Mercedes 2626 AK 6x6

[pairospam]

Pirx:

I did not absolutely intend that you or anyone in the forum buy and send me the repair kit but to find out if it is worth to do so; thanks a lot anyway.
As you see there is a big difference between prices here and there and now I will make my moves to get the spares.
Thank you again and good luck with all the work before christmass.

Pairoa

[pairospam]

Hi, everybody:

Well, it’s been a while since my last update and many things have happened, some interesting, and some less interesting, some good and some not so good.
I wanted to define what the issue of the painting of the frame would be at the end for I had many ideas and recommendations. As the frame itself was not yet available I took the pieces of the front sway/damping bar of the cabin to experiment with them.
Of course the first step was to clean them and I dedicated to the labor enough time to make them shine as usual. Some people, very practical people, told me not to waist so much time cleaning and to paint at the end the whole ensemble, probably a very good idea but impossible for me to follow at least with the parts and pieces of the engine and the cabin. Perhaps once the truck was in the shop I would think differently.
I almost burnt out the Chinese version of the Dremel tool but I reached to repair the excess of welding of the pillow block. The bolts, as from previous comments, were in pretty bad condition and I could rescue only a few of them so I went out to buy the rest of them in a shop nearby. I also bought the bolts for the engine’s exhaust manifold but I asked this time for stainless steel bolts. I thought that I would not have to cut them again if I had to disassemble the engine again if they were made of stainless steel but soon I was told that it was not the only nor the best of the solutions; it is better to use a special copper based gel to avoid rust to develop on such location. Hmm…and those bolts were not cheap at all.
Once the right pillow block and its parts were disassembled I took the left one that included the swing arm for the cabin that made the bloody heavy steel set hard to handle. I remember having made a shy try to take off the hub because I wanted not to damage it more than it obviously was, no way. I left both blocks submerged in kerosene to help loosen the hubs, a little at least.
All the parts were covered by rust, mostly superficial, and when cleaned I found out that the spring leaf was also fractured. Bad. The pillow block was fractured as expected but the repair by welding was satisfactory as shown in the pictures. There were no more surprises and all the pieces were prepared for painting.

[pairospam]

I was at work when the sway bar repair kit arrived and to my surprise and joy it included both hubs. I took the pieces from the kerosene at once and with the stabilizing help of two of the mechanicians of the workshop I hammered until both hubs were out not caring even a bit for them. When the pieces were apart I finally could prepare them for painting too. The best days of the teflon bushings of the leaf springs were passed long ago.
Even if I knew that the fractured leaf spring could not be trusted I spent a little time to weld it and left it apart for who knows when or what kind of emergency. You never know.
Then, after some local research, I bought a can of Chilco46 rust-converter enamel and used 5:1 poliurethane thinner to aplly it with the paint gun. Great! Good covering and very low consumption.

[pairospam]

I applied several hands to get a proper thickness to every part, including the repaired spring leaf. I thought that maybe it would be enough and there would be no need to apply enamel over the slightly satin finition of the antirust paint. Wrong.
After the paint cured, some days later, I wanted to assemble the pieces and to see how the paint performed when manipulated. Well, not good because it never lost its slightly gomous consistency and easily got detached when hit and made stick one piece to each other. As I had been told before, the antirust paint covers and protects pretty well but it needs to be covered by a serious enamel to protect it from the mechanical stress. Well… that’s why these were just tests. I did not clearly remember why but I did not trust the paint that is used to paint containers that has the three of the attributes that were searched: antirust protection, rust conversion and mechanical protection, so I would have to pay the lack of faith and use both Chilco46 and some good quality synthetic enamel, what I finally did. I really liked the final look and the easiness with wich the paints were applied, compared with the sand-colored poliurethane paint of the rims of the Merkabah.
I initially had some doubts by finally I had to accept that the swap of the cabin supporting system would not work without the swing arm so I ended preparing it for painting. The conic brush was at its lasts, and so was I at that point.
Do you remember the recently straighten gear barr? I took it and removed all the rust of the aft portion and cleaned the less exposed and less damaged front part and put three hands of Chilco46 and then two hands of enamel on it. It ended pretty well to my taste.

[pairospam]

I profited the fill-up of the paint gun (I hate to clean that thing!) and applied enamel to every single part and piece at hand, including the fan nozzle which matt finition I did not like at all and did not match with the semi-gloss engine and radiator paint.
That same afternoon arrived from Santiago the spare for the broken spring leaf and it was also painted with enamel.
Those days the engine of the truck that had to leave the shop to make room for the Merkabah had run several times but had many little but tricky problems that made the usually calm and phlegmatic mechanician in charge almost crazy. It seemed that the overhauling of the truck was as slow and complex as Merkabah’s. Some electrical issues were still left unsolved before taking it to the local version of the TÜV.
As the Merkabah was going to need towing from aft and front I remembered the truck’s towing device (Rockinger?), alone and forgotten in the attic since the beginning of times and since the experiment with the hand applied poliurethane primer. I went up and found it between a lot of dust covered boxes filled with used parts waiting for a second chance. When examined it showed a little bit of rust only where it stood I contact with the floor. I disassembled it and filled the mechanism with new grease; then I brushed the metal for good and applied Chilco46 over the primer and over anything.
I ordered the oil for the engine and the oil for the transmission and for the axles. The four buckets came cheap if you take the price for each litre, but Christ… they were so many liters!

