Just gotta say that I've never been one thrown off by the length of a RU-vid video. Then again, I'm a Boomer and not one of the Short Attention Span Theater generation. It's not hard at all to watch some of a video and then come back to it later, with RU-vid marking where I left off. So what's so hard about that? I mean, Mustie1 regularly posts hour-long videos (his most recent one is almost 90 minutes!) and that clearly doesn't limit the number of views he gets. So....carry on, Matt! When the content is compelling, viewers will keep watching!
Ah, the W123! Had a few of these. When they rust, they are comfortable in doing that on all places where metal is. So, this will be the mother of all projects!! I salute you!
I have enough experience with Mercs of a 'certain age' to know the hurdles ahead for you with the W123. They're superbly solid in some areas and stunningly rusty in others. Once it's all out, you do have some decent metal to weld to. This will be an epic restoration if you stick at it, and will reward you with a real old school classic, but better you than me Matt. We're all willing you on, but then we're not grinding rot out and plating it. Good luck mate 👍
Pretty much impossible to trust any tool brands now, its all the same junk with a different sticker for the most part. Stanley and a load of the other tool brands are just a name at this point.
yeah .. they're made in the same chinese factory as everything else .. i just buy the cheapest grinder from screwfix & if it dies within the year warranty , it's a bonus
Now that Quentin is finished, I'm looking forward to seeing the Merc 123 being brought back to life. This will be a great series, and a lovely car once it's all done and back on the road again.
I'm working on my father's 82 300 sd currently, it has bad rust here and there and all along the underside. where we live here in northeastern PA, USA they use road salt on the roads in the winter and it just eats our vehicles apart, good luck to you sir, have a good one👍
I know you can’t please everyone, but please don’t add too much music to your videos, I truly enjoy the relaxing nature of the sounds of man with machine, without the distraction of music :) Lovely seeing the W123 again, great video Matt 👍🏻👍🏻
Ah an old Mercedes! One minute you’re topping off the brake fluid and the next you are replacing the entire brake system. My 190e regularly opens my wallet in ways akin to that of a professional street pickpocket
Like most good Mercedes models - my 2005 B200 turbo I bought cheap off my sister has a lot of deferred maintenance- currently cylinder 4 misfire and map/mag sensor fault so more $ required on top of weak front shocks and a few other bits n bobs :)
Try an old Saab. One moment it's leaking some oil. The next you need to replace all the gaskets, and the distributor chain, as well as the tumblers. Costing you 2400 euro's. The next week all the rubber hoses of the cooling system tell you in Swedish to pump around the fluid yourself. Costing you another 400 euro's. We wait for the gearbox and the brakes to join in the choir of mysery.
@@malcolmscott4150 I daily a mk3 GTI as well as having the 190 as a project. The golf needs something seemingly every other month but tbh I’m happy to spend it because the car is slowly getting properly sorted although cosmetically it will suffer being daily driven. I prefer putting money into older cars than spending 3/400 a month on a new car payment that will only be handed back at a later point. I reckon both cars are probably worth around €7k combined and have less than €3k invested.
Frustrating when you have to stop play because of tools or parts. This happens to me so often! Hugely satisfying to watch as usual, great optimism. Looking forward to the welding episode.
My Dad has a 123 Coupe automatic from 1985. 2nd owner, although it's been in the family since new. First car I saw with electric windows - front and rear too! Barely any corrosion luckily, especially since her first years were spent by the sea. No special treatment, just annual services and some very minor fixes over the years. It hasn't gone over 50k miles, original radio still works, pop-up aerial - gorgeous ol' gal she is. Hopefully we can get back to Blighty and take the kids for a drive in her this summer!
Like the intro, reminds a bit of Edd China's Workshop diaries. Like how you edited the whole video. And great to see the 123 getting some love. Hope you can defeat the rust devil!
