[0:01] Welcome to Hoovie's Garage and this
[0:03] truly is the dumbest automotive channel
[0:04] in all of YouTube cuz you are witnessing
[0:06] the final breaths, the final moments of
[0:08] life
[0:09] of my 300SL Gullwing as far as the
[0:12] motor. It is
[0:14] it is knocking. I'm getting it off the
[0:16] highway.
[0:18] I don't know what happened. I was on the
[0:19] way to the first of college car show and
[0:22] unfortunately
[0:24] she just blew the moment I got on it to
[0:28] pass somebody to go near 90
[0:32] This is This is where we're at. So,
[0:34] this will be officially my most
[0:36] expensive breakdown
[0:37] ever.
[0:39] Ever.
[0:40] Yep.
[0:46] Yeah we're
[0:48] We're at the last moments of its life,
[0:49] aren't we?
[0:54] Hasn't been rebuilt in probably 50
[0:57] years.
[0:59] No.
[1:10] All right, let's get hooked up.
[1:12] >> I like that.
[1:13] >> Yeah, that's clean.
[1:17] >> It's cute.
[1:18] >> Oh.
[1:20] Oh no.
[1:38] >> I put the brake on.
[1:40] >> Okay.
[1:43] Well, as far as breakdowns go, it
[1:45] doesn't get much worse than your 300SL
[1:47] Gullwing, but also I'm incredibly
[1:50] incredibly lucky because I didn't want
[1:52] to be on the side of the highway with my
[1:53] 6-year-old kid something happened or
[1:55] whatever, so I limped it at idle to the
[1:57] next exit. I called my tow truck driver,
[2:00] Dennis. "Where are you?" He happened to
[2:02] be at that exit, at that gas station,
[2:05] and at that moment to where we could
[2:06] immediately load up the car. Where I was
[2:08] going was about an hour away from my
[2:10] house, but directly in between is
[2:12] Newton, Kansas, and the Car Wizard shop,
[2:14] and that happens to be where I broke
[2:16] down. Now, Wizard isn't happy about
[2:18] having a really expensive car in his
[2:19] shop because of insurance stuff and
[2:20] things. He's okay with it being there
[2:22] for a couple of days and taking a look
[2:23] at it with me, but as far as any serious
[2:24] work goes, nah, he doesn't want to do
[2:26] it. So, but it's kind of funny. The
[2:28] Dakota was also there, another lucky
[2:30] thing, so I was able to drive the Dakota
[2:32] home in a sort of a full circle moment
[2:34] cuz when I was 16 years old, my dad got
[2:36] a Dodge Dakota cuz he wanted a truck
[2:37] around, but also something for me to
[2:39] drive to high school other than the
[2:40] Mercedes 500 SL because it was so
[2:42] unreliable at the time, my real first
[2:45] car. And I saw a Gullwing for the very
[2:48] first time when I was 16 at
[2:50] Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction,
[2:52] and I thought that was my ultimate dream
[2:54] car. So, here we are almost 25 years
[2:56] later, and I have a 300 SL Gullwing. In
[2:58] the same year, I married April Rose, and
[3:00] I got a 300 SL Gullwing. What a crazy
[3:02] year, but obviously, my Gullwing
[3:04] ownership has been very, very
[3:06] challenging. After it got revived at the
[3:08] Mercedes Classic Center, it needed a lot
[3:10] of work, a lot of work. The fuel system
[3:11] needed gone through, the fuel tank
[3:13] nasty, the cooling system, the brakes,
[3:16] so many things, but it all got fixed in
[3:17] time to go on a beautiful rally through
[3:19] Colorado and Utah, over a thousand
[3:21] miles, and I had minor problems, just
[3:23] little things that I needed to fix, but
[3:25] the dumb part was I left the handbrake
[3:27] on and overheated my brand new brake
[3:29] drums, which were very expensive.
