"Big Foot 54"

 

or

 

The "G" (2010)

 

 

For my own business from off January 2011 iI need a car which I want to use as a marketing tool as well. A Mercedes G seemed to be a good choice. Unfortunately the car which I had chosen was in a too bad condition, although it was from 1980 and therefore offered the chance to register it as a historic car. Whilst lots of talks someone gave me a contact who wanted to sell a frame and chassis in a very good condition plus from my point of view a perfect combination of engine and axles - a 300D with long transmission, power steering, ... .

 

In addition I got an additional car which was the source for the motor and axles plus various other parts. Besides that this car was in a really bad condition.

 

Here you see the start of the restauation project, frame, cabin and various parts are ready for grinding.

 

Both rear fenders weren't so good so I exchanged them (Manic-Mechanic Dirk doing grinding work):

 

And here my friend Orest with the "hot gluing machine":

 

"G" upright and Orest checking for rust which was grinded off down to metal, then rust-protection paint:

 

Then the ground was sprayed with undercoating and afterwards all the hidden areas "flooded" wth Mike-Sanders - 5 kg just here!

 

That's how the cabin looks like after having been sprayed with rust protection paint (normally the colour looks dark red).

 

The engine and axles have been taken out of the "G":

 

The axels have been put in position,

 

5-gearGetrag gear box fits, clutch still OK, only hte rear bearing needed to be exchanged:

 

2 brake hoses were exchanged by my friend Andy although he saifd that they will look similar after one year has passed, but now everything is easily accessible. Front and rear axles are now mounted, the front axle is lacking one brake saddle.

 

The tank is not leaking and in a good condition:

 

The edges where re-cut with the grinding machine, some fine tuning is done with a knife:

 

In total the cabin was sprayed 2x with filler, but you still find spots which need to be treated. BTW:
The green "G" 240D in the background was the original car.

 

We decided not to spray it in the style "waterfall"! You don't know that? Keep the spary gun very long on one spot and use very liquid paint, if you use white and blue colour you will have a 3D-waterfall look! :-)
Instead of again RAL 1002 sand-yellow - nearly perfect work!!

 

The engine is fixed:

 

The electric wiring is put back into place, steering mounted etc.:

 

Inner covers mounted, rear seat put into place, ...

 

The driver seat is cleaned and the bird shi.. removed.

 

Finally on it own tires:

 

Front and bumper mounted  ..

 

Grill and fog lamps fixed:

 

The special chassis-lift raised the "G" quite a lot!!!

 

The electric wiring under the dashboard was re-done and with the mounted front seats it looks more and more ready.

 

Because of the aluminium rims it was necessary to mount fender extensions.

 

The biggest problem on the early "G"s is rust in the rear of the back-fenders. So I mounted the plastic inner parts availale for the 461 model which fits here as well.

 

Normally at 27. and 28. December the "G" should be  ready, I will then update this page

 

The final jobs were finished in time and so I was able to organize a license-plate valid for 5 days. The first destination was Mercedes in Bad Kreuznach, where the emission test was made plus the brakes. With these 2 documents I drove for the TÜV-test plus testimonial for historic cars. Both the G passed without any problems and so a regstration as an "H"-car (=historic) was possible. Due to the official definition the G is now in a good condition and is a cultural artefact of the automobile aera.