[pairospam]

Well, time had passed by and I had to take the rest of my vacations so I left the engine, the truck, the shop, the work and everything behind and spent two weeks with Carmen on the “new” Africa Twin and scoured the mountain streams of the biggest rivers of the south-central Chile. We made some 3.500 kilometers and had a hell of a good time, met a lot of good and friendly people, gained three kilos at least, took more than a thousand pictures and learned a couple of lessons.
Allow me to put some of the pictures to show you a few places of my country that are not quiet easy to reach and to show again that every trip can have inconvenients, even if prepared to deal with them.
The first picture is from the Laja lagoon, at the hillsides of the Antuco vulcano, where a whole platoon of young conscripts have perished a few winters ago.
The next shows the cause of pretty much suffering, specially for not having tested properly the tyre changers before leaving home. I needed help to get the bike out of that bridge and the guy that helped us got a nail in his tyre too.
At the side of one of the many roads I found an old and venerable Mercedes fire truck and almost started to cry contemplating her.
One of the most beautiful rivers in Chile is the Ñuble, and the gigantic rocks in La Punilla stand for a battle won against a dam that menaced to cover the whole place.
Next, one shot of a secret place of the world reknown lava formation of El Radal, Siete Tazas (seven cups) park, but don’t get it wrong, even if the air temperature was 32ºC the water was nearly freezing.
The last picture shows the dramatic low level of the Maule lagoon, pretty high in the Cordillera de Los Andes of central Chile. The water of the lagoon is precious for electricity generation and for one of the richests agricultural regions of the country. Trouble to come.
I beg your pardon again and thank you for your patience.
Back to the Merkabah.
One of the lessons learned is that I never had to stop riding bikes: I really love it! I never had to quit at 19 when I went to the university. The second lesson has to do with the need to have a powerfull bike to travel where the allrad wohnmobil will not be able to reach because the road is too narrow or low or the bridges will not stand the weight of the truck. Of course you can walk or take bicycles with you, but if a motorbike is the choice, the more power and comfort, the better the bike.
Last October I went to a place by the coast in occasion of the annual meeting of schoolmates and found at some dirty and exposed yard by the road an old Mercedes that had the look of beeing dismantled. I found no one there to ask so I went on and celebrated, laughed and drank a lot as usual.
When we passed by with Carmen, returning from the holydays, the truck was still there but the rear axle had been removed. The diesel tank was huge and the cabin was not so bad so I insisted and got the number of the owner who answered late in the afternoon and agreed to sell me “some parts”.

[pairospam]

Back in San Felipe the same day I gave a second thought to the making of the box of the Merkabah when found near home a partially dismantled ambulance made by one of the most famous firms in Chile. The alluminium profiles used by them are the toughest (and weirdest) of the local market and a couple of friends have ordered their boxes made with them, but I had (still have) doubts because it was not possible to make 45º shaped attack or scape angles on the box with such profiles, nor I liked the pyramidal upper corners solution. Hmm…
Well, the next day, after a partial telephonic agreement I borrowed once again the Mitsubishi from Eduardo, took my pseudo-mechanician gear and drove back almost three hours south where the unfortunate truck sitted.
To shorten the story, under a sun just a little more benevolent than the one of San Felipe I ripped off the 520 liters diesel tank, the whole front grille and the sun shade from the saddly looking truck. Some bolts were so badly rusted that he had to use the power grinder. The guy gave me one of the lateral air deflectors that he kept at his house as a “gift”. Of course the deflector was the right sided, not the one that I needed but I thanked him anyway.
A little battle, as usual, for the price to pay/ask and I aimed back to San Felipe, but only after making a visit to lunch with my father that lives in a city on the way home.
When I arrived to the workshop I firstly power washed the tank and the supports to lower the quantity of dirt. The big thing was pretty heavy and hard to handle and there was nobody around to help me because it was Sunday. I took a picture to put it in perspective with the tank from Spare; it was 163 cm tall and the autonomy of the Merkabah was supposed to raise to 1.500 kilometers at the minimum.
I know: why to buy things that I already had? Well, these parts were in far better condition and were not expensive at all and, on the other hand, they would save me a lot of work and time.
The Casale’s, the ones that ran their truck in the Dakar rally the last couple of years and that sold me rims and wheels, had offered me a felt to use as isolation for the cabin so I profited my last day of vacation and made them a visit in Santiago. Francisco was hurried and excited preparing his Toyota Tundra for the next January version of the rally (a real monster!), but his brother Ignacio was pretty relaxed and happy for his decision of not to participate this time. He showed me some of their very interesting products to sheathe the inner and the external cabin to isolate it from heat/cold and noise. He owns a MB 1017 based WOMO and he had used the products to make the same job with good results according to him. A 12 milimeters felt seemed to be the most appropiate to isolate the cabin and he gave some samples to work with at home, and he gave me also a special price for it too. Good.
The polyester felt seemed adecuate but I wanted also to put a barrier for the heat of the engine and for the dust too in order to replace the rubber burnt-out protection pads from under the cabin, so I thought about a reflecting barrier of aluminium foil. Ignacio had a big roll of metallized plastic film and gave me a piece to experiment, but we agreed that in the end it was plastic and it could eventualy melt and even burn with direct heat.
Finally at home that day I took the pieces of felt, the metallized film, a piece of actual aluminium foil from the kitchen, a little glue and played. The result was pretty good and the adherence of the glue to the felt was very strong and the aluminium film, once glued, got pretty strong and stood a lot of pressure applied with the back of the pencil without tearing. If more insulation is to be needed the felt piece could be glued to another piece doubling the properties with ease. The problem was that I used a neopren-based glue that once dry is not flammable, surely not ignifugal at all, but I am not certain about its adhesive properties under continued exposure to the heat of the engine. I looked for self-adhesive isolating aluminium products and the prices were pretty high and the manageability questionable so I looked also for thicker aluminium foils than the one stolen from the kitchen, with no luck.