[3:31] They're $30,000 for a whole set. I
[3:33] burned up two of them, so that was a
[3:34] very expensive mistake. And then when I
[3:36] got it home to Kansas, I made another
[3:38] huge mistake by putting it in my living
[3:40] room for Christmas and then trying to
[3:42] push it out rather than drive it out
[3:44] with the door open. The door hit my
[3:46] house and almost ripped the door off,
[3:47] just just mangled the door, and that had
[3:50] to get fixed. So, two bad experiences
[3:53] with the car, both of them my fault,
[3:55] both of them negligence, both of them
[3:57] very expensive. This one is going to be
[4:00] way, way, way more expensive to go
[4:02] through with a 300SL Gullwing engine,
[4:04] whatever's gone wrong with the bottom
[4:05] end. Unfortunately, I was just driving
[4:07] down the road, too. I wasn't doing
[4:09] anything goofy. I didn't downshift or
[4:11] money shift or do anything stupid.
[4:12] Didn't run out of oil. I was just
[4:14] driving down the road, wanted to pass
[4:16] somebody, floored it.
[4:18] It didn't downshift cuz it's a manual
[4:20] transmission. And for some reason,
[4:22] something popped. It felt like a fuel
[4:24] system delivery problem, but it was
[4:26] actually something just actively
[4:28] bucking. Then I heard a noise, lifted,
[4:30] and knew the engine was wounded. So,
[4:33] nothing there was my fault. We were 30
[4:36] or 40 mi in. The engine was fully warmed
[4:38] up. The oil temperatures, everything up
[4:39] to temperature. Everything fine. Oil in
[4:42] the engine. There's nothing negligent on
[4:44] my part with what happened at all.
[4:47] Nothing. The classic car dealer did tell
[4:48] me that the engine was sort of on
[4:50] borrowed time. Maybe the compression was
[4:52] borderline. The oil pressure
[4:54] is okay. You might have a few years
[4:55] before you need to rebuild it. And
[4:56] obviously, well, that came
[4:58] That came a lot quicker than I thought.
[5:00] So, yeah, here we are. The problem is
[5:01] rebuilding Gullwing engines are are very
[5:02] expensive. The parts are very scarce.
[5:04] So, the people that make them, a lot of
[5:05] money. So, uh you've heard of a $100,000
[5:08] Gullwing engine rebuilds. I don't think
[5:09] it'll be that bad for me because a lot
[5:11] of the parts are new and I didn't
[5:12] completely shred the engine, put a hole
[5:14] in the block, you know, ruin everything.
[5:16] But still, this is a very, very, very
[5:18] spicy proposition here. But I really
[5:20] don't know how bad the engine is because
[5:21] it broke on a weekend, on a Saturday.
[5:24] The car wizard wasn't open. Daniel So
[5:25] was kind enough to meet me and let me
[5:27] into the shop to park it there. So, I
[5:29] had to wait a couple of days, a couple
[5:30] of agonizing days until the car wizard
[5:32] opened back up and we could see, well,
[5:35] what happened. So, 6 months of glorious
[5:38] Gullwing ownership and about 3,000 mi
[5:40] cuz of that rally, also the California
[5:42] trip to visit at Jay Leno and Doug
[5:44] DeMuro. And as you can see, this puddle
[5:47] I I knew it was coming. This summer I
[5:49] had planned to take the engine out,
[5:51] reseal the transmission, fix this rear
[5:52] main leak, and I would have been so mad
[5:54] if I did it and then the engine blew
[5:56] when I was doing it all over again. So,
[5:58] I thought I should clean up this spot
[6:00] where the going was marking his
[6:01] territory for months since it's not
[6:02] going to be back here for a while. And
[6:05] to do that, it's still really greasy.
[6:07] I'm going to use Release Clean, the
[6:08] sponsor of today's video, for a final
[6:11] nice clean pass here on the floors.
[6:14] >> [music]
[6:14] >> Obviously, with my floor coating, this
[6:16] is a very easy thing to do, but Release
[6:19] Cleaner it is some really impressive
[6:21] stuff. So, this Dodge Dakota behind me,
[6:23] I just had it at the car wash and you
[6:25] really couldn't tell by the wheels
[6:27] because they are super grimy. The car
[6:29] washes they don't get anything,
[6:30] especially built-up gunk on wheels
[6:32] that's been there for months cuz this
[6:33] thing been sitting at the Car Wizards.
