Peter Vieira
Wow, you're reading this? Thanks! If you're into RC cars and I seem vaguely familiar, it's because I spent over 25 years writing and editing RC car news, reviews, and tech articles in print and online. What else, what else ... I have a degree in Film Studies (useless), most of a degree in Graphic Design (useful), and I'm married to a wonderful woman with horrible taste in men. Thanks to her, we have a terrific daughter who just earned her Journalism degree and is way, waaay more together that I was at her age. Or right now.
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That’s a lot of cats watching you in that bathroom.
I simply cannot fathom having the good fortune to have a gargage with that much available space for a workshop as Mark has. Also, both of the bathrooms in my place have been so unfinished, for so long, that I’d almost sacrifice a kidney to have them look as good as that one with the Etsy wallpaper.
And though I’m always flabbergasted by Stephen’s ambition/competence/skill in rescuing cars, I’m especially curious about his work on this C-class just because I’ve been jonesing bad for an 80s-early 90s Benz lately. The last C-Class that tickles my personal fancy is a bit earlier than this one: the W202… I’ve driven and like them and they still feel like what I think of as ‘real Mercedes’ inside.
I mean, for $350 and the ability to drive it home (and not need to tow it), how could I say no?!
The exhaust is now complete and she’s humming along quietly, as intended, even without cats.
I bought a T202 (the wagon) for £400 in the 2000s, it’d been sat 6 months while the owner was in Australia, he returned and it didn’t run. Had a mechanic go over fuel & electrical systems, gave up and sold it. One £40 MAF later I had myself a mercedes.
These are the start of the great cheapening but felt very like the W124 I’d driven some time previously. The only noticeable cheap item I had to contend with was a plastic component within the wiper motor that stripped itself and needed replacing about once a year. It wasn’t plastic on the 124.
I am aware of how lucky I am to have it, believe me.
SWG I think my biggest automotive regret was a Mercedes 300te that needed a higher maintenance budget than I could afford in college. Since then, I have been tempted by several Benz’s and always liked the c-class with the “big” v6. Also, get yourself a welder, in about 15minutes you should be able to reliably stick things together.
Mark, nice work bench, I really enjoy building workbenches/tool stands to be optimized for my use case. I probably revisit my work benches more often then I should, and should build more real furniture than shop furniture. The house is looking great too, enjoy the hunt for a good chair!
The SWG Center for Cars Who Can’t Drive Good (and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too)
“There’s more to cars than being really, really, ridiculously good looking”
I’m always amazed at the projects SWG is willing to take on!
Also, Mark’s fridge has the correct number of RockAuto magnets for this demographic of people (my toolbox is covered in them).
“Nightmare Mercedes” had me going into this article with different expectations.
How loud actually was it on the ride home? Like NASCAR loud I’m assuming? Must have been brutal.
It was about as loud as a straight-piped Harley. It was cool for the first 5 minutes; not so much for the last 20 minutes.
You just don’t see running, driving cars these days for $350!
When I was a kid, the muffler fell off my mom’s beater. Loud is an understatement.
The flange ahead of the muffler rusted out on my RAV4 recently. That was right under the console shifter so it was quite loud. It needed the giant center mounted muffler and the secondary cat replaced. The cat had to be CARB certified because New York. The Lisle exhaust hanger tool was worth every penny. It popped off the old muffler in seconds. I’ve messed with those before and without the tool it’s an exercise in futility. Time to scrap the old parts and get some money back.
I once had to drive a 69 Malibu convertible without the hood, or the roof, or the exhaust manifolds installed. It was louder than most farm equipment and some race cars. Driving at night with flames in coming out of the engine compartment was memorable. My girlfriend was concerned that her hair might catch fire, I think she was kidding.
There was a broken stud involved that prevented putting the manifolds on.
Anyway, that was loud. Mercedes Diesels with no muffler are pretty loud too.
You know now we won’t be happy until you’re driving home a car with no doors, or missing its windshield…
@SWG – Man, if I can weld, you can certainly learn in one day. Seriously. You can learn to weld poorly enough to connect exhaust bits and other random stuff. Welding a nut onto a stripped out bolt. Just get a cheap welder, an auto darkening mask, a cheap grinder with a flap wheel to “prep” and you’ll be off to the races. I’d guess nowadays with Harbor Freight stuff you could get it all for $500 or less. My cheap Eastwood 120v welder has paid for itself many times over. Heck, my son cut and hacked a turbo Subaru header to make it work on his non-turbo Forrester. That alone saved him $$$ and we tested it in the kitchen sink: no leaks! Don’t wait. it’s fun and worth it.
