Steve recently identified a fuel leak originating from the electrical terminal of the cold start solenoid of our 1964 Mercedes 230SL. This component plays a crucial role in aiding the engine’s start-up, especially in colder conditions, by delivering a precise amount of extra fuel during ignition.
Unfortunately, attempts to reseal the solenoid were unsuccessful. Given the importance of maintaining a leak-free fuel system to ensure both safety and optimal performance, Steve has determined that replacing the cold start solenoid is the best solution. A new solenoid will eliminate the leak and restore the reliability of the starting system in this classic car.
During the appraisal of our 1967 Mercedes 250SL, it was noted that the nearside front wheel was binding. Pete removed the wheel for a closer inspection and found that the inner piston was seized in the calliper body. He attempted to free this while the calliper remained on the car. He removed the pad retaining springs and pins and the pads but no amount of fiddling would push the piston back – operating the foot pedal didn’t affect a push-out either.
The calliper was removed from the car and separated on the bench where better access to each piston was available. Pete removed the dust seals and gave them a liberal coating of penetrate oil and allowed it to soak while he worked on a fix for the fuel pump.
Regarding the pump, Pete’s gasket repair from last week didn’t allow enough clearance for the pump to spin on the motor and as such there was no fuel supply. He stripped the base plate from the pump again and removed that gasket repair. He actually found an o ring that was a close match to the size needed although it did require hand stretching with the addition of some heat and fitted perfectly. The pump was remounted, pipes connected for the final time and the guard refitted.
Back to the calliper, given time to soak and the addition of plenty of force Pete managed to break the rust that was holding it solid, each piston was slid out by hand, cleaned with a scotch pad so the surface wasn’t damaged and refitted back in the calliper body with some clean lubricant. The dust seals were cleaned and greased and refitted, before Pete fully assembled the calliper and fitted it back in the car. The brakes were bled, the wheel refitted and torqued to spec.
After this, Pete then stripped the faulty washer pump. He found that the mating faces were well worn, where the internal pump cogs rotate against it much like an oil pump. He cleaned and reversed the plate, fabricated a new cork compression gasket as it was missing and sealed the assembly with a liquid gasket. He then re assembled the unit and put it back into the engine bay, tested it and there is now a much quieter operation, and a lovely clean windscreen!
John and Jon have done a few more hours on the Merc this weekend.
Fitted new clips to all fuel pipes in the boot heading to the expansion tank. At the same time, they’ve tidied up the boot area.
Route wiring around rear of boot and screw into place using original clips.
They’ve then moved on to the door strikers. Strip, cleaned and polished both before fitting back on to the car. Adjustment made to both doors are only rough approximates at the moment as no seals have been fitted as yet.
November 4, 2024 12:32 pmPublished by Craig Ranson
Progress is being made on my 1987 Mercedes 500 SL. I keep hoping and wishing that there is not much longer to go but time seems to be forever running away.
Both John’s/Jon’s are working on the car on Saturdays so as to not affect the scheduling in the busy Bridge Classic Cars workshops but that does mean it is taking it’s time. And both being avid Ipswich Town fans means I can only benefit from their expertise on a Saturday morning as they have ‘more important’ things to be doing now on a Saturday afternoon…haha!
However, the wiring is really taking shape now. They have been working on the boot area and hope to have the fuel tank in my close of play today. They’ve rubbed down the boot floor, exposed the areas and painted in matt black.
Remove broken lug from body for fuel expansion tank, cleaned, drilled and spot welded lug back onto tank and paint gloss black.
The heater box is now in, wiring has been laid out in the bonnet area and the wing mirrors are now back on.
Next thing to do is install a large TV with Sky Sports on so that the John’s/Jon’s would sooner work than be anywhere else!!
Continue to build up from photos. Find engine steady shock for engine mounts and strip and clean and prep for painting. Clean stripped door mirrors, Polish chrome and back to black rubber edging. Pop over to Classic lounge to take some reference photos of doors. Find door seal and tape to place. Find fixings and all chrome trims for offside door. Unable to find all parts for nearside door as of yet. Still sorting through stuff.
View wiring diagram for wire colurs and termination points. Route and pull wiring through body to front grill area. Label wiring ready.
We’ve sourced some foam from Lydia in the upholstery department which can be used for the heater flaps. The old foam flaps have been cleaned up and we’ve applied double sided tape.
Cut foam to size and stick to the flaps. Jon has refitted the flaps to the heater box and tested each one as its fitted. The process has been repeat for all flaps inside the heater.
Apply foam to heater matrix and fit to heater box.
With the new parts starting to arrive, it is almost time to begin the rebuild of the engine of our 1964 Mercedes 230SL.
The fuel injection pump and injectors have been rebuilt and are ready to be refitted. The camshaft is currently at Kent Cams where the camshaft is being reprofiled to the original Mercedes specification. This is because automatic gearboxes don’t respond well to uprating.