[6:35] And also, I probably hadn't cleaned it a
[6:36] couple months before that, but
[6:38] one pass of Release Clean, look at this.
[6:41] It is just wiping right off with ease
[6:44] that nasty baked-on brake dust and grime
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[7:03] the interiors like leather, vinyl, and
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[7:08] strong grease spots that I never thought
[7:10] would come out of the seats. No problem
[7:12] with Release. But not only can you use
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[7:20] appliances, no problem with Release.
[7:22] Even outside the house, I had this grimy
[7:24] stuff all over my vinyl siding,
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[7:54] of the coupon code as well. But now we
[7:56] have to head up to the car wizards to
[7:57] find out what happened and I wish it was
[7:59] as easy to fix this
[8:00] as that.
[8:02] Oh, wizards really rubbing it in now.
[8:05] Funeral parking and you're
[8:07] >> I'm saying my final prayers, final rites
[8:09] for this thing.
[8:10] >> It's It's not good, wizard. Have you
[8:12] started it yet?
[8:13] >> I haven't started it.
[8:14] >> Yeah, it's it doesn't sound very good
[8:16] and I definitely I mean I finally got
[8:18] caught. That's why I decided that after
[8:20] all the cars were, you know, like the
[8:21] Countach, the Bugatti and all this. I
[8:23] haven't had to do any big jobs on a
[8:25] high-end car like this. So
[8:28] if it's going to be the one, it's going
[8:29] to be the gullwing, you know? So I mean
[8:30] the Lotus, the transmission being bad,
[8:32] that's not as big of a deal as
[8:34] as this, obviously. So you want to hear
[8:36] it?
[8:36] >> Sure.
[8:37] >> Maybe I Maybe it's not a bottom end
[8:41] Maybe.
[8:44] Maybe the classic center did say that
[8:47] the rocker arm could have gone loose,
[8:48] you know? So
[8:50] but based on how it's acting, let's see.
[8:53] Do I have oil pressure here?
[9:04] Oil pressure's coming up.
[9:09] A little more tappier than usual.
[9:18] What are you
[9:19] What are you
[9:21] What's
[9:25] You don't need to hear any more?
[9:28] What What do you think?
[9:30] >> I think it sounds like a connecting rod.
[9:32] >> So I spun a bearing.
[9:34] Here at least. Jeez.
[9:37] >> Okay.
[9:37] >> could take off, we could take a peek,
[9:39] and then we can drain a little bit of
[9:41] oil. I'll let you do that.
[9:42] >> Right, but the stupid sport cam I just
[9:45] put in this was so expensive. That's the
[9:48] thing.
[9:50] >> And yeah, I mean, it's possible this
[9:52] could be the cam, but it just sounds so
[9:54] much to me like bottom end, lower end.
[9:56] >> What I'm worried about is if that
[9:58] crapped out, shot metal everywhere, and
[10:00] then killed my whole new top end,
[10:02] basically. Because if I Well, I have to
[10:04] do the bottom end, the compression was a
[10:06] little questionable on this engine. I
[10:08] knew I was sort of, you know, maybe I
[10:10] had a year or two left. It turned out
[10:12] about 6 months and 3 or 4,000 mi. I
[10:14] didn't drive this thing a lot.
[10:16] >> Yeah.
[10:16] >> Um so, I don't feel that bad. And I was
[10:19] going to have the engine taken out and
[10:20] resealed. So, imagine if I went to all
[10:22] that trouble, had the transmission
[10:23] resealed, the engine resealed, the rear
[10:24] main is just dumping out of this thing.
[10:27] And then the engine blew. It would have
[10:28] been so much more frustrating than, you
[10:30] know, now I'm just dealing with all of
[10:31] it.
[10:32] >> Sometimes catastrophe is actually a
[10:34] blessing.
[10:35] >> Well, it's a Well,
[10:36] >> in a way. Kind You kind of have to just
[10:38] look at the positive bright side.
[10:40] >> You don't rebuild engines on these, but
[10:42] >> No.
[10:42] >> the low end is 50,000. The high end is
[10:45] 100,000 to rebuild these engines.
[10:46] >> 100 grand?
