New Pistons installed ,side covers and sump fitted ,note: the deck has been machined to ensure it’s flat and true.
Head is reassembled with all new Valves. The valve heads were pitted from corrosion and machining them would have made the valve head margins too thin.
Cylinder head, water pump, and distributor drive fitted .Timing chain was replaced with a superior Iwis Chain,the one in the pic was just used to help install the new chain.
Accessories added and nearly ready to install in the car.
An update n the cabrio’s engine job. After some time a set of new pistons has been made to suit the new bore size (1mm oversize) which was necessary to repair the pitting caused by water getting into the engine at some time in the past.
Crank shaft has been linished ,balanced and cleaned .Connecting Rods have checked for straightness,big and small end bore true and new small end bushes fitted and honed to size.
New pistons and rings with new bearing shells fitted .
New side plate and block bungs are fitted ,with the crank and pistons installed after checking clearances and fitting new crank seals.
Distributor and pump drive installed with sump .New timing chain and slide rails are also in place.
The oil pump was measured and was within specs.
The rear panel on this car has had a few hits over the last 51 years and suffered from some pretty bad repair work. To straighten the dents and remove the rust ,caused by leaking tail light gasket i made a patch and cut out the rust with a hole saw.
With access through the hole , I could poke a dolly in and shrink out all the small dents .Last step was to repair the hole where the lights fit .It was pretty tough getting the dings out because the metal had been ground pretty hard in the past when someone has tried to fix the panel in the past.
With the engine now stripped down and measured in preparation ,the head has been cleaned to reveal some corrosion 
The seats are worn but not pitted but the cylinders #5 & 6 show a lot of pitting indicating a leaky head gasket in the past . the head will be machined slightly to get rid of the pitting.
The valves will probalby replaced if grinding them removes too much of the valve sealing face.
progress has been held up while i rebuild my Mig welder . But in the meantime I have begun the task of anchoring the cowl to the coupe shell. It involves a lot of fabrication of the various small bits to be welded into the body .Starting with the right A pillar.
more of the W126 A pillar was removed,back to where it was originally welded to the cowl. This will make a cleaner stronger joint.
These will be plug welded then lap welded around the edges.
The last part will involve welded a second peie over the top of the top panel which will connect the inner guard (on the right) to the cowl.
Every now and then I find stuff I never knew I had so I have and one example is a sump protection plate. for any W111 Chassis Mercedes. .
i even have the front brackets which are damn rare.
And…It may be sold already.
A little progress,the car was placed on it’s wheels for the first time.
Now i can start thinking about stitching it all together .
Bracing remains in the car until the “A” and “B” pillars are connected permanently
My template showed where to trim the cowl on the W126 Chassis ,I was pretty close all in all and not much more needed to come off.
After a few hours trimming and adjusting the body is now sitting in place …..
In this picture the coupes A pillar is now in the position on the chassis where the Original A pillar was .
Drivers side A pillar .Note how the sill is in the right place.
Thats a tie down strap pulling the shell further forward .
B Pillar showing how much rust will need to be removed .Same on Drivers side.
To fit the coupe shell on the W126 floor pan. I had to gauge how much room was available to drop the body down and how much was still to be removed.
I had a piece of water damaged MDF board which I placed up against the coupe’s cowl. Using a sharpie marker I traced the shape of the inside .That will fit against the W126 cowl .
The peice i cut out of the middle fits perfectly in the hole. So…i got that bit right…
I glued and screwed a piece of 1×2 pine batten on the back of the template .I can now lift it up against the W126 firewall as I chop each piece off. initially i though ui would weld the W111 A pillar to the cut down W126 A pillar . In the end to fit the template I removed the entire A pillar.
At the start of this process, I put the template against the A pillar .
Now, there are two dimensions to this,the left to right profile and the Fore and aft Profile .
I took a profile off the W111 A pillar .As seen on the left,after the surgical removal of the W126 A pillar
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This is the coupes cowl after I plasma cut the remnants of the heater box out . That’s the rear of dash,which will need to be removed anyway because it’s on the wrong side .
Next Job…cut the W126 rear wheel houses to fit into the coupe shell.
benzkraft 