Mercules MCF Project Car Shell painted & interior parts

[gwunta]

more pics.....

[aj510]

wtf is that you are holding? Your dash came out in pieces??

I look at these photos and just think how much work there is for you mate :P

We had our merc looking like that a few months ago and it felt like there was never going to be an end to it!

How much rust is in the old girl? Noticed a bit around the headlights and door sills etc... Going to be welding all the up yourself??

[aj510]

oh yeah - that steering wheel looks real good haha

[gwunta]

hahha yeah AJ, she's already come a long way since those pics were taken. The front seats are out, Ive started smoothing out the engine bay, all the wiring and hoses are gone, the battery box is gone, Ive ground out all the rust from the body and have applied rust converter (just waiting to for it to sure before I start the repair work).

Ive stripped and cleaned all the interior bits ready to got to the auto trimmer. Pretty much all of the chrome is in great nick so it just needs a little polish up. The sub frame comes out today (yeah I know I said I was going to wait but screw that, I dont have time. I painted the radiator last night (came up a treat) and I picked up the intercooler yesterday (its a twin turbo intercooler from a 300zx). There is a fair bit of rust in the boot and surface rust on the floor pans. Its just a matter of treating it and giving it a gel coat and sealing it.

AJ that steering wheel is up for grabs mate if you want it, is $50 to much too ask? It'll just cover the cost of the wheel I bought. And yeah that piece I am holding came from the rear parcel shelf...yeah bloody weird I know!! Its got a felt backing on it, not sure on the purpose of it - weirdo germans!!

[gwunta]

Hey guys another quick update. I headed out today to pick up 18 metres of 3 inch stainless steel that I am going to use to make up the twin system exhaust and to plumb the turbos to the intercooler. Value = $740 ($40 a metre). My price = FREE!! woohoo!! I got it all home and realised it was probably a little bit more than I needed but hey, no great loss.

Anyway, I also grabbed a VP power steering rack from the yard (another freebie) and it cleaned up pretty good so onto fitting. Well it fits pretty sweet with the exception of the tie rod end shafts being too large to fit the Merc steering arm holes. I turfed all the old power steering unit and the arms and crap down there - god the germans certainly made it look bloody ugly with all that crap! Anyway I pulled off the cover placte from the power steering unit in a bid to try and salvage the shaft that mates in to the clamping arrangement of the exisiting steering coloumn in the engine bay. The plate came off no probs and I hatched a plan to mate the new steering rack to the old shaft. AJ, I dont know whether you have already overcome this issue but in case you havent check the pics below



I got the steering rack with the uni shaft still attached. When I went to trial fit it, the uni shaft was a little too long so I figure unbolting the uni joint (red arrow) and then cutting the uni joint and rewelding at the yellow arrow point should shorten it enough so the second part of the mod canbe made



The second part of the mod revolves around mating the shaft to the existing steering column slot and clamps. That clamping arrangement at the top of the donor rack (yellow circle) comes in really handy for this bit. I kept the pinch bolts and clamps from the old rack (red circle). Now inside there I assume its like a spline type setup since the shaft off the old steering unit had splines on it that must mate with the ones in the column.



This is the plate and shaft that I removed from the old steering unit. There is a large locking nut and bearing pressed into the plate which I will remove tommorrow, which should just leve the shaft and worm gear. What I plan to do is cut the shaft just shy of the worm gear then clamp the bottom part of it into the clamp at the top of the donor rack and weld it, leaving the original splined shaft to mate back into its orginal location.

Is this how you guys did it? r are you still scratching your heads? Also, did you change the tie rod ends and if you did what did you use?

cheers

Grant

[gwunta]

Ok last post for the night...Just some more pics....Showing that even a CRIPPLE (by the way, that's my new number plates I just ordered for the merc) can do it!

[gwunta]

OK yesterday we trial fitted the engine int the bay. It doesnt look pretty but you will get the picture. The turbo headers are offset from each other i.e. the driver's side header sits a little lower than the right (with reference to the turbo flange) so there is clearance for the driver's side turbo to fit but the pasenger side is just a little too long - about 10-15mm. A chop of the old radiator housing should sort that out.

The twin turbo intercooler is going to sit right at the very front - where the a/c condensor used to go and the radiator will be bolted hard up against the intercooler. Should be enough room by my reckoning. It could get a little tight plumbing in the turbo and intercooler piping but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Today I will trial fit the T-700 gearbox.

I rang the guy about the V8 Merc diffs and he has given me all sorts of excuses for not having it ready (after a week of calling him) so I think Im just going to go over there and pull it out myself.

The car goes off to paint on Friday for two weeks and in that time I plan on getting the upholstery done and reconditioning the door inner components, cleaning up the chrome and starting work on the in car computer.

The engine sits a little high for my liking at the transmission tunnel end, but I have adapter plates on the engine mounts to take holden V8 mounts. These mean that the engine sits about 15-20mm higher than normal so I will do away with them and make my own. Also the sump is stil the stock 350 one so a custom sump should help the engine sit a little lower.

Pics to follow.....

[gwunta]

The last picture shows a component stopping the engine from going back any further. Im not sure what it is or what its for but it has a small linkage on it that wasnt conneted before. Im going to consult the Merc's workshop manual and find out what it is. If I can remove it or relocate it then it should give me a little more room up front

[gwunta]

Well after a pretty uneventful day I finally go the gearbox located close to where I think it needs to go. Thanks AJ for sending me those crossmember pics but I quickly noticed that our cars differ in this department. Anyway I will look into gearbox crossmember mods tommorrow and come up with somthing Im sure.

As I guessed, my Merc is a wide body and it gives me a little more room in the tranny tunnel. I figured it would be close fitting the T-700 box to the Merc and I was right. I have about 3-5mm clearance at one point inside the tranny tunnel with the T-700 sitting proud of the tunnel into the engine bay about 50-80mm. Tommorrow I will move onto taking out the sump and positioning the engine true to the gearbox and making up my engine mount brackets.














The last picture shows the tail of the T-700 box disappearing between a welded plate and the body. I dont know what this plate is for, aside from guiding the tailshaft. Anyway, Im going to cut a section of it away so when its time to join up the tailshaft to it then I get access to the input shaft

[gwunta]

Quick update before I go to bed. All the rust got treated today and its another 48 hours before I can start glassing everything. I figure that should waterproof things pretty well. I finished the engine mounts today and fitted them. Looks a little weird but it works so Im not complaining. I measured the clearance from the water pump and crankshaft pulley to the front edge of the radiator housing. 130mm to play with to mount a 90mm thick intercooler and thermo fan. Hmmmm interesting....

Started the steering rack mounts. Thanks to AJ's awesome pics I should be able to have them done by lunch tommorrow then onto the diff.....Ho hum!!

Pics to follow tommorrow....