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.

We have been able to start assembling the rest of the shell, with all the doors neatly fitted back to where they belong. The shell is actually starting to take shape, it had been so long since the door’s and panels have been on the car both AJ and myself had kind of forgotten what she looked like.

…..One thing that stood out to both of us is how long the boot lid looked when bolted back on……

One thing that we where both very happy about thanks to a forum member (gwunta) was the opportunity to purchase a better Merc steering wheel. The old wheel was that horrible 1970’s spongie foam crap. The new wheel is a nice hard plastic style with the cool chrome bar for the horn.

Almost all of the fabrication work has been finished now apart from sorting out one more extractor for the drivers side. Obviously we still have a lot of work in front of us but the old girl is starting to come back together, a little slower than we had hoped but all in all we are still making progress.

Both Aj and myself are both really looking forward to getting the trim back so we can admire the nice new bright white paint siting next to the glossy black trim

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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….

Out came front cross member / suspension for a nice new coat of gloss black and installation of a new bushes. The IRS got the same treatment every rubber and bush replaced. Whilst the rear suspension was out we also gave the under side of the body a nice thick coast of GMH matt black. At the same time we thought we would give the inside of the boot the same treatment, its amazing how much difference was made with just a simple coast of GMH black. We were also very lucky as the boot only needed a quick tidy up before painting, none of that nasty rust stuff in there!

With the engine now sitting on a nice and very shinny front crossmember it was time to sort out some extractors. To dispose of those unwanted gases we constucted a plan to make a custom set of 4 in 1 pipe’s. As Mercules cam with a straight 6 originally we didn’t have much room to play with . As you can see we brought the front or first pipe up and over all of the others with the 4 inch and a half pipe collecting next to the fire wall. We ended up using 7 x 90 deg bends, 1 x 45 deg angles and 1 metre of straight pipe on the passenger side pipes. Both Adam and myself where supprised and impressed how well the pipes cam out. Now all we have to do is tackle the drivers side. We left the drivers side for now as we need to navigate around the steering rack and brake booster and both of which aren’t in the car at present..

With all the shinny suspension back in it give’s the engine bay a nice contrast !

With all the shinny suspension back in it give’s the engine bay a nice contrast !

We are finishing off the sump at present and it has been a tricky bugger to get sorted out. It has to wrap around the incredably close front cross member, fit the oil pump in without touching on the steering rack. We used a sump from a HQ (rear bowl type) and moved the bowl from the back to the front and added an extra 50mm of depth so we could keep the volume similar if not slightly larger. As the oil pump is in the back of a CHEV we needed to create a second bowl in the rear keeping it as close as possible to the pump to allow for the VN/P/R Commodore steering rack.

With the sump all welded up and fitting perfectly all be it lookiing rather strange the only thing to do is to braze weld pin holes that the mig did not seal.

Next stage is to put the interior in and get started on putting the doors back on. After that it will be time to start ordering a whole heap of parts to finish off the engine and driveline.

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Mercules Build Up Part 11 Gallery
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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!

The colour scheme for Mercules is going to be kept REALLY simple. Black white and chrome, the interior is all black, from carpets to hoodlining.So after much deliberation the block was painted black and the headers will be painted the same colour with chrome rockers/chrome everything else.

1min 30 seconds to put the engine back in Mercules and NOT a single scratch! Guinness book of records can stick that in their pipe!

Dash was put back in after it came back from being vacuum moulded. There are still some minor imperfections but it is far better than what it was. There were a huge number or cracks in it (before photos this post) and once all the fittings and trim is back in, the imperfections won’t be all that noticeable.

Looking like new! Just as it should be with no cracks. The dash like all dashes wasn’t a whole lot of fun to put back in. Almost as if it drank too much beer whilst being out of the merc.

Slowly she’s starting to look like a car again. Front quarters give the merc back its features. I can’t tell you how nice it is to be working on nice clean new panels and parts. No more sanding or any of that ****! We’re getting alot closer to the finish line.

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Mercules Build Up Part 10 Gallery
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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.

Just a quick tip, if you’re looking for second hand heads make sure they do not have a tap in the front of them as this indicates it was from a boat and boat heads = corroded heaps of crap!

Old heads are on the left

Comparison of ports old versus new heads..

The above video demonstrates our speedy engine build ~2minutes, not bad hey? We did run across one problem and that was the very last head bolt to be torqued down threaded itself. Upon closer inspection we realised that the head bolts were missing the last two or three threads due to corrosion (this engine use to be in a boat). So the lesson learned here is if you replace the heads on a boat motor make sure you check the bolts for corrosion or just pay the $50 for a full set of new head bolts or don’t buy a motor that was in a boat.

Aside from new heads, the 30 thou over pistons that were in the block have been reused (they were in great condition) with oversized rings, bores needed only a hone, new mild cam (lift 420, duration 208), new lifters, welsch plugs, crow cams adjustable timing chain, full gasket set, new head bolts, high pressure oil pump and a full set of clevite bearings. Nothing too wild but it should make for a healthy combo and the merc definitely won’t know what has hit it once it’s up and running.

Next on the list was the final rubdown and pulling down our makeshift spray booth.

Oh and did I mention we have had ALL the panels painted and they look fantastic. White maybe boring but it’s new paint and there is nothing like new paint, makes all the sanding feel like it wasn’t for nothing. The shell still needs to be painted which should be done in the next week with any luck.

The dash is going to be vacuum moulded so we have begun the process of getting rid of all the cracks, filling them up and blanking out holes that we don’t need (original speaker hole has been blanked out). The interior has also been sent off to be retrimmed in black vinyl.

That’s the lot for this update - alot has changed and once the shell is finished we’ll be able to drop the motor straight back in and finish off the rack, sump and headers!

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Mercules Build Up Part 9 Gallery
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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.

