I decided to take my Daimler on the drive.  While not a Mercedes-Benz, these drives are informal and its pretty common for people to bring other cars along.  I’ve done it myself.

Things were going pretty well – I was cruising along the M7 towards the start point when there was a big bang from the front of the car, followed by a smell and a pretty bad noise from the engine.  Balancing not wanting to damage the car with stopping in a safe place, I moved onto the hard shoulder near an upcoming onramp, so I was further away from the stream of traffic.

I wondered if I had hit something I couldn’t see on the road and the smell was dragging it.  But looking at the car I could see no external damage.  I next wondered if I had broken a belt or the fan was hitting something, but all my belts were fine and the fan spun freely.

It took me a while, but in the end I saw one of the spark plugs was out of the engine on the passengers side bank.  On one hand this was good news as it meant I probably hadn’t damaged the engine severely.   I wasn’t able to get the plug back in easily by hand, and my the tool on my toolkit wasn’t quite right – its from a series 3.   At that point I decided to abort the drive.

While a V12 will run quite happily on 11 cylinders, Its quite a difference doing a whole drive with no spark plug in the engine.  I also wanted to make sure there was nothing else wrong.  Therefore, I called some of the guys on the drive and told them to go without me, and then called the NRMA.

I figured it would be a simple matter of getting the car towed.  I was wrong.

Apparently the NRMA are not allowed to pick me up from the M7.  First the M7 tow truck has to come and take me off the M7, then they could pick me up.  There was plenty of room where I was for a regular tow truck to come, but apparently its not allowed.

The NRMA had to call the M7 control and tell them to come and get me.  It took an hour from when I first called NRMA to come. Apparently they also lowered the speed limit in that section of road.  I think it was unnecessary to do that, and we have such an obsession with lowering speed limits here in Australia.

Instead of sending a tow truck, they sent whole a fleet of them.  There were 3-4 large vehicles. It was like they had arrived to fight the Battle of Midway instead of retrieving an old Daimler.  I think some of them are to block the road of a car is disabled on a road lane, but since I was on the hard shoulder it all seems excessive.

With the Daimler loaded onto the carrier, the fleet sailed 700 meters to a truck stopping bay where I was unloaded.  There Admiral Spruance and his fleet left to fight the next battle and I called the NRMA again.

The NRMA tow truck was faster than the M7 fleet and after about 45 minutes the next tow truck came.  We re-loaded the Daimler.   I decided to have the car towed to my mechanic’s workshop rather than home.  I figured the spark plug hold probably needed a thread repair.   While I was waiting I realized I had lost one of my wheel trim rings at some point.  I don’t think it was related to the breakdown though.

The tow was about 45 kilometers, which given it was now about 10PM, wasn’t too bad.   At one point about 1KM from the workshop, it looked like my tow truck would need its own tow truck.  At the bottom of a long downhill section, the brakes on the tow truck went soft, and were not holding it at the lights.  I had visions of my tow truck, complete wtih the Daimler, being loaded on top of a larger tow truck, like those nested Russian dolls.

Thankfully, a third tow truck wasn’t necessary as the brakes cooled down, and the car was safely dropped off.

First thing this morning I went down there with the keys.  In the sunlight, we looked at the engine, and the thread actually seemed pretty good.  My mechanic noted that the seat looked a bit dirty.  The problem may have simply been that the plug wasn’t torqued down correctly when installed.

I left it with them, and after I returned a few hours later, that was confirmed.  The plug went in fine and it seems like there was no real issue.   At this stage it looks like it was all just a bit inconvenient.  I’ll take inconvenience over engine damage any day of the week.

Reflecting on the experience, I think the towing procedure for the M7 is over the top.  I can understand if one of the traffic lanes was blocked.   But given they take an hour to get there, its not like this process is making anything any safer.  It feels like nonsense like this is why everything is so expensive these days.

The post The attempted night drive and the case of the flying spark plug appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Given there were a few edges where it was starting to come apart, I wanted to repair this before the original material was damaged.  This was beyond my skill level, so I took the door cards to a trimmer.

If my car had been a regular XJ or Daimler, then new backing boards are available for purchase.  However, the Vanden Plas uses its own hand made backing boards.  They are a unique design, with some sections double for strength.  These can be seen in the photo above, around the thinner section.

