Before after rebuilds
Discussion
Unfortunately I had the before photos of this car destroyed in a house flood, this Iso-Rivolta V8 (327cubic Chevy)was discovered in a scrapyard in Frankfurt FRG probably as a result of prohibitive EU regulation forcing the owner to abandon a perfectly good project with years of life left to enjoy.
Photo : Refurbished "yardfind" ready for export to California
Photo : Refurbished "yardfind" ready for export to California
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|http://thumbsnap.com/VFprqCtC[/url]Edited by Martyn-123 on Wednesday 12th March 14:44
Edited by Martyn-123 on Wednesday 12th March 14:45
Edited by Martyn-123 on Wednesday 12th March 14:47
rolymo said:
Unfortunately I had the before photos of this car destroyed in a house flood, this Iso-Rivolta V8 (327cubic Chevy)was discovered in a scrapyard in Frankfurt FRG probably as a result of prohibitive EU regulation forcing the owner to abandon a perfectly good project with years of life left to enjoy.
Photo : Refurbished "yardfind" ready for export to California
lovely looking classic.Photo : Refurbished "yardfind" ready for export to California
Driving before the NSL.
My boss was a pain to work for but he appreciated hard working members of his staff and was right there if we had personal /family or legal difficulties to deal with which might detract from our work
Performance so when my Triumph TR 2 got carted of to be repaired he loaned me “trade-ins” for a few days to cover the short term.
While on his travels ( selling Rolls & Bentley cars) he came across many super deals many of which had not the slightest interest to him but were always useful as “ways & means deal” one which leads to other things. So , a couple of days later the boss came into the workshop with a great grin on his face, saying :- “ Have I got a good deal for you ,my Boy ! “ go down to the local Mercedes-Benz dealer and collect an MB 220 S 4 door saloon for me, there’s a good chap.
Now back in the 1950’s ,we were only just recovering from the ravages of WW2 and Mercedes counted for nothing in fact it was considered by many as a dirty word and you were likely to get a brick though the wind screen or a big scratch down the side if the car got parked in the wrong area of town.
I was quite unprepared for the performance from the 2-2 litre straight 6cylinder performance tuned single O/H Camshaft engine and 4 speed column shift transmission, this car was a real flyer and had a very luxurious interior. The upholstery was in chocolate brown velour and extremely comfortable, far removed from the Teutonic hardness of the current automobile offerings.
The problem was the colour [ African-Corp Tan] s
tty desert khaki, looked like a desert command car from ex -army surplus store.
On the way back to our workshop I was very impressed by the get up and go this machine exhibited and its overall capabilities so when the gaffer said to me :- “ That s your Christmas bonus !” I was over the moon as my wife had just informed me that we were going to need a bigger car in 9 months time ?
Straight into the paint shop for a much more diplomatic paint scheme ,two tone combination of British Racing Green and German Arrows Silver.
Now I was ready to go flashing around at crazy speeds pretending to be the Herr General von Speed until the accident , when I got thrown out , the car carried on up the road driverless .
[ But that’s another story}
My boss was a pain to work for but he appreciated hard working members of his staff and was right there if we had personal /family or legal difficulties to deal with which might detract from our work
Performance so when my Triumph TR 2 got carted of to be repaired he loaned me “trade-ins” for a few days to cover the short term.
While on his travels ( selling Rolls & Bentley cars) he came across many super deals many of which had not the slightest interest to him but were always useful as “ways & means deal” one which leads to other things. So , a couple of days later the boss came into the workshop with a great grin on his face, saying :- “ Have I got a good deal for you ,my Boy ! “ go down to the local Mercedes-Benz dealer and collect an MB 220 S 4 door saloon for me, there’s a good chap.
Now back in the 1950’s ,we were only just recovering from the ravages of WW2 and Mercedes counted for nothing in fact it was considered by many as a dirty word and you were likely to get a brick though the wind screen or a big scratch down the side if the car got parked in the wrong area of town.
I was quite unprepared for the performance from the 2-2 litre straight 6cylinder performance tuned single O/H Camshaft engine and 4 speed column shift transmission, this car was a real flyer and had a very luxurious interior. The upholstery was in chocolate brown velour and extremely comfortable, far removed from the Teutonic hardness of the current automobile offerings.
The problem was the colour [ African-Corp Tan] s
tty desert khaki, looked like a desert command car from ex -army surplus store.On the way back to our workshop I was very impressed by the get up and go this machine exhibited and its overall capabilities so when the gaffer said to me :- “ That s your Christmas bonus !” I was over the moon as my wife had just informed me that we were going to need a bigger car in 9 months time ?
Straight into the paint shop for a much more diplomatic paint scheme ,two tone combination of British Racing Green and German Arrows Silver.