[10:48] >> Yes. Yes. And the other thing is, I
[10:50] checked the oil afterwards cuz I was
[10:52] like, if it was me running this thing
[10:53] out of oil because of the rear main or
[10:54] something like that and my negligence, I
[10:56] was going to be so angry, but it has
[10:59] plenty of oil in it.
[11:00] >> Yeah, it has plenty of oil.
[11:01] >> I topped it off
[11:03] I don't know, 100, 200 mi ago. And it's
[11:05] a giant dry sump, so I knew I wasn't,
[11:07] you know, using
[11:08] >> Mhm.
[11:08] >> 8 qt of oil in 200 mi, so
[11:11] >> [sighs]
[11:12] [groaning]
[11:13] >> Jeez. Okay. But, this would be great.
[11:15] And I know it's really easy to take
[11:16] these off cuz this it's just twisty
[11:18] screws
[11:19] here and a few little things to see if
[11:21] my
[11:22] my fancy hot cam is still okay, and if
[11:24] there's, you know, anything going on up
[11:25] there.
[11:26] >> Let me get a fender cover, and then
[11:27] we'll take a look.
[11:29] >> I think this is from my '66 427
[11:31] Corvette.
[11:32] >> Yes.
[11:32] >> It was in the back of it.
[11:33] >> Mhm.
[11:34] >> And that motor blew as well.
[11:35] >> It did.
[11:36] >> That was
[11:37] >> So, kind of just carry on the tradition
[11:39] here engines blowing
[11:40] >> Yes.
[11:42] >> Let me see if I can just take this
[11:44] loose.
[11:44] >> If it'll fold over.
[11:46] >> over just enough to take a peek. If not,
[11:48] then I'll have to take this off.
[11:50] There's that one.
[11:54] There's that one.
[11:58] And that one.
[12:04] So, it looks like I will have to remove
[12:07] this.
[12:08] >> At least the spark plug wires.
[12:09] >> Mhm.
[12:10] >> Okay. The wizard hasn't seen this car
[12:12] yet.
[12:12] >> Nope.
[12:14] >> He is a
[12:16] not wanting multi-million dollar cars in
[12:18] his shop.
[12:19] >> No, especially when I'm getting ready to
[12:20] move and
[12:21] last thing I need is a oops and it fall
[12:23] off the lift or God knows what.
[12:25] >> Right. So, yeah, we talked about this
[12:27] earlier. He doesn't want it up on the
[12:28] lift in case it falls off cuz it's above
[12:29] his insurance limits. So,
[12:31] um that's why I'm going to do it on the
[12:33] ground here just to see what the
[12:35] oil filter screen looks like.
[12:38] But, at least we can see something
[12:44] up here.
[12:48] >> Let me see if I can clear it.
[12:50] I think that'll be about as good enough.
[12:51] We can take a peek through the
[12:53] through the You can look through the
[12:54] other side.
[12:55] >> Sure.
[13:02] >> Looks like normal wear in.
[13:04] I don't I don't feel anything on the
[13:06] lobes.
[13:07] >> That's a brand new cam. So,
[13:09] >> there's no push rods or anything. It's
[13:11] just like a rocker arm with
[13:13] >> Right. He said make sure to check to see
[13:15] if the rocker arms were any of them were
[13:16] loose.
[13:18] >> I don't I don't know what they're
[13:19] supposed to be.
[13:21] I mean, that's very little movement up
[13:23] and down, but it sure does have a lot of
[13:25] side-to-side, which is probably normal
[13:26] for these. I would say.
[13:29] >> Okay.
[13:31] But if it were the one making the noise,
[13:32] it'd be up and down movement. Obviously,
[13:35] >> [clears throat]
[13:35] >> sounds more like bottom end, huh?
[13:37] >> Yeah.
[13:43] I don't see any damage up here. I don't
[13:45] see anything broken
[13:46] or scored or tore up.
[13:49] >> Okay.
[13:50] And I don't see any sparkly bits in
[13:53] here either huh?
[13:54] >> Not in here. Hopefully the screen caught
[13:55] all that.
