Barn find classic Mercedes convertible survivor - will it start?

today we've got another interesting barn find that isn't actually a barnett's in that black doored garage on the right this is a fantastic car really beautiful big glorious german beast but we're in manchester the car has been in this family for over half a century but it hasn't been out in the sunshine for over 30 years and we don't entirely know the condition of it what we do know is we're definitely gonna have a look at it and we're definitely going to get it out and there's a chance that we could get it running so let's go and have a look welcome to the late break show i'm johnny smith and it's a barn find i don't think i need this today this is nick fielding hi nick hiya this is your parents garage right it is so this barn find is it's not your car but it's a car that's been in your family for decades yeah it's older than you it's it's 1963. wow and so you've got i i'm actually quite shocked because when you told me about the car uh i don't know if it even would fit in there i would look at that garage and think it's too big to go in there but we're dealing with a um a 1963 mercedes 220s eb convertible what one of the one of the most handsome convertibles ever made i think the thing that interests me is the fact that it was your grandfather's yeah he bought in the 70s i think and he and it's and he's no longer with us but yet it's your mom and dad's house where you grew up that's right i've been in there for how many years i've got to be 35 really i reckon so yeah or close to and it's and it's so it's not been on the road it's not been on the road since i think 85 86 was maybe the last time i think it drove here and you don't entirely know it's it's state do you no so it had a body restoration done i think the very early 90s but nothing was done mechanically yeah um but it's been in the garage since so it got painted and put in there and nobody painted put in there we we got it running and i think it was on wd-40 maybe very late 90s that was with my uncle yeah but since then not being not been started oh my gosh so we're going to stop talking we're going to go and dig this 1963 merc 220 seo let's do it can i do it yeah you'll need the case i need the key [Laughter] this reminds me of my dad's garage door it's really similar are you ready that's the question oh look oh look at it that's nice isn't it even the church is happy about seeing a mercedes 220 sc cabriolet because it's a fantastic car what i mean it only just fits in this blooming garage nick it's massive these were really really quite glamorous expensive cars weren't they when they were new believe it yeah yeah i mean i know that your grandpa didn't buy this new right he had already bought in seven says and he had a number of other cars he certainly did did he yeah how many what we talking like i i really don't know how many cars he had you always remember him with an interesting car though he had um when i was a kid he had a mini in his conservatory in his consensus conservatory oh he was he was yeah he liked his he knocked um three foot off his kitchen i think it was three foot so he could extend his driveway and put a garage in the back garden what she reduced the size reduce the size of the kitchen so we could get more cars into the garden so okay so he's we had some glamorous cars he had some regular cars and this car here is in your parents your old i guess where you grew up um and it hasn't been used what because nobody your mum and dad don't want to get rid of it or it's a family heirloom now it is it's just something that hopefully they'll never get rid of yeah well i know they haven't so far but i'm hoping it will never go i really appreciate you emailing the show because you've said i'm i'm i've i think i've persuaded my mum to give me permission to pull it out yes no after a number of years i've finally i reckon 10 to 15 years it's taken me to convince her to let me get it on the road because you're into cars right i love cars you've got your own projects and stuff yeah so you you're you're you're chomping on the bit to get this thing back yeah it'll just be another another project it was telling me what cars you've got you've got so you've got like a really low mileage metro yes i've got an austin metro done six thousand two hundred and one miles i've got six thousand miles from you yeah every mlt wow i've got mark iv escort convertible fat since i was 19. i'm not really okay i've got a recovery truck and then i've got got it is that 90s transit yeah 1998 smiley yeah so we've got some because well look there's load of fishing gear on it presumably someone in your family's into fishing yeah with that so it's been used as a fishing table just a store cupboard i mean and i didn't realize this until we turned up that there is a back door to the garage so we'll be able to look at the back of the car in a bit it's tight in here so i think the plan is we'll we'll try and get the some of the stuff off the car uh and then we'll work up to pushing it out into the driveway this is a lovely quiet coldy sack area nobody knows this is tucked away in here apart from the neighborhood i guess but i just can't wait i've i remember the the quality of the chrome on the