After all the painting was done, it was time to move in Franz to his new home.
But first, some ramblings about how Franz was acquired..
I bought Franz in october, 2001 as mentioned on the about-page and the poor automobile was left to rot in five years time before this project started. The single reason why it was left untouched so long was that the engine blew on my way home, that day I bought the car. Ain’t that luck! Out of two water temperature gauges (one of course the original, and the second one being mounted afterwards), to my surprise none was working. Of course I didn’t notice this before the head blew and I was left standing on a highway about 200 kilometers from home..
About a year later I tore out the engine and had plans on rebuilding it, but that would have cost me a fortune and from what I’ve heard the original six-cylinder M180.947 gas engine was not very durable anyhow. So this opportunity to rent a few square meters of shop space comes across me.. About the same time I’m lurking on a few Mercedes Benz forums and picking something up; that a diesel engine can be run on vegetable oil. After a lot of reading I decide this is what I want to do, and so this project begins..
Here’s Fat Franz in his new home.
Ain’t he sweet? The first picture of the star of this show!
The hood was immediately removed (for obvious reasons) and came to a convenient rest on the rooftop. Finally I found a use for that old rack that came with the car, propably being as old as the car itself, judging from the looks of it.
Also, Franz was heightened to new levels to allow inspection of the dark side of the story. Looked very nice, no major rust in sight except directly under left front door and a piece rusted out from the front part just behind the fender. Not a major problem, a couple of hours welding and it should look nice again.
