W115 Ute Project starts ...

Post by **T-Modell** » Wed 23 Sep, 2015 4:06 pm

Mercmad wrote:...But if you need a few hints on how to V8 your ute... do it American style with a pick up chassis
http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/w114-me ... 786-4.html

Dear Mr. Mercmad,

if you continue to make fun of my highly sophisticated super project, I hereby threaten, that when you ever visit me in Germany (in the distant future when this project is finished), you're only allowed to look at the car from a 5 metre distance

One day it'll be in my garage ...

Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 24 Sep, 2015 9:54 pm

Well,

no big news regarding shipping, but I already have found some nice speakers for the music ... I don't know if they were on the market in Oz, but in the 80s and 90s, they were really good speakers made in Germany: MB Quart. I had them in my first W124 station wagon, four 16cm in all doors and a 10cm two-way in the dashboard.

You still find them - used - on ebay, but sometimes for ridicilous prices, 150-200 Euros, but damaged etc. In June I found a three way system (16/10/tweeter) on ebay, completely new in the original box. As I was on holiday, I didn't bid. It wasn't sold, so it was put on auction again for starting price 40 Euros ... and I got it for 40 bucks! Even the original drilling template, all screws etc etc ... and it's working!

So the 16cm comes in the foot room and the mid-range and tweeter into the doors ... looking forward to good sound!

mbquart1_1024x575.JPG

mb quart_1024x575.JPG

Best regards
Thomas

Post by **drew56cus** » Fri 25 Sep, 2015 6:32 am

Hmm, I don't get your last purchase Thomas - you are putting a gigantic lump in between the front chassis rails that makes all the music you should ever need to hear! I have not put the radio back in my V8 finny even after 18 months - I just roll the windows down and open the butterfly valve in the mufflers and listen to that throb!

Post by **scorchi0** » Fri 25 Sep, 2015 10:15 am

T-Modell wrote:...I had them in my first W124 station wagon, four 16cm in all doors and a 10cm two-way in the dashboard...

Got any pictures of those?

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 25 Sep, 2015 3:33 pm

drew56cus wrote:Hmm, I don't get your last purchase Thomas - you are putting a gigantic lump in between the front chassis rails that makes all the music you should ever need to hear! I have not put the radio back in my V8 finny even after 18 months - I just roll the windows down and open the butterfly valve in the mufflers and listen to that throb!

... but I love to combine that with some good music, how about "Highway to hell", windows down, stereo up ...

scorchi0 wrote:
T-Modell wrote:...I had them in my first W124 station wagon, four 16cm in all doors and a 10cm two-way in the dashboard...
Got any pictures of those?

No unfortunately not, but they fitted without cutting - as far as I remember - in the lower rear part of all doors (behind the door pockets) ...

Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 26 Sep, 2015 7:05 pm

Hi,

been lucky again ... as the rear lights of the pickup (see pictures above) are damaged or missing, I could buy two new (!) ones from the club here:

I contacted Hella directly, but they have no "classic" department or similar ... and no lights ...

I wonder if I end up with a pile of parts and no car

Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 01 Oct, 2015 9:21 pm

Hi,

so I drove 180kms today to "my" Rest-SL to test the cluster ... and it seems to work! Couldn't check temperature, as we didn't get the motor warm and I'm not sure about the fuel gauge ... but the rest worked! Motor started straight away, so I can have some hope, it's a good one ...

2015-10-01 - 01 - Test Instrumente am SL_1024x576.jpg

Best regards
Thomas

Post by **Giles** » Mon 12 Oct, 2015 9:56 am

Some inspiration for you Thomas.

This was was spotted in Germany recently.

image.jpg

Regards,

Giles

Post by **70499** » Mon 12 Oct, 2015 3:35 pm

Giles wrote:
This was was spotted in Germany recently.
Giles

Nice but looks custom built rather than the MB South American version.

Post by **T-Modell** » Mon 12 Oct, 2015 5:02 pm

Hi Giles,

I wonder where it is ... but it's definitely a conversion ...
Thomas

Post by **70499** » Mon 12 Oct, 2015 5:54 pm

T-Modell wrote:Hi Giles,

I wonder where it is ... but it's definitely a conversion ...
Thomas

Big brother google shows that it has Polish number plates

Post by **Giles** » Mon 12 Oct, 2015 10:44 pm

Yes it looks a custom with a dash of extra cab. I'd like to see one with coupe doors.

Looks like it went for a bit of a drive.

image.jpg

u

There again it's not far to skip countries in Europe.

