building of a hard working G , to use and preserve
hi not sure if this be the right section for this but here goes ,, :D
having owned the fisrt G from 1987 to 1997 . It was a 1983 300gd SWB we new a few area's of concern mainly rear corners , seam below front screen ,, door hinge's , to name a few ,,
how to use and preserve the next G a 1990 ex police 280ge bought 1997 for 7000 pounds then spend the same on it :shock:
so the story starts with two joiners saws , 'these rust well if left outside' now i'd seen expanding foam used on vehicles before, by the factory ,, i spray expanding foam onto one side of a saw then place other saw ontop 50mm apart when foam sets , place this on salt outside over the winter ,, come spring , the saw that was on the salt was realy rusty , next i pull the saws apart and scrape off all the foam to reveal the nice rustfree surface , rust had not eaven got under the edges of the foam :D had already done fire tests on foam all ok :) ,
this is going to be a long story :D
on picking the vehicle up and getting home the search started for a diesel engine :( #4700 (where's my pound sign gone ) for a turbo D engine was a bit much ,,
gets 4X4 mag ,, Equicar 4x4 breakers have an 8 month old ssangyoung musso 2.9d engine om602 (pre 98 merc built engine ) think gave #2600 , had to buy from mercedes sprinter sump + oil pump n pickup pipe ,, next find correct bellhousing to cut up , we cut around the 280 gearbox bellhousing and had alloy welded the correct bellhousing to fit the engine ,, changed years later for a 308/410 box better for trailor work here's a pic from last year rebuilt gearbox going in , 308/410 gearbox made of steel much stronger than car gearbox's thats fitted to many G's ,, rear propshaft built with 609 bus UJ's ,, You'll now be thinking what do we do with our G :)
:D wheel arch spats and splash gaurds to fit these made up some stainless brackets out of an old kitchen sink :roll: and fixed the spats with stainless nuts 'n' bolts :) will check diary but i think inner and outer spats were #700
here is a pic taken today of spare rear prop with 609 bus UJ 50mm wider than standard ,, springclips hold the bearing cups in , grease nipple is in the centre
you can see the difference looking at this pic
next pic seal up the water trap between the front wing and A panel ,, this area normaly starts to rust from the inner edges
You don't mess about! But you don't say..why are you famous phil? :lol:
Great restoration..almost of an Austrian standard I'd say, but they may not be too happy with your mods, then again whatever fits your bill.
What do you need such a big trailer for...
:D a bit of a long story behind that name , one person on here might know :D more of that later as the people that first called me that will be missing me :roll: ,
as for the trailer built that not long after getting this G as i think the gross tow weight was less than the 300GD SWB so hence lightweight trailer we load it up with construction material + timber shutterin formwork for making weightbridges , large crusher founds , once the deck is loaded with twins 'n' props 16' long shutters can hangover the front & rear , it was often travelling at max weight up to scotland , down to Doncaster and coast to coast , also with bales of hay to go from farm and smallholding not as busy as it used to be , but eaven on close jobs two tanks of fuel a week ,, 21MPG worked out over a few years :D
as for the build up of the vehicle 12 years ago i like to call it preservation :D its had one paint restoration about 3 years ago , you can't expect the shine to last as getting splashed with concrete on one job did'nt help ,, :( , , the rear door was replaced at that time as where the spare wheel mount fixes to the door i'd welded it up and smoothed it over but this kept splitting as well as next to the hinge due to the amount of use the door gets ,, :D
famous
cant help admiring standard you have kept g at ,your not the only one with expanding foam in rear Quarters, i filled mine after bodging them up intending to get new pannels done at some point foam is keeping rot at bay for time being . if you have been travelling long distances ,i can see why you went for a mercedes has she or the previous one ever let you down?
:D Yes if you mean having a ride on a recovery truck ,, 1'st one SWB my father ajusted front wheel bearing up one sunday ,, that locknut has a hell of a torque , well he torque'd the first nut upto the bearing then the locknut upto that at the same torque :roll: was traveling from Catterick to Blaydon ( above Newcastle ) come wednesdays journey home i nottice smoke ,, front bearing had had enough think it had welded itself together and started rotating in the hub ,, so one front hub needed :roll: that was the only time with that one , :D
this one LWB twice rec'truck pluss (3?) roadside fix's all down to the same thing , , which was very annoy'ing :evil: :twisted: :evil:
eaven the local diesel service spot could not say what was wrong ,, in the end did a search on tinternet and came up as DIESEL BUG , alga thick black growth that blocks the filters , was having to drain and filter the fuel ,, once you get it , you cant get rid unless you know how , had fitted large inline filter to catch most of it , but that also as i found on 'net' is its best growing place , i've only just sorted this out after so many years not knowing ,, :roll: worst of all the simple part to put the job right was already under the bonnet ,, DIESEL MAG " FUEL MAG " but had been disconected for a few years ,, these fuel mags are suposed to give better MPG's but refitted it and not eaven the slightest trace of the nasty stuff :roll: will get pic of filter + sample of fuel ,,, :) new head gasket fitted fitted , new it was starting to go :)
any more information on the musso conversion? I'm going to have a go at one myself in a few weeks and any info from somone who has been there done that would be greatly appreciated.
