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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As you can see from the image above, Mercules has been getting a lot of our attention
over the last week. We’ve managed to prep all the paint to be ready for
the first coat of primer (hopefully she’s all primed this week). Everything is
ready bar two doors, they were just too rusted out on the bottom sill to even
bother trying to fix. We have found some replacements which should be here by
the end of the week.

We have also taken care of all the surface rust and minor holes which were
cut out and new pieces of *metal* welded in.

A booth of sorts was constructed, so that we could minimize the mess we make
and have a good environment in which to prime Mercules. The booth is made out
of $15 worth of plastic sheets from bunnings and a couple of pieces of builders
string. Works an absolute treat too.

The stock exhaust cutout in the body work was going to be rendered
useless as we plan on dumping twin 2.5″ pipes directly under the number
plate. So a quick zap with the welder and a little bog and you’d never
know it was there.

Aerial hole removed, we’ll run an indash one as the stock one weighed
a tonne and looked like a bag of the proverbial.

The battery will be run in the boot, so we drilled out the spot welds, pulled
out the battery tray and sent Paul off to hospital to go on record as Mercules’
very first victim!

Two stitches and Paul was a little tentative to go another round with Mercules
(what a blouse).

New metal was welded into the engine bay, where the battery tray use to live.
Seems all battery trays are chock block full of rust. Anyone care to enlighten
us on this one, is it something to do with the battery acid being corrosive?

As I was writing this entry, our gearbox arrived and looks like
it will be a very tight squeeze in the transmission tunnel! Box is a reco’d
Turbo 350 with Stage 2 shift kit, it’s going to be a cruiser for 99.99% of the
time, so there was no need to go full manualised on this one. We’ve sourced
an engine (350 chev), which we’re hoping to pick up later on in the week. Then
we’re ready to do a quick trial fit of both engine and box oooo exciting!

Anyways that’s where we are currently at with the Mercules project,
more updates in a weeks time.

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Mercules Build Up Part 2 Gallery

The idea was to do something a little different which is why we ended up going for a 1975 230.6 Mercedes Benz (W114). In the engine bay is a straight 6 twin carbide 2.3L uninspiring piece of yawnsville that will be tossed as far away as possible. Right beside that you’ll find the 4spd auto that we’re most definitely not using.

Whilst the engine and box were never going to stay, we were pleasantly surprised to find the old benz had IRS, 4 wheel discs and power steering. The interior is pretty much perfect with zero rips or holes in the seats and carpet. The seats and door cards look like they will come up a treat with a good clean.

There is minimal rust through out the body, with the front drivers door needing some work and small amounts of surface around the front quarters and boot lid. All in all a very straight, near on zero bog free body for $500.

Planned Mods

Our overall goal is to build a ‘tough’ streeter that will hold its own in the WTF department and attract a bit of attention at the same time.

The donk is going to be replaced with a 350 chev that will be freshened up along with a lumpier cam. Backing up the 350 will be a reco’d Turbo 350 box with shift kit. A quick trial of a 307 block (pictured above) has enabled us to assess whether or not a 350 will fit and we’re confident we can squeeze one in there. Thanks to NO.TOY for the loan of 307 block!

The diff will more than likely be replaced by a larger V8 merc diff and the front discs and calipers will need to be replaced as the stock ones look like they would have trouble pulling up a bicycle.

Exterior wise, we’re going to try and stick to original as much as possible bar maybe losing a couple of badges here and there. So the body is going to get a fresh coat of white, polish up the original chrome and retain the original hubcaps with widened rear steelies.

First Steps

We’ve already ripped out the motor and trans which were HEAVY to say the least. All the chrome was removed along with front and rear windows.

Check out these engine mounts, look more like wings than engine mounts - reckon Boeing has a patent on these babies or what?

A little surface rust on the boot lid, nothing too severe.

Since we are sticking with white and the body is in good shape, it was only necessary to take the polish and clear off the paint in preparation for some primer.

Anything with a bit of surface rust was cut back to bare metal. We only found a couple of minor spots that needed a quick zap with the mig to fill in holes.

We’re sticking with the ‘FAT’ theme and have ordered the plates ‘FAT-230’.

Want to GET INVOLVED?

If any businesses who would like to give us a hand, whether it be through cheaper parts/labour/knowledge please feel free to contact us at mercules /AT\ modifiedcarforums.com - replace /AT\ with @

We have a tonne of space on the rear window for your businesses logo as this car will be attending numerous events when it is finished. Also we will plug your business with each step of the build you’re involved with.

Along with your co logo on Mercules’ dedicated website mercules.com

We’re currently looking for
- 350 chev ~1975 or older model
- turbo 350 box, shift kit
- paint / panel work
- interior/trim
- auto elec
- exhaust work
- parts ie fuel cells, fuel pump, carby, dizzy, inlet, waterpump, alternator, gauges, shifter etc

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