W115 Ute Project starts ...

Post by **Tony From West Oz** » Wed 30 May, 2018 9:11 pm

T-Modell wrote: ↑Wed 30 May, 2018 2:33 pm
AMG wrote: ↑Wed 30 May, 2018 9:03 am The more I look at the ute, the more it seems to have really good bones. It must have been relatively well cared for, considering the environment it lived in.
This is not the ute; it's the body-donor car, coming from California ... the ute is crap.
Thomas

LOL
Have you found someone to build you a new W115 body yet?

Post by **T-Modell** » Wed 30 May, 2018 10:38 pm

Hi Tony,

the California sedan is the body donor; this car and the ute will be combined to ONE car, the Pick-Up. Together with the R107 motor/drivetrain/axle donor it will be a combination of three cars ...

Regards
Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Thu 14 Jun, 2018 8:41 am

T-Modell wrote: ↑Wed 30 May, 2018 2:33 pm
AMG wrote: ↑Wed 30 May, 2018 9:03 am The more I look at the ute, the more it seems to have really good bones. It must have been relatively well cared for, considering the environment it lived in.
This is not the ute; it's the body-donor car, coming from California ... the ute is crap.
Thomas

All those engine bay pics, I thought it was the ute... :Doh:

Post by **T-Modell** » Sun 17 Jun, 2018 9:27 pm

Hi down under,
still extremely busy with work ... but first things first ;-) … by accident - similar to above - I found another BRAND NEW, untouched MB Quart Loudspeaker system on Ebay. Instead of a 16cm bass it has a 20cm one and the state-of-the-art-of-the-time titan tweeter was part of it.

I could acutally make it fit into the door (lost a bit more metal though) and I could even fit the 20cm bass in the foot room … Did I mention, that with another auction I also got a brand new MB Quart 25cm Subwoofer

Regards
Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Wed 20 Jun, 2018 11:41 pm

Hi down under,
a bit of progress ... installed some electrical components this week and prepared my "box" behind the glove compartment, which will house most of the electrical bits and pieces. Prepared a wooden plate, that will be installed underneath the passengers part of the dashboard ... two screws and it can be folded down ... and all relais, fuses will be easily accesible.

Also got the first two of five W126 15" steel rims ... looks better now and in the end with the 15" hubcaps it will look nice. Tyres will be the R107 standard 205/65-15, cheap to get (here in Germany I will need tyres with a spec up to 240km/h, which are really expensive in 14").

Regards
Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Wed 27 Jun, 2018 10:47 am

Hey Thomas,

Will your ute be able to carry your architectural models to and from meetings? (work vehicle tax concession/subsidy?)

There's a mentality here in boganland, that It's not a real "Ute" until it's running at least 35" BFG mud terrains or Mickey Thompson Baja Claws

:occasion5:
Good luck getting them rated for 240km/h though

Speaking of bogans...
I just saw the boganmobile of a lifetime last night. a burnt orange early 80's toyota hilux 2.2D ute - with heavy damage on every panel - jacked-up on at least a 6 inch lift - and running.... you guessed it 35's on massive neg offset rims and cheap rubber arch flares that extended at least 4 inches past the hard flares that were already fixed to the guards...

I should have taken a pic. You'd have loved it..... :occasion5:

The only thing missing was a Cheech & Chong "up in smoke" cloud coming from the passenger compartment. But I guess being a new age bogan, they were probably 'Vaping" or whatever they call it.

It's the obvious idiots with shitboxes like this which attract the wrong kind of attention, which subsequently places reactive pressure on govt's registration laws and ruins things like the VSB14 / NCOP and VSCCS for all the people who legitimately engineer and modify vehicles in this country.

I wish Darwinism would catch up on these bogans. Instead it seems to be "survival of the thickest" ...

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 06 Jul, 2018 1:10 am

Well,
some progress today. Finished the coolant hoses and the brake hoses. Filled in brake liquid ... nothing drips! Handbrake is working (after significant rework), so next step will be some wiring. It's the plan to get it rolling this month ... I have just too much work at the moment ...

Also I ordered the facelift W126 fuel pump cover ... and it fits the pre-facelift fuel pump ... or I made it fit

Regards
Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 06 Jul, 2018 8:37 pm

Hi guys,
big step today: The TÜV (roadworthy engineer) was here today: he was absolutely impressed, ZERO complaints, quote "I see you have put a lot of effort into it" and "it looks like a car that Mercedes has designed" :occasion5: :occasion5:

I'm over the top; so roadworthy and history registration will not be a problem!