You can get it for under $300 if you get stuff on Amazon. Welders have come way down in price in the last 10 years.
I’m currently shopping for a welder – thanks for the kind words of encouragement (and for reading), Mike!
As I mentioned elsewhere, keep an eye out for a basic flux core welder, no gas required. As the price of really good units come down, folks may be selling off the older cheaper ones. For basic occasional welding an older one is just fine. Keep an eye out on FB and other sites.
I’ve got a Yeswelder brand MIG, TIG, and Plasma that were each around the $300 range 5 years ago and I’ve been blown away by how much better it is to use than a 10 year old $1500 Miller MIG. However you can also accomplish a lot with the $90 harbor freight flux core welder and while it’ll be a lot harder to get good looking results it will force you into learning how to be a better welder quicker.
edit – one more thing to add, in addition to a normal mask (I really really suggest an auto-dimming one) I’ve found the ski goggle type ones that have a face shield they can clip into invaluable if I need to do a quick fix under the car in tight spaces.
I got a ‘Yeswelder’ for Christmas that is surprisingly competent. The commerce river place has one for $100. The one I got (which can use gas if I get a canister) was $180, and can use 240V, which means I can weld 1/8″. Apparently can burn right through 1/8″ as well, it turns out…
For $500 you also have to convince SWG not to spend the money on a Mercedes…!
Nice workbench, Mark! I see you have the requisite square footage of pegboard – approved! 🙂
Before you get too far into using it, may I suggest covering the work surfaces in an epoxy-type floor coating, or at least in a few layers of clear coat?
Behr makes a product called Deckover that would do a nice job. (There are other products, of course, but I haven’t used them.) You can get a gallon, chuck a stirring paddle into your cordless drill, mix it up, and then apply it with a brush. It’s scrubbable and stands up to light powerwashing on our deck.
@SWG – you needed a sketchy set of brake lights 😀
https://www.theautopian.com/how-i-built-my-car-a-sketchy-set-of-brake-lights-using-a-power-tool-battery/
I loved that piece. Incredibly well done, A. Barth!
You’re far too kind but I appreciate it!
Mercedes is not a nightmare! She’s delightful!
I will walk with my people.
SWG wth are you going to do with a Mercedes you can’t smog? lol
Not every state or even county requires smog; luckily my county only requires an emissions check for 20yrs and this little guy is now 22 yrs old: Score!
It’s a fine line between genius and madness, my friend.
We are the lunatic fringe.
Fortune favors the brave, right?!
Mark’s garage is so beautiful, I feel like I could cry. Living in the LA metro area, I know that I will never have such a large and commodious space for my cars and projects. Use it in good health!
The flip side, of course, is that you have access to clean, relatively inexpensive potential project cars that we here in the rust belt can only dream of. The car gods giveth, and the car gods taketh away.
Not having to deal with rust is such an amazing good fortune that pure californians love to forget. I do agree with widget though, that is a lovely garage.
Come visit our beach and mountain communities and you’ll see rust. I used to live in San Diego and the spray of sea salt never stops, at least for those who live within a few hundred yards from the ocean. It was a college community and cheap beaters did not last long. Salt is much less of a problem once you go inland more than a quarter mile but once you get up into the snow line it returns.
That is fair. as in inland californian, I only drive to the real good parts. The beach cars have such a nice patina, but I haven’t crawled under too many of them. Being a few hundred yards from the ocean sounds lovely though.
It is most of the time but it can get very crowded in tourist season.
That Mercedes is a brave project to take on! Second most expensive car in the world, after a cheap Porsche.
Loving Mark’s office! That’s like a billion dollars of unbuilt kits. Amazes me how expensive those are today, they were $2.99 at Woolworth’s when I was a kid. Always came home with one. Once my new house is finally finished, hoping to have some display space for my 1:18th scale car collection and bring some of it down from Maine. Love the ex-Forest Service pickup too. A proper truck.
