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.

Update on the Mercedes

It's been quiet around here. Sorry about that. But, I've been busy. As per my previous posts, I've been rebuilding the seats from the 1979 parts car to use in my 1983 project. It was slow going, and in the end, I spent close to two months worth of weekends working in the basement on this. It was a very good project for the winter, as I was able to work entirely in the basement. The basement is unfinished, and isn't properly heated, but the boiler throws off enough heat to keep it comfortable down there.

Projects take me a long time, especially in the winter. If it's Saturday morning and fifteen degrees out, you can bet I won't motivate myself to get out of the house, even to the basement (basement access is through an exterior bulkhead door) until at least 1 PM. Then, I work for a few hours before calling it a day.

As such, the seats took time to complete. In the end, I'm really happy with the results. I think the memory foam I used was a good choice. Here's some shots of the completed seats cleaned, but before Armor All.

As you can see, I had to do some stitching on the driver's seat to close up a couple of large rips in the MB Tex vinyl. I also had to do some stitching on the bottom of the rear seat back.

Now that the seats are done (as of last week), I'm ready to get back to metal work on the Mercedes. In preparation for that, I spent all of last weekend cleaning up. I was in the basement all Saturday afternoon cleaning up from the seat repair project. I had dirt and old horsehair padding EVERYWHERE. You wouldn't believe what a mess these made. After that I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning out the garage. I needed to in order to get to the car. The car itself was covered with empty boxes from the Volvo project. Even worse, the floor of the garage was almost impassible. I had to step over and climb over empty boxes and tools that I hadn't put away. But, now I have a work space again:

This weekend, as soon as I can motivate myself to get out to the garage... bodywork resumes. I have an interior - now I need a place to put it.

The Vanagon is alive - and big things to come...

First off, I apologize to anyone reading along for the long lapse in blog posts. I'll just put this out there - the Vanagon is running and back in service.

Shortly after my last blog post, I got it up and running again. Once everything was back together, I tried to start it. It certainly fought me, but eventually it did start and run. What's more, it's running well. There were a few hiccups, but nothing really required any readjustment. I've been driving it on and off for a few weeks now, including a traffic-filled trip across the city at rush hour to pick up a heavy TV.

It's running and driving very nicely with no additional signs of leakage. I'm happy. It wasn't an easy job, and was absolutely time consuming, but the results speak for themselves. I have yet to do any long distance driving.

When the van was done, I parked the Mercedes in the garage again. Despite sitting outside for two months and its condition, it started on the first bump of the key.

I want to get back to work on the project, but the garage was a disaster. A few weeks back, I picked up some free industrial shelves which will help me get a lot of stuff off the floor. I've thrown out several large bags of trash, and the garage is closer to being a real work space again. As usual, the garage would be done already if not for the fact that I had to work last weekend. It's unlikely I'll be able to do anything the next two weekends, either.

But, I will finish the garage and get back to working on the Mercedes. And, as I said, big things are in the works. What, you ask? You'll just need to stay tuned to find out.

Starting to patch up the Mercedes' floor

Well, with the Outback all taken care of and the garage cleaned out, it's finally time for me to get to patching the Mercedes floor. First, I had to wake the car up. I charged the battery last week (strictly as a precautionary measure), so I hooked it up, and the car started on the first bump of the key.

I backed it out into the sunlight for the first time in 2013. The name of the game this weekend was patchwork, so I started by making straighter cuts in the floor:

Once I had the holes cut, I made some templates and started cutting patches out of my donor panels. First victim, a dented door from a Jeep Cherokee - given to me by a co-worker when I helped him bolt on some straighter doors.

Once I had the first patch cut, I fitted it (roughly) with a few pop rivets...

...and then started welding.

I worked through the weekend, and have the passenger side of the floor almost 2/3 of the way patched up now.

Hopefully, by the end of next weekend, I'll have the floor patched up, and will then move on to make the rest of the repairs to the rocker panel and wheel wells on the passenger side of the car. It's nice to see those holes finally starting to close up.