[Joe]

Hi Pairoa,

once again my deep respect re. your project!!
I wish you, that you can keep up your efforts and your tendency for perfection for the rest of the project and of course a merry Christmas and good start into 2012!

[pairospam]

Joe!

Many thanks for your words and also my best wishes for you and your family.
Merry Christmas and a nice 2012 to you all.

Pairoa

[Way-to-Beringia]

Merry Christmas!!!
...and keep on running your project in 2012...
Best wishes Marco

[pairospam]

I will, Marco...I will.
Thanks and Merry Christmas to you too.

Pairoa

[pairospam]

Ops...double post. Sorry.

Pairoa

[pairospam]

Well, my vacations were over and it was supposedly the time to arrange things to take the Merkabah to the workshop.
I arrived to the shop that afternoon and Carmen gave me the first of the bad news: the recently overhauled truck came back with a major leak from the engine after some hundreds of kilometers. I did not enjoyed the news but neither did Eduardo nor the senior mechanician who put his soul in the job.
The second bad news were that the venerable Ford needed urgent servicing before the harvest season ad portas so soon after repairing the never-ending truck the place would be occupied by the old truck for at least one week. Ahh…
I sighed twice and finished painting the Jost (Rockinger-like) device with synthetic enamel and took it back to the attic where it would have to wait who knows for how long. Having few things left to say or do I looked around for any other stuff at hand to occupy myself and amongst a lot of pieces from under the unconcluded 6x6 Blazer I found the hydraulic cylinder of the cabin of Spare and begun to clean it up just to be able to handle it. After a while I took out the whole cylinder rod and realized, as feared, that the rod was a mess and that it had been rendered useless by force of hammering and worbench vise. Bad thing. I would have to wait to take the truck to the shop and try to remove the heavily stuck cylinder of the Merkabah.
I then turned to the sway bar of the cabin and took off the old and torn silentblocks with the aid of a hammer, a piece of tube, and a lot of frustration-driven force.
To complete the “cleaning” of the sway bar I welded a piece of tube to the old spherical pillow ball bushing and took it off using the gudgeon pin of one of the discarded pistons as opposed hammering mass. The left bushing came out with not much trouble but the one from the right side was so stuck that the pillow ball broke. I had to weld the tube directly to the case avoiding welding the sway bar too. In the end I won and took off the bloody bushing with no harm to the bar.

[pairospam]

Time for updates. It’s been a while.
The white Isuzu truck was finally fixed and it left the shop a few days later (for good, we all hoped) but there was so much work that even the old Ford truck could not be taken for servicing yet. As I was prone to hammering those days I picked up the front cover of the sway bar from Spare and spent some time trying to flatten it up. The cover from the Merkabah was different and did not match with the sway bar stands and that is why I saved it, of course. Not a bad result but it would need more flattening and some plastering and sanding before painting.
The round orifices for the rods were gone long ago and they had to be repaired too, so I took the welder and re-shaped them. The previous plastering work showed up and caught fire revealing that it was not by far the first flattening job on the cover.
I did not know yet what to do with the “new” second right-sided air deflector. The front panel from the white Mercedes was not intact but better than the panel from Spare and of course better than Merkabah’s. From the external point of view it looked even pretty good, but when looked from the back side there was a lot of rust, especially on the borders. The front cap was not an exception, and even if the rust was superficial it would need a lot of work too. I decided to take the pieces to sand-blasting, but that would be in a near future when there were more pieces to paint, and that meant when the cabin would be ready for painting. Hmm…

[pairospam]

If you remember, the original seats of the old Mercedes were a mess so they had to be replaced one way or another and it was a major issue to do it with very good seats. To my scarce knowledge Joe Gertenbach seems to be the last one that purchased Recaro seats for trucks on Ebay. I have been monitoring the web for a while and no such seats have been available. I heard that Recaro no longer builds seats for large trucks and I was very disappointed because I really wanted to put a pair of them on the Merkabah. On the other hand, the costs of shipping and importing seats for trucks of any high-standard brand is quiet prohibitive due to the bulk and weight of the seats themselves. Eduardo came with the idea of using Mitsubishi Pajero seats as alternative. Pajero’s seats can be regulated both pilot and passenger sides to user’s weight and they are very, very comfortable. Moreover, they could be ordered from a known seller and get them for a very good price, used but in excellent conditions. I did some measurements and they could fit in the cabin but new supports should be built and seat belts installed. I left it as an real way out in the case I could not find the proper seats at the right price.
Many things happened during the holydays and not a single car at the shop could be properly repaired despite the efforts of Eduardo and his mechanicians. Those were truly strange and tough days and I badly wanted them to finish the cars, fix the old Ford truck and take the Merkabah to the shop. I was late at least by four months according to my schedule, and the truck in the cattle claimed for a shelter from the sun, the dust and the malicious children.
Then, one day of specially intense frustrating feelings, when Eduardo had to accept to fix the truck of one of his best clients and occupied the scarce place of the shop, Carmen asked why did I not take the Blazer out and park the truck where the unconcluded 6x6 and the big V8 stood, and forget about wasting time and sorrow waiting for the stars to be aligned to go on with the Merkabah.
At first I said that there was not enough space, surely blinded by frustration, but I then though it twice and took the measuring tape, measured the working place all over and took note of every millimeter that could be cleared to make the truck fit in, including some not structural parts of the attic that could be chopped if needed. Then I went (almost flew) to the cattle on the Africa Twin and measured, again, the cabin and the whole truck. It could work. Oh, I really love Carmen!
I spoke to Eduardo and we agreed about the idea so the next job was to get a safe parking place for the Blazer for at least one year. The day after the place was available and soon the unfinished 6x6 project would sit in the storehouse of Eduardo’s uncle, near the cattle. At work the next couple of days I could hardly wait for the time to get out and start to gather the pieces and assemble the Blazer, just enough to allow us to tow it out of the workshop.
As everything in this project, it was easier to think of it than to do it. To find, to clean and to assemble the pieces of the Blazer was a very hard task and it took me more than one week to get it ready and put some order to maximize the space available.
The place was a mess and, as always, I had not noticed it. All the exposed pieces and parts of the Blazer were covered with a thick layer of dust and grease and there were lots of them in boxes alla round, hidden behind boxes or under them. Firstly I had to install at least one of the rear axles so I had to assemble it and use the original leaf springs to bolt it to the frame; the 6x6 suspension system was left unconcluded. Then I put the middle axle with the spring inverted and a lot of wire. One of the leaf springs was missing so I had to invent, with a piece of wood and a little more wire. It was okay.