My wife and I are certified antique store junkies, and I have a nose for tracking down old model kits. That bookcase is only about half of them; the other half (all the odd-sized boxes) are in a wardrobe on the other side of the room. Most of them weren’t very expensive, $10-15 each in most cases, but I’ve been collecting them for years. I really should increase my pace of building them, if I have any hope of finishing them all while I still have eyesight and dexterity to do so.
Nice! I haven’t built a car model in years, but I am a semi-avid model railroader so I build lots of kits of buildings and whatnot. Another thing I am looking forward to in the new house – more space for that.
I just lucked into a treasure trove of model railroad stuff. Older lady I have become friends with due to bonding over a mutual love of Friday Indian Buffet lunches mentioned that her late husband was a model railroader too, and would I like what she still had in the garage? That turned out to be about five huge plastic totes of stuff. Going to pick it all up tonight, having had a brief reconnoiter last weekend. I was in my convertible, I had no idea it was SO MUCH STUFF, she made it sound like just a few things. Going to be like Christmas going through it all later!
“a mutual love of Friday Indian Buffet lunches”
I used to love those too but now there are consequences.
Someday I will return when I no longer GAF about those consequences.
LOL – having just gotten back from both an excellent lunch and excellent conversations with my friend “damn the consequenses”. The most immediate of which is taking a nap, which I shall be doing with my feline mistress shortly. WFH has soooo many side benefits. 🙂
It was definitely like Christmas last night, much excellent stuff in those totes. Though I may have to change railroads, as I now have far more Erie equipment than I do Maine Central.
Sounds like you’ve got a great gig going.
It’s true. I pinch myself every day that this job and I found each other 20 years ago. But when I work, I WORK. And good times like being stuck at the Miami airport overnight a few weeks ago due to a diversion.
If you ever find yourself in the same situation at DFW* the 7-11 there is a lifesaver after everything else has shut down. And at the folks there are very nice.
Oh sure you’ll hate yourself afterwards but sometimes a greasy pizza, some nachos and a Big Gulp are the best salve to get through the few hours sleeping on the airport floor till your first flight in the morning out of there.
*Thanks a lot AA. FU and your unrealistically tight connection times.
LOL – that was a *highly* unusual circumstance. Holiday weekend AND winter break meant no hotels within a reasonable distance of the airport that were *reasonably priced* and too short a time to go to one of the unreasonably priced ones, AKA The Intercontinental Miami. If I were going to be there for a whole day I would have gone there and expensed it though. Normally, I will be in a hotel if I am stuck overnight.
There was one convenience store open at MIA all night, but it was the very far end of the airport, and I wasn’t hungry enough to trek that far. The Admiral’s Club opened at 5, so I was really only sitting around in the terminal for 3 hours once they got us off the plane. Then the club for some food and a bit of dozing, and I got on the first flight at 9. Good times.
I get stuck overnight somewhere about once a year on average, but like I said, it’s usually straight to a hotel.
I would have had to pay for a hotel. AA has denying reimbursement for missed tight connections down to an art. They even denied the guy who had to fast crutch his way to the gate on a freshly torn ACL!
I just wanna say again, FU AA!
Paying for a hotel would have been pointless though. By the time I got done arguing it was late enough that 7-11 was the only food option left open. By the time I got to and set up in a hotel room It’d only be a couple of hours before it was time to return to the airport and there was no way I was going to miss THAT flight, even though it took me the wrong way to yet another flight to the right place.
I just don’t book tight connections unless there is literally no alternative. I like 2.5-3hrs and consider 1.5 to be tight. I go to the Admiral’s Club and relax. Then I am pretty relaxed when my flight is delayed and all around me are loosing their poop because they only had a 45 minute connection.
But I agree that AA considering an, IIRC, 35 minute connection time to be “legal” and allowable to book is complete and utter nonsense. You would about need to be an Olympic runner to get from one end of a major hub like CLT or PHL to the other in that amount of time, given that is REALLY a 20 minute connection at most.
Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of AA doing this.
What scale? I might be getting rid of some stuff that’s been in storage for 60 years.
I’m a rubber-gauger. I have N, HO, and On30 narrow gauge. But by far mostly HO.
That is some rad bathroom wallpaper.
I can’t take credit for it; my wife picked it out. I just put it up.
SWG just needs to put some of that wallpaper on that exhaust, then he will have “cats!”
Bravo! I love this.
In some sense he succeeded at making it a burnout car, next to that burnout boat, burnout golf cart, and burnout minibus.