[13:57] >> Yeah, cuz I I didn't drive I mean I
[13:59] noticed it immediately. It felt like
[14:02] fuel delivery problems again, which I
[14:04] just had that all sorted out cuz I was
[14:06] going pretty fast like just doing a pull
[14:09] up to
[14:09] 90 or so. And it felt like that and then
[14:13] I heard the noise and I saw the oil
[14:15] pressure drop. And when I lifted it, it
[14:17] it just immediately shut off.
[14:19] >> Isn't it interesting that this is like
[14:21] 1970s, '80s technology back in 1955?
[14:24] >> Isn't it wild?
[14:25] >> Yeah, I mean not in 1955, Americans
[14:28] would I mean this wasn't even on their
[14:29] mind. It wasn't even didn't even exist.
[14:32] >> As far as a cam and a timing chain and
[14:33] all that stuff. It was all push rods or
[14:35] you know, still flatheads in some cases
[14:37] in in the '50s.
[14:39] It is a technological marvel, for sure.
[14:42] >> It really is.
[14:43] >> And the fact that they had to mount it,
[14:45] you know, at this angle for it to fit in
[14:47] the car since they wanted to keep it,
[14:49] you know, sort of low with the hood line
[14:51] and all that stuff. So, it's at a 45°
[14:52] angle.
[14:54] It's It's really cool.
[14:57] And you know,
[15:00] they say you don't want to meet your
[15:01] heroes and obviously this has been a
[15:03] challenging ownership experience with my
[15:05] ultimate dream car, but
[15:07] you know, I I I don't feel as bad about
[15:10] this one. Like I don't feel
[15:12] like when I ripped the door off, that
[15:13] was really stupid or the handbrake I
[15:14] felt really stupid doing that leaving it
[15:16] on and and just smoking my drums, but
[15:19] with this one, it's not my fault. I
[15:20] didn't do anything. I didn't money shift
[15:22] it. I didn't run it out of oil. It just
[15:24] decided it was time, you know.
[15:26] >> They definitely can't say it's the
[15:27] wizard's fault cuz I physically never
[15:28] even seen this car before.
[15:30] >> No. No, unfortunately. Yeah.
[15:32] >> Unfortunately.
[15:35] >> Yes, cuz then you could fix it.
[15:37] >> Oh.
[15:38] >> [laughter]
[15:39] >> I say that, but everybody wants to blame
[15:40] somebody or something. You know, it's
[15:42] just
[15:43] >> That's the society we live in anymore.
[15:45] It's always somebody else's fault.
[15:47] >> Just stuff happens. But, I'll be giving
[15:50] updates on the Lotus soon because
[15:53] progress is being made there. And we've
[15:55] had the 454 and the '76 Eldo inspected
[15:58] and work starting, but that's in a video
[16:00] in the near future. This is obviously
[16:01] getting jumped to the front of the line
[16:02] because
[16:04] it just happened.
[16:05] And I I need to talk about it. This is
[16:07] sort of my therapy here.
[16:09] All right, back together.
[16:10] >> So, you were taking this to a car show
[16:12] and until the halfway point when this
[16:15] happened, it was quiet, it was happy
[16:16] engine, running fine.
[16:18] >> Yeah. Well, yes. I mean, it was always
[16:20] kind of a borderline engine when they
[16:22] did the compression tests early on. And
[16:24] maybe the oil pressure was a little bit
[16:26] lower than what other people were saying
[16:27] they're supposed to be. So, that's why I
[16:28] thought it was tired, but
[16:30] there was somebody that was behind me.
[16:32] So, I was passing and then somebody
[16:34] decided, "Oh, this old car's trying to
[16:35] pass somebody. I'm going to get on their
[16:36] butt and just you know, tell them that
[16:38] they're impeding me." So, I decided to
[16:40] just hammer it. I didn't downshift. I
[16:42] just was in fourth, final gear, and just
[16:44] put my foot down. I was just going to
[16:46] show them how this is the world's first
[16:47] supercar and it's faster than your
[16:48] little Volkswagen Jetta.
[16:50] >> Mhm.
[16:50] >> And once it just it just felt like it
[16:53] hit a wall. It felt like a
[16:54] where it something happened.