on this era of mercs they go look the quality of the chrome is absolutely amazing i um i'm a big fan of these so these these came out these are the convertible and the coupe in 61 1961 so the same year the jag e-type was born but the car this is based on the w111 saloon came out in 59 i think um but these came out to sort of celebrate mercedes-benz's 75th anniversary i didn't know that because i guess you and and and your parents i don't know what i've not seen out of the garage i don't even remember when so you haven't seen out the garage since you haven't been an adult since wow i'm gonna be really gentle with your old man's fishing gear we're gonna start uncovering it don't you think for a second that we fabricate things on the late break show all of the all the dust is is natural isn't it definitely nick said did you want me to sort of clear it all out and i said no don't leave it where it is don't touch [Music] it so before we tug the cloths off too much i've got to ask what what's the story with the with the paint because it's it's properly coming off in sheets it's we don't know it was it was sent away top paint where it don't yeah and it was fine for a few years and then it just started it's cracking it started with cracks i mean look at that and then it's weird isn't it it will it will get done but before it was painted and stuff it was used yeah oh absolutely my granddad used it up until he's he passed away wow and when did he die mid-eights is right okay i think the la the last time i've saved him we've got it inside it was either 80 he rates 485 or 86. he had a mot the year eerie passed away so you were really young yeah i was only only young i think it was five right okay gosh well let's do it let's see what it's really like take this we'll put it over there yeah let's tug this one off so we can actually see that it is a cabriolet and it's got some stuff in it oh yeah yeah there's some boxes there's some of my old stuff in there yeah there's a steering wheel and some lights and such a such a handsome strong identifier i mean people refer to this era certainly the the saloons is the fintail yeah or the stack headlight era but um they didn't really have proper fins not like american cars well this one hasn't got any yeah it just sort of goes down but the saloon was but yeah we'll should we but actually should we have a look and see what the engine's like i'm trying to remember what's the bit of insulation now let me with that put on it years ago oh that's clever there you go that's clever don't knock your head on that yeah you don't want to be oh my gosh this is this is actually pretty good nick uh so i said my uncle did a few bits to it and it looks like he i thought he put his teeth yeah yeah that will have been either very late 90s at the earliest early 2000s but i think it was the 90s it's such an instantly recognizable um cam cover i think on this on this era of merck engines lovely long straight six the casting on that i think i've made a few notes of you i think this is the m127 engine so this one's 2195 cc fuel injected early days of fuel injection 118 horsepower apparently really yeah 118 horsepower yeah so i had a quick look at stats for these because i'm just interested in stuff like this the 250 this is the 220 the 250 engine came out in 1965 the 280 came out in 67 and the 350 the v8 was from 1969. in 10 years of production from 61 to 71 which is when they made these they made sixteen thousand nine hundred coupes and cabriolets collectively but between 61 and 65 they only made 2729 cabrios it's nothing no and i think we are talking about only 300-ish 400-ish right-hand drive cards of this era it really was not the you know this this makes it and because they're so much heavier they i know they had servo assisted brakes but the servo's remote the servo's here you'd expect it to be there where the brakes and things were but because of course it was used to being a left-hand drive car and all the fuel injection and inlets over here it's kind of ask about face a little bit anyway obviously no battery on it because that's good because it would have dripped and killed loads of stuff is that the bin man i reckon the bin minute yeah it's been day today it's definitely not bin day for this it might be starting day we'll see i think nick let's pop round the back and pull some of the rags off the back of it it's fascinating we can use some water out the pond yeah putting the rounds a nice ponder on the back come follow me i think today combines my two favorite things interesting old cars that have been left derelict for a while and pond fish some beautiful coin here anyway we digress let's go around the back of the garage okay we've got some bits to clear out there nick but we've got a number plate oh gosh it's such a pretty design i just think i mean that's as that's as fin fini as the fintail merc got but 393 lnp but again the chrome looks good actually i reckon it it'll survive let's get this stuff off and pull this convertible out [Music] teenage mutant ninja hero turtles of course and mel gibson's braveheart i was totally expecting that to be in there my brothers my brother's favorite film of all time the hunt for the red october brilliant oh should we uh should we get the crates