All the redundant holes in the engine bay were welded up, almost used an entire roll of wire too! This was probably one of the most time consuming parts of the job but definitely worth it as the bay now looks a million times better.

All the rough bits were bogged up - looks a mess here but in reality the bog is very very thing. Just enough to cover up imperfections from the grinding back of welds and the likes.

Finally we’ve added 2 coats of primer filler on 80% of the bay. A bit of spot putty was used inbetween layers and we’re just about ready to rub it back for the final coat(s) of primer.

We’ve also found a panel beater to apply the colour, so as soon as the bay is done we’re ready to get some colour (finally).

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Mercules Build Up Part 8 Gallery
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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…

Our brackets are very basic, couple of pieces of 5mm flat bar with tags welded on to line up with the VN powersteer brackets. We’re planning on welding our brackets to the front X member once we have everything sorted out. The tie rod ends look like they will need to be shortened and an adaptor will need to be made for the column to attach to the rack, but apart from that the rack is pretty much finished.

We’ve also been working on finishing off the primer on the doors and other panels. Two coats of primer have been applied and another two to go. Then it’ll be time to get everything to the panel shop for a brand spanking new coat of white and a bit of a celebration since there will be no more sanding for quite some time!

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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.

The bonnet is going to be painted white so the old black cracked deadener was removed. Apart from that there wasn’t too much to prep on the panels. Aside from a few light coats of bog around the boot lid, we seem to have been pretty lucky with rust and dents. Every panel is pretty straight - hopefully once a coat of paint and guide coat goes on nothing else crops up.

The remaining panels should be primed by the end of the week / early next week at the very latest. Then we’ll give the inner doors and door jams a hit with some white, whack it all together and in another week or so it should all be painted (here’s hoping anyways).

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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.

We also had to source a new steering rack as the camry one we were planning to use wasn’t upto the job according to the engineer. A rack from a VN commodore was sourced and we should have it installed after the shell is rubbed back and primed two more times.

Just before adding our guide coat, we were checking how well the primer coat went on and noticed a lizard like head poking out of the scuttle panel. There was a freakin snake in the scuttle panel, must have been there for ~2 months or more. We tried to get it out with a golf club and set of tongs but it just wasn’t going to happen (read we were crapping our dacks). Steve Irwin would have be ashamed of us.

We rang up WIRES and they sent out two fellas who picked up the snake in a matter of seconds and had it out of there. Thanks wires, that snake whilst small ( I swear it was 4 metres long and 100mm wide when it was in the car) was only going to come out of there if we lit the merc on fire if we had anything to do with it. For anyone interested apparently it was a Tree snake that is ‘mildly’ venemous and lives off of frogs. I love how it is ‘mildly’ venemous, that’s just like saying a car is only mildly dangerous if you’re run over by one.

Snake gone and a nice coat of GMH black was added as our guide coat. It took 1.5 hours to get rid of the snake and 10 minutes to apply the guide coat then clean up.

Anyways our plan is to add two more coats of primer this coming week, wheel the shell out then prime the doors and panels the following week. In between priming the body panels we’re planning on attaching the steering rack. The hope is to have the shell and panels ready to be given their colour coat in two weeks. The engine bay will be left until we have finished off our headers and all engine work, then we’ll more than likely paint the bay ourselves when the time comes.

We still haven’t finalised plans for the sump, as we were getting bogged down and not progressing forwards. Once the shell and panels are painted we will get back to organising the sump.

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Mercules Build Up Part 5 Gallery
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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

The steel cost us a total of $17 and the mounts another $74.

We retained the original Mercedes plates that bolt to the front crossmember, removed the rubber (image below) and welded in a small upright for our HQ holden mount. We went for the holden mounts as they suited the design we wanted for our mounts. Ie would bolt to a 50mm upright.

The transmission mount was pretty simple, a 30minute job really. Cut the original Mercedes mount, welded in a piece of 4mm thick flat plate, two holes and she was done.

burn baby burn

The Mercedes’ engine mounting point was mid engine and on the chev, they are right up the front of the motor. The engineer we spoke to before we started this project stressed that if we could to use the original mounting points on the cross member. Something to do with this already being standard location / strength etc etc…

Anyways some 8mm thick flat plate was used to bring the mount back to the original location.

Next step is to fit our newly acquired Toyota camry power steering rack, modify a sump and pickup, then move onto the headers. We also need to tidy up the engine mounts, trim a bit of fat off them and they’re ready to be painted up.

Not really looking forward to the headers, does anyone know if making headers similar to that on a boat would cause any big issues?

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Mercules Build Up Part 4 Gallery

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!

Since starting this project, the transmission tunnel has always looked like it might not be able to house the turbo 350 without some serious massaging. However once we had the box and engine bolted together and int the bay, they fit in nicely. A snug fit, but it fits which is all that really matters in the end.

The tranny pan is hanging down pretty low but should be ok once we get 2.5″ pipes running either side of it. The exhaust will hang alot lower than the transmission.

We came across two issues when it came to aligning the engine in the bay, 1 - sitting the engine further back meant we fouled on the mercedes powersteering box and lame steering dampener and 2 - sitting the engine further forward meant that the front cross member would need to be modified to fit the starter motor. The merc powersteering was taken out as we figured it would create a heap more room in the bay (check above the merc powersteering is HUGE) and we found a rack from a 92 Toyota Camry that will be perfect for the job. This means that front cross member can now remain intact as a starter motor will fit and half the transmission isn’t visible in the engine bay now.

Next on the list is to build our engine and transmission mounts. The trans should be able to use the stock mercedes mounting bracket with very minor changes needing to be made. Also we’re going to have to modify the sump and pickup - not 100% sure on that one as yet. Anyone have any suggestions on having maybe two pickups??

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