rego was due too, so Dave replaced a couple of worn front suspension bushes and had some small holes in the passenger side front floor welded with patches. This corrosion appeared to be rusted from the inside out, and I suspected a blocked air-con drain, (from when it had worked in the past), rather than a leaking windscreen, so I had those cleaned out too.
I tuned it up with new plugs, and using a timing light and a vacuum gauge have got it running sweetly now.
The several different shades of green from various bodged touch-ups did not look good, so I gave the petrol filler flap to B&L Paint Supplies of Unanderra to match a litre and had the dodgiest bits blown over to a closer match. It still will need a bare metal repaint, probably in original Silver Green if it is ever going to be a concours contender, but that will have to wait. At least it is all one colour now.
John Green of M-B Spares supplied a replacement for the broken plastic strip that runs along the back edge where the tailgate (what would a boot on a sedan) locks, so now it looks neater and the rattle from the back has gone too.
With a clean and adjustment, the driver's door window now goes up and down freely.
It now proudly sports a W116.ORG chrome grille badge too.
I recently got a pair of correct coil springs from another forum member, so I can now fit the self-levelling system hydraulic parts from my W123 donor car, as it had this originally, and would seem an essential option on a station wagon.
Future jobs to do include fitting the above mentioned rear suspension, fix the central locking, replace the dodgy stereo with a period Becker Mexico, and source a set of correct genuine M-B alloys to replace the INTRA copies it currently wears.
The roof rack is badly corroded, and will either be replaced by a W123 T-wagon type, or deleted altogether, as I am unable to find exactly what rack Crayford originally fitted,(it is not the old Ford Granada type that John Green's car has).
The interior is clean enough to be useable for now, but will get some attention when the paint job is done hopefully next year.
For the various small items it will need later it may be worth buying a complete W116 S-class sedan with the same colour interior and alloy wheels as a donor car.
Anyway, for now it runs good, steers, stops and looks smarter, so I can now use it regularly.
Weather permitting (forecast looks ok) I will bring it to the Shannons Eastern Creek Classic Day tomorrow, so the curious can gawk "what is THAT?" and would be happy to meet any other forumsters.
SeeYa
Chris
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk272/Rev-Head_photos/M-B%20280SE%20Crayford/CRAY7.jpg