and videos out yeah i like the number plate and the fuel filler oh yeah yeah very american style [Music] is this an exciting day for you it's a day i've wanted to do for a lot of years is it yeah do you want a hand i don't know you're all right sure yeah as the bell chimes i love the fact that the your grandpa had a tow bar on that used to go caravaning with that yeah that's the most glamorous tow car feels like you're resuscitating 30 got some pressure in that vessel haven't you nick yeah this thing's just these tyres just shot up i think we've been lucky i've just put air in all four tyres and they're all still up so that bodes well yeah um the roof's better than i thought it would be you better than i thought i was convinced it needed not a proper i don't think it's again it's not knackered but we're going to try and get it out into the sun for the first time in 30. gotta be 30 years yeah at least 30 years and we'll have a good nose around it then we can get inside it because i can see some trinkets in there [Music] this is um i've had this car two days i'm already gonna do some serious towing with it welcome to the late break show where we know no danger right let's see if we can gently you definitely think it's hooked on that wishbone yeah yep all right how far from the wall am i there you're about 10 inches a foot maybe oh you're beauty look at you oh you sexy thing your stack headlights sexy thing oh look at it bit of sunshine for the cabrio [Music] oh that's freed yeah i think i ate the wheels for it i did yeah freed it's free yay [Music] well we've pulled the bends out you can see one wheel was a bit stubborn this tie here was obviously seized and it's dragged out and it's come up uh unseasonable it's freed off now we've left the remnants of your you this is my youth on earlier a cherry bomb exhaust yeah i used to do straight for exhaust for all my mates did you yeah did straight through conversions on all the exhausts make them louder so you've never seen the garage like this a lot since the very early 90s when it went away when it went to be painted that's the last time bloody hell i've seen the garage like this bloody hell so i don't know what's going on in the pit but the car's out and now we can have a look inside it and maybe have a think about seeing if the engine will turn we've got the car out and the um the dust is gradually being blown into the air there is sign of rodents residents we've got monkey nuts down there we've got mouse plop over here i'm hoping because the interiors on these are stunning you can see uh they they kind of remodeled the dash from memory on the convertible and the coupe to be different from the saloon so it's more like the the sls and it's real wood can you see all this binoculars is actually real wood real wood veneer just look at that gear knob and the thing about this model the this era of mercedes the cappings and everything is chunky chromed metal or it might be stainless i think it's chrome and here i mean the weight of that door is wonderful so i think we'll have a quick look the hubcaps are in there you're right so the missing hubcaps are in here there's a box i think nick should take this box on the passenger seat out we've got 80s ford bits genuinely you could probably sell that for quite a lot now xr2 yeah xr2 steering wheel it looks like though you did say that you thought your uncle had done some work on it to try and get the car running try to get it running there so i can see there's some there's some wiring which has been pulled down from the from down uh underneath the dash and the electric um fuel pump at the rear has been has been dropped down so maybe we'll see if we can get that operational is that a tape player that's a period i think it's just yeah it's periods and then the radio above it we've only long wave and medium wave no fm brilliant but there's there's loads of merck bits any sign of a manual yeah is the thing that scares me is understanding the fuel injection oh my gosh we've got a proper german service book it's a proper mercedes service manual dated um august 59 wow wow so 59 is when the saloon car came out the w111 but as i said the convertibles and the coupe started in 61 but they ran till later let's see if the roof goes back not electric so it's heavy isn't it it's a big it's a beautiful piece these beautifully machined won't go much further don't we've got some there's some trim and stuff under there isn't it do you know what the more i look at this car i think it's one of these cars that looks way worse than it really is i know it's had some stuff removed for the paint job and never put back on the paint job looks terrible it looks like hopefully yeah just once rubbing back in yeah painting again it looks like an import from arizona or some state in the state it does not look like a manchester car no oh wow oh these are bosch aren't they or are they no no tech i love so they're off the front bumper they're great look at those so great i thought they were there there's definitely been uh a rodent living in there i've been one in here i think that but so you've got brand new calipers that's useful because i know they're expensive so you've got brand new calipers nice that's nice you're going to need them i