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Mine is an '80 KZ. I pointed out the potential for a fender to rad (bottom) strike as I saw this as a problem when I was playing around with an idea that didn't work out.

One day - 6th gear will be there !

After staring at my abortion of a battery box for a while this morning I decided to leave the electrics alone today and focus on some mechanicals.

Fitted test handlebars (galvanised water pipes) to see how the brake MC, clutch and handles fit (they fit fine) and then put in the (Citroen Traction) headlight and tested where the new speedo could go with a jam jar lid of equal size.



Then I fitted the front spat. Two bars was too unstable so I was going to do four stabiliser bars, but I broke two bits trying to get the RH Brake calliper bolt off before I gave up. It is stable enough and will all be painted black, so methinks no one will notice.





I have taken the bars off to paint and hopefully tomorrow they will go back on, permanently (yeah right, not likely!).

Last thing I did is spend fifteen minutes on the phone with a brake line manufacturer to have two front brake lines made... cant wait!

That really is a good looking front end!

You kept quiet about that splendid old Mercedes. would you care to tell its story, please?

Ha, its always been in the background... I have been asked about it before.

I bought it a few months before my son was born, 22 years ago. I wanted a Pagoda, but my wallet didn't stretch that far. This one is the bigger version, 5 seater convertible, which my wife approved of as it could safely carry the baby seat... (happy wife, happy life!)... and the second one too! (baby that is!)

Is a straight six, mechanically injected, 1965 250SE convertible, one of 27 RHD drive ones made. The only other one I know of is owned by the drummer from U2. I have seen one other in Australia (on the net), but other than that, never another one. Not even in the UK Mercedes club. It has never been restored, and is getting a little crusty around the edges, but I have NOS panels for all four corners plus few other panels and bits so I can fix everything but it drives so well I haven't had the heart to take it apart yet. In addition last year I found a complete, good condition 55 year old black leather interior in Poland to replace mine which is more duck tape than leather. I have been hide-feeding that every two months since and later this summer it'll be soft enough to go onto the seats.

It will get redone at some stage, but at the moment it runs well and I am enjoying people at shows talking about it without knowing I am the owner. One party says; great to see a completely original car even though a little worse for wear, the other says; this guy ought to be shot for treating the car like this! Haha!

Here it is at the Ace Cafe last year with a coupe and a 4-door version.



There you go.. back story to the car in the back of the pics!

Fabulous, thank you. Mercs were really built to last in those days.I guess the front wings will be bolted on rather than spot welded.

That looks like a Singer Chamois ( little red car behind yours) - Hillman Imp based but more highly tuned. Great little aluminium single overhead cam engine.

A full day doing... what feels to be nothing, resulting in this mess!!



But a lot better than the old harness... previous owner really went to town on this!



Seriously, I made some headway into the wiring, but I am now thinking whether I should route all the wires on the floor through the chassis rather than outside (under the tank and down one rear chassis leg right next to the water overflow tube) with a black sleeve. There is quite a lot of it and if I go through the chassis I will have to drill two fairly significant holes... at least 12/13mm.

BTW... nothing is connected yet, I just lay and cut the wires where they needed to go and labeled them at both ends.

Thoughts welcome!

Paul