Regards from happy
Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Mon 09 Jul, 2018 10:41 am

T-Modell wrote: ↑Fri 06 Jul, 2018 8:37 pm Hi guys,
big step today: The TÜV (roadworthy engineer) was here today: he was absolutely impressed, ZERO complaints, quote "I see you have put a lot of effort into it" and "it looks like a car that Mercedes has designed" :occasion5: :occasion5:

I'm over the top; so roadworthy and history registration will not be a problem!

Regards from happy
Thomas

That is excellent news. I am very glad for you.

:occasion5: :occasion5: :occasion5: :occasion5:

in Australia it is seemingly too hard for an engineer to be objective. They always have a 'prepared excuse' when a vehicle doesn't visually fall into their ideology of what they perceive as being appealing.
More often than not it has nothing to do with engineering standards, just a persons judgemental nature and their own preconceived ideas.

Post by **T-Modell** » Mon 09 Jul, 2018 7:27 pm

I agree,
that's really rare here too. You need an enthusiast, who enjoys such a project AND has sound knowledge of those old cars. I luckily found such a guy ... he even drove 100kms to my place (ok, in Oz terms that's nothing, you might compare it to 500kms down under

)

On the other hand, he thoroughly inspected the car and he would not let us get away with anything unsafe or not to standard. He told me, when he did the history registration for my SL two years ago, that there's quite some cars failing this inspection.

He also accepted my "retro radio" ... he said "ah such a little display, that's alright"

In two weeks time we'll install provisionally the SL cable harness, put water and gearbox oil in it and then see if it starts or not :whistle:

Regards
Thomas

Post by **TheMadRacoon** » Mon 09 Jul, 2018 9:16 pm

Don't forget to mark the day...it will become its Birthday.

Such a long journey Thomas, it speaks of your character: most would have been defeated by the project. You must be looking forward to a long drive, then a long beer!

Post by **T-Modell** » Tue 10 Jul, 2018 12:11 am

Hi,
thanks for your compliments ... I'm sometimes surprised by my patience too. Maybe this is just THE project for me ... something we also presented was checking the wheels in extreme positions if they have enough room; the photo shows just one wheel; when the engineer was present, we put a tyre underneath the front left AND the rear right tyre … maximum bending. It works!

Regards
Thomas

Post by **Honey500** » Tue 10 Jul, 2018 8:39 am

Well Done!
Just been checking in on your build. Some amazing progress over the last few months. I am sure you can't wait to turn the key for the first time and hear that sweet sound!

Post by **AMG** » Tue 10 Jul, 2018 11:27 am

I love those tiles on the floor of the workshop. I'm sure I am familiar with the them-
I think theyre mfg by Buchtal AG - (had similar glazed non-slip type in laundry many years ago in another house)

If I'd known you could park a car on them and use them on a workshop floor, I reckon I'd have tiled the garage myself too.

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 21 Jul, 2018 1:34 am

Hi down under,
some progress today ... bit slow these days, but I'm drowned in work ... started wiring, provisionally. Again a lot of work, as the harness has to be adapted. W115 and R107 as well as the two motors (117.962 harness vs. new 117.960 installed) ... but we're getting there ... still hoping, that we'll start the car in July :whistle:

Regards
Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Sat 21 Jul, 2018 11:39 pm

T-Modell wrote: ↑Sat 21 Jul, 2018 1:34 am Hi down under,
some progress today ... bit slow these days, but I'm drowned in work ... started wiring, provisionally. Again a lot of work, as the harness has to be adapted. W115 and R107 as well as the two motors (117.962 harness vs. new 117.960 installed) ... but we're getting there ... still hoping, that we'll start the car in July :whistle:

Regards
Thomas

Wiring, My favourite part!

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 27 Jul, 2018 1:54 am

Hi down under,

it slowly comes alive

... then we found out, the fuel pump gave up the ghost and we lost the ignition cable to the coil

. Ordered it today, tomorrow morning we continue with Frankenstein :whistle:

Regards
Thomas

Post by **eddie** » Fri 27 Jul, 2018 10:43 am

This is very exciting news Thomas!!!

Post by **John Green** » Fri 27 Jul, 2018 6:41 pm

Thomas, for those of us struggling to keep up, can we have a point form history of the job? Wasn't this going to be a ute?

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 28 Jul, 2018 1:08 am

John Green wrote: ↑Fri 27 Jul, 2018 6:41 pm Thomas, for those of us struggling to keep up, can we have a point form history of the job? Wasn't this going to be a ute?