Reviewing the options with the trimmer, we agreed that the best course of action was to create new ones in Aluminum.  They could be cut exactly to size and wouldn’t need the additional strengthening sections.  Moisture wouldn’t be an issue either.

I dropped the car off a couple of weeks ago and he created me a couple of sets of backing boards in aluminum, re-fitted my original trim and installed it all back on the car.   While he was there I also asked him to install the grab handles that were still in a box in the boot, and fix the damaged felt in the tray under the gauges. We also didn’t mess with the door pockets as they were still in good condition.

The old backing boards looked very sorry for themselves when I went to pick up the car.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the result.   We also talked about looking the drooping headliner.  I decided to leave it alone for now.   The headlining was changed not long before I purchased the car, so its disappointing that it is already drooping.   I’ll have to see how it goes.

The interior is a big part of what makes these cars special, so I’m glad to have repaired this in a way that preserves it.  While not factory correct, I think its a better solution overall.

The post Vanden Plas Door Cards appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The source quickly revealed itself when my two daughter started gasping for air, desperate to escape the noxious cloud that now enveloped them.   Like a safety alarm, they reached for the only things that could save them, the window switches.  The passengers side rear window slid down easily, and that side of the car was bathed in sweet carbon monoxide fumes from the M4.  On the drivers side, a loud crack emanated from the window mechanism when the window was only down 5cm.  There the window stubbornly remained while my younger daughter lamented on her certain death.

Yet by providence, her life was somehow spared, and when the fumes eventually cleared we were able to return home and live to tell the tale.

With all three children still alive, only then did my thoughts turn to repairing the 300TE.  I was surprised by the noise the window made.  I’ve dealt with window regulators in old Mercedes before, but not with a failure that sounded like that.

Doing more research, it became apparent that the rear doors on a 124 use a cable operated window regular rather than a sliding jaw type.  The crack was clearly the cable letting go.  I ordered a new one from Spareto, a Vaico unit.   There were a couple on eBay a bit cheaper from brands I had never heard of.  Even better news was that wagons used sedan regulators.

The instructions from the workshop manual were fairly straightforward.  The hardest past was the trim around the door handle.  The way it moves forward is not all that well described.  In general I don’t think the door trim is as good quality as earlier Mercedes.  It seems to be made from some kind of material that is a hybrid of wood and cardboard?  It lifts up to come out, like traditional Mercedes trims, but the ‘hooks’ are mostly glued on.  Most of mine had already come off.  It looked like the trim had been off before, as there was hardly any moisture barrier.

Getting the old Regulator out was fairly straightforward.  Two bolts for the regulator, one top and one bottom. Three nuts for the motor.  The manual seems to say you need to remove the slider thing that holds the window to the regulator before removing the regulator.  I found that only possible with the regulator unbolted.

Unlike the older type window regulators I am used to, this new one came with a motor.  I don’t know if the one I had removed was original or not, but if was certainly a proper Mercedes-Benz part.

With the old regulator out, I found that the cable hadn’t snapped, it had managed to work its way out of the runner.  Not sure if it is repairable or not, but I didn’t try. I just fitted my new one.

The new one went in pretty easily.  The Vaico regulator used different wire colours.  Blue seems to go with green, and red with black.

With the new regulator fitted and working, I then glued the hooks back onto the door trim.  I let it sit to dry, and I will also make up a new moisture barrier before I re-install it.

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Unfortunately this year, while the week leading up to the event had good weather, the day before was pretty rainy.  This didn’t bode well for the actual day.   The next morning was still rainy and overcast and so I decided to take my 560SEL. The W126 being very good in the rain.

We headed to McDonalds first, as I find the food at the actual event seriously overpriced for what you get.   Normally I would see a lot of cars obviously going to the show, but due to the rain we only saw a couple. For example we driving along with a Mini Cooper S for a while.

The club only had 20 tickets, and even with the rain I think they were all used.  However numbers were seriously down, so some clubs were perhaps more rain impacted than others.   It was still worth going.  I was quite impressed with old Police Vehicles display, and I saw three Jaguar 420s, a model that is often quite niche and forgotten about.