[16:56] And I thought it was fuel, so I clicked
[16:58] on my fuel
[16:59] pump to help it. Just pop that on. And
[17:02] then when I looked at the gauges, I saw
[17:04] the oil pressure gauge
[17:07] when I was at full throttle at you know,
[17:09] it was 15 psi at 80, 90 mph, which is
[17:14] I mean, about half of what it was
[17:16] before.
[17:16] >> Mhm.
[17:17] >> And then when I lifted it, it went to
[17:18] zero and just
[17:19] >> So, that definitely So, anything that
[17:21] would happen with your cam
[17:23] or [clears throat] or the the rocker
[17:24] arms or things that could make noise,
[17:26] but very likely you wouldn't lose all
[17:28] your oil pressure. And the fact that you
[17:29] felt like you hit a wall, that's very
[17:31] common when the bearing starts to seize
[17:33] up. It takes I mean, it tries to push
[17:35] through that messed up bearing.
[17:37] >> Mhm.
[17:37] >> You felt that hit a wall, then you saw
[17:40] your oil pressure drop. Those are all
[17:42] very strong telltale signs of bottom
[17:44] end.
[17:44] >> Yeah, that's
[17:46] unfortunate. And when I started it up
[17:47] cold just with you right now, it was
[17:49] very low for a cold start engine. It's
[17:51] showing, you know, 15 psi, but it should
[17:53] be triple that when it's a cold start.
[17:54] So,
[17:55] >> My guess is one of the main bearings or
[17:57] more has completely just shelled out.
[18:00] So, your oil pressure is no longer
[18:02] sealed at that It just dumps at that
[18:04] point. It can't build up pressure to get
[18:06] to the rest of the engine.
[18:07] >> Okay. But,
[18:09] I didn't drive it long enough to smoke
[18:11] anything on the top end, so
[18:13] good news there. That makes the rebuild
[18:16] not not as I mean, it's still going to
[18:17] be unbelievable, but let's see Let's see
[18:20] what's in this screen. All right. I'm
[18:22] going to do some wrenching on my my
[18:24] gullwing.
[18:25] >> Did any of those fit properly?
[18:26] >> Yeah, I got it. I'm off.
[18:27] >> Okay, good.
[18:29] >> Now, Daniel looks terrified. Daniel,
[18:31] just don't It's okay. It's a front from
[18:34] the 1950s. It's It's It's easy.
[18:35] >> Don't tease me.
[18:36] >> It's easy.
[18:37] >> Mhm. Yeah.
[18:38] >> Wrenching on my 300SL gullwing.
[18:41] It's not like I can do any more harm to
[18:43] it, I suppose. So, famous last words,
[18:45] right?
[18:46] Good.
[18:47] >> [laughter]
[18:50] [groaning]
[18:56] >> Oh, yeah.
[18:57] >> Oh.
[18:58] >> Oh, yeah. There's all kinds of metal all
[19:00] in it. Look at that.
[19:03] >> Yep.
[19:04] >> It's like someone dumped glitter in
[19:05] here. Tons of metal.
[19:07] Yep, that's the bottom end.
[19:10] Oof.
[19:13] That was the bad news you were not
[19:15] wanting to see, huh?
[19:16] >> I mean, we knew.
[19:18] >> Yeah, we kind of knew.
[19:19] >> This just totally confirms
[19:22] that there is
[19:24] a bunch of little bits of the engine
[19:25] right there in this screen, which
[19:27] >> Yeah, it looks like glitter like spray
[19:29] paint. See it glitter? Like glittery?
[19:30] >> Yep.
[19:32] So, this is cleaned every single time
[19:33] rather than reused rather than here
[19:35] replacing the filter on a Gullwing.
[19:36] >> Mhm.
[19:37] >> It still does the job clearly cuz it
[19:39] stopped all this from going all over the
[19:41] engine and
[19:42] causing more damage, I guess, right?
[19:44] >> Very good. I'm glad it did. Yeah, we
[19:45] don't need that all over the cam and
[19:47] everything.
[19:48] >> All right. So, I did not as far as
[19:51] damage goes
[19:53] nothing I did here was stupid.