The camshaft and new cam fingers should be ready next week when more progress can be made.
Firstly, we have road tested the vehicle to experience what the customer is experiencing. Found the noise to be coming from the nearside rear wheel so we have stripped out wheel hub and replace wheel bearing.
Whilst the car is in with us, we have fitted a DAB radio with DAB aerial and microphone.
We’ve also had reported to us a smell of fuel so we have looked into this also. Having stripped out the boot linings to check all fuel pipes we have not found there to be any leaks.
We have remove the dash cluster in order to replace the left hand bulb assembly.
Arriving in with us this week is our 1964 Mercedes 230SL. The car has come in for a possible engine rebuild but at this stage we are not convinced that this work is required. We want to carry out a few tests and checks before we make the decision of whether the engine needs to be removed.
Jonn has been working on our 1987 Mercedes 500SL. He assembled the wheel bearings and hubs and fit them to the car.
New discs were also fitted before the wheels were refitted. Jonn checked and adjusted the bearings. The bearing nut needed to be tightened, which Jonn did as well as fitting a dust cap.
Classic car technician Brian continued his work on our 1993 Mercedes E220 and recently finished repairing the headliner of this classic car.
He glued the wood to the back of the headliner board for the rear blind hooks before glueing the foam to the board too. Brian then glued the headliner material to the board and fitted a velcro strip behind the sunroof opening.
The board was fitted into the car and the light was put back into the rear of the roof. The grab handles were reinstalled, as were the front pad and sun visors. Brian fitted the metal trims to the edge of the sunroof and the headliner repair was complete.
Our 1993 Mercedes E220 has just arrived at the Bridge Classic Cars workshop.
While with us, it is having its headliner repaired as it was sagging upon its arrival. Classic car technician Brian has already been working on the repair. He started by undoing the grab handles followed by the B-post panels. The sun visors were removed and the front pad was loosened.
The metal trims that go around the sunroof opening were next to be removed before the headliner board was released. Brian then removed the material from the board and cleaned the glue off of both the board and the material,
Brian will continue his work to repair the headliner and we look forward to the headliner looking much better very soon.
This is a beautiful car that has only covered 34,000 miles from new. Very little work was needed but we have painted the off-side rear door as the lacquer was slightly faded.
We originally purchased our E240 from a good friend of Bridge Classic Cars to be part of our own personal collection. However, it is such an impressive car that we feel it needs to be enjoyed by a new owner who will get more use out of it.
It has been extremely well cared for with no rust and the interior looks to be in the condition it would have been in when it first left the factory.
Now that this classic car has some new paint, it is looking much better than it did when it first arrived at the Bridge Classic Cars workshop and classic car technician Mauro has been putting things back together to get the car ready to move on to the next stage of its stay with us.
Our 1998 Mercedes E240 will eventually be put up for sale. It’s a beautiful car and will make a great addition to someone’s garage in the future.
For now though, we will enjoy admiring it in the workshop.
November 28, 2022 11:30 amPublished by Craig Ranson
Our 1998 Mercedes E240 has been in the Bridge Classic Cars paint shop with classic car technician Mauro recently.
Mauro stripped parts of the car down in preparation for paint repairs to be completed. As you can see from the photos below, the main area of focus was on the off-side rear door.
Once Mauro had stripped the door and appropriately prepped it, the paint repairs could be done.
Our 1998 Mercedes E240 already has an improved look since it first arrived at the Bridge Classic Cars workshop and we are looking forward to seeing the finished product very soon.
November 22, 2022 9:49 amPublished by Craig Ranson
The wheels on the 2012 Mercedes SLK have seen better days. There’s some corrosion and paint flaking around the hub centres which is a common occurrence on this generation of Mercedes wheels. But, they can be refurbished!
Our good friends over at WheelWorx came down to the Pettistree workshop to assess the wheels and then safely remove them from the car to be taken back to their workshops to be entirely refurbished for this beautiful modern Mercedes convertible. Once these are back on the car, we can’t wait to show you the rest of it.
Our Bridge Classic Cars in-house restoration technicians were busy testing the 1966 Mercedes 250SE W111 Coupe before its delivery to its new owner when they noted a slight water leak coming from the car.
Once the thermostat was inspected, it was found that this was the cause of the leak. Paul, one of our technicians, removed the component carefully from the car and prepared it for a replacement gasket and reinstalled back into the car. After this has been put back into the car, it will be tested and checked over again.
This 1999 Mercedes E55 AMG was recovered into Bridge Classic Cars recently with a hydraulic issue.
Upon inspection, our technicians found that many of the metal lines that run under the vehicle had corroded to the point where some had unfortunately cracked.
Along with the hydraulic lines for the rear brakes and suspension, our in-house technicians also discovered a leak coming from the radiator at the front. On these specific cars, the radiator also acts as a gearbox cooler (with a secondary internal core) which our technicians believe to be the culprit for the suspected leak on the bottom of the pan.