Yes, why not? Because the ute-body was so bad, I got a body donor, a sedan ...
Regards
Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 28 Jul, 2018 1:21 am

BIRTHDAY!

Yes, today it started up for the first time :occasion5: :occasion5: ... new fuel pump this morning (came overnight) and it runs, here's a video:
https://vimeo.com/281987928

Motor doesn't run perfectly (we're at it) and on one cylindre the manifold is leaking a bit ... things to finish. My self-made cluster is also not working properly; no temperature at the moment. But at least it's not getting boring

Regards
Thomas

Post by **AMG** » Sat 28 Jul, 2018 8:48 am

John Green wrote: ↑Fri 27 Jul, 2018 6:41 pm Thomas, for those of us struggling to keep up, can we have a point form history of the job? Wasn't this going to be a ute?

You should pay more attention Mr Green....

tsk tsk

There are only 7 pages to read.

Post by **CraigB** » Sat 28 Jul, 2018 9:59 am

Big step - well done! Nice to get to those steps that seem like a reward.

And if I have understood correctly, motor etc is being set up but at some point the relevant panels from the ute will be grafted into the good sedan chassis - easier and better final product that trying to graft good chassis panels back into the ute! - Still some work to go though.

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 28 Jul, 2018 3:44 pm

Thanks guys,
yes a big step ... I actually called the guy who sold the motor to me last night ... I thought, a new motor should be plug and play. So we had a good conversation and at the end he said "look, I pick up the car from you, get the motor running perfectly (I have all the equipment) and send the car back to you" ... when I said "well how much does that cost me?" (it's 300kms away) ... he replied "Nothing, then everyone's happy" :occasion5: :occasion5:

And yes, the ute was in such a bad condition, that literally EVERY panel would have had to be replaced ... plus straightening the whole thing. So all in all it was cheaper to make one car out of two, which actually Binz did as well, when they designed the ute.

Regards
Thomas

Post by **John Green** » Sat 28 Jul, 2018 4:00 pm

T-Modell wrote: ↑Sat 28 Jul, 2018 3:44 pm
And yes, the ute was in such a bad condition, that literally EVERY panel would have had to be replaced ... plus straightening the whole thing. So all in all it was cheaper to make one car out of two, which actually Binz did as well, when they designed the ute.

Regards
Thomas

So stick the Ute rear half onto the sedan?

And, if that was a "new old stock" engine, it will more than likely have a few rubber and nylon parts that are perished with time. Any idea of its production date?

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 28 Jul, 2018 5:47 pm

John Green wrote: ↑Sat 28 Jul, 2018 4:00 pm ...And, if that was a "new old stock" engine, it will more than likely have a few rubber and nylon parts that are perished with time. Any idea of its production date?

All those parts were new, not NOS. The block, pistons etc. are from the old Mercedes Warehouse, when they wanted to get rid of the "old stuff" ... I talked to him the other day and he could also build a 560 for me with 2nd oversize pistons, then a custom-made manifold/exhaust and around 320hp in a R107 ... might be noice

Thomas

Post by **Honey500** » Sun 29 Jul, 2018 10:11 pm

Magic Thomas!
I remember the first start of my SEC. Such a great moment and mine was simply an unknown engine and draining 30L+ of stale fuel from the tank. Yours has been such a journey it must have been a great moment even if running a bit rough.

Press on and it will get done!

Post by **T-Modell** » Sun 29 Jul, 2018 10:51 pm

Honey500 wrote: ↑Sun 29 Jul, 2018 10:11 pm Magic Thomas!
I remember the first start of my SEC. Such a great moment and mine was simply an unknown engine and draining 30L+ of stale fuel from the tank. Yours has been such a journey it must have been a great moment even if running a bit rough.

Press on and it will get done!

Thanks (to all of you),
for the encouragement ... that helps. Believe me, there was more than on sleepless night and moments of just giving up. That's so great about this forum, that others just share your ups and downs.

Regards
Thomas

P. S.: Just an example ... I have the harness of the R107, the rear lights of a California W115 sedan and the rear lights of the pickup ... so I did this here (all pins, colours, front and back); sorry it's in German, but I guess you get the point

:

Post by **eddie** » Mon 30 Jul, 2018 9:41 am

Awesome to see Thomas. Looking forward to seeing the 3D printed gear changing gizmo too.

That seemed to start and idle ok, shouldn't need too much to run really smoothly.

Looking forward to the next stage, body work swaps!!