The rain stayed away apart from moderate showers, so while attendance was down a lot, it didn’t impact the show in a major way.  The Parade lap was ok.  It wasn’t as bad as a few years ago when they limited it to 40. While the speed limit signs say 80, the ‘safety’ car kept speeds to about 50-60km/h other than the straight.   Last year was more reasonable. My kids were confused as to why there were all these speed limit signs but we were kept so far below it.   I’ve worked out its better to take a really slow car if you can, like my 240D.

Even with reduced numbers its still great to see so many interesting older cars on the road.  This show seems to attract more pre-war models than any other I go to.  It is great to see the pre-war cars doing their parade lap.

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After battling bad weather the first half of the year, this month was a lovely winter evening.  I took my 1978 450SE and was joined by a 380SEC, a 300E, an E320 Cabriolet and three moderns.   One of the moderns was new C class hybrid, under review for a feature article in the Club Magazine.   I find a lot of the features in new Mercedes-Benz rather garish like the huge logos broadcast on the ground when the doors are open.  I’m sure the technology is quite advanced but its not really my sort of thing.

The new car is quite large for a C class, considerably larger than the 124s it was parked between.  Interior room didn’t seem to be all that great though.

The route took us into the National park at waterfall and down through Lady Wakehurst Drive.  We kept off the motorway until finally taking Bulli Pass down to the McDonalds at Woonona.   It was a pretty good drive and I enjoyed it.

The cruise back in my 450SE was pretty uneventful.   I passed 118,000km in the car on the trip.

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Finding a location where we can do a drive plus have good parking options for the cars is not easy.  Most places are inner city which doesn’t work for us.  Instead, I found a dessert truck in Bonnyrigg which allowed a drive near the new Badgerys Creek airport and then a decent run into the dessert truck.   Like a lot of these late night places, it’s sort of attached to a petrol station.

I did the test run about a week  before in the 450SE and the weather was great.  On the night of the drive it was rainy.  Not enough to call off the drive, but there was steady light rain throughout the night.   The route was pretty cruisy so there wasn’t a big impact.

I took my 300TE along.  Due to the weather, it was a smaller turn out with a 320CE Cabriolet, 380SEC, 280CE 123 and my wagon.  The rain was decent on the way to the drive, but it was generally ok once we got started.   The Dessert truck, while not cheap had a pretty decent Dubai chocolate Acai bowl which I went with.

Doing drives like this that are a bit different breaks things up a bit.  We will look to find more options like it.

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Before I sent the Bluetooth radio back to be tested, I wanted to do more bench testing of my own.  So I figured, why not install the Becker Radio for now.   It would look and work a damn sight better than the old Pioneer and is generally period correct. While not correct for the Vaden Plas, I’ve seen period photos of German market Series 1 XJ’s with Beckers.

I have a couple of Beckers from 1972-1973, but they are two piece Grand Prix and Mexico Cassette models.  There isn’t a lot of room for the two piece units without taking the dash further apart and locating the amplifier up in behind the glovebox somewhere.   Given I ultimately still want to use the Radiomobile, a once piece radio is a much better option.

Therefore, I decided to use the Becker Europa II Stereo I tested with.  This model replaced the Europa Stereo, mid 1972.   Originally they were a two piece unit with five buttons and a separate amplifier.  In 1973, they went to a one piece unit, with an integrated amplifier, and continued with minor changes until 1978 when the six button version came out.   This unit is missing the sticker with the serial number, so I can’t properly date it, but I estimate between 1974-1977.   It is visually very similar to the 1973 model.  It has provision for the external cassette, which I will use for Bluetooth input.

Before Installing it properly, I built a wiring harness to test all four speakers with the Becker.  I started testing two speakers, one on each side.  It sounded pretty good, so I went to all four.   Sounded even better.  Like the Radiomobile Bluetooth, the Becker Europa II Stereo is a two channel radio.  It is 2x7W.

I then did a test fitting in the dash without the faceplate to make sure it would fit.

Given I have Beckers in a few cars, I had all I needed to install it properly.  The chrome surround was a bit pitted and the dial scale had a crack, but I had a much better surround and a new reproduction dial scale.  I had the correct Becker plugs and the mounting hardware. I also had a bluetooth module for the DIN plug on the back.