After putting together the list of specific hoses needed to get this exceptional piece of ’90s performance back into safe and working condition, next was the prepare the car for install.
To do this, our technicians had to meticulously go through the rear suspension in order to make sure that the rear axle could be taken out of the car safely and securely. With the rear axle now removed from the back end of the V8 wagon, Paul could start to remove all of the affected hydraulic lines and begin to work his way getting the car ready to accept the new lines.
Expect to see more on this wonderful Super Wagon very soon on our News Page!
September 15, 2021 10:30 amPublished by Craig Ranson
Interior trim is one of the key elements of any restoration, and we here at Bridge Classic Cars have got probably the best in-house trim shop bar none. Take for example this classic car, Craig’s 1987 Mercedes 500SL which is having a whole new interior done by our in-house trimmers. The fit and finish on these custom-made interior pieces are worthy of an article in themselves.
Those of you following the project will know that the original interior was a, once upon a time, dark royal blue but as part of the restoration of the car here at Bridge Classic Cars, the whole interior is being retrimmed in a deep and beautiful Claret Red.
Starting with the original door cards as a template to work from, our in-house trim experts got to work creating new door cards from scratch in order to create the best fit and keep them as close to the originals as possible. Once the new door cards had been shaped, finessed and test fitted it was time to choose the right hide. Matched to this amazing example of 1980s German luxury performance was stunning deep Claret Red. Every mark, indent or locator was carefully and skillfully transferred onto the new door cards by hand to ensure they were an exact match for the existing interior trim pieces.
The deep red colour of the door cards was carefully selected to match the previous material used through the 500SL. The centre console, dash covering and all the other refinished trim work all match up thanks to the expertise and attention to detail that our interior team at Bridge Classic Cars has and the devotion to their craft.
September 14, 2021 8:22 amPublished by Craig Ranson
We have an inquiry as to whether we could repair a rip in the seat of a modern Mercedes. As you can see it is the main seat area on the base and in order to repair properly the entire material from that section would need to be replaced.
The customer has asked whether we can glue up the tear which would is an option. It is not ideal but it can be done.
This may be one for the trim shop in the coming weeks, we’ll see.
September 14, 2021 6:16 amPublished by Craig Ranson
Ady has been investigating the engine on the 1976 Mercedes 350SL. Initially we were lead to believe this to be a running car but unfortunately it has arrived with us as a non-runner, and he’s found that this is probably due to an electrical fault.
There are two sides to the V8 engine and only one bank works. the right hand bank looks to have been tampered with.
The wiring to the injectors on that bank have been cut and rewired to earth. We don’t understand why someone has done this unless they are trying to cover up something more. There would be no other obvious reasoning. Rewiring to earth could possibly mean the engine can still run, albeit on 4 cylinders as it will hopefully not be sending any fuel into the ‘dead’ side. If it has then we have a problem.
We have replaced the points and adjusted the timing but the car remains on 4 cylinders.
We have then removed the plugs and checked the condition of the number 6 plug which looks to have a carbon build up. We have checked easy access compressions on all cylinders.
We have refuelled the vehicle but as before, the engine can only run on 4 cylinders and is therefore running dangerously rich.
Another car which we have recently purchased is this 1976 Mercedes R107 350 SL. With the exterior of the car painted in Aztec Gold and the interior being Chocolate Tex colour, it screams the 1970s. The exterior of the car is in great condition and with the seats being made of vinyl, they’ve done extremely well with the age of the car. In terms of the engine, the vehicle has been kept very original but has had work done to it in the past couple of years. Watch this space to find out when it’s made its way to our workshop!
Paul has successfully removed the engine from our beautiful blue 1969 Mercedes 280SL Pagoda. The engine will be rebuilt by Ady and the engine bay will be detailed as part of the project.
Apart from a couple of small paint imperfections the engine bay is very good order so a really good clean followed by some touching up in places will present us with a lovely space to return the engine to once completed.
Graham Cousins entered one of our classic car competitions. His ticket, number 382 was drawn and today he has come to our classic car workshop to collect his prize.
New, these CL600’s were £100,000! A dream car for many, Graham won this car from a £5 ticket!
Graham is fairly local to us, so accompanied by wife Sandra, opted to visit us for a tour of our classic car workshop when collecting his car. A lovely couple, Graham and Sandra were blown away seeing their new Mercedes CL600 in person.
Could you be our next winner?
We’ve got some incredible cars live on our website.
Craig’s Mercedes 500 SL restoration has taken a back seat recently but Brian has been working on covering the centre console by pulling tight the fabric and glueing down the stitching.
The team headed over to Bentwaters recently to shot our Mercedes CL600, our recent competition car. Although an overcast day, the lighting was perfect to capture the sheer light interior trim which contrasts with the mahogany beautifully. The paint, which is a subtle pale blue silver, sparkled under the light.
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