Now I was ready to go flashing around at crazy speeds pretending to be the Herr General von Speed until the accident , when I got thrown out , the car carried on up the road driverless .
[ But that’s another story}
The Mercedes was LHD (left hand Drive)
The LHD feature did not present any sort of problem as I had recently owned a LHD FORD Pilot V8 (pick-up )custom built in Dagenham for the Canadian Air Force which was used for tow car duties, however I discovered that the Merc had some very strange handling characteristics which was rather strange considering the reputation the makers had achieved racing the 300SL Gull wing in previous years, particularly the mainly off-road ( Pan-American ) race. One would assume that with such experience they could have got the handling right, unfortunately that was not the case.
This car was fitted with centre pivot swing axle at the rear ,very similar to the world renown Triumph Herald swing axle which is well known for it’s weird “jacking up “ habit.
The Merc was particularly vulnerable over hump backed bridges and adverse cambers which were quite common in those days in England. The cars short comings were eradicated on the next model when Mercedes introduced a new edition low- pivot assembly to combat this condition.
Unfortunately it did not end there ,other problems occurred with regard to the engine performance up grade, modification to the carburettors resulted in extreme difficulties starting the engine in very hot conditions which could catch you out with a stalled car in awkward situations. In those days without Diagnostic Machines , fuel/air ratio analyzers etc one just had too go with trial & error adjustments so I had set the throttles butterflies to shut off when my foot came off the pedal.
One morning while doing my usual high speed dash to work on a dual carriageway known locally as the Murder- mile I noticed that my door was only on the second catch and was rattling rather bad, without giving the matter any caution I reach out and grabbed the inside handle.
Whoooooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooooosh, I as lying on the grass on my ass watching my car disappear down the road, after a while the tyre caught a kerb and turned left, bumped on up the sidewalk until finally coming to a halt in the hedgerow.
This model was designed with “ Suicide “ [front opening] doors which can catch the pressure of the wind (slip-stream) which forces them wide open with considerable force and very rapidly. Back then it was not required to have seat belts so by holding the door handle I got yanked out and spat on the grass.
A couple of good Samaritans pulled up to make sure I was ok and helped me stagger up the road to where the car had stopped, on inspection there turned out to be no damage apart from a broken check strap on the door and a load of bruises on my shoulder.
The LHD feature did not present any sort of problem as I had recently owned a LHD FORD Pilot V8 (pick-up )custom built in Dagenham for the Canadian Air Force which was used for tow car duties, however I discovered that the Merc had some very strange handling characteristics which was rather strange considering the reputation the makers had achieved racing the 300SL Gull wing in previous years, particularly the mainly off-road ( Pan-American ) race. One would assume that with such experience they could have got the handling right, unfortunately that was not the case.
This car was fitted with centre pivot swing axle at the rear ,very similar to the world renown Triumph Herald swing axle which is well known for it’s weird “jacking up “ habit.
The Merc was particularly vulnerable over hump backed bridges and adverse cambers which were quite common in those days in England. The cars short comings were eradicated on the next model when Mercedes introduced a new edition low- pivot assembly to combat this condition.
Unfortunately it did not end there ,other problems occurred with regard to the engine performance up grade, modification to the carburettors resulted in extreme difficulties starting the engine in very hot conditions which could catch you out with a stalled car in awkward situations. In those days without Diagnostic Machines , fuel/air ratio analyzers etc one just had too go with trial & error adjustments so I had set the throttles butterflies to shut off when my foot came off the pedal.
One morning while doing my usual high speed dash to work on a dual carriageway known locally as the Murder- mile I noticed that my door was only on the second catch and was rattling rather bad, without giving the matter any caution I reach out and grabbed the inside handle.
Whoooooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooooosh, I as lying on the grass on my ass watching my car disappear down the road, after a while the tyre caught a kerb and turned left, bumped on up the sidewalk until finally coming to a halt in the hedgerow.
This model was designed with “ Suicide “ [front opening] doors which can catch the pressure of the wind (slip-stream) which forces them wide open with considerable force and very rapidly. Back then it was not required to have seat belts so by holding the door handle I got yanked out and spat on the grass.
A couple of good Samaritans pulled up to make sure I was ok and helped me stagger up the road to where the car had stopped, on inspection there turned out to be no damage apart from a broken check strap on the door and a load of bruises on my shoulder.
The first time I have seen this thread. It is great to see the level and quality of work that has gone into making these old cars better than new.
It is so much more interesting than talking about the MPG or CO2 figures of the latest over-wheeled German yawn box. It just goes to show how beautiful the design of some cars used to be, though no doubt the quality and rust prevention could have been improved when new...
It is so much more interesting than talking about the MPG or CO2 figures of the latest over-wheeled German yawn box. It just goes to show how beautiful the design of some cars used to be, though no doubt the quality and rust prevention could have been improved when new...
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