know definitely and they're not cheap on mercs rear calipers on one two threes are really really expensive okay we've got some nice stuff in here and the ford stuff you can keep bloody hell old-fashioned speaker auto sound and so while to the swords we've got to just see which bits are forward the cars that i've broke i think really yeah that'll be when it was all changed to the distributor right let's let's get this open get our box out and then we'll have a look at the floors where are wherever i'm looking you know nick it looks solid like please just hope it continues and even this these seats because i know this is real leather and the quality of the interior in these is really good all right just getting over that yeah i found the windscreen wipers i just saw them then yeah i was wondering whether again it's another thing that's been removed for the repaint and it was never put back on so last floor pan to check this one's pretty manky with the the on the mats but look at that condition of it's just a bit of soundproofing you've got you've got a really really solid convertible here i think what we should do is see about whether we can get the fuel pump to fire up yes maybe put some fresh fuel in it or check what fuel we got and see if we can get it to fire sounds like a plan you have got a manual oh my gosh what the doomsday book injection engine type 22 22 0 seb oh my gosh it's look at this this is the real deal this is official mercedes-benz literature this is this is very valuable especially for putting the car back on the road as was yeah and not only that lemonette nick look one two i didn't know all this was in there though look one two three four five what 1960 61 60 and the owner here we go the owner's manual the original oh my gosh look at that with the reg of this car yeah gosh and you didn't know about this stuff i didn't know about them i had a feeling about the the service manual but not them oh he's he's kept it all he's written the serial numbers of all the keys for what they do this stuff is important this stuff's properly important brilliant okay got lots of literature to read on i know what you're going to be doing in your winter's nights at the end of this year that's incredible just checking um the fuses in this beautiful fuse box on these cars it's really well made really good quality you're going to stick the battery on we're not going to try and crank it over we just want to switch the ignition on to see if we get the fuel pump starting to buzz away and i might undo the fuel line at this end just so it doesn't stop putting fuel into the engine anytime i go to a barn finder always pack a little bit of a first aid kit because you never know you never know if you might get it going or not i've just brought my normal go anywhere tool kit i've got contact cleaner different sizes of fuel line a couple of fuel filters wd-40 naturally easy start uh and a few other bits got some lights on the dash yeah i just heard a solenoid yeah if you do that one more time and listen out for where that is oh my gosh wow again yeah well starter works i'm doing it going for it now okay not hearing or feeling any uh connection here i'm wondering whether to give it a little squirt of easy start and see what it does at the front yeah we could run it off a can and gravity feed it from account yeah my gosh okay we've just had a bit of a strange situation while we were trying to think about me gravity feeding the engine fuel by passing the fuel pump that wasn't seemingly working you might have left the ignition on one click we had suddenly heard a gurgling noise and the fuel pump was working and it's primed it and started pumping fuel through so the fuel pump does work which means i could take off the pipe that's horrible that's pulling it from the tank put it into a gallon can suck fresh fuel in and run it as a normal car albeit from a can hopefully shall we give it a whirl i don't know if you can see this from under here i'll try and get a shot but basically the the fuel pump is um i can pull it down it it was hanging it had been removed from its little cradle heat like this um the pipe the fuel line that feeds it from the tank which is there look at it it's frail it's like a zombie's arm look at it it's really really knackered and it's i think not actually been delivering any petrol but we don't know how much petrol is in the tank so before i pull it off i want to check that i'm not going to get totally sprayed with old petrol um and then we'll put another pipe on but fed from a gallon can okay here comes the old fuel that's not too bad it's it's probably a touch small however as we're not driving and we will only be idling at best i think do you know what i reckon that might work so we're bypassing the fuel tank new piece of fuel line onto the electric fuel pump which we think now definitely works this this goes into a fresh gallon i'm going to be at the front with some easy start we're just going to switch it on now and see if it primes up oh [Music] well it wants to run so we you haven't got like piles of service history for it but you do have obviously those incredible manuals that we found in the building yeah and just a few bits and pieces i moved to you guys so he bought it in the 70s