Valve Bounce

Volvo Amazon Winter

There's a car in there somewhere...

Radio Gaga

Introducing the Retrosound radio. At last a neat way to install a modern radio in an old car. Available from Moss Europe. I'm not sure if I'd use one myself but this is a really good way to get all the modern options without having to invest in a modern retro style Becker.

I don't think it will fit the slimfit W111 coupe slot, but would be ideal for the Triumph.

 

Sitting pretty

The front seats in the Coupe have been in need of some attention for a while now. This was especially true of the driver’s seat which was stuffed with oddments of foam by a previous owner to stop it collapsing. The original leather the Mercedes used was coloured only on its surface and in places the colour was worn through, plus there were a number of splits and cracks. The leather was all a bit dried out when I bought the car so I’ve been regularly feeding it and it now seems to be good and supple. My main concern was to keep as much as possible of the original seats and blend in any repairs to the rest of the interior. I’ve seen many restored cars with new leather and it never seems to come close to matching the look and feel of the original.

The question was who could do the work, I wanted someone specialising in 1960s Mercedes interiors and leather but there don’t seem to be many experts in the UK. After talking to a few people Kevin O’Keeffe’s name came up a few times and I eventually tracked him down (don’t bother trying Google he’s not there!). Kevin’s main business is 1950’s SL restoration but is taking on more and more 60’s coupes and cabriolets. He had a 300SL Gullwing, a 600 Grosser with the head off and several 190SL in his workshop when I was there. He did his apprenticeship at Jack Barclays on Bentleys but has specialised in old Mercedes for many many years so knows what is doing.

BEFORE

He has a fabulous workshop which seems completely detached from modern life, it’s buried down a leafy single track Surrey lane just inside the M25. He dug out some original Mercedes leather from his store with the exactly the right grain and thickness which was a great start. This was used to replace a couple of driver’s seat panels, then he re-stuffed the squab flutes, fixed a couple of springs, restored the horse hair pads, and filled in a couple of cracks then re-coloured the whole lot. I am very pleased with the result. The seats came up well and do blend in with the rest of the interior well. It is difficult to tell what work has been done.

I would normally leave a link to Kevin’s web site but he hasn’t got one, finding him is half the fun…

AFTER

Use your local old car specialist

A quick recommendation to Nigel Cooper and his bodywork shop in north west London. He has been involved in restoring the bodywork of many exotic cars in the past including Facel Vega, 1960s Ferraris and (of course) a few Mercedes-Benz 300SLs and 1960s coupes. Nigel did some work on my Mercedes last year; their were some small areas of corrosion starting around the headlamps on the front wings. This just needed a small patch, some sandblasting and a partial repaint of both wings. He did the work and this was fine for a few weeks but over time there was a reaction between the old air dry two-pack paint and the new. It looked like the new paint had sunk and left a ridge between the old and the new. This was obvious and needed fixing.

It was refreshing to see Nigel's attitude to this and the way it was fixed was painless. After unsuccessfully trying a barrier coat they had to resort to striping the wings and repainting from scratch this all took a lot more time than anticipated. I'm glad to say this was all done free of charge and with no quibbles. One of the joys of owing an old car is using the specialists and meeting the people doing the work who are invariably enthusiasts too. Great service and craftsmanship is still out there, it's just a matter of finding it, and it beats going to the local modern dealer any day.

Five steps to classic car heaven

1. Understand what you want to use it for

Whether it’s track days, classic car runs, car shows, family holidays cruising to the south of France, Sunday summer outings. Understand that and look around for a suitable model using those criteria. Of course it should be beautiful or stylish, fun to drive and reliable (a rare combination!). Remember rarity is expensive and it’s vital to have a good support infrastructure to keep it on the road. Spares availability and local experts are key.

Go for cars with big engines. Most early cars were built over strong and will limp home somehow. The little engines – Riley, Frazer-Nash etc. – were designed to get round horse power tax and are painful to drive (unless you like being a mobile roadblock).

2. Research is key

Join the owners club – this will be the place you can do your most fruitful research by talking to owners who’ve lived with the car…do beware they do have there fair quota of loonies! Go to club meetings, classic car shows, talk to owners sit in their cars. They will not let you down. If you’ve done your research the old adage ‘don’t buy the first you see’ doesn’t count. When you see a good car you’ll know.