[pairospam]

I gathered together the pieces of the engine that already showed some corrosion due to all that time of neglect and abandon, cleaned and painted them with new oil and packed them in plastic film and put them in boxes inside the Blazer. The engine block, a 4,3 litres V6, seemed so small compared with the MB V8! The same job was done with it and it ended along with other hundreds of pieces in boxes. I really liked to wrap pieces with the plastic film and wondered why didn’t I do the same with the engine of the Merkabah in the first place. Inexperience and stupidity, for sure.
I almost filled the entire Blazer with boxes and completed the job by putting in the front bulkhead, the bumper and the capot. Then I made order and cleaned the working space for good. There are only two species of spiders in Chile that can be dangerous for humans, and there were a lot of these in every dusty corner; big, nasty creatures that unfortunately came under my feet.
The amount of garbage, dust and discarded parts and pieces of steel was massive for such a reduced space. I promised myself not to let the things go that far in the future.
The Blazer needed protection for its planned journey waiting for resurrection but I did not want to spend more money in a expensive big car cover, so I got a bigger roll of plastic film and wrapped with it the whole bodywork. The cocoon-making had to be completed with the little plastic film roll for it consumed the whole big roll. I hoped that the covering would keep dust, animals and rain water out of the Blazer for as long as it stayed parked in the country.
Finally, after many days of cleaning and preparations for the big event, I wrapped the Mercedes V8 with plastic just for the fun of it and lifted it with the mobile winch for the first time in months. What a heavy piece of steel! I had already forgot it, but the winch did not as it whined and almost collapsed under the weight. Using a heavy crowbar to give me enough leverage I moved the engine, centimeter after centimeter, towards the back to clear the space.

[pairospam]

With the engine finally in its new place the truck had enough room to be placed, so the serious work could finally start.
From its new location near the stairs in the back of the working space the overhauled V8 waited the moment to be installed, completed and run after so, so many months.
Of course, as everything in this project, things were not that easy. I made three appointments, three different days, with different crane operators and every time I heard the same words: “Don’t you worry! I will be there for sure!”. Well, they never showed up nor they called to say sorry or anything. The lack of seriousness of these people was astonishing but Carmen and Eduardo helped to calm me down and persevere. I wasted a week waiting for these guys.
The third time that the crane did not show up I was strongly adviced to go on with something else, anything, to keep me busy and to fight the anger. I went up to the attic and stared for some moments the pile of second hand parts and pieces for the Merkabah. I then took one of the big plastic bags containing parts of the snorkel and opened it. I grabbed the air intake case and took it downstairs. It was in pretty bad shape but it surely could get better after a little flattening out, new grille, new bolts, some plaster work and paint. Good; something to care of in the meantime.
At the fourth attempt one of the crane operators did came with a pretty old and almost broken 1972 Ford F100 and we took the Blazer to the countryside. Everybody looked at the plastic-wrapped wheeled thing with wide open eyes and mouth. We parked the odd vehicle in the storehouse and went to take a look at the Merkabah that was very near. The driver shook his head and said that it would be better to take his Ford 9000 for the task, but he had some appointments already scheduled so he could only tow the truck to San Felipe some five days from then on. Hmm...
Back at home that afternoon I remembered that there was one guy who operated a crane a couple of years ago and he could be more serious than the others. I had forgotten where his card was but I knew where his father lived so the next morning I went to make him a visit and after a few words we had an appointment at the workshop at half past midday that Saturday.
Of course he arrived thirty minutes later but I already knew that this was normal for this kind of business. Roberto Maack and I shook hands, loaded the tool box and the recently borrowed truck towing spear from our neighbours and chatted a little on the way to the cattle.
At arrival and after the first sight of the truck he twisted his mouth and said that there was no possible way for his crane to take the Merkabah out of its long standing place with that kind of terrain. Of course we did a ridiculous attempt only to see how the rear wheels of the little truck spinned fruitlessly delivering clouds of dust to the wind.
I excused myself and ran to the place where the tractors of Eduardo were parked, just a block away and under the same storehouse that now hosted the 6x6(almost) Blazer. There were no keys so Eduardo told me on the phone how to make the Valmet start by bridging the cables that went to the starter. Roberto saw me and smiled widely showing both thumbs up when I came back to the cattle driving the yellow little tractor. After planning the manoeuvre he took charge of the tractor and I got into the cabin of the Merkabah. As you can imagine the steering wheel was heavy as a rock. When Roberto urged the throttle the pulling chain tensed and the big wheels of the Valmet started to dig into the dirt but no movement was perceptible aboard the cabin. Then, slowly and smoothly, the Merkabah broke its long standing inertia and began to move backwards. My face had an incredibly wide smile when suddenly I heard a couple of bangs! and pows! and immediately stopped the pulling. I then removed the short shaft from the gear box that spinned eccentrically and hit the frame. We resumed the pulling and I had to manoeuvre between a big wooden box and the old truck of Eduardo’s father and that made my arms ache a little. God… it was hard!
Fortunately Roberto was not concerned about the time even though his phone ringed continuously for other towing jobs callings, so we made everything with ease with time enough to shoot some photos. I did all the heavy work because he had a severe lumbar ache and I guess that it contributed to keep his natural southern german good humour.
We pulled the Merkabah out of the cattle and left it on the asphalt so the crane may have optimal traction. Finally the old truck was back on the road, even if it had no engine of his own. I swear that I could see something like a smile on its face.

