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Somebody stop me.

2K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  Walt Williams 
#1 ·
I may have contracted 380sl derangement syndrome.

I read a post somewhere in this forum that first you make it go, then you make it stop and then you make it pretty. Well, I haven't even put the cam covers back on yet and I'm already looking at new wood, I ordered new window switches and yesterday I started some body work. What's wrong with me? Is there a cure for 380sl derangement syndrome?
 
#3 ·
I read a post somewhere in this forum that first you make it go, then you make it stop and then you make it pretty.
Make it stop first. Then make it go.
12 years later, I haven't even started the pretty.

So yes....you are pretty much fucked.

:):)
 
#4 ·
I fixed up a lot of cars over the years and I have learned to not loose momentum. Not sustainable motivation is your biggest enemy.

So stopping and going is essential to the feeling of progress since you can now drive it. Tarting up is fun, but you do it for too long without using the car and you can get stranded.

On a side note I recently bought a Land Rover LR3 V8 HSE for daily and (expanding) family transport. Like most cars of age they have their challenges and I don't mind. The dealer (you would call him 'the professional') had checked the car over... so over the last weeks I checked if over. (as you do). Did check the brakes this weekend (see picture). The truly criminal part I find is that all 4 wear sensors had unplugged themselves. Some professional had fixed the brake failure light.

I told my 14 year old son as we were changing the pads: "only trust yourself, never thrust a professional".

I know not really R107 information but knowledge and understanding is your best friend.
 

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#5 ·
I was fiddling around in the engine bay and I had noticed someone had incorrectly put a strainer on a vacuum line where a check valve was called for.

Replaced it and went for a drive.

BOOM! Car is a monster off of the line! The power is unheard of.

Now i'm trying to figure out why my car stumbles on idle when it's a partial cool down (won't stumble if started cold or close to op temperature). Think it's the idle control valve, but i'm afraid to play with it. Meh, might do it anyway!
 
#10 · (Edited)
Check Timing.
0 degrees at idle with vacuum line to Distributor removed and plugged with Golf Tee,
 
#9 ·
Talking about make it stop...

Anybody ever used a product called Kwik Lift? A Kwik Lift is basically two ramps that are approx 20" high at the back and at ground level in the front connected by a large steel tube about 3" in diameter. You drive the car up the ramps and then use a floor jack under the tube between the ramps to lift the car to more or less level. Once the front of the ramps are high enough you can rotate feet down that are attached to the underside of the ramps and lock them in place. Then let the ramps down on the feet and remove the jack. The Kwik Lift gives you about 19" ground clearance to the bottom of the wheels. You're still laying flat on your back on a creeper but you have plenty of room to work. I had a Kwik Lift before I bought my MaxJax. I've got nothing against the Kwik Lift... it's way better than jack stands... but there is one major drawback, letting the car down can be a hair raising experience (ask me how I know).

When my MaxJax arrived, my sl was up on the Kwik Lift so naturally I wanted to get it down so I could setup the MaxJax. As the KwikLift instructions say, I made sure the sl was in Park before lowering the KwikLift ramps to the ground. I double checked that the tranny was in park before lowering the ramps. The ramps only go up 19" so it's not like the car is really up in the air but did you ever try to stop a Mercedes sl from rolling down a roughly 15% grade, right at you? I got my chance to try when the tranny that was in park wasn't really in park. The shift was in the P position but the tranny had other ideas. When the front of my sl hit the floor jack on it's uncontrolled ride down the ramps it ripped the lower front panel on the car (I don't know what it is called) off it's bolts. The jack next grabbed the exhaust crossover pipe destroying the flange. Nothing too terrible but it would have been better not to have to do body work and replace engine pipes.

The first picture shows the damage done to the front of my car when it rolled down the ramps and into the jack handle. The second picture is a stock photo of a Kwik Lift (not mine).
 

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#15 ·
You got to have incentives to keep on working on the "issues" with these 30+ year old cars. Word of advice, very very few of them are issue free :)
 
#16 ·
Is there anything wrong with wanting to have your baby looking as well is it runs, rides and stops. I have included a few cosmetic refurbishments along the way, like a new soft top, and I'm now waiting for my new upholstery kit from Tops Online. Tops Online seems to be dragging their feet as it has taken them a week to decide that they actually have to ship me something. I placed the order last week.
 
#23 ·
A link to a video would be very helpful along to any insights you might have on things concerning the seat structure, for example, my drivers seat seems to recline its self. I have to keep turning the adjustment knob.

Links to structural seat parts I'm sure would be helpful.

Thanks partner.
 
#19 ·
When I had my front end done, they told me that they got the parts in but they didn't fit, and that the correct parts were NLA except as part of the control arms, themselves expensive. I'll be interested to hear if yours are the right parts.
 
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