3. Finding the car

Look in ALL the classic magazines; find ALL the marquee specialist dealers and garages. Talk to them about what you are looking for. Keep an eye on the club magazine and web sites. Google is your best friend. The car you want is out there somewhere…

4. Carefully assess your purchase

Get it inspected by an expert marquee specialist and get the seller to re-MOT it if it hasn’t long to run, Always buy a car in good condition, if you can’t afford a good one save up (if you buy an OK car you’ll spend more on it in the long term than saving for a better one). Every classic should come with a huge stack of carefully filed receipts and MOTS, and don’t forget there is always a better car just around the corner.

• Provenance is key – it vital that you know the history of the car and this is supported with documentation. This will give you confidence in any stories that the seller will weave and also help you when it comes to moving it on.
• Beware Modern updates – be very suspicious of anything that has been hopped up. Invariably tuning engines will put extra strain on other components and lead to failure, so unless the whole car has had a complete fast road makeover it’s going to be trouble.

5. Maintenance

Learn the maintenance schedule and keep to it; keep meticulous records of everything you do. Find the best marquee specialist you can and stick with them. Take their advice, they know best! Work on the car yourself (they are pretty simple things) the better you know the car the easier it is to spot problems...whenever you spot a probem fix it NOW. The longer you leave things the less likely they are going to be fixed and as other problems come up things just get worse...

• Beware modern parts they are never the same quality as the originals (except Mercedes-Benz!) and are often pretty poor. If you can fix the original part then do it.

Can't you buy a fan belt anymore??

I spent some time at the weekend changing the v-belts on the Mercedes. There are 3 belts. One for the alternator and a pair for the steering and water pumps. One of them was breaking up a bit so I thought I'd change them all just in case (and of course the one that needed changing needed all the rest to be removed to replace it). I always like to see the pair of belts, why not pair up all fan belts? No more side of the road belt changing...Anyway the point is that high street motor accessory shops don't seem to keep car spares in stock anymore. I guess there is no demand, but on a Sunday morning when you need a fan belt or three, I had to go to three different shops to find what I needed. Over the last few years several local car shops have closed and the stock in the existing ones seems to be mostly cleaning stuff and fluids (oil, antifreeze etc...). You can't even buy a few nuts and bolts or electrical fitting nowadays, I have to keep spares and hope for the best. Does nobody do their own servicing nowadays? I'm slowly realising I'm not a typical motorist!

What a glorious motor...

Garaging in London

Keeping a few cars in London does pose a few issues when it come to parking and garaging. I'm reminded this week because one of my lock-ups is having some work on the roof to make it water tight again, so I've had to move the TR and park it on the drive.

Parking is an almost religious experience around here nowadays! I am lucky enough to be able to park two cars on our drive but we don't have a garage at home. So I rent two lock-ups; one rather conveniently is almost next door behind a lock of flats, the other is a 5 min walk away. There a several companies that seem to buy up all the garages around here and, I guess, make quite a nice profit renting them out. Although most seem to be filled with junk not cars. Does anyone care enough about their new car nowadays that they'd park it in the garage? Maybe people don't expect to keep them long enough to worry.

Leaving your car locked up in a garage 5 min walk away and only visiting it once every few months seems a little alien to anyone out of town, but I suppose you just get used to it! I've thought about security cameras and tracking stuff. In the end I resort to big padlocks and taking bits of the distributor home with me, anyone got any better security tips??

After renting lockups for the past 15 odd years I dread to think how much I've spent on them, but at least the cars look better for it!

On Mercedes BLVD

I picked up and 3.5 Coupe today from Schmitt Automobiles in Swiss Cottage who have had it in their garage for the last 3 weeks. It's been having a few problems with inlet vacuum leaks since I bought it. This was causing a fast idle (2000 rpm!).  I've been driving around for several months with the idle adjusted right back and the timing retarded just to get the idle down.

It is now fixed I'm pleased to say. It needed a new set of gaskets on the inlet manifold and is now happily idling at 600rpm. Fabulous...

I also had a problem with one of the propshaft union bolts failing. It dropped out somewhere on the A1 causing a vibration through the gear box and the rubber union had started to breakup as a result. This was replaced, so no more vibration. I also had the sub-frame mountings replaced which were an advise on the MOT.

Prior to all that the car has also just spent a week at Nigel Coopers body-shop to get a bit of corrosion on the front wing dealt with, he seems to have done a great job and also realigned the drivers door to get the gaps a bit better. This has made the car look a lot more presentable. He had Jay Kay's 250 GT Berlinetta SWB (that's what it looked like to my untrained Ferrari eye) in primer in the corner so we were in good company.

I'm now hoping that is the end of any heavy maintenance for a while so my wallet can recover.

So now it's all set for the MSA classic at the weekend! We're on the Epsom start and am looking forward to showing James May (there in his Bentley) what a real car looks like...