Giles

Post by **Mercmad** » Sun 08 Nov, 2015 6:51 pm

your ute has arrived ?

image98227.jpg

image98229.jpg

image7042.jpg

Post by **Mercmad** » Sun 08 Nov, 2015 6:53 pm

Giles wrote:Bring on the SL tray back.

If someone has done this to a VW Type 3, why not.

type 3 ute.jpg
Giles

yes, a guy Drew And zI know has one built decades ago, stuck in his shed with his 280SE 3.5 coupe ...never to see the road again,either of them.

Post by **T-Modell** » Sun 08 Nov, 2015 7:11 pm

Mercmad wrote:your ute has arrived ?

No, of course not, it's Argentina. It's not even on the ship. I'm waiting for the invoice to be able to export the car. I already talked to my daughters to finish the project

Thomas

Post by **Lance** » Thu 12 Nov, 2015 9:25 pm

You can't get the real thing so just buy a model from the Stricht acht club Deutschland. :Doh:

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 12 Nov, 2015 9:28 pm

Lance,

believe it or not, I thought about that

Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Fri 13 Nov, 2015 12:59 am

I wonder how good /quick the high performing Binz 2516 ute was around the Nürburgring ?

:occasion5:

Post by **T-Modell** » Wed 20 Jan, 2016 6:11 pm

Hi guys,

after I thought last year, that "soon" the car will be in Germany, it's still in Argentina. You have no idea, what we (or my friend) went through. The original intended shipping company just didn't react at all on phone calls, emails etc. At the beginning of December I alternatively asked two German companies, so far they're also stuck.

Luckily, the government change at the beginning of December and the release of the Peso exchange rate has started something in relation to import/export. My friend finally found an old friend who imported Rovers/Land Rovers in the 90s for him. So we're confident, that we get an export license for cars this month. Once we have that, we hope the cars can go on the ship ...

Longest project ever without touching the car
Thomas

Post by **konrad** » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 1:24 am

Of course when you do get the ute all finished you'll have to have a Kelpie for the back. A German Shepherd just wouldn't do. Then, of course there's the circle work to do at the B&S Ball not to mention the "Bundy" stickers. Ahhh we'll make you a real Aussie yet.

Post by **pastelgrey300D** » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 10:28 am

And don't forget the other obligatory stickers:

And a 'Rum Pig' sticker (or should that be 'Schnapps Schwein'?)

And make sure you grab some mudflaps from a Mercedes truck. And a CB antenna. And a bullbar. And more spotlights.

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 6:33 pm

pastelgrey300D wrote:.... And more spotlights.
...

Haha, I know I become the laughing stock here with this "super" project ... but you're right, while talking to a friend about the wiring diagram, he recommended to pull a cable to the roof for those lights

Thomas

Post by **Bartman4800** » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 6:38 pm

And warn the missus or the daughters for the "Miss Wet T-shirt" competition, which is a compulsory part of the B&S ball...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUg-8NWRk98

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 6:41 pm

Yes guys, yes ... I'm training already
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA8gJoT5yl4

Thomas

Post by **70499** » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 8:22 pm

T-Modell wrote: Thomas

Your new adopted name will now be Tommo. Or Tommooooooooo depending on how many cans you have sucked down. Get on it Tommooooooooo aye :occasion5:

Post by **CraigB** » Thu 21 Jan, 2016 8:49 pm

The ute sticker i find amusing is 'no fat chicks', and you look at the driver and think, Geez mate - you wish, you should just concentrate on getting something that can walk on 2 legs in there before you start making too many judgements!

Post by **T-Modell** » Tue 28 Jun, 2016 10:21 pm

Hello down under,

believe it or not this project is still ongoing ... or shall I better say "onstanding"? After spending the first three months of the year to clarify with customs authorities what papers are necessary to ship the cars and getting a "car export license" for my friend's company, they finally got the idea, that it has to be proven that my friend's company has "legally" aquired the cars.

Well in Germany I thought "just put a new address on the invoice" ... but not in South America. We had to track down the previous owners and sign the contract ... but not just sign ... noooooo ... we all go to the notary and sign it there. You can imagine, how happy they were.

In case you wonder: I AM NOT DRUNK!

This cost us another three months, so it's 14 months now since we bought the cars. Last week I really came to a point where I wanted to cancel the project at all. However I got this email today:
Hi Thomas,
Anyway, xxxx finish with all the papers with the last owners of cars after a very hard work because one of them was very difficult to convince to sign again, but at the end we got it.
Now with those papers in hands of custom agent we expect to put the cars into the ship asap.
I'll keep you informed....

So hope dies last, but if my friend or I even imagined 10% of the struggle, we would have never started in the first place.

