Yidney

Also, is that the correct windshield? I don't see the electric eyes for the rain sensor, for turning on the auto headlights, etc. Does it have the connections for the antennas?

C280 Sport

What a thread this has turned into! I am glad the CLK550 is being brought back to life. Never would i expect it be like this. From what I am reading and seeing from these pics you have your work cut out for you. Fundamentally the entire car is looking at a rebuild in order to make it perfect again. I have full faith the OP will make this happen. Keep it OEM and use OEM parts, fluids and it should come back to life. Thank God it is not a convertible or you could of had more issues but I guess a huge dent in the roof and sunroof issues are not fun either.

Merc Mania

Hello Yidney, I too was certain that the hood could not be straightened after it got cratered like that, but the auto body guy did an amazing job with his collection of basic hand tools, and when he was done, the hood closed perfectly flush all around, which is more than I can say for the hood of my 500SE W126, even though that car has never been impacted by anything. Of course when the painter does the finishing bodywork and adds a coat of primer, the few imperfections that do exist will be easier to see, but this car was never going to be restored to showroom quality anyway, given the very basic tools and techniques used by body shop crews here. Also, as you can see from the pictures, this body shop guy does house calls, as will the painters, meaning the closest thing to a paint booth that I can create, will be draping plastic sheeting round the shed where the car is parked for the paint job, to cut down on dust and wind as far as is possible with such a Third World backwoods setup.

The windshield is the right one for the CLK, even though I did have my doubts initially, when it seemed a hair too tall for the window frame. Anyway, with some careful preparatory tapping along the roof edge by the auto body man, the windshield was coaxed into a perfectly flush fit. There is a small, matchbox shaped sensor at the center of the top edge of the windshield, in line with the rear-view mirror, and that was identified as the rain sensor. It has been connected to the final loose plug dangling from the roof near the point at which the rear view mirror attaches to the roof. Whether that rain sensor works as advertised remains to be seen, but all told, the auto body man did a fine job, considering how badly the rood was deformed by that impact at the ports.

I am placing an urgent order for power steering fluid from Pelican Parts, because I am not convinced that the fluid brought to me is the right one, despite it being a green liquid that is in plastic bottles bearing labels that indicate its suitability for power steering. I aim to drain this locally sourced fluid from the power steering reservoir as soon as I take delivery of the fluid that I know is intended for this car. Hopefully no lasting damage will occur within the power steering plumbing, during the short time that this Mercedes-made "Liquid X" remains in the car's power steering reservoir.

Xsever I never did hold out much hope of seeing monetary compensation for the damage done to this car en-route from Texas to my front door, despite the vague assurance handed me by the shipping agent in New York that he would "vigorously protest" the damage done to my car on arrival in an African port. Insurance companies are understandably reluctant to issue coverage for vehicles destined for places like Africa, so I knew that I would be pretty much on my own once that ship weighed anchor in Galveston and took to the sea. Years of residing in Africa have certainly lowered my expectations in many regards, particularly when it comes to seeking punitive compensation for property damage, so as soon as I got over the shock of seeing how the car looked on arrival, the next challenge was seeing how close to its original condition I could bring the car, once I had ascertained that it would actually run, as it has now finally done, to my profound relief.

I am still very concerned about the electronics, because for example, the Keyless Go function does not work. According to the manual, I should be able to start the engine with a press of the button located on top of the gear shift lever, provided that the key fob is inside the vehicle, but thus far I have only been able to start the engine by inserting the key fob into the ignition slot, and physically turning the fob clockwise like an old-school key. I am still a bit leery of the procedure that was used to program my after-market Chinese key fob for use with this car, but again I can live with the Keyless Go being disabled, provided that the car runs normally once the road tests begin. Time will tell how long the ad-hoc hack of the key fob holds up in this car.

Yidney

Yes, with keyless go you just press the button on the shifter. It also allows you to lock and unlock the doors by just touching the exterior handles with the key in your pocket. One of its best features is that it will not let you lock the keys in the car or trunk. The car simply will not lock or the trunk will not close if the keys are anywhere inside. .

The windshield may be for a CLK, of which there were many, but it's not the one for that car. All 550 windshields are the same, and I think mine has 9 electric eyes in that location. But all things considered, that is the least of your issues.

Merc Mania

With a heavy heart I removed the CLK550 badge from the trunk of this car, the better to fly under the radar and stay low key.


My CLK takes its final bow as a red car, under scattered cloud cover that promises rain showers before long. Lurking at rest in the background are a D6D LGP, and D7G LGP Cat dozers used to excavate catfish ponds when the rains taper off come November.


The painting crew head honcho leaving the grunt work to his apprentices.


The ancient air-compressor jury-rigged by the painter runs on diesel, and belches ominous plumes of steam while its uncovered cooling water tank remains at a constant boil.


The climate-controlled auto-painting booth is not inspired by the Tesla Factory's automated vehicle painting facilities, as you will agree.


With the primer work done, followed by just enough perfunctory re-sanding of the hood to stop me complaining about imperfections, the serious business of applying the first coat of gun-metal blue/grey paint commences on a hot sunny day, said to be the best weather for painting cars outdoors.


