Posted On: February 2, 2009 Posted by: admin

Its time for the Mercules update number 12, this one will be a little smaller than normal. We have been so flat out with everything else that Mercules has been a little lonely lately. We are still waiting on a lot of the trim to come back from the trimmer. Unfortuately we may have made a bad decission with this particular trimmer he does great work but slow we have been waiting for a few months now.

Category: Paint & Panel, Panels

Posted On: November 24, 2008 Posted by: admin

With so many events being on lately it has been a while since we have made an update on mercules’ progress. Alot has been done over the last few weeks, with most bits and pieces being those small annoying jobs that justseen to absorb so much time. The next thing that we tackled was the suspension. Let me tell you this car has some very advanced gear for its age. Not many car in the 70’s had IRS so as you could imagine with 32 year old bushes it was time for a freshen up….

Category: bushes

Posted On: September 18, 2008 Posted by: admin

Mercules has been away from home for quite some time now. She only just came back on Wednesday (17/9/08) and got straight to work putting the engine and dash back in. Since the last update, the shell has been painted, engine painted, new carpet along with hood lining has been completed and lastly the dash was recovered (vacuum moulded).

Nice shiny new paint all finished, couple of small bits and pieces that will be touched up once it’s all back together but aside from that the shell is looking fantastic. The engine bay came out really well and we’re happy as can be with it. Nothing like looking into an engine bay and seeing a sea of smooth surfaces!

Category: Engine, Interior, Mercules Build, Paint & Panel

Posted On: August 13, 2008 Posted by: admin

We have alot to update on mercules this update - from engine to panels!The paint and panel has been finished (our side of it anyways) and we have had a chance to have a play with the motor finally! The block was stripped bare and everything dropped off at the local machine shop. One of the heads ended up being cracked, so brand new cast heads with all the problems of the original castings gone were ordered. The new heads have larger valves, intake and exhaust ports are visibly larger, redesigned combustion chamber, posilock studs and guide plates - have a look at the comparison of the old and new below.

Category: Engine, Paint & Panel

Posted On: July 20, 2008 Posted by: admin

It has been a long long time between updates on Mercules and she’s still moving along. Paint and panel is one of those things that just drives you insane, sand paint, sand paint, sand paint tie noose……. We have been concentrating on the engine bay as it is the final part of the shell to be finished before the colour goes on. As you can see it was a complete mess, ze germans seem to like having 400 holes in the engine bay.

Category: Mercules Build, Paint & Panel

Posted On: June 17, 2008 Posted by: admin

Mercules has been moving along nicely, we had to throw our camry rack in the bin and go for a larger VN rack as the engineer wouldn’t let us use a rack from a smaller car (camry weighs in at ~1200kgs and the mercedes is ~1400kgs). This actually turned out to be a good thing in the end as the mounts were relatively simple to make. The tags used to mount the VN rack almost lined up perfectly with the bolts on the lower control arms (see pic above). For the engineer this is a plus as this is an point of *strength* or some such garble. He said that he would be happier if we always tried to mount brackets on existing / factory strong points - ie original engine mounts in the crossmember, original trans xmember etc…

Category: Custom Mounts, Mercules Build, Paint & Panel

Posted On: June 2, 2008 Posted by: admin

Just a really quick update on where we are at with Mercules. The shell is finally finished (primer wise) and we have taken it out of our spray booth and put all our remaining panels in the booth to be prepped for primer. We applied 4 fairly generous coats of primer on the shell and it is looking pretty good.

Category: Paint & Panel

Posted On: May 24, 2008 Posted by: admin

We haven’t had much to update the last few weeks, work has still been progressing, however it hasn’t been very visual. We’ve rubbed back the merc once again and applied another coat of primer. The spray gun and compressor we used initially weren’t upto the job so we managed to find a much bigger compressor and gun to suit. That said, the latest coat of primer went on nice and thick and should definitely rub back very nicely.

Category: Mercules Build, Paint & Panel

Posted On: May 4, 2008 Posted by: admin

Two weeks and no updates, we’ve been working on the merc, just haven’t had a whole lot to show for updates.

The engine and trans sitting in the merc. It took a bit of stuffing around, but the mounts are all made. They ended up being relatively simple mounts too.

A recipe for Custom engine mounts
1 X 200mm length of 50mm square bar
2 X 270mm length of 8mm thick flat plate
1 X 200mm length of 4mm thick flat plate
Pair of HQ holden engine mounts
Turbo 350 transmission mount (commondore)
Original Mercedes transmission mount
Original Mercedes engine mounts

Category: Custom Mounts

Posted On: April 13, 2008 Posted by: admin

Mercules has been moving along nicely this past week, we’ve managed to get the shell primed and have also given the underbody and wheel arches a new coat of sound deadener. The primer will be given a guide coat, wet rubbed and any highs or lows we find will be bogged up before going for round two of primer. However this will have to wait for atleast another week as we want to get our newly arrived engine mocked up in the engine bay.

It’s nice seeing the shell in one colour!

Category: Mercules Build, Paint & Panel