I still only believe the cars being on a ship, when I have a) a photo proof and b) proper papers that they're loaded. Btw. the pure shipping costs for the container will be approx. 20%; 80% are all kind of fees ...

With my best regards
Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Thu 30 Jun, 2016 11:11 am

CraigB wrote:The ute sticker i find amusing is 'no fat chicks', and you look at the driver and think, Geez mate - you wish, you should just concentrate on getting something that can walk on 2 legs in there before you start making too many judgements!

What about the N.R.N.R stickers and the D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F bs you see on hiluxes and navaras and other jap crap?

'back in the day' you were considered ostentatious if you had a small Bundy Bear sticker on the rear window.

Then we got truck mudflaps, multiple aerials for the CB, and the HF and the UHF...
then the 4000000 candlepower spotties on the roof, you needed at least 4 of em to be considered 'manly'...

then came the big steel roo 'bar, which had to have forward facing cut-down Kenworth Truck mudflaps, extra spotties and room for a waterbag hanger on the front left side.

Then the gun rack on the back, but that was short-lived because port arthur happened.

Gone are the days when you could determine whether a ute driver was actually male or female. Now they have just morphed into some kind of weird country-fied metro-asexual being.

Tommo, you're heading down the path of no-return.

The minute you take delivery of the ute, your neighbours will be calling you a redneck, you will start playing country music (the bad variety - new age american country music) and you will likely procure a large brimmed felt (or leather) hat of indescribeable disproportion.

Then you'll have a wardrobe full of flanno's, one pair of dirty, faded, unwashed, stinky Levis 501's, and some nickel-plated brass spurs for your RM's.

May the Lord have mercy on your soul...

and your kidneys and liver. :occasion5:

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 30 Jun, 2016 2:02 pm

I nearly fell off my chair ... are you in stand-up comedy?

If not, you should start straight-away ...

Regards
Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Sun 14 Aug, 2016 7:54 pm

Just an update,

it might go ahead; papers are with the customs authorities and they should be alright. I got a cost estimate for shipping; it might end up > 5,000 USD ... the container is just 900 Euros, but one A4-sheet of fees. Next step is to receive the formal invoice for the cars, pay it and then the cars should be on the ship. Haha, that was a good one ...

On August 4th we had our 2-year-anniversary of this "idea".

Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Tue 27 Sep, 2016 4:48 pm

Hi down under,

another update: it wasn't easy as I thought to get the export invoice (why do I still think that anything would be easy?). The bank (!) had a say in the format for about 4 weeks

So two weeks ago I finally received the export invoice and I transferred 5,800 USD (!!) to Argentina. That's roughly 1,000 USD for the container and the rest is FEEEEEEEEES.
Money actually arrived last week, so this week the payment of the fees should commence. Once that's done, the cars should be transported to Buenos Aires harbour and then be put into a container.

Just the donor car will cost me 1.5 years of space rent :Doh:

With my best regards
Thomas

P. S.: What do you learn out of it: Just don't ever start thinking about getting a car from there ...

Post by **Mercmad** » Fri 30 Sep, 2016 8:07 pm

They are not called banana republics for nothing and for a country which is a massive exporter of cattle it sounds like you needed the services of one of the larger shipping firms . Next time go to Thailand..http://www.strichacht-forum.de/read.php ... msg-137523

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 30 Sep, 2016 8:33 pm

Mercmad wrote:They are not called banana republics for nothing and for a country which is a massive exporter of cattle it sounds like you needed the services of one of the larger shipping firms . Next time go to Thailand..http://www.strichacht-forum.de/read.php ... msg-137523

That one's not an original one ... Replica, bah :whistle:
Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Thu 06 Oct, 2016 8:44 pm

cheaper to fly over, drive the car across the border into Uruguay, then down to Montevideo..... :think:

We are all learning from this.... I hope.

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 07 Oct, 2016 1:53 am

AMG wrote:cheaper to fly over, drive the car across the border into Uruguay, then down to Montevideo..... :think:

We are all learning from this.... I hope.

Joe,
if I would start to write all the possibilities we checked the last 1.5 years

... I asked the same question, but once a car is deregistered in Argentina, the process of Re-registration is even more complicated. Then why not drive it on a truck to Uruguay? Because you're in serious trouble, when the car doesn't show up anymore ... and so on and so on ...

