...and all of a sudden, it was a car again...

As always, I apologize for the long delay between posts. It's been a very productive few months. I have been working almost nonstop since the last post, and the payoff has been huge.

When I last left off, I was preparing to replace the car's clutch - which I did.

When that was done, I reinstalled the transmission. While I still had plenty of room under the car, I replaced the brake lines - the rubber lines and the hard lines. I was reasonably sure the old hard lines would have been OK, but it was easy work and cheap insurance for my safety to do the extra work at this point.

Then I repainted the brake booster:

...and installed a new brake master cylinder as well as rebuilt calipers, new pads, and new rotors on all four corners:

Although I didn't get pictures, I also replaced the clutch hydraulics with new parts.

Around this time, the driveline also went back into the car. I put the driveshaft back in with fresh flex discs as well as a new center bearing and support. I also replaced the CV axles and repainted the differential:

Before buttoning-up the front end, I replaced the front shock absorbers, the steering damper, and the tie rods:

Before moving under the hood, I added a third brake light to the car and installed the long-absent trunk trim:

Finally, it was time to do some work under the hood. First, I popped off the valve cover to adjust the valvetrain and meanure timing chain stretch:

Then I removed the water pump and thermostat housing:

Then, it was off with the intake and exhaust manifolds to clean them up and replace the gasket:

Once that was done, the thermostat housing (with new thermostat) and new water pump went back on:

Pretty soon, the engine was buttoned-up again:

Then the new exhaust system went on:

At that point, I replaced the fuel primer pump and the underhood fuel lines:

...and before I knew it... THIS:

...became THIS:

The dust settled. What I'd begun three and a half years ago back in 2012 was done.

I actually got the car on the road two weeks ago. I've been driving it. As with any project of this length, it didn't come out perfect. I'm still finding and fixing little items along the way - nothing that's keeping the car off the road (not for long, anyway). But, I'm happy to be able to relax a bit now. It's been a very long few years, and I'm looking forward to enjoying this car.

For all of you who've read along, here's a test drive of the car:

Long delayed update on the Mercedes project

Apologies to anyone who has been reading along. I have been working on the car, and have kept the Youtube channel up to date, but the blog is almost five months behind.

After my last update, I finished installing all the car's trim, aside from the front end trim (waiting until I have the front end/engine work done.

After that, I pulled the driveshaft (which was challenging on its own) and did a complete rear suspension refresh (new shocks, new trailing arm bushings, new rear subframe mounts). Here are some highlights:

So, I'm deep into mechanical repairs. Now that the rear end is done and the driveshaft is out, I'm in the process of pulling the transmission so that I can replace the clutch:

At this point, I'm literally a few bolts away from having the transmission out of the car. Once it's out, the new clutch and associated components go in, at which point, I can reinstall the driveshaft and everything else under the car.

Update on the Mercedes...

I can't believe it's been four months since I updated the blog. I'm happy to say that I've been working pretty much non-stop on the car in that time. So much so that while I've tried to keep the Youtube channel up to date, I let the blog slip. I've never suspected that a lot of people are reading, anyway.

Anyhow, as of my last post, I was on the verge of finishing up bodywork on the Mercedes. Once the work was done, I smoothed out the body as best (and quickly) as I could, and then threw paint at it:

After the car was painted, I turned my attention to the interior. First up was the dashboard. I replaced the torn-up 1983 dashboard with the much better parts from the old 1979 parts car:

While I had the instrument cluster out, I took it apart, repaired the lighting circuit, painted the gauge needles, and put it back together with fresh light bulbs:

Once that was back in the car, I installed new door seals:

Then, I got to work installing the new stereo, center console, and steering wheel:

After that, I removed, relubricated, and replaced inner door hardware as necessary:

Up next was the fuel tank:

Finally, it was interior time. I removed everything that was in the car and started by laying down carpeting:

I followed that with other various interior trim:

The seats went in next:

After the seats came the door panels and inner door trim:

That pretty much catches us up to where I am now. This week, I'm wet sanding and polishing out the paint job as best I can before I reinstall the exterior trim:

That's not a good photo. At this point, I do have a decent finish on the front end. I expect to be working on the paint job for the next week or so. I'm hoping to have the car completely reassembled (cosmetically, anyway) by the end of the month. Then, I'll jump into mechanical repairs so I can (hopefully) drive the car this spring.