[pairospam]

We put the towing spear between both trucks and Roberto had some concerns about the angle of the spear, but it was too late for such concerns at that point. There was a major leak of hydraulic fluid from the pipes or from the retainers of the steering box but I did not care too much so we went on and aimed to San Felipe.
The whole trip was uneventful and both vehicles caught the eyes of everyone that crossed ways with us. We made a couple of braking tests and stopped once to check the temperature of the axles and at a steady speed of 20 km/hr it took us half an hour to arrive to the workshop. It was harvest time and we were not the only slow ones on the road and therefore nobody bothered us with speeding. I need to point out that without the weight of the engine the truck’s suspension was almost zero and my kidneys barely stood the trip. Air suspension seats, cabin suspension and upgrading of the frame suspension were on my mind all the time.
Once at the workshop Alejandro helped us with the traffic and Roberto pushed me in reverse and I managed to drive the truck through the doors with only a few free centimetres on each side and the Merkabah, after nine days of waiting and frustration, could finally come into the shop. Alejandro was almost as happy as I was.
Unfortunately the manoeuvre ability of such a truck without auto propulsion is almost zero, specially if Alejandro and I were the only moving force available, so we had to leave the truck half crossed as it ended after the crane was gone, occupying more space than originally thought. We would have to move the truck back and forth until the right parking position was reached but we would need many more hands.
I slept really well that night.

[Pjotr]

I just love to read your story. Curious what happens next!

Best wishes

Hans

[Joe]

Hi Pairo,

re. Recaro: Here is one!
Maybe it would be helpfull to post your research issue for truck seats in a new thread! Although your posts are very interesting it is a lot of information and (nice) pics - so not everyone may read always the full story. I know that some bought new ones for a reasonable price compared to used ones. Maybe they can give you a hint where to look.

[pairospam]

I got in touch with a truck importer in Santiago and I am waiting for his answer about the prices and availability for a pair of top level seats for the Merkabah: full air suspension, millions of different alternative positions, three-point integrated seat belts and so on. They are made in China, of course, but sold in Europe as from german make, and they are fitted for the cabin of the NG class Mercedes. I hope for the price to be fair and reachable. We will see.

When I could I went to the shop after work the next Monday and the truck had already been moved by Eduardo because its position was inconvenient for the displacement of the others cars of the shop. He moved it with the help of five and they could only move it a little, not without some minor lesions and back pain. Weaks!
I then went directly under the cabin and began to prepare the area for the next step that was to put the engine on as soon as the injection pump and the injectors arrived in a very near future.
At first I was not sure about the amount of things that should be removed to achieve a good level of cleaning of the frame and I started by getting loose the wires in order to clean the space behind them. It looked like it would be no big deal. I removed also some supports for the radiator and for hoses, but when it came the time to loosen the bundles of tecalan the thing began to get every time more complex.
At inspection there were half a dozen of wires and tecalan that were not originally put there by Mercedes and I had no idea what they were for.
I removed the right front engine support to see how things looked like and there was some superficial corrosion under it so I would have to take all of them off. I removed also the support of the hydraulic cylinder and the cylinder along with it. I would have to be careful and remember to put a chain or something to avoid the cabin to go forward when tilted.
To make the story short, after a couple of hours I realized that if I wanted to do a good job it would be necessary to take everything off from the frame and make a very good cleaning. Behind every little or big support, behind every bolt and behind every pipe there were tons of mud, old grease, dust and stones from who knows which mountain near Talca and maybe from the Schwarzwald hillsides. Everything that could be removed should be removed; there was no scape. And we are talking only about the front part of the frame only! Of course the right side of the frame was easier to clear because the greater bundle of tecalan and the hydraulic piping were on the left side.

