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1980 Mercedes-Benz 300SD, China Blau

Started by ChinaBlue, 24 January 2015, 09:11 PM

ChinaBlue

I bought this lovely 1980 300SD at the beginning of last year. It had 116,000 miles on it and was the smoothest running diesel Merc that I test drove. It is a repaint in the original color, China Blau (934H), which was only available on the W116 in 1980. Minimal rust.



It's very straight with excellent panel gaps all around.



BBS Mahle RA 16x7 ET23 wheels from an R107. My tires are getting close to needing replacement, I need to refinish these ASAP! One has a small bend that needs to be repaired (hopefully that's cheap).



Euro bumper project commences tomorrow.



For anyone who saw my introduction post, I'm sorry there's no new content for you as of yet!

ChinaBlue

#1
**Sorry in advance, a couple of photos I took on my phone are a bit blurry**

Last Friday, I disassembled the front end to see what exactly I was facing as far as the front European bumper conversion was concerned.

All US front bumper components removed (aside from the bumper shock brackets), this is what was left.



I noticed that the holes for the European bumper brackets to mount to might be behind the bumper shock bracket. You can see the two outer most holes on the passenger side pretty easily (above). After some measurements, I concluded that all of the holes were in the correct place, but had no threads in them. I wanted to use the standard European brackets if at all possible due to the excellent adjustability, allowing (although it's a bit tedious as I noticed) you to place the bumper perfectly in relation to the car.

I spoke to my fabricator and we came up with a solution: rivnuts.

Sunday  morning, my shop neighbor and I started hacking away at the US bumper shock brackets. I have to say, they put up one hell of a fight!







Sparks flew for about 4.5 hours. At the end of the day, taking care to take our time so not to damage the metal behind the bracket (not entirely sucessfully at times  ::) ) we ended up with a pretty clean crossmember.



After a little bit more cleaning up around the edges with a file and grinding wheel, I was satisfied with our work.



Today, the rest of the project came together.

My fabricator reaming out the holes to accept the rivnuts (working wayyyy below his potential, I might add).



Rivnuts installed:



After test fit #1 (below), I drove it home to finish up the work.



Unfortunately I did not have the foresight to order any 934H China Blue paint, but I still needed to get that German metal covered up before it started to rust!



I then completely disassembled the bumper, degreased it, and polished it. For some reason, it didn't occur to me to take a picture of that.

Test fit #2 (below) revealed that after disassembling the bumper, I had an awful lot of work to do aligning it to the car properly. I probably spent around an hour fiddling with it trying to get it right.



After fiddling around with the brackets and corner alignments (with rain coming down on my head), I finally got it to fit in a satisfactory manner. In the picture, you can't even tell the difference.   >:(


Squiggle Dog

That's a pretty color, and you did a great job of installing the Euro bumper.
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1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Heated Seats, 350,000+

daantjie

Nice job 8)
Yes that is indeed an unusual colour, I think MB was pretty adventurous compared to the US made cars' colour specs at the time, as they say "very European"!  As in Seinfeld's "European Carry - All" ;D
Daniel
1977 450 SEL 6.9 - Astralsilber

cejpat


oversize

Great job!  Interesting to see how the US bumpers are fitted
1979 6.9 #5541 (Red Bull)
1978 6.9 #4248 (Skye)
1979 6.9 #3686 (Moby Dick)
1978 6.9 #1776 (Dora)
1977 450SEL #7010 white -P
1975 450SEL #8414 gold -P

rob280sel

Looks so much better.
now you need the euro headlights!!! :D

ChinaBlue

#7
Thanks everyone!

I'm really glad to see that there is interest in the thread. As long as there is interest, I promise to feed the thread with pictures and updates!

I ran through my parts hoard for the W116, and found a bunch of stuff that I'd totally forgotten!

I have:

-2 complete sets of E Codes, one very nice driver side complete assembly, two passenger side with bad lens and corroded reflectors, and a driver side with a bad lens and corroded reflector. The reflectors are in varying condition. My friend who helped me grind off the US bumper brackets has a batch of chrome going out next month (for his 1964 Falcon Sprint rotisserie restoration product, with a 400HP built 302), so I'm going to media blast the best reflectors and send them out with the batch. The best two main reflectors have the parking lights, lucky me!

-2 pairs of original Bosch Germany European turn signals, one set NOS but needing new seals

-1 pair of European / US '73 W116 fog lamps. These are the same as the '72-'73 R107/C107 US fogs and European fogs. Both are in very good condition even with decent lenses and reflectors, but need the assembly repainted.

-1 Nardi 370MM wood steering wheel, I need to find a hub. I considered rethreading the Momo unit to the Nardi pattern, but would like some input from a forum member with some experience. It's a 1981 Nardi, even period correct to the car!