All the best

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 09 Aug, 2018 6:01 pm

Hi down under,

we drove the first few metres yesterday; however no real test drive as the motor still has two problems: it's only running on 7 cylindres and it has an overheating problem. We stopped here and my motor supplier has to get that in order ... I bought a "new" motor. At least the endoscope showed, that inside everything should be new ...
https://vimeo.com/283964661
Regards from the partly-frustrated
Thomas

Edit: Status so far:

Post by **eddie** » Fri 10 Aug, 2018 8:50 am

who cares about overheating - it did a burnout, that's mission completed I think!!

Post by **John Green** » Fri 10 Aug, 2018 7:02 pm

eddie wrote: ↑Fri 10 Aug, 2018 8:50 am who cares about overheating - it did a burnout, that's mission completed I think!!

That's not a burnout, this is a W114 burnout....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rirpARm5dYY

However if Thomas is really serious he needs to match this one....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDseCAjBOKs

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 10 Aug, 2018 7:07 pm

John Green wrote: ↑Fri 10 Aug, 2018 7:02 pm ...
However if Thomas is really serious he needs to match this one....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDseCAjBOKs

If you'd do that in Germany you would end up in court, not because of the burnout (maybe for this too). As we couldn't bring the motor to power, we couldn't do that ... and I wonder John, if I had asked you to do a burnout in your workshop, how high your happiness factor would have been

Thomas

Post by **John Green** » Fri 10 Aug, 2018 9:34 pm

T-Modell wrote: ↑Fri 10 Aug, 2018 7:07 pm
John Green wrote: ↑Fri 10 Aug, 2018 7:02 pm ...
However if Thomas is really serious he needs to match this one....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDseCAjBOKs
If you'd do that in Germany you would end up in court, not because of the burnout (maybe for this too). As we couldn't bring the motor to power, we couldn't do that ... and I wonder John, if I had asked you to do a burnout in your workshop, how high your happiness factor would have been
Thomas

Australia is a far more progressive society when it comes to the wanton destruction of tyres, and yes it may have happened once or twice in our driveway... :whistle: :whistle: :whistle:

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 10 Aug, 2018 10:13 pm

Australia is also a far more progressive society when it comes to ridicilous fines when driving, e. g. sticking your arm out of a car in Queensland ...

Thomas

Post by **CraigB** » Sun 12 Aug, 2018 1:53 pm

I can only vouch for South Australia but I remember when i went to work in UK in 2000 there was a great uproar at introduction of a small number of speed cameras in locations that speed was a real issue, like small villages..... and were clearly labelled so in my opinion no excuse for any aware driver not realising it was there and slowing down...... but already we had a plethora of these things, absolutely everywhere, hidden on the front of unmarked cars in places of minimum risk from speeding but most importantly in locations like just off motorway or on steep downhills where most likely to catch people doing a few over.... and producing great amounts of revenue from them. I wonder what the situation is like over there now? You wonder about motivation when you see cars doing crazy stuff and look at the driver and realise they are looking at the middle of their dash or chatting away on hands free - all perfectly legal and hard to argue and eventually collect revenue from - much easier to have speed cameras snapping away but I still have trouble believing that doing a couple of k's over the limit, and being aware and able to slow down, is more risk than a distracted driver that doesn't see the incident in the first place. If they want to do random tests of how fast you will be doing at an impact, how about random figures at the side of the road and you have to record if you saw it and you only get to miss a certain number before you lose your license - I bet that would get people off their phones and paying attention.

Post by **T-Modell** » Mon 24 Sep, 2018 7:39 pm

Hi guys,
long time, no update ... the car was at the motor guy, problems solved, he kept his promises. He picked up the car, found the faults and returned it last Saturday. The fuel distributor was the cause for the 7/8 cylindre problem and the temperature problem was due to air in the system. So Friday is my next day of "intensive internship" and we continue ... runs really well now!

Regards from autumn Germany
Thomas

Post by **eddie** » Fri 28 Sep, 2018 1:57 pm

Awesome Thomas, looking forward to the next update!

I'm expecting bigger burnouts

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 29 Sep, 2018 1:24 am

Hi guys,
the first real drive happened today ... goes like hell :occasion5: . Not quite satisfied with the motor guy; still air in the cooling system and the motor still not running perfectly.
https://vimeo.com/292342005

https://vimeo.com/292344956

Quite funny: The car is alright for driving, but maybe not 100% police compatible. When we wanted to go for the drive, left the halls ... what stood at the neighbourhood fuel station? Police ... well we waited five minutes and headed off.