[19:55] >> No, this wasn't caused by any person. I
[19:58] think this was just time. Age caught up
[20:00] with the car.
[20:00] >> Mhm.
[20:02] So, now I need to figure out
[20:04] who's rebuilding it what's next cuz
[20:07] the Classic Center, you know, they do a
[20:08] lot of work. They did the top end work
[20:09] last but they don't do machining, bottom
[20:11] end rebuilding, and all that stuff. So,
[20:13] >> Oh.
[20:13] >> I have to find a shop. There's still a
[20:16] few left, you know, in the US and you
[20:18] know, of course, some in Europe and
[20:20] Canada and stuff
[20:21] that do these, but it's getting less and
[20:23] less by the day as far as shops that
[20:25] know what they're doing on classic
[20:27] engines
[20:27] >> Mhm.
[20:28] >> or any engines of that of that matter.
[20:29] Like, we have one machinist left in
[20:31] Wichita that we trust, right?
[20:32] >> Yeah, I don't think he would touch this
[20:34] with a 10-ft pole.
[20:34] >> no, no, no, no, but I mean, as far as
[20:36] just
[20:37] >> less and less machinist out there, yeah.
[20:39] >> And that was Wizard in the past life.
[20:40] You worked in a machine shop, right?
[20:41] >> Not in automotive one. It was aircraft,
[20:43] yeah.
[20:44] >> Right. Mhm. So, you know what it takes
[20:46] and
[20:46] >> Yeah.
[20:47] >> [sighs]
[20:48] >> Woo.
[20:49] That's
[20:51] that that
[20:51] >> It looks like about 50 grand.
[20:54] >> Thank you for reminding me.
[20:55] >> [laughter]
[20:56] >> I'll find out here shortly.
[20:57] >> Yeah.
[21:02] >> Getting my first car off the lift in
[21:04] months and making sure it starts and
[21:05] runs okay. My 1985 Mercedes 500SL It
[21:08] seemed like an appropriate way to end
[21:10] this video because this is where the
[21:11] madness started back basically when I
[21:13] was born and was obsessed with this car
[21:15] basically since I was in diapers and
[21:18] that just grew and grew as far as my
[21:20] love for Mercedes until I saw a Gullwing
[21:22] for the first time. Now, if this
[21:23] happened to me, you know, 3 or 4 months
[21:25] ago, I'd probably be all doom and gloom,
[21:28] all woe is me and two things have
[21:31] dramatically changed. The first thing
[21:32] was getting myself fixed
[21:33] pharmaceutically because I had labs done
[21:35] and it showed that I had very low
[21:37] testosterone. 260 was the level or
[21:39] whatever and it was definitely on the
[21:40] low end for my age at 39 years old and
[21:43] that can cause brain fog which I had and
[21:45] this whole woe is me, doom and gloom,
[21:47] everything was terrible scenario that
[21:49] reflected in the videos. You all saw it.
[21:51] I had everything. Everything was fine,
[21:53] but I was still complaining about taxes,
[21:55] complaining about home renovations,
[21:56] complaining about money spiraling out of
[21:58] control when
[21:59] it's it's stupid. It's all relative and
[22:01] obviously it was all solvable problems
[22:03] that I didn't need to complain about
[22:04] endlessly on YouTube. But the other part
[22:06] of that is you all saying in the
[22:07] comments, "Why are you complaining about
[22:09] all this?" I feel like people in the
[22:10] public eye have had an issue with this
[22:11] before YouTube. If they're not
[22:13] YouTubers, they don't know how stupid or
[22:15] how much they're ostracizing themselves
[22:17] from their audience by talking about
[22:19] things because they don't have a comment
[22:20] section that instantly tells them how
[22:22] stupid they're being. And thankfully,
[22:24] you all exist. You watch my videos. You
[22:25] stuck around for the long haul 10 years
[22:28] now and you're telling me, you know,
[22:30] "Hey, you're married to a supermodel.
[22:31] You got a Gullwing. You have amazing
[22:32] garage. What are you complaining about?"