Great to see the old German box getting some love and attention. The video title is brilliant - made me laugh out loud! Got my Furious Driving sticker the other day and I'm proud to say it's going straight on my toolbox.
I was cutting part of the floor out of my Trabant in preparation for a repair. Half way through the cut my grinder started churning out black smoke. I coughed as there was that much smoke. I also purchased the same one as you have. I will be happy if it’s lasts 6 months. The Mercedes is an excellent project and should be an interesting build.
That engine sounds very nice and would put most modern Mercedes (Renault) engines to shame.. I find with jacking points I always fill them up with used engine oil that I put in a Poundland garden sprayer after I service the car and it must work as the sills on my 25 year old E36 are still as new.
Noice , been looking forward to videos on the Merc, man those jack points don't even amaze me one bit. I used to have two W124s and they have the same style jack point , they accumulate a lot of dirt and grime inside the pipes over the year and that holds moisture. Thats why they rust so much. Most old mercs including the W123 have a lot of cavities that dirt can get in and stay there. That's why they rust so much in my experience. Anyway always a pleasure when you upload a new vid :)
I'm always amazed at how deeply rotted the old cars in England are, literally all of them. In Australia we usually get rust at some window seals or gutters where the rain and leaves collect but underneath the car is always rust free, my cheapo $300 w126 still has the original silver and black paint underneath.
Hi Matt.Great video,as always.I have a feeling that following this project,you will become a master welder.But you know the drill,stay determined,one thing at a time...
sounds like my metro, sat since 2005, luckily someone had replaced the brake pipes with copper but so far ive ended up changing everything else, even found some NOS calipers
Again, an interesting video on a car I have always really liked. Those Mercedes are lovely cars. Here in Southern Ontario, it is a good while since I saw one. Most of ours were the lively inline 6. They were, however, very prone to premature rot, even compared to other cars of the era. A real shame. Have to say, I do love the cloth upholstery. Any I have seen seen here were MBTex or leather. With a car that has been sitting that long, do yourself a favour and plan to replace the master cylinder and callipers. Cheap insurance, and a lot less hassle than discovering they are needed later, which they will be. The rubber seals will have perished most certainly and the bores will be suspect at best. Brakes are one thing it does not pay to scrimp on at all. Keep up the great work, Matt. I do hope to see this old girl back on the road where she belongs.
@@furiousdriving Hi Matt, I don't know if you're still on the look out for a new grinder, but I thought I would recommend DeWalt. I've gone through several AEGs (they were excellent but that model isn't made any more) as well as some extremely cheap ones as an emergency buy from Aldi or Lidl. After my last faithful German AEG died a couple of months ago, I tried a DeWalt and am extremely pleased with it. As well as feeling very solidly made, it's smooth as butter and much more powerful that any other that I've used but the torque is easier to handle somehow. It doesn't try to wrench my wrist off like the others that I have used. Just a thought. I think it was the model linked but I'm not 100% sure. www.dewalt.co.uk/products/dwe4016-gb--115mm-angle-grinder
FYI; try checking the sunroof drains, they are usually the cause of rust in both areas of the front wings (fenders here in the US). And they are usually full of debris. Yesterday where I am located, here in upstate New York, 31°C on top of humidity wiped me out, so if you are working outdoors you would definitely feel the heat. So I certainly do not blame for not wanting to weld. I guess this is turning into another major project. But I applaud all your efforts into reviving this Mercedes-Benz!
W123's unless they have been attended to will leak from door membranes, screen rubbers will be okay but the grey coloured sealer drys up and let's in water, boot seal likes to hold water underneath then rot through into the boot area with obvious results, but the worst area is where the bonnet hinges are fixed to the body work, find rust in this area and you can either strip the car's, wings, dash, screen and scuttle to get to it or deny it exists entirely, good luck
I would love to restore a old car just not got the time I've just done my 2nd car that bought when I was 19 its was a 106 1.5 xnd that was badly modified by old owner I've put it back keep up the good work 👍
Matt, don't forget to use eye protection when sanding. Bits can be thrown off at significant speed when sanding and you only get one pair of eyes... I believe you can get ready-made repair sections for the sills around the jacking points on W123s, W124s and W201s (190s) as they are very common rust areas due to the way the jacking point tube is welded into a hole in the sill to form the structure and the way that the factory underseal dries out and loses it flex, allowing water to go behind it and attack the metal out of sight behind the heavy coating...