As well as installing the Becker, I also wired in the USB charging ports I was going to use with the Bluetooth radio.

To install the Becker, I had to go back to the backing plate and faceplate modified for a DIN radio.  That meant moving back the decals for the faceplate and the mounting hardware for the backing plate.  The install is a bit fiddly.  With a shaft radio, you would install the backing plate, then the radio, secure everything in place then add in the faceplate.

With a DIN radio, you can’t do this, so you have to get everything buttoned up including the faceplate, before the radio goes in.  This doesn’t give much room to work, but since the Becker is quite a slim radio, it was possible.

My car is not fitted with an antenna, but there is an antenna cable present.  The Vanden Plas should have been sold new with an electric antenna on the rear wing.  I guess at some point the rear wing was changed to one without the antenna cutout?  In any case, I’m not bothered as I will be using Bluetooth.   The cable probably still goes to the boot.

I got it all installed, and I think it looks pretty good.  I would still prefer the Radiomobile as it is what the car is supposed to have. Since its not working, I think the Becker is a good alternative and looks a lot better than the modern radio.

My next step will be to properly bench test the Radiomobile.   But for now I have a great working radio in the Daimler.   Since the Bluetooth setup for the Becker doesn’t have any buttons, I used the same solution I have in the 250SE.  I bought a couple of cheap external controllers and will use one here.   It works pretty well.

A Becker probably isn’t the first solution for a British car, but I’m happy with it for now.

The post Daimler Becker Radio appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Replacing the radio wasn’t so simple.   The Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas came as standard with a Radiomobile 8 Track.  However, this is an older style type radio that uses a smaller opening and the radio is held in place through the shafts for the knobs.

When I purchased the car a while back, I purchased a Radiomobile 8 Track from the UK that had been converted to Bluetooth.  Generally I prefer original radios in my car, but the Radiomobile is AM only, and I don’t own any 8 track cartridges.   I figured this would be a good option to make the car look the part, but be able to play music from my phone.

When the Pioneer was fitted, the opening in the dash was enlarged to DIN size.  This involved cutting the metal backing plate as well as the finishing plate that sits in front it.  Last year when I was in the UK, I bought a second hand finishing plate, and a new backing plate.  The Backing plate wasn’t quite the right part number – It was for other Series 1 XJ models that were optioned with the regular Radiomobile.   From the pictures it looked very close.

My first attempt was a fail.  My workshop manual was only for the Series 2 cars, and it didn’t describe how to remove the trim.  Being sensitive about breaking it, I ordered the correct Series 1 manual.  Shockingly a brand new one was cheaper than a dog eared second hand copy.   The trim removal wasn’t difficult, but there was a specific order to it.    Since the old radio was a DIN, it came out before the trim.

As well as the radio, this panel covers the HVAC controls.  They were all intact, but two of the vacuum fittings were broken.   That may be a factor in time when I attempt to get the A/C working.   One was for the heat, and one was for the recirculation.   The V12 makes so much heat, that I don’t really need the actual heater to work in this car.

With the bracket out of the car, the most time consuming part of this was getting the radio to fit. I realized what the difference between the two part numbers is. The Radiomobile 108 ST is a physically narrower radio. I had to use a dremel to carefully cut material from the new bracket. This was mostly from the sides, but a little at the top, and even a little where the shafts go through to allow the radio to sit lower and line up with the face plate.   I also had to transfer over all the hardware from the old backing plate to the new one.  This was primarily the little fittings to allow the silders to go on, and the heater control levers.

I also had to do the same thing, transferring over the decals from the old faceplate to the new one.

From there I created a wiring harness for the radio – to connect the speakers and to add in bluetooth charging. Not much good playing music from my phone if the battery runs out.

I did a test connection before putting it back into the dash. It sounded absolutely terrible. Even at moderate volume, it distorted like crazy. I figured I had done something wrong, so set about eliminating possible issues. First was power supply to the radio. I used a power probe to check voltage to the radio and ground. I then applied 12v directly to the radio from the battery, and the distortion was the same.

