Giving it a good clean

Arriving at my workshop.



New tires on older but very serviceable /8 rims.



Jacking the car up for a good clean.



Front left wheelarch.

View from the engine bay. Left inner wing rusted off from the footwell.



Rear left wheelarch. Rusted through to the front and at the bottom.

Left inner/outer rear wing. Not much left there.



Front right wheelarch before cleaning. Rusted through to the footwell, too.

Front right wheelarch after cleaning.

Rear right wheelarch. No metal left at the bottom.

Visit from a differently coloured friend.



First small repairs: adding the missing rubber grommet at the left spring for the bonnet (see inset).



Next I removed the period Blaupunkt radio (that only plays LW and MW), the switch for the (now missing) electric antenna and the rotary knob for moving the radio sound to the front or rear. A similar radio that also plays FM is already on the shelf and will be installed when a missing rubber grommet is obtained. In the meantime, the original blanking plate for the radio, featuring the "250" script and found in the glovebox, found its way there.



The left red knob is for the hazard flasher and the right white knob is operating the heated rear window. What the black knob in between is responsible for was unclear to Rory and also to me until I examined the connections in more detail. The knob is connected to original Mercedes-Benz wiring. And the car features an interior light in the back that is normally operated by a switch in the dashboard. This car being a RHD version, the place for this switch is taken up by the handbrake. So Mercedes-Benz moved the switch for the rear interior light into the center console on RHD cars. After I added a small bulb into the rear interior lightning unit, there was light and the switch did what it was intended to - turn the light off and on. Success.