[22:35] And you are absolutely 1,000%
[22:38] right. It also helps that I don't have
[22:40] the tax issues that I had in previous
[22:42] years, but now
[22:43] well, like I did in previous years, I
[22:45] need to sell a bunch of hoopdies to pay
[22:46] for now Gullwing repairs and also
[22:49] there's not much room here since I went
[22:50] on that hoopdy buying binge before this
[22:52] and got five cars. So, I guess it'll be
[22:54] a video soon of what I am selling off. I
[22:56] think I counted about eight that I'm
[22:58] going to do and then, you know, life
[23:00] goes on. Maybe the Gullwing will have to
[23:02] sit in the garage inoperable for a
[23:03] couple of months while I gather up some
[23:05] money and also research alternatives
[23:08] because there are a few places like
[23:09] Cameron DC Motorworks, Ed's wizard if
[23:12] you will, that is wanting to take on the
[23:13] Gullwing. He is a Mercedes expert. He
[23:15] has the shop manual sent it over to me
[23:17] for the Gullwing. He's been able to find
[23:19] all the parts as far as the piston
[23:21] rings, you know, all the stuff that you
[23:22] would need for an internal rebuild of an
[23:23] engine. So, it seems doable. The reason
[23:27] why it's so expensive with the Classic
[23:29] Center, they didn't give me a official
[23:29] quote or anything, but they outsource
[23:31] the rebuilding of the engines to an
[23:33] outfit that does like Singers and
[23:35] high-end crazy crazy builds and their
[23:37] prices well, definitely to match. And
[23:40] what few shops are still known for
[23:41] rebuilding Gullwing engines, they know
[23:43] they can charge pretty much whatever
[23:44] they want, but it's still at its
[23:46] principle a pretty simple engine outside
[23:49] of the crazy fuel system stuff, which is
[23:50] already dialed in, so I don't have to
[23:52] worry about any of that stuff. It's just
[23:54] basically bottom end. As long as I
[23:55] didn't mess up the cam bearings or
[23:56] something like that, but those are also
[23:58] still getable. So, it is a solvable
[23:59] problem. Don't get me wrong, it is
[24:01] definitely a bad week to have your
[24:02] Gullwing engine fail, but when you put
[24:04] it in perspective, I'm I'm done
[24:07] complaining and I'm so sorry that I
[24:08] complained in the past over, you know,
[24:10] things like that that, you know, really
[24:11] didn't matter or problems that I could
[24:13] definitely solve like it was the end of
[24:15] the world. It just made no sense. But
[24:17] one other thing I have to do is get this
[24:19] car usable again for something other
[24:21] than just trips around the block. Get
[24:23] these 17-year-old tires off of there,
[24:25] service this thing up, get it working
[24:26] again to where I actually start using
[24:28] it. I quit driving it after my
[24:30] grandmother died 6 years ago. She got
[24:31] this car brand new, gave it to me when I
[24:33] was a teenager, and so there's a big
[24:35] sentimental attachment to it, but also a
[24:37] bit of sadness that came with driving
[24:38] this thing because she had passed away.
[24:40] We had so many moments driving this car
[24:41] together and everything else. So, I
[24:43] think I'm past that point now where I
[24:45] don't have to mourn her every time I
[24:47] drive it like in a sad way, and I can
[24:49] remember it in a happy way, be nostalgic
[24:51] about it. And yeah, the Gullwing needs
[24:53] to get fixed, but this needs to be
[24:55] something that is a priority as well. It
[24:57] starts every single time. It doesn't
[24:59] complain about its years of storage and
[25:01] I need to reward it with some changes
[25:03] and sort of like my Nissan GT-R, I kind
[25:05] of need to unpimp it as well. These
[25:07] period AMG wheels, they're certainly
[25:08] cool, but I think it needs to go back to
[25:09] the bundt. The AMG lip back to stock and
[25:12] just make this thing look like the
[25:13] classy elegant car that it showed up as
[25:16] in 1985 and not some hot boy racer which
[25:19] I'm I'm quite past that point at least
[25:21] in my age now. Any who, I hope your rod
[25:23] bearings stay in one piece and thank you
[25:25] so much for watching.
[25:29] >> [music]
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