Regards
Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Sat 06 Oct, 2018 5:37 pm

Hi down under,

if anyone's still interested :whistle: ... yesterday we continued; changing the column shift from levers to cable. We had massively modified the levers, but unfortunately - although more mods on the gearbox side - it was just missing a tad to switch from P to 2. Also, after the test drive, it became apparent, that the stuff was too close to the motor.

So we started the conversion; I have used the cable and shifter from a Mitsubishi Carisma from 2000; they still had the P-R-N-D-3-2-1, so a relatively long cable pulling distance.

This length is exactly enough to switch the M117 automatic; both ends were modified, so that they fitted the "old" MB parts. We're not finished completely, but it will work

Best regards
Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Sun 14 Oct, 2018 6:58 pm

Hi down under,
the column shift is finished ... the idea worked out … we could fit the "Mitsubishi" cable. We used one original bracket to fix the cable; one we hand-built. The 75mm pulling distance was just enough*; we can shift gear from P to 2.

On the gearbox side, we connected the cable bar (Diameter 5mms) with a M10 screw by drilling a 4mm hole into the srew incl. a M5 inside-thread. The 5mm cable bar got an outside thread M5 … so we could both fit together.

With this setup, we could use the original R107 connector to the gearbox (M10 thread). So it is assured that by turning that connector you can fine adjust the lever way.

Regards
Thomas
* we shortened the lever on the gearbox side to shorten the travel distance; the original floor shift has a longer shifting distance than 75mm

Post by **CraigB** » Mon 15 Oct, 2018 10:41 am

Well done Thomas. Makes you wonder why they used heavy levers and rods, with bushes that fall out and make it hard to get gears - or get the neutral safety switch in the right position. The cable concept seems much easier to place and gives that flexibility. ......... another box ticked though!

Post by **eddie** » Wed 17 Oct, 2018 9:58 am

Great work Thomas. Does the electronic gear controller that you made yourself still feature??

Still interested!! keep the details coming. I wish I had a few updates on the w111 to show you, but all has gone quiet for the moment. I need some motivation to get going again.

Post by **T-Modell** » Wed 17 Oct, 2018 3:33 pm

eddie wrote: ↑Wed 17 Oct, 2018 9:58 am Great work Thomas. Does the electronic gear controller that you made yourself still feature??

Still interested!! keep the details coming. I wish I had a few updates on the w111 to show you, but all has gone quiet for the moment. I need some motivation to get going again.

Yes Eddie,
the electronic gear display works and comes

... tested it last week with this setup and noted the electrical resistance in the different gears for the software parameters ...

Best regards
Thomas

Post by **mathuisella** » Tue 04 Dec, 2018 3:02 pm

Not meaning to knock on your efforts, it looks great.

Just I have to ask, are you going Auto ? if so why ?

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 06 Dec, 2018 2:40 am

mathuisella wrote: ↑Tue 04 Dec, 2018 3:02 pm Not meaning to knock on your efforts, it looks great.

Just I have to ask, are you going Auto ? if so why ?

Hi,
I guess, you mean the gearbox? Yes, of course, nothing else. The drivetrain donor car is a 500SL and it has an automatic, so I would have to "go manual", if at all. The column shift was from a W115 220 Automatic and it has been "slightly" adapted to the M117 gearbox.

Regards
Thomas

Post by **T-Modell** » Fri 07 Dec, 2018 4:07 am

Hi,
although progress is zero due to extreme work load, I wanted to show you something I could source (with the help of Stefan): Two BRAND NEW original front lights (Bilux) for the W115 ... found them in Italy. Not cheap but still reasonable.

20181203_102804_sm.jpg

Best regards
Thomas

Post by **eddie** » Thu 20 Dec, 2018 12:27 pm

wow, new ones. that's a great find.

when are you going to stop working and finish the ute like you know you should!!!

Post by **T-Modell** » Thu 20 Dec, 2018 5:30 pm

eddie wrote: ↑Thu 20 Dec, 2018 12:27 pm wow, new ones. that's a great find.

when are you going to stop working and finish the ute like you know you should!!!

Today, I'm just getting ready for my last day of internship this year, the first after two months

Post by **drew56cus** » Fri 28 Dec, 2018 7:11 am

Hi Thomas, it is good to see some progress. I hope your workload slows down a little in 2019. Just looking at your cable linkage to the transmission in the post on Oct 14th - is the cable on the right side of the picture anchored to the body, and the left side is attached to the shift lever on the trans? If so, won't you have problems if the trans moves relative to the body?
Cheers, Drew