[pairospam]

As you see from the pictures, every corner was full of dirt, even if I powerwashed again the frame.
Anyway, I was the happiest man of the world remembering the sun, the heat and the thirst when working on Spare at the cattle. It was like heaven in comparison, with Carmen taking me some cold drink from time to time. Great.
Going under and getting out from under the Merkabah every five minutes looking for tools or anything was easy at first, but after a couple of hours the reflexes became slower due to the tiredness and I hit my head soundly more than twice against the protruding pieces of steel. It hurt, pretty bad. So I decided to work a little on the front and take off the lower protection bar of the bumper and the rest of the pieces that were bolted to the frame or that limited the access to it from the front.
I fought against rusty bolts and nuts taking every piece off and I found everywhere more dust and dry mud. Slowly, the Merkabah was finally getting into its path for resurrection.
If you pay attention you will note that there was a red tractor and a little Peugeot 307 parked by the side of the old Mercedes. Eduardo asked me to use the space because he had too much work and needed the place to keep the vehicles, but I was not comfortable at all with the idea because you never know when they will be gone and, besides, it was more difficult to move and to handle the pieces taken off from the truck. Hmm… The idea was to move the Merkabah to the left and make it go under the attic so it would not impede or disturb the movements of the other vehicles of the worshop. With the tractor parked there for who knows how long I could not move the Merkabah to its definitive position.
I continued with the dismantling of the front of the truck and realized that the plug of the right headlight should be replaced among a lot of other things. The left side headlight case could not be disassembled from the hinges because the bolt heads were torn and, of course, there was a lot of dirt behind it and behind the bumper.
And the second working day on the Merkabah ended pretty late, as usual.

[pairospam]

The next Saturday I worked alone in the shop the whole morning and I did not stop until I removed completely the tecalan from the front part of the frame. I marked every tee and every connecting knob and every tecalan and took dozens of pictures, as always, in order to have a hint on what to do when the time of reassembling arrived. I found some other wires and pipes connected to nothing or in very bad shape. I washed the exposed frame with grease remover and the result was pretty nice but the work was far from being concluded. If you went just 20 centimeters behind the connecting beam between the frame rails you saw that there was a lot of dirt and grease still waiting for cleaning, not speaking of the gear box itself, and also there was still dirt in the inferior face of the rails and beams. I left it all when I got hungry and Carmen and I went to the beach for a ride.

Back at the shop next Monday afternoon the red tractor was not there nor was the little 307, but at their place there was a 406 that still bothered some. I was really concerned about the timing because it was supposed that the injection system of the Merkabah would arrive in three days and the engine should be assembled completely and put on the truck as soon as possible in order to make it run to avoid for the components of the injection to get stuck. I was also concerned because the place was too exposed and robbery is really an issue in San Felipe, and tools and pieces are very appreciated by thieves. Eduardo and I had a little argument on the subject, no blood, no problem, and we agreed about the near future movements. I love my brother-in-law too.
I then turned again my attention to the Merkabah and went over the main pressurized air circuit. The air tanks would be relocated backwards between the frame rails so there was no reason for them to be there any more and by the way it would help with the removal of the other components to clean the frame. Again I shot a lot of pictures and I took off the little air tank and the valves which names elude me at all. The tank was almost full of water! Behind and between parts there were lots of long forgotten stones and dirt that formed a growing pile on the floor. I took also some odd kind of valve that was almost hidden under the oily mud. When it came the time to clean and reassemble the pieces I promise I will know exactly the name and the function of every part.
I left the big steel tray because it would soon be necessary to put the batteries to make the engine run and I left both big air tanks underneath but only because it was getting late.

[pairospam]

Hi:
I continue with the making of the Merkabah.
Finally one day there was no more need for the place next to the truck to park broken cars and tractors, and as soon as I got to the shop I gathered all the helping hands I could and climbed into the cabin of the Merkabah. Then, seven grown up men including the people from the paint shop next door started to push and pull the truck back and forth to park it properly. The steering wheel felt as it was bolted to the floor and I do not remember to have ever sweated as I did then, turning the wheel from one side to the other endlessly with all my strength until the manoeuvre concluded. Everybody laughed at me when I got out of the cabin, dripping with sweat, trying to catch my breath. God, it was really hard!
The horns missed the beams of the attic for scarce 3 centimeters. The calculations where right, but I did not think that it would be that close. On the driver’s side the space left was enough to open the door and to walk through, but after all the discarded pieces were classified, sold and taken away there would be plenty of room to work around the truck.
I moved the wrapped engine and some boxes to arrange the working space and the final layout was set. I had enough room to work comfortably and if necessary the truck could be moved to the front to make any repair, cleaning or whatever.
While I was putting everything in order the injection pump arrived from the shop. Actually, both pumps arrived but only one of them had been repaired; the one from Spare was not recoverable because it had been left unused for too long. To be precise, it was recoverable but they would have to charge me another fortune, the first I had to pay to fix the pump of the Merkabah.
Anyway, once I could I resumed the work of disassembling for preparing the frame to receive the engine. Eduardo and I discussed on the subject and we finally agreed to put the engine in as it was, and to assemble the injection system once it was in its place, on the truck.
As I said previously, I had to take some decisions to go on with the work and one of them was to strip the frame to do a good job of cleaning and painting. As you have seen from the pictures the whole braking system and tecalans had been modified to the previous owners needs, and practically nothing was where or the way it was originally. Many steel plates had been welded to the frame to accommodate valves elsewhere to make room for gear that was long gone or still was there, as for instance the hydraulic pump connected to the PTO. Initially I wanted to use it to power the winches that I planned to install both in front and at the rear of the frame, but I discarded the idea when I did the proper research regarding the prices, the occupying space and all the work that doing such an arrangement meant. The pump had to disappear and two heavy duty electric winches had to be bought.
Allan, from another thread in this page, suggested that I was overworking by disassembling everything before painting, but if you look closer you can see haw bad the state of the steel, the connectors, the rods and the clamps and the wires was. I really had to take it all out, check, clean, repair or replace if needed, and only then would be ready to paint. Besides, the whole braking system would be rearranged, once again, to free space for the air tanks and for other stuff. I also planned to replace as tecalans as I could for solid steel pipes. So, all had to be disassembled sooner or later.
Something really odd happened and the electric angled grinder disappeared one day. We all looked for it everywhere unsuccessfully. It had been stolen, but how, by whom? I went to the hardware shop and I bought an angled pneumatic grinder/polisher and a smaller direct pneumatic grinder in order to, as I thought, make the job easier and properly. When I tried to put the cup wire mesh I realized that the polisher had its own class and measure of accessories so no other tool could fit in. I went to store to take the grinder back and I finally got another electric grinder identical to the one that was missing. I kept the little pneumatic polisher, though.