yep and then you said your uncle tried to um put some new bits and get the car running in the mid 90s in the 90s it's looking like yeah about 95 i reckon so that's when it but that was when it was still in here they tried to start yeah not driven though okay not driven but i love the the the fact that it's done what like 90 something thousand miles yeah 90 17 000 miles you've got a load of old um mots from the 70s and 80s yeah the oldest one i think we've got 73 to 74. okay so it was done in 73 yeah yeah it was on uh 47 000 miles on in 73. it's a 63 car so it's 10 years old 10 years old okay 47 000 miles and then show me this because it keeps catching this this picture my mum dug out um was taken in spain when they took the car away on holiday that's so cool and then is this your this is my granddaddy when he was younger so he had a rolls royce yeah over time yeah apparently bought it for his fourth he bought himself for his 40th birthday but he's beating both of us though yeah i'm over 40 now so it wasn't a new one obviously no but he liked him she liked his sort of older stuff you like tinkering and your uncle liked tinkerine yeah but your dad was not possible but you are yeah i love it yeah hence the bits that we found cherry bomb exhausts and stuff it's brilliant doing bad boy bonnets for your mates for a few quid i love that this is nice this is that's a fantastic photo you've got to recreate that i'd love to take it over there find the hotel i'll take a picture next to it you because she's finding it though don't know where it is they never stayed at that hotel my mum reckons he went driving and found it and just just to take the picture love it she said when they were staying in the hotel she only told me this the other day he used to go out and wash the car outside on holiday while he was on holiday i went and watched the car outside so this was his favorite car buyer yeah by a mile yeah and it'd go out while he was on holiday and wash the car outside that's so cool and that's why this car has to stay with you guys doesn't it it's got it's got to see the road again that's that's how i feel and for what i've seen today apart from that obviously the paint is pretty awful it's flaking off actually the the structure of the car the body seems absolutely soft it seems really good because i've not seen it out like this in my adult life no um it's it's as good as i was hoping yeah i can see you you're itching to get cracking with it aren't you and i will be doing order a carpet set and get the fuel injection reboot get it running first on the key yeah and then what you're thinking about that yeah yeah i love the fact that it starts and stops these are my favorite barn finds where somebody's already started buying the parts yes and the car hasn't been too badly dismantled so you've lost stuff yeah exactly so it seems like everything's there or near enough everything's there yeah um just one's putting back together properly driving scabby for a bit yeah that that's what i want to do i'd happily drive it like this driving scabby and as long as you've rust proofed it where it counts you're only going to use it in the summer anyway yeah and then you can come around to the idea of restoring it another day i love it such a you know these were this era of mercedes were designed by a frenchman not a german i've forgotten his name paul brack a frenchman who who who actually designed the w108 uh the w114 the 600 pullman limousine that all the dictators loved yeah he and then he had 10 years at mercedes then went to bmw to become their chief designer designed the m1 predecessor the turbo coupe uh the e23 7 series the e24 6 series and the 1600 tii paul brack he knows how to style a car basically all the cars he's turned his hand to are now bonafide classics doesn't it look glorious i absolutely love it i mean with all of its flaky paint and dust it kind of looks like it's been pulled out of the desert in nevada or somewhere but it hasn't it's been living in manchester for decades the last place you'd expect it to be but so well preserved and we managed to get it running it it wanted to fire almost immediately we couldn't get it to run for very long but i know it's spurring nikon to go through it and recommission it possibly drive it as it is but mechanically redone i hope you've enjoyed this barn fine episode our barn find playlist is sponsored proudly by adrian flux do you know of a car that's languishing in a hedge in a barn in a garage in a carport wherever let me know in the comments that would be fantastic or get in touch through the show's website cheers

Channel: The Late Brake Show

Views: 56,119

Rating: 4.9649019 out of 5

Keywords: jonny smith car reviews, car pervert, abandoned garage, barnfind, car dereliction, carchaeology, classic car garage find, derelict cars, rare right hand drive, rare old car, the late brake show, urban ex, survivor car, british garage find, will it start?, garage find rescue, mercedes 200se convertible, mercedes w111 project car, mercedes 220seb, w111 coupe, mercedes fintail, mercedes barn find, mercedes stack headlight, 1963 mercedes survivor, classic mercedes cabr, amg

Id: gkAPIwVS1SE

Length: 34min 40sec (2080 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021