I like the lawnmower transmission carrier you got there hehe
I like the lawnmower transmission carrier you got there hehe
:D did its job at the time saved straining my back :) it collapsed just after that pic :lol:
mick the digger will check up in diary ,, basically you'll need dipstick and tube sprinter sump and oil pump pickup pipe ' i've seen somewhere on the net that someone fiitted one with muso sump ' stat housing was cut then welded so water pipe better placed will add pic ,, plastic air cover needs heating up to reshape to clear top of damper mount , I got a complete low mile spare engine for #375 mainly because not a lot of people know what they'll fit in ,, pics below :)
Back to diesel bug rarely seen in cars not sure what brought it on , but after lots of research it seams to start from condensation , pos in the extra tank under the nearside back corner ,,, this stuf is quite thick and holds itself together being able to block the fuel filter in the tank ' it still had petrol type fillter ' ,, cut this down so the fuel could get to a larger inline filter ,, then went to diesel specialist they suplied a 5 litre tin of
''Biozide st'' this only killed it for a short while ,, just had to keep changing filters ,, till i found out how to sort it :roll: ,,,, fuel mag was a gift years ago from a friend that said it would give better MPG but had been disconected , as to why i'm not sure , its been refitted now for 5 weeks and all trace of the bug has gone :D
moved all filters to offside as plenty room for access ,, fuel mag is the black canister quite a large one maybe truck size , and as you can see plenty wax :)
see pic below stat housing ( arrowed ) does anyone know what its like on a later 290GD
:) here's another pic of gearbox thats fitted now ,, just needs output flange swap ,, the other good bit is its got a speedo drive this may confuse a few of you , but this G only gets the front prop fitted for the more demanding of jobs ,, (still have rear difflock :!: ) so in the last 6 years maybe its only been on few times , and takes minuets to refit ,, should have been able to have auto freewheeling hubs :?: use auto trans fluid in both the transfer and gearbox ,, some might think why have you not had any problems with the transfer box running without the front prop to work the oil pump , this i dont know (maybe auto fluid ) as i only found out about this pump 6 month ago , but all seems smooth n quiet , roughly 100k miles without the prop :) gearbox code mercedes-benze G1/18-5/4,7. aggr/le711.113 . fortl-Nr629483
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:) now the keen eye'd foke may have noticed that the heavy spare wheel is not giving the rear door hinge's stick anymore ,,
we made a spare wheel suport bracket so that the spare ( 16'' steel ) fits in the rear offside , it fits so well you'd think it was a factory fit ,, :)
all door hinge's drilled so that they can be oil'd :)
we get gearbox back from alloy welders & mate to the engine ,, we then try engine in engine bay for the right position & make engine mountings get oil cooler pipes made , next remove engine 'n' box so that paintwork can start ,, did not like stark white so went for cream ,, as i mentioned it was ex police in very good condition only needing little jobs doing , welding holes in the roof up , were aerials 'n' lights had been ,, who'ever fitted the stripes had used a sharp blade that had damaged the paint so lots of prep work ,
The only way to do the job right was to totaly strip it down to a bare shell
and lift the bodyshell 6'' off the chassis so that the whole shell could be painted in and out with 2 pack underneath and inside ,,next place an order at local stealers for set of w463 wheelarch spats and under wheelarch splash gaurds :x '' what a job that was '' when these arrive alter them to fit , trim the rear arch's and seal up refit painted fuel tanks ,, once all the prep done on body started on the chassis clean up and paint , refit body
next off to a trusted accident repair centre for top coat of paint on body :) ,,
:D the day came to pick the G up , was like brand new :D this is where the fun with the waxoil begins , i got a long lenght of 8mm plastic airline pipe and block off one end and drill 2 or 3mm holes in at different angles , so that when inserted in the body voids all gets an eaven cover ,
, i'd like to think that all voids were treated as it took a long time to complete , all around the inner roof edges , behind seam below windscreen every cavity right through the chassis 17 litres of the stuf was used :shock:
first parts to go on the body rear arch spats and splash gaurds then seal the rear corners up with expanding foam ,, along with inbetween fuel tank guard and tank ,, its still there doing its job no rust on the rear seams :D
This is the trailer it has to pull its big but lightweight had the steel bent pressed to shape for the chassis then welded it all up mercedes 308 rear axles with the crown wheels removed galv chassis , which reminds me , on getting a trailor chassis galvanized , had the G's bumpers & front grills shot blasted 'n' galvanized at the same time , never cost anymore as it all came under minimum weight , took a bit of prep work to get smooth to paint