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280" Concourse; Diary of a layman

Started by floyd111, 09 March 2015, 04:44 AM

rumb

Must be frustrating at times living in a country of thieves.
'68 250S
'77 6.9 Euro
'91 300SE,
'98 SL500
'14 CLS550,
'16 AMG GTS
'21 E450 Cabrio

ptashek

Remind me again why none of those guys are in jail yet?
1993 "Pearl Blue" W124 280TE
1988 "Arctic White" W124 200T
1979 "Icon Gold" W116 450SE

floyd111

#842
If only it were so simple. Not a country of thieves, luckily, but the lowest crime rate planetwide here in Taiwan.
The fact my NOS parts were stolen is an exception, and only possible because the actual boss in charge did not pay his staff..-again- and one of them took off quietly with a truck full of stuff, including much of my stuff.
My missing undercarriage is part of that fiasco, as well a part of the incompetence of that same boss,. who got into deep water again, needed to move house and dump lots of old stuff in storage belonging to dozens of cars, and mine got tossed along with the rest..
What can you do? Break his legs? That isn't gonna get me paid..
But, on that same note, I don't like that last alternative, shipping the Dutch car back to the workshop.
I think I'm just gonna ship the new chassis here, in whatever fashion possible, and quietly await the arrivel of Tony and the end of Covid. or vice-versa.

floyd111

And just when things started looking up with that vaccination wave abroad, hopefully allowing Tony to fly in and assemble my car, now we've got Covid in Taiwan as well. Schools nationwide closed, etc etc. All because some idiot did not arrange for ample quarantine rooms for airline staff, pushing them into a 5 star hotel instead. Instantly 200 infected. 48 hours later it's 2000+
It's gonna be a heated 2 weeks, as we wait for either a containment of these sudden 2000 cases or we will see the floodgates open like everywhere else. That would truly suck.
The scorching summer is about to start, the country is suffering from unheard of draught with large parts of the country already under water rations.
Are we gonna spend this summer in lockup without a daily water supply? We'll find out soon enough, I guess.

floyd111

#844
Small miracles sometimes do happen, it seems.
In 2020 I found a very rare 1920's Mercedes manicure set. Very elaborate, leather, with dozens of tiny items still in their place. I was quite ecstatic, for the item was only 35 bucks and super rare. Something you find but once in a lifetime of obsessive searching.
Paid, shipped with PayPal and insurance and tracking. And then it never arrived. Germany being Covid-ridden, all I got was a refund.
The loss of that thingy had me nauseous for months.  It's so difficult to find pre-war customer gifts. Each one of them could/should be worth 10x that price.

But, I suspected the item must have arrived somewhere in Germany. I tweaked my search bots and kept at it till last week, when finally my rare 20's manicure set popped up in the results.
Purchased and paid for, it is now once more on it's way.

The seller, who charged me twice what I paid before is adamant the item has been in the family for 50 years. I would bet this is is a 1 in 10 chance, at best. Still, I'd love to be proven wrong about my conviction that it's the very same item, and with some luck I'll be able to find out for sure and have my faith restored.

Funny thing: Just as I wanted to add a pic, the advert got deleted. The pics I have on my computer are on a disk that broke today. Copies of detailed photos in mails all seem gone as well.
Good thing I always have a backup disk, or I might have considered upping my reality meds!


floyd111


rumb

 :) looking forward to an update!
'68 250S
'77 6.9 Euro
'91 300SE,
'98 SL500
'14 CLS550,
'16 AMG GTS
'21 E450 Cabrio

Nabstud

I was recently thinking about your part storage and theft issues. Hope you have gotten a break....
1975 280S - Australian delivered

ptashek

Quote from: floyd111 on 10 August 2023, 07:53 AMI'm back!
 :)  :)

Welcome back Stan. Looking forward to a status update :)
1993 "Pearl Blue" W124 280TE
1988 "Arctic White" W124 200T
1979 "Icon Gold" W116 450SE

floyd111

He Lucas!
It's been a while!

Been around the world with the family for 1.5 years, trying to escape the global madness, trying to find a new paradise somewhere else.
I did not find it.
But, we did find sanity all over, and my little girl finally recovered from her mask-induced incurable airway infection/inflammation, or whatever that was that the doctors could not cure.

So, after a 100 amazing and rather unbelievable adventures in Zimbabwe, South Africa, France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Costa Rica and Nicaragua we're back in Taiwan, slowly picking up where I left off.
The stuff we had to do here, and have done already is nearly too much to list, since the tenants had completely neglected and abused the house as well as the property around it.
Still, the museum is getting back into shape, with everything renovated, unpacked, re-sorted and redecorated.
I'll be posting pictures soon. Hope it's going to be ready in a few days. Took weeks to clean and repair!

The renovated chassis will arrive her next Wednesday or Thursday, and I may just have enough parts in storage to build 1 NOS W116. But, for that I'll need to find a mechanic to assemble the lot. Where have we heard of that problem before? Right! 5 imported mechanics ago!

I was also in Stuttgart, at the MB Museum, where, early morning I parked myself in the lobby, asking to see the Curator/boss.
Told them I'd wait till closing time if required. I did wait that long, and in the end, he appeared. We had a chat where I explained my project to him, and my suggestion he buys my gift-, accessory- and 70's MB workshop interior, for the Stuttgart Museum.
I had seen a W123 Combi in the museum, with lots of era-correct daily items spread around the seats of the car. His idea.
Thus I knew that my project was right up his alley.
I am almost done with my catalogue, after which I'll send it to him. See what he says.

Not counting on anything, I proceed with my Museum build, and now that ALL the items that were gathered and stored at Thomas's place in Germany for 2+ years are also finally in Taiwan, it is all very complete.
Yes, they are finally here. Along the many travels I ended up in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, in places not far from Thomas, and also not far from my expeditor in Brussels.
It was a lovely day trip to Thomas, where we had had lots of talks, and we also unpacked and repacked the endless amount of items in a fashion that would fit my SUV, as well as my family.
We drove back to our rented cottage in Belgium, unpacked the lot, repacked and listed them on shipping manifests, and then drove them to Brussels, while on our way to Amsterdam.
We also ended up having to send customs pics and tax codes of each item, before it finally left Brussels. Never again! Do not try this at home!

Anyways, we're back, trying to pick up from where we left off.
I still need to check whether Tony, my last mechanic from the UK is still alive, and willing to come back to Taiwan. He was very busy keeping up with his boosters, and with his 350lbs weight he may not have survived watching the BBC for 4 years.

I also noticed that the last few pages of my "Dairy of a layman" thread have been disappeared..
I sure hope that we won't have more of these episodes, now most of the world has come to their senses.
There were pics in there that I no longer have copies of, which kinda hurts.
It also creates a clear gap in my thread, that by now is almost fit for a novel. ;D  ;D

Here's a few new pics, a teaser of what is to come.



floyd111

Also hi to Rumb!

Looking forward to getting back up to date with the daily ongoings on the Forum!
I hope everyone is still alive and kicking!

Here's some more pics..

floyd111

#851
And what a restart of this opera this turns out to be.
Today the chassis arrived, 2 days early. Joy of joys. It's only been 10 years.
I had the big Mercedes flags hanging from the roof, as a salute to this milestone, the end of an era, the beginning of a new one.
Imagine my horror to find the right rear fended dented. both horizontal folds included.
I called the workshop guy and tore him a new hole.
I could write pages full of obscenities here, and it would barely scratch the surface of what I want(ed) to express.
I'll refrain from all that, but you get the point.
10 years, out of which 5 years of daily searches and back-braking shopping and shipping issues in 5 languages in 10 countries.
Close to 130.000 euros spent. including 2 W116's destroyed, the third one missing ALL parts but the chassis.
Half my NOS parts missing, and now the renovated chassis finally arrives with a really nasty dent.
The trunk bottom scratched and dented as well, as is the tank lid, and the trunk scratched.
The interior was filled with garbage and parts belonging to other cars. Big scratches in the interior metal.
When is a man allowed to weep, I ask myself?
When is a man allowed to go out and put someone in the hospital for a very long time?
"Peace, Mercutio, peace..."

After an endless series of phone calls, lies, excuses and attempts by the workshop guy, Steve, to wave it all off the table I succeeded in forcing a solution, but only since I refused to have the chassis offloaded, and the long-distance flatbed costs ticking away, on Steve's dime.
Tonight, a very friendly local with connections is coming to have a look, so it can be shipped and fixed professionally, locally, on Steve's dime.
With that guarantee, I allowed them to roll the chassis into my little museum.
I'll post pics in a bit.

What is new as well is that Steve has screwed over dozens of people over the last decade, and quite a few have come to see him, in the must pressing of fashions.
By now he has lost his company, his cars, his big bike, his house and his wife.
Not an easy chicken to pluck, which really adds to the despair!

I wonder what the next chapter is gonna look like. There must still be events that have not happened yet.
Maybe a global currency crash? The big Quake? A volcanic outburst?




floyd111

Some pics from yesterday.
At the end of the week a friendly local panel beater is going to visit to have a look. he seems confident it can be fixed locally, and Steve even told them he'd pay for it.
That'll be the day.

rumb

Stan,
What a journey!  At least your car is in your possesion now and can finally move forward with assembly. Also sounds like a good world tour with your family. Glad your daughter is better now.
'68 250S
'77 6.9 Euro
'91 300SE,
'98 SL500
'14 CLS550,
'16 AMG GTS
'21 E450 Cabrio

Nabstud

I was expecting the back end to be half ripped off!!! I reckon the damage is pretty light, easy fix for a panel guy, just gotta match the paint perfectly...

What a location though, beautiful view!!!!!!
1975 280S - Australian delivered