[pairospam]

I removed the hydraulic pipes from the frame and decided to remove the electric bundle too, so I tried to loose it from the place where it passed under the cross member of the frame over the tandem. No bloody way. It was stuck, firmly encased by a mixture of sand, dirt and stones as hard as concrete. Only after two hours of struggling against this rocky thing, uncomfortable positions and difficult to reach corners I could loose the wires and plugs free, only to realize that I could never remove the whole bundle from the frame for a couple of wires passed between the opposed main beam and the gear box support. I would have to take the support out to free the wires and also the odometer cable. I dropped the whole idea and left the wire bundle for the next time.
I coiled the already taken off tecalan bundle and secured it to the front of the truck, sighed, and prepared myself for the final cleaning of the frame before painting. With the power drill I managed to take almost all the superficial rust using the wire mesh. Once again the ridiculous nurse cap was necessary to avoid my hair of been covered by rust dust, but anyway I felt like the happiest man on earth.
I had left a couple of little supports but I took them out too and washed again the frame with oil remover and then power washed everything again.
After swiping the water that menaced to drown everybody at the shop I power blown the frame and made sure that in a couple of days all the water left in the corners would be gone thanks to the hot summer weather.
One final shot at the Merkabah that afternoon, just for the fun of it, made me wonder if it was possible for someone to fall in love with an old ship like that. Maybe I was sick, but I really liked it.

[kryzom]

Gidday Pairoa,

I really enjoy reading the up dates to your project.
I like how you are cleaning every thing and then painting so when its finished it will be like a new truck.
Its also the only way really to know if something is worn or broken as well as having an intimate knowledge of nearly every part on your truck.

Looking forward to the next posting
All the best for your project
Kiwi

[pairospam]

Kiwi: thank you very much for your words of support. I really mean it.

Well, the thing was about cleaning and preparing all the supports that were bolted to the frame to paint them too. The bases for the aft silentblock supports of the engine deserved time to their own as the accumulation of dirt and humidity had made the steel rust more than superficially. After some hammering I could get lose the most part of the rust, but my ears did not thank me at all for that.
At first the silentblocks would not be replaced and they would be used untill they died, but when cleaning them it was evident that their journey had already come to an end. The rear ones were the worst looking, but the front ones were also unhealthy. It was not worth the risk. I called the official dealer in Santiago and asked for the supports and allmost fell down with the price they asked for the four of them, almost half the amount that I had been asked for a 40.000 km double turbo OM412 imported directly from Germany. No way.
I phoned the option B store and asked for alternatives. After a while that seemed eternal the seller offered non original supports of German make and by a known company, for an eighth of the original price. I accepted immediately and made a pryer for them to be the right ones and not to end with some Volkswagen Golf engine supports in my hands.
I was cleaning more and more pieces when the injectors arrived, the last pending issue for the assembling of the engine. Good. We asked ten of them to be repaired to leave two as spares when travelling. They looked a little hit but clean, and the points were new and shining. I wrapped them in plastic and left them apart until it was time to assemble the injection system.
I went on with the cleaning almost against the clock. The pink grease remover was so strong that it removed even the paint and made me cry and cough more than once. After that a little session of power brushing completed the preparation.
I also prepared the supports for the connecting rods of the front sway bar of Spare.
One afternoon, as scheduled, two heavy boxes arrived by bus from Santiago and I went to pick them on the little Fiat known as Fiorella, the beloved red italian lightning bolt of the workshop. The 20.000 lb. winches were there. A friend had installed two 15.000 lb. Warn winches in his Atego and they worked well in the field, but I thought that it was not enough power for the projected 12.000 kilograms of the Merkabah. I searched in the local market and ordered the biggest 24 volt winches in a specialized store in Santiago. Of course they were not Warn winches but of chinese make instead. Fortunately in the end I found out that the store was owned partially by a friend of mine that I had not seen for a couple of years. I rang him to say hello and to tell him about the project. I felt much more comfortable as he backed me up and told me that his winches were O.K.; any problem he personally would respond. I hope that he would not have to travel to Uganda to replace a broken winch.
The boxes remained on the floor until their time came and I resumed the cleaning process to install finally the V8.
I followed the advice of the owner of the paint shop next door and I bought a special primer named washprimer to increase the adherence of the enamel to the steel of the frame, that supposedly had also some antioxidizing properties. Under the threat of suffering a very slow and painful death he assured that it was the solution to the failed experiment with Chilco46 and sold me the amount that he judged enough to cover the whole frame. I also got from him a black catalyzed heat resistant enamel of who knows how many microlayers of who cares wich kind of crap that was the top of the line product they now used for painting the landing modules of Saturn, or something like that. Hmm...
When the frame and all the pieces were ready, and I had got the time, the washprimer was prepared by the painter, the same guy, and he started to apply it to the lose pieces first. I did not like the look of the thing and the guy seemed as surprised as me by the finition of the paint.
I took the paint gun and sprayed all the pieces and I gave many hands to the frame to get a good covering, but the consumption rate of the primer was terrific. There was something wrong and without a doubt it was us, the painters.