Careful when using thick gloves with a grinder, you can easily block the vents on it and can’t feel how hot it’s getting, my apprentice a couple of years ago destroyed his and then used my brand new one and destroyed it in 20 min before I realised what he was doing wrong. Love the vids mate, I’m liking the merc story so far the most, hopefully much more content coming up with it
@@furiousdriving ah ok sounds like it shorted. Possibly got damp or wet at some point or just old. At work we all use cordless Makita grinders now, they take a lot of punishment all day everyday and keep going. And that’s in a railway works in south Australia with all the heat here. For some reason the cordless seem more reliable than the corded ones, less Likely to blow up
Great to see some work on the Merc such great cars. I would be whipping that other wing off I bet it’s got rot in all the same places on that side aswell.
As others have said Matt they are renowned for rotting around the jacking points ive not had one but had several w201 and w124's and similar story. As the outer sill is just a cover and that's what tends to go i cut one of mine back to good metal,de rusted the strong jacking point you can even jack them up with the rot on the outer cover sill the strength is in the jacking point itself ;) Once de rusted rust converted and painted i repaired the missing metal on the cover sill with fibreglass cloth. I don't weld and really its just a cover and the fresh metal will just rot again so fibreglass cloth then fibreglass filler then stone chip then body colour and waxoyl . Some may cringe and if you weld its great but you have then protected jacking points and the surrounding cover sill can never rust again.
Yeah, rust is a thing on the venerable W123. Ask me how I know! If I remember, brake bits aren't too expensive though. It may be cheaper to replace than repair when you take time into account. Good luck.
If it's of any consolation, I have one of those cheapest of the cheap B&Q MacAllister branded angle grinders, and it's now survived a good 5 years of occasional abuse with me. I'm like yourself, I'm not using it every day, so I expect you'll get your money's worth from it.
Hi Matt,that grinder was not happy 😔,the jacking points on one side didn't look to bad,maybe because it was parked on the side of the road with the water collecting.
I did see a 'lowered' E class estate left in a shed that first looked an appealing project, then noticed that the rear dampers had decided to gate crash the interior LOL.
Nothing like rust around the jacking points...reminds me of my blue sadly departed mk2 Fiesta...I jacked it up to do something and the jack went through the floor
Look at the inner sill in the passanger and drivers foot area, they tend to rust there as well. These cars hide a lot of rust, i thought mine just needed some patches, striped it down to a bare shell and found much more rust.
The "explosions" on your old grinder looked like the interference suppression caps letting go - they do that, sometimes... it would certainly explain why one went without being turned on. If your Nikon is anything like my Pentax DSLR, the time they can record video is limited and in some cases, if the camera detects the sensor is overheating it will shut down to protect it.
Its a pity JCB didnt make their grinders like excavators ha. Keep going loving the progress on the merc. Imagine that feeling of getting the car just roadworthy... how many people would have done the same and taken the car on and finished the job. Probably none. Thats a special feeling! On the video length note... not sure why people are commenting about the length of a video?! I personally wouldn't shorten what is decent footage, even if there's nothing much going on as personally longer episodes mean more viewing time on what is a brilliant channel with its own uniqueness! I would prefer it that way. There's always going to be 15-20 episodes due to the nature of your car reviews or quick updates etc but this sort of episode merits being longer (30 mins?). If I was in your shoes I would be looking at maybe 45-1 hours 'specials' every month or so maybe where there is more going on in the episode (you've occasionally done this I think). Whatever your decision making - this is a wonderful channel... (and that's no biased opinion based on P6 love ha)
Great to see you back on the cars, you recently commented that a car might have to go, I think the Mercedes might break the bank or even you before it's back on the road, don't mean to offend.