Next thing to eliminate was Bluetooth. The way the radio worked is that a small bluetooth box connected to a headphone jack that went into the radio. I used a lightening to headphone adaptor to plug my phone directly into the the phone, bypassing bluetooth. Still distorted.

Final thing was speakers. The radio has two channels, apparently 50W each. I assume that is peak, not RMS. For my setup I had two speakers connected to each channel. I tried a few different combinations. First one speaker per channel. Then just one speaker total. I used a few combinations, e.g. front left and rear right. Distorted every time.

Being perplexed, I messaged the seller of the radio for any advice. It is out of warranty, but I hoped he would have a few tips. He was good enough to reply and asked to see the specs of my speakers, which I sent him. His view was that my speakers were undersized, and that they should be at least 50W RMS.

That left me perplexed. Most classic cars have tiny speakers, so finding a 50W RMS speaker in 4″ seems unobtanium. If that scenario was correct, I would have expected it to distort only at high volumes. He offered to bench test it for me, if I sent it back, which was kind of him to do. Given the cost of shipping, I wanted to do more tests myself.

The final test before finishing up for the day was to use a different radio.  I figured a pinstripe Becker would be a good test.  A Becker Europa II has two 7W channels, so if it could play the speakers then anything should.

I took out a Becker Europa II from my Becker collection and ran a simple test, one speaker.   It sounded really good.   That gave me a good avenue for further testing.

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On the Saturday, the kids wanted a day off skiing, so I decided to take them to the Cooma Car Museum.  Its a small museum operated by the Cooma Car Club.   Since the museum is only open limited hours (Saturday and Tuesday) I had never been.

Its quite small, but well worth a visit.  Cost of admission is only $10 per adult.  The have a pretty nice range of cars, with an Australian theme.  This includes some significant Holdens – FX and FJ, as well as a couple of the last ones made.  There are also quite a few locally produced European cars like the Mercedes 220S, the VW Beetle and so on.   There is a decent range of motorcycles, as well as the P50, the world’s smallest car.

As well as the cars you could see, the kids enjoyed the large scalextric racing track they could play on.

Given the museum is run by the club, I would imagine the collection is all club members cars and probably rotates, especially the post-war cars.  I would go back if I’m there again.  A lot of these regional museums are closing down, so it is important to support the ones left.

The 300TE did well on the quick weekend visit to Jindabyne.  I did over 1,000km at 10.5l/100km.  That was about the same as my wife’s W212 wagon, although the 212 has a roof box on it, so it would normally get about 9-9.5 liters per hundred.  I didn’t see too many classics, other than on the Sunday on the way back there was obviously some kind of event south of Canberra.  There was quite a line of cars heading there.

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However, only one and a half of them is working, and the Pioneer is on its last legs.  While the car would have been fitted with a power antenna when new, that is long gone and there is no antenna at all.  That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if I could play music through my phone, but the Pioneer only plays CDs, and the mechanism doesn’t work properly as it takes many attempts to get it to load or eject a CD.   At least the one CD that is stuck in there is a David Bowie CD.  It could have been a lot worse.

I don’t like how the Pioneer looks in the dash, so I have a Radiomobile 8 track, converted to Bluetooth to put in its place.   The Radiomobile 8 Track was standard on the Vanden Plas.

Changing the speakers first will allow me to verify they are working correctly before doing the radio.

The car has four door speakers, each integrated into the door pocket.  The door pocket is actually separate from the main door card, and is screwed on separately.  It was quite easy to remove them, and see the speaker.  Turns out it was a regular 4″ speaker, with a standard mounting.   To remove the old one, a 1/4″ deep socket was required.  I didn’t have one, and neither did my local bunnings so I had to order one online.

I had a set of focal 4″ speakers that I had ordered for my 450SLC.  They turned out to be too deep for the application and were still sitting on the shelf.   The fit perfectly, so I ordered another set.  I had a set of the Auditor RCX-100.  Those had been replaced with the ACX-100, but the specs were pretty much identical.   I used the newer ones in the front.   The original ones were ELAC and made in the UK, so almost certainly original.

The fronts went on quickly as I already had the door cards off.  The rears didn’t take a whole lot longer, and given those backing boards were also not great, it made sense to have all four repaired.

With four new speakers installed, David Bowie sounded pretty good in the car.

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