[pairospam]

Between hands of paint Eduardo approached and proposed to me to install the injection pump the next afternoon, for it was the only moment available for him to support the cause because he was too busy with the harvest in the country and all the work at the shop. I felt relieved with the idea of finishing the assembly of the engine still on the floor so the next day I unwrapped the pump and I cleaned it with solvent to wash out all the oil and the diesel left. At the right moment the genius came on and stared at the engine with a worried look. How this damn thing timing was done? He asked more to himself rather than to me. I grabbed my little original blue german book and of course I did not understand how to do it, if it ever was explained there. He made me take the rocker arms covers off and he removed a little cover to inspect the flywheel. He aligned some marks of the flywheel with others on the cover while I turned the crankshaft and made sure that the number 1 piston were in the right position and said: That’s it! I then took the heavy pump and carefully put it in place aligning the marks on the gears. One little final adjustment and the issue was concluded. It was only a matter of faith, then, and you know I have a lot.
I put in the cover of the distribution cover (bis) and masked the orifices and the elevator pump. Then I sprayed the injection pump with high temperature paint, wrapped again the engine with plastic, made a little order and went to work, the one that feeds me.
The next day I searched for the rest of the pieces and found the tecalan hoses of the diesel injection circuit. The plastic was not in optimal condition, far from that, so I took the Honda and went to buy rubber hoses. I changed all the tecalan. The result was a little bulky but I prefered to go out to the unknown taking with me a couple of meters of rubber hose, just in case, than to depend on the plastic.
I was dealing with the hoses when the engine supports arrived from Santiago. I was quiet anxious but when I opened the boxes and saw that they were the good ones I could breathe with ease.

[pairospam]

I hardly believed that they all were the proper supports, and I was very happy.
As almost always, I worked on Saturdays the whole day and Carmen came to make me company when she was able to. We ordered some pizzas and ate there.
With the injection pump set and the engine closed I wanted to install the injectors. Eduardo ordered the especial socket wrench to his stellar machinist, but the guy went out for hollydays, closed his shop and did not call to warn us. And the special tool never showed up.
So I decided not to wait and I took two injector nuts from Spare and welded them together. With careful grinding I made the brand new “socket” match almost perfectly with the head of the nuts of the engine of the Merkabah so I was not affraid of applying a lot of torque force to them. I was about to weld a 24 mm. nut to the new tool but I did a test and it worked properly using the previously modified socket wrench, so I put the eight injectors using both instruments.
I was about to leave after that but I remained working in the shop, putting in the injection pipes, the pipes of the hydraulic circuit and the air intake tube. When I realized that it was pretty late and I was alone and hungry I left.
The day after it was the big day; the day that I was going to paint the frame and then I could put the engine in. I was pretty excited.
I was told directly by the paint technician that the famous washprimer needed not to be applied in many hands and that two layers were enough to get the proper adherence of the enamel. That was the reason for the high rate of consuption. Hmm...
I bolted all the plates and supports that needed to be there when painted and prepared the catalyzed high temperature enamel. I applied several hands at the reccomended intervals and waited for the paint to dry and acquire the matt finition that I asked for. And waited... and waited. After three hours the paint was still “shining”. They sold me not a matt enamel but a brilliant one. It was awful!
The paint shop guy looked terribly sorry and excused himself, again, and offered to bring me another product to make the paint look matt but I would have to wait untill the next day. I had not choice so I accepted and went with Carmen to have a cup of tea. The engine seemed as disappointed as me to have to wait another day before beeing installed.

[pairospam]

To make the story short for once, the day after I got the matt finition lacquer from the paint guy (for a free, of course) and dedicated the few hours available to apply it to the frame and to wait to see how the black paint changed. And it did, fortunately; even if it was not as I originally wanted it was a semi gloss finition, like the engine paint.
I was called from work so I had to leave early and the engine, again, had to remain still on the ground.
The next day I went to Verardo’s machine shop. My friend was not there but I borrowed from his brother the same bridge-crane that I used to take off both engines from Spare and the Merkabah in the cattle many months before.
At the shop I struggled to assemble it, with some aid this time, and after a couple of hours of a little dangerous and heavy work the thing was ready to function.
I bent the cabin of the truck using the winch and it was time to go home, again.
The day after I put the radiator back in place and bolted the silentblock supports of the engine. I made some retouches of the paint and I also tried, once more, to remove the hydraulic cylinder of the cabin from its support, unluckily again. The support went bolted together with the front left silentblock of the engine so I would have to put the support of the engine alone and wait for that issue to be resolved in a near future.
I could not do any more that afternoon so I went to work thinking on the big day of tomorrow.
And finaly the day came when I hung the old/new V8 from the mobile winch and with the aid of Alejandro and Tito, a cousin of Eduardo and Carmen that was from a few weeks working with them, we moved the engine where we could take it with the big winch. Don't mind about Tito: he does not bite.