The only frightening expense would be the brake servo, mostly its labour. I have too many cars that need to be taxed so a newer something might have to go as Im giving too much to the DVLA!
Macallister tools aren’t that bad - had a few over the years. Their lawnmowers are very good - my petrol mower even came with a Briggs & Stratton motor.........
The grinder might be an easy fix. Maybe just a wire dropping off and shorting. Worth having a look, especially if the gearbox and shaft don't have much play in them.
Love the 123 but they have been famously rustbuckety since the late 70's. Swedish top gear used to complain about it very early on. (Said the later models were better but what can you expect 30/40 years on really)
you need a bigger compressor and by the way you have the sander on its lowest speed setting, you will find a little knob where the hose goes in that you need to turn up..
Considering the size of the bonnet and the large area of surface rust, eventually before painting it properly it may be worth your while getting it blasted.
As a Favour to your Family, please invest in a clear plexiglass set of optical screens, I myself failed to do so years back, and got a one inch scratch across my new prescription eyeglasses, which, saved my left eye from a shard of metal embedding itself . As I used to say Safety Third. Cheers.
Have you seen the guys over the the channel restore it ? They're also fixing the rust of an 280ce w123 coupe that they've found nasty surprises in theirs.
Always the same when starting a small job, it will always end up as a major one, Mr. Murphy is a very busy man. Oh for the days when power tools were repairable, one could always, well most times repair the old Bridges or Black and Decker ones of the 50's and 60's. These days they are all sealed and have built in obsolescence. Just like this damned Laptop, getting towards the end of life. Why can't things be made to last like in times past. Getting really pissed off with replacing things that pack up a few months out of warranty. Replacing only slightly dearer or often cheaper than repair if it is even possible.
I just had a new battery in this laptop, £230 isn't cheap at a Mac specialist but the 5 year old MacBook is still going! Sometimes it can be done but not very often
@@furiousdriving Had to replace the battery in this HP, ordered direct from HP but two different prices for the same battery from two different HP sites. One my local HP, in this country, service centre, the other the European wholesale site which was the cheapest and free shipping, 50% cheaper! Big dealer mark up for computer shops.
If you find yourself buying new power tools, buy into one of the rechargeable systems like Makita, DeWalt etc. Expensive to kick off but once you start buying more tools it does pay off and the batteries last for ever.
I have been looking forward to you working on the Merc, how do you like the new mig (i have the same welder and like it) ? you can get caliper rebuild kits with the pistons (try big red). I have a similar project i have been doing a Viva Hc for the last year. Keep the great work up, Love a longer vid !
@@furiousdriving Why not strip a caliper and see, my car has been sat for 10+ years and they are ok, make interesting content too ! I am looking forward to the next episode on the merc, its an interesting classic. You have good patience for it, you tested it with Quentin !
Grandad had a 230e in same blue green colour in early 2000s his was mint he had more modern merc alloys on it and it looked ace full leather upholstery sad car when and he got a Renault 21 hatch dunno why he sold i was still quite young seemed a shame to me when I was lovely
14:28 I think it was just being sympathetic of your camera difficulties and performing a 'dramatic reconstruction' for your viewers :) (Full context from 14:10).
What happens when the m o t comes up then the guy find the floor could have holes underneath because it's quite a large area all that work and then he probes the floor and a hole is there failure point again no m o t still let's hope you find the good metal ?
I could be wrong but that front suspension spring appears distorted and doesn't appear to be seated correctly. Perhaps the lowest ring has fractured causing it to sit at an angle? On my 190e a previous owner had fitted one spring upside down and they have different shaped ends to fit in the relevant cups top and bottom I believe.