-1 set of Fiamm series 2000 air horns. Three trumpets, one air pump, one relay. These are the same series used in Ferraris during the '80's, and produce a similar note.

Aside from those fun shiny exciting modification bits, I recently ordered a load of regular maintenance parts:

-Rear caliper rebuild kits

-Oil cap seal

-Gas cap seal

-New set of fuel filters and a spare set too

-Transmission filter and spare, transmission pan gasket

-Valve adjustment wrenches from Mercedes Source

-Shifter rod bushings

-Tie rods and tie rod ends

-Steering center link

-Steering stabilizer strut

-Coolant temperature sender

-Thermostat

-Coolant hoses

Thursday I will be taking the BBS Mahle wheels to a wheel repair specialist. One has a slight bend that I want repaired, and I'm going to have the other wheels tested to confirm they are true. Once the wheel is repaired, I am going to refinish the lips in silver, and paint match the spokes China Blue. Currently searching for good caps! Due to the depleting tire tread, I need to get the new tires/wheels on the car ASAP!

ChinaBlue

Well, as it turns out, the BBS wheels are no good. Once we put them on a wheel balancer, it was clear that they were all tweaked right behind the spoke. It looks like someone went rallying with these wheels. It isn't worth repairing them, I want to make some sort of a table out of them. I'm really disappointed, these wheels were going to look absolutely amazing. Oh well.

Now I'm really regretting not picking up a staggered set of Lorinser LO wheels for the car. They would have needed to be rechromed, or dechromed and painted, so I did not purchase them. I've really been wanting to see a set on a W116, and couldn't find any pictures. For now, I'm afraid, I'm going to have to put some new tires on my Bunts.

karmann_20v

Bummer about the wheels! I happen to have a set of BBS Mahle wheels in 15x7 et23 that I may not use on my W116, so send me an IM if interested.

Pirublues

There's a Lorenser Benz being parted in Socal.

ChinaBlue

#11
The bumper conversion is complete! The rear went much easier than the front.

Here it is, partially stripped down.



As I disassembled the bumper for cleaning, I found that one of the bolts/nuts that held on the bumper frame to the bumper was stuck good! Some time and rust penetrant later, Harbor Freight mini needle nose vice grips were used in an attempt to hold the bolt's round head. This is the result.



That Harbor Freight "vice grip" sacrificed its life so that the nut and bolt could be free. Somehow it stayed together for long enough to free the nut from the bolt!

After cleaning the bumper and parts, I reassembled the bumper. And then we used large cable ties to achieve the perfect fit!



Clearly perfection has already been achieved. It's almost too easy sometimes.  :P



After some measurements, I set the bumper to where it belonged. Then consulted with my fabricator to figure out how to make an adaptor bracket..

I hacked off the chassis bracket for the bumper shock in order to use it for the bumper bracket bases.



Then I ground off the studs from the factory European rear bumper brackets, we lined them up with the US bumper shock bracket, and my friend tack welded them in place.



The bumper bolts up and unbolts easily. The only (very minor) bummer about mounting the bumper this way is that the US bumper shock bracket adds about 1/8 of an inch to the bumper's distance from the rear valence. This is a minor issue, and really is not noticeable. This method of attachment required the least alteration and was very straight forward. There is ample adjustment in the brackets to make up for any minor inconsistencies in my measurement, much like the stock front bracketry.





An interesting side note: these US bumpers weigh a ridiculous amount. The reduction of weight in front of the front wheels has resulted in a minor noticeable change in turn in responsiveness.

This isn't just an update about the bumpers, there is a little bonus content too, with a little back story (if you all don't mind). A few weeks ago, my local Cars and Coffee meet in Irvine was shut down due to overcrowding and excessive revving, burn outs, basically hooning where it is not appropriate to hoon. So as you'd expect, some of the wealthy gentlemen who love cars in Orange County still want to wake up ridiculously early on Saturday mornings to socialize with other car people. After a couple of weeks, a few Cars and Coffee Irvine offshoot meets had started in the county. Yesterday, I attended one of them in San Clemente.

There were probably about 90 cars in attendance at the busiest point, from Alfas to Porsches to Ferraris etc. etc. etc. ... Here are a few of the most droolworthy shots of the day. Seriously, be ready to clean up drool after you scroll down. Get some paper towels, be ready. There is no turning back once you scroll down. You can't say that I didn't warn you.

Lucky me, a 190SL pulled in! Absolutely gorgeous.





Ferrari F40. Yes, it's real.



A McLaren P1 (actually, there were three other McLarens there):






Greg

WOW, some nice machinery there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
W108 280SE  (1970)
W108 280SE  (1971)
W116 280SE  (1977)