Restoring an old 180db Mercedes Benz (Ponton) from 1960. A barn find ?

[anyweb]

So I've decided to create a new thread for this, so others can find it easily. The original thread was here and didn't reveal what the car was.

Long story short, I found an old Ponton, made an offer on it after being advised to do so from this forum, took a quick loan from the bank and then bought it.

I've started working on it when I can and my aim is of course to make it road-worthy again. I'm starting with all the brakes as they haven't been in use for 30 years. So far I've removed only the rear brake cylinders and they were both in a bad state, one worse than the other.

Today I spent many hours removing rust, cleaning up the brake cylinders, and honing the inside of the left rear brake cylinder before finally re-assembling both of the brake cylinders. Here are a few lo-res photos of that (lo-res because this forum software seems to down size the photos for some reason.)

I've documented todays' work with a lot of high-res photos here and I hope you enjoy the results of my efforts.

cheers !
niall

 

[anyweb]

so today's job was to remove the front left wheel and get the brake cylinders out so I could work on them, sadly however the job did not go as planned due to my lack of patience, and lack of suitable tools.

I couldn't remove the brake drum even with the bolt in the three holes trick, the bolt I had was too short, I couldn't find a replacement long enough, so i resorted to using a hammer.

Big mistake.

I ended up breaking off a rib of the outside of the brake drum so I guess that means I'll need to replace it, and that means sourcing a replacement (I live in Sweden) and buying one.

Anyhow, I've also decided to try my hand at making a video about the car, and hope to do more of them (from time to time), here's my first attempt, it's a youtube video called First looks at a Mercedes Benz 180db from 1960.

Please check it out and let me know what you think, go easy on me I'm new to talking about cars on video.

I've blogged todays progress here with lots and lots of high resolution photos including a picture of the brake parts from a service manual.

Below you can see a small selection of photos from todays visit to the garage, if you want to see more click on the blog link above.

I did manage to get both brake cylinders out from the front left wheel in the end (what a dirty job it was) but like I said, I damaged the brake drum in the process, silly me.

due to the damage should I replace both front brake drums or is it fixable (welding ?), or should i definitely replace it ?

advice please !

 

[rifiki]

Brave man. Don't worry about a few broken fins, get the front wheels balanced on the car.

 

[anyweb]

ok so since I posted last time I've cleaned up the brake tubes from the front left wheel and removed the seized piston from one of the two brake cylinders.

Here's a snippet of that activity:

When I got home from work I felt like doing some work on the car, so I went into the out-house and found one of the two brake cylinders that I removed from the front left wheel last week, it looked well seized.

and here’s another view showing the rusted outer protective cap which sits on the rubber sheath dust cover.

This brake cylinder is a mess, and I’ve not encountered this outer protective metal cover before, as you can see its in such a bad state it’s got holes in it even before I’ve touched it.

I tried to remove the metal sheath with gentle force and a flat blade screwdriver but it wouldn’t budge and the metal was very fragile, I feel it’s expendable but I’m not sure. Eventually I got it off but it cracked somewhat in the process, there was no other way, the rubber sheath ripped in two in the process too but that’s ok, I will replace that with a new one anyway.

Just look at the state of the piston and the cylinder, it definitely looks like it hasn’t budged in 30 years.

Here’s the protective metal sheath, you can see the holes clearly and the crack from the hole to the edge, I’m going to try and source replacements but on my other Ponton, the front brake cylinders only had the rubber sheaths so I don’t know why this one has this additional metal ‘cap’.

read more with loads of photos > https://www.mb180db.com

 

[anyweb]

am i right in that the brake cylinder should be 'ok' even with the visible damage on the lip of the brake cylinder, I will clean it all up and it will be covered with a new rubber sheath

 

[turbopete]

if you mean the damage near the outer edge of the lip on the cylinder, that will be fine.

 

[anyweb]

anyone know where I can buy this broken bit ?

 

[anyweb]

if you mean the damage near the outer edge of the lip on the cylinder, that will be fine.

that's exactly what I thought Pete, thanks !

 

[ampwhu]

my neighbour has one of these in his garage. it has sat there since the 80's. he does run it every now and then.

 

[anyweb]

ok this weekend I removed the brake drum from the right front wheel and I did it using the recommended method after braking a few fins on the front left brake drum last week, I documented this method in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhtdAUyCF7c

Once I had the brake drum removed, I set about removing the retainer springs holding the brake shoes in place, and the bolts and finally removed the brake shoes themselves. I created a youtube video of that too, and here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRedtrngpcI

and then I set about removing the brake lines and brake hose, so that I could finally remove the brake cylinders from that wheel, it took some time but I got both brake cylinders out, here's a video of that.

https://youtu.be/T26dXOnu5W8

 

[rifiki]

broken bits

Try niemoller mercedes, mbclassics.de, German Ebay and mercman.net

 

[anyweb]

i found a local place here in sweden that does that parts, niemoller also does the bit i broke on the piston....

 

[anyweb]

so today I tackled the brake master cylinder, what a job, it took a few hours and the cylinder is very very very rusty, but I got it out in the end so that is a good result.

Below you can see a few photos of the removal, I'm creating a video in Adobe Premier right now, and will upload it to youtube later, once done I'll add the link here as it has a lot of detail of how I removed the brake master cylinder.

 

[television]

Rusty was an understatement you did well there.

 

[anyweb]

ok finally got around to uploading the latest videos to youtube, and here they are

• Supporting the car with car jack stands before removing the brake master cylinder covering plate. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV9rJBFZEAA
  
• removing the brake master cylinder - https://youtu.be/3xTiXYniceo

 

[anyweb]

not sure if anyone is interested but I'll keep updating anyway in case someone is

today I cleaned the outside of the brake master cylinder, it was in a state, extremely rusty and well, almost looking as if I'd need to buy a replacement. However I cleaned it up and the results were quite something, in addition I got the insides removed and am ready for the next stage, honing the brake master cylinder which I will do some time in the future.

is it ok to leave the brake master cylinder in a diesel bath for a few days to soak the metal, or should I avoid that ? the rubber bits are all out of the diesel.

here's loads of photos of the cleanup today > https://www.mb180db.com/2016/08/cleaning-up-the-brake-master-cylinder-and-removing-the-insides/

 

[turbopete]

I cant see an issue in leaving the metal parts in a diesel bath. not really sure why you would want/need to though.

do check that the master cylinder hasn't become porous after removing all that rust etc. even though its unlikely, better to check now than when its all back together again finding it leaks/draws in air

 

[anyweb]

I want to because the outhouse I leave the bits in has a leaky roof and it's damp as a result, so even though I honed two brake cylinders so far, they are starting to show a thin line of rust on the inside of the cylinder

I guess I could coat them (the inside of the brake cylinders) with brake fat ?

 

[Cole@MBS]

I'm enjoying this thread Niall, please keep going, as you prob no, I love working on the older cars, not as old as your tho.......

 

[television]

Diesel does have good cleaning properties .