Thomas

Post by **Mercmad** » Sat 15 Oct, 2016 11:37 pm

http://auto.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-637 ... l-1976-_JM here is another if you feel like wasting more money with scammers

Post by **T-Modell** » Sun 16 Oct, 2016 12:25 am

Mercmad wrote:http://auto.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-637 ... l-1976-_JM here is another if you feel like wasting more money with scammers

Ron,
as mentioned before, it's not sure, that the car actually exists. I will definitely never do this again. My friend offered me a room in his house when we visit ... under one condition (and this is copied from his email word by word):
"You never ask me again to get you a car"

... he only calls it his "nightmare" ...

Regards
Thomas

Post by **cuisses** » Wed 26 Oct, 2016 8:17 am

Thomas, it looks like some big and powerful people have the same idea:

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20161025 ... of-pickups

Post by **T-Modell** » Wed 26 Oct, 2016 4:59 pm

David,

I knew that since last year ... so I reserved the "mercedes-pickup" domain already

... last Friday btw I got the message, that "soon" the formalities should be done and the cars could go on a ship ...

Thomas

P. S.: Nice text there:
Technically, the X-Class isn't Mercedes' first pickup; the company's Argentine arm experimented with two- and four-door production pickups back in the 1970s. The 220D "La Pick-up" more closely resembled a funeral flower car or a parts runner for a race team than a traditional pickup, but it earned a passionate following. "I guess it wasn't exactly the toughest pickup ever from a technological point of view, " said Zetsche, "and it wasn't a great success from an economic point of view, either. But it grew a huge fan base."

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 24 Nov, 2016 11:20 pm

Hi,

the cars were already inspected and IN the container, but ...

... the other department - with the scanner - saw something ... we don't know what. Strongest option so far is the possibility to raise more money, when keeping the cars at the harbour.

You just cannot believe it. This project is just not meant to happen.
Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Thu 24 Nov, 2016 11:48 pm

:Doh:

Post by **pastelgrey300D** » Fri 25 Nov, 2016 10:46 am

Shouldn't have hidden all that beef jerky behind the front bumper!!

On the bright side, you're a hell of a lot closer than you were a few posts back. Fingers crossed its nothing major!

I reckon a 'homecoming' party is in order when you finally get them back to your place in DE.

Post by **Mercmad** » Sun 27 Nov, 2016 5:04 pm

Four legged hairy scanner? Did he sniff out some narco? ASrgentina isn't exactly the most law abiding place w2ith plenty of corruption . mercedes was selling pickups in the 1930's on the 17- Chassis and even more just after the war. One or two made the way down here thanks to MerBenz of melbourne. Then South Africa were building the utes on ponton frames.

Post by **T-Modell** » Sun 27 Nov, 2016 6:32 pm

Ron,
the 4-legged-scanner was alright, he didn't find anything. It was an x-ray container scanner. I'm pretty sure, it's just making money. The container was sealed already!!!

Thomas

Post by **Honey500** » Mon 28 Nov, 2016 8:52 am

Hi Thomas...or should I say Tomoooooo!?
Just found this thread....what an epic tale. To have not even touched the car yet having its 2nd birthday is an amazing set of circumstances. Reading about it has been very entertaining and enlightening. As already stated a very Aussie project to take on...you must have caught a little bit of Aussie every time you visited! I hope to soon see an update of cars arriving!!

Post by **T-Modell** » Mon 28 Nov, 2016 6:10 pm

Honey500 wrote:...you must have caught a little bit of Aussie every time you visited!...

Thanks,

the greatest "bit" that I ever caught, was my Aussie wife

... so yes, some infection's there. Unfortunately no news so far. Every day at the port costs serious money, so that's probably the trick ...

Regards
Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Tue 29 Nov, 2016 1:05 am

Hi down under,
just finished a phone call ... second inspection is done and THE CARS SHOULD GO ON A SHIP in a week's time ... cross your fingers, toes and whatever else you have to help!!!!

Of course this all cost extra, but I will party, when those cars touch German ground ...

Regards
Thomas

Post by **Honey500** » Tue 29 Nov, 2016 8:49 am

A very good catch indeed Thomas!
All things crossed, Gods speed and prayers to whatever deity might get it on the slow boat to Germany

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 03 Dec, 2016 2:45 am

Hi down under,

a phone call of today said, that the cars are still due on Sunday ... my fingers are cramped from crossing ...

For those who are interested ...I started my blog - from scratch - to somehow document this nightmare ...

Regards
Thomas

Post by **220SEB** » Sat 03 Dec, 2016 11:19 pm

T-Modell wrote:Hi down under,

a phone call of today said, that the cars are still due on Sunday ... my fingers are cramped from crossing ...

For those who are interested ...I started my blog - from scratch - to somehow document this nightmare ...

Regards
Thomas

Waiting for next weeks instalment :dance: