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280" Concourse; Diary of a layman

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

floyd111

Omega Tan and Omega Brown

daantjie

Quote from: floyd111 on 22 December 2015, 09:07 PM
It has been a while since my last confession.
It has been a bumpy few weeks.
Ed, the revered mechanic that we imported from New Orleans turned out to be a total surprise.
When he left, he had never suffered a complaint, and had never complained himself.
He left without saying goodbye, with a free home-ticket in his pocket.
He left with his free apartment in a total mess, never having cleaned in 3 months. He left with my W116 engine in 100 pieces on a table. He left with my stock list (if ever he actually made one), and he left with all my dis-installation pictures.
He left with 2 190E's in pieces, with an engine that ran before he took it out, and didn't run when he put it back in.
Needless to say I caught most of the flack that the shop owner caught from his wife, who foots half the bills and ended up disinfecting Ed's apartment.
Losses on my side? Thousands.. Losses for the shopkeeper? More thousands.
Yes, Ed, with all his niceties and promises turned out to be a total dick. He must have been overwhelmed by the internal complexities of a 1970's carburetor engine and ran for his life.
Could not even ask him a question the day after he left, for he blocked all his Skype access and doesn't answer emails.
Ed Osborn from New Orleans? We thank you not.
Ah well..next chapter.

I decided to not sit still, and continue my searches for replacement mechanics. I got lucky pretty fast. A nice middle-aged London chap, living in Malaysia contacted me and I flew him in. The very day before his arrival, a young German chap came to my office for an interview and I decided to hire him as well, seeing he was already in Taiwan!
The next day I drove both of them to the workshop, where a rather flabbergasted and happy shop owner was awaiting us.
After fruitlessly advertising and searching for almost a year, I found 2 guys in 24 hours. Amazing!
Brief, they have been at the shop for a week now, and are really digging in.
I have a good feeling about them sticking around long term.
Maybe it's a German thing.. The UK chap is half German, the German boy is German, and I am half German. That's quite a bit of automotive OCD in one group, wouldn't you think?

On the shopping front, I am now getting to the phase of really having to shell out cash for parts. Scary. Best done blindly.
After hunting for globally scattered NLA and NOS items for more than a year, I now have a big pallet of NOS/NLA coming in from Australia and around January, 2 pallets of NOS/NLA coming out of Germany. (My apologies to all the W116 owners in Germany and Austria)
It looks like I can order/ship the bulk of regular, new MB parts in one go from Germany as well, which would present me with a much welcomed shipping advantage.
Looks like it will be almost 400 new/regular part numbers, all twice for 2 cars.
We will not be flying on holidays anytime soon, that much is sure.

Stan that is disheartening but not at all surprising,  There are so very few true mechanics left on this earth who are not just part swappers and have been around these old Benz vehicles and really know what the hell they are doing.  Bullshit artists you will always find and it seems as if this guy was a Class A one for sure.  I hope the guys you found are good, time will tell.
Daniel
1977 450 SEL 6.9 - Astralsilber

floyd111

Silhouette I white

floyd111

and then there where these..

floyd111

the MB NOS notebooks are in stock on eBay, for those that like them, bound in leather new in the box, really chgeap.

The thermostats are nothing new, but cheap from Prestige-parts in Australia

The manicure set was from Pfeilring, MB edition, the same Pfeilring that has made other MB gadgets in the 70's, like the cigar cutter and such. Still need a cutter in the box, but they sell pretty expensive.

With my RPM counter mod in the 280, a cable is required. That's the one.

Thanks to tips from the forum, a york repair kit was found and bought.
Still need the bearing kit, that is not too costly, but the 1 seller I found has rather excessive shipping charges.
If anyone has another source, please let me know.


floyd111

Next up, these telephones and the Becker external AM selector.

Nice, complete and rare, but my God, expensive.. In total, the price of a daily driver W116

floyd111

The AM selector

floyd111

no photos yet from the telephone-delete mid console ashtray.. maybe tomorrow.

floyd111

era-correct..the first braun calculator, with manual

ptashek

Quote from: floyd111 on 18 January 2016, 08:49 AM
era-correct..the first braun calculator, with manual

So, you're re-creating a concourse 1970s office around the two concourse 1970s W116s? :D
1993 "Pearl Blue" W124 280TE
1988 "Arctic White" W124 200T
1979 "Icon Gold" W116 450SE

floyd111


floyd111

#191
Just organizing things.. Some new, some old:

floyd111

#192
catalog A Moteur M110

Ausgabe A Spare parts 116 blue

catalog A blue
catalog B blue
catalog D blue

catalog A black
Catalog C black
catalog K black
catalog J black

floyd111

#193
the black catalogs

floyd111

#194
more booklets