Risking life and limb to frame a good picture, I ventured well within the fragmentation envelope of this infernal, angry machine that the painter has adapted for use as an air compressor, whose tank of boiling water threatened to lobster me at any instant for my trouble. I feel this need to juxtapose the ancient rusting contraption of the sort still prevalent in this neck of the woods, with the decidedly more modern invention, the CLK550.


Finally my patented high-tech paint booth is put to use. Oddly the paint has an almost silvery hue after this first coat, but by the second coat of paint, a more bluish tint began to emerge.


After a few months of rainy weather, my R129 with the leaky windshield was ready for some hours of drying out in the sun, while work continued apace on the CLK in the background.


The painters advises to leave the car in the booth until tomorrow, at which point I intend to post some pictures of the car painted and finished off with a good depth of clear coat. For now, here are the "almost done" pictures of my newly acquired CLK550.

Rudeney

Wow, what a job! I am enjoying the photo journal.

C280 Sport

These photos are amazing!

Yidney

I'm enjoying it too. Over here we have paint booths that keep every speck of dust out, and you are having your car panted on actual dirt. I love it. Keeps everything in perspective. You need to tell us in US dollars what that paint job cost.

Rudeney

At the MBUSI factory in Alabama, the paint shop has strict regulations. Each time you enter, you must put on a brand new lint-proof suit and go through an "airwash" system. Whenever they do maintenance on the paint booth or its equipment, it takes several days to re-certify it. I think those factory guys would absolutely panic if they saw your "paint shop"

Merc Mania

My CLK and other Agricultural Equipment

With my Earl Scheib inspired cheapskate paint job complete, I decided to post a couple more pictures of the car in its new color scheme, blemishes and all. One of the hood supports under its front edge is missing, so the hood closes slightly lopsided for now, until the junkyard search yields the required part.

The first pictures of this car taken in the auction yard in Texas clearly showed that the odometer was functioning, so I was initially dismayed to see that the entire instrument cluster was dead, with the all-important temperature and fuel gauges both blank. Going through the archives of this forum, I learned that the in-cabin, drivers-side fuse-box contains the usual suspect for dead instrument clusters, namely fuse 42. Looking into the fuse box, I then spotted fuse 42, in its holder, and with its wires still connected, all completely detached from the fuse box, and lying inside the dash, virtually hidden from view beneath the fuse box. I replaced fuse 42 into the fuse box, and became more concerned when the instrument cluster stayed dead after fuse 42 was back in its place. I walked away from the car, forgetting the fob key in the ignition, but returned a few minutes later to find that the instrument cluster was fully operational, with all its aspects, including the multi-function display, lit up.

The engine runs with an alarming clatter coming from the front pulleys, and I can only hope that the noise is not an indication of a timing chain problem, since this car is well beyond the range of production years during which the balance shaft design was problematic. The more likely suspect is the water pump, so today the serpentine belt will be removed, and the car started for a few seconds that should be long enough to narrow down the search into which of the front pulleys is noisy, and possibly in need of new bearings. The other major problem thus far unresolved concerns the used CLK cooling fan installed to replace the one pilfered in the auction yard. This replacement CLK cooling fan sourced from a junkyard, simply does not run at all, to cool the motor, and until this major fault is rectified, I can only run the engine for a couple of minutes at a time.

Finally, I conducted an inventory of the fuses in all three fuse boxes, located under the hood on the driver's side, inside the cabin on the driver's side edge of the dashboard, and finally in the trunk wall on the driver's side. The fuse box in the cabin was missing quite a number of fuses. The missing fuses were Number 23, Listed as "Central Gateway Control (N93), Fuse 24, relating to the CD changer, Fuse 27 for the driver's seat adjuster, Fuse 28, listed as a "Spare", Fuse 35 for the "Stationary Heater", Fuse 38 for the passenger seat adjustment and the "Simple Vehicle Multi-function Control Unit", and finally Fuse 39, listed as a spare.

In the trunk, Fuses 5,11,13,15,17,18 and 19 were all missing, along with Relay B, whose function I am still looking up. These missing fuses relate to the Charge Air Cooler Circulation Pump (Fuse5), a spare fuse (Fuse 11), Fuse 13 which covers a multitude of functions ranging from the seat pneumatic pump to the voice control system and the Parktronic system, Fuse 15 for the Fuel filler cap polarity change relay, Fuses 17 and 18 relating to the trailer hitch, and finally Fuse 19 for the Multi-contour seat pneumatic pump.

Merc Mania

Backwoods Bodywork Resuts
Turns out the hood does close perfectly flush on both sides, despite the missing piece of hardware. I didn't realize I needed to drop the hood in place, and not try to press it closed.

xsever

Yeah MB hoods always need a nice drop rather than pressing it closed. Glad your car is coming along nicely. Keep the pictures and reports coming and good luck.

Yidney

Does the fan you installed have the same electrical connector your car uses? I need to check, but I'm not sure it is supposed turn on right away. I think it turns on when a certain temperature is reached. If that is the case, then you may not know if it works after only a coupe minutes.

Merc Mania

From a cold start, the cooling fan is supposed to be toggled on by a thermostat actuation signal, but this one has not done so thus far, as the engine heats up in a slow idle. Now that the instrument cluster temperature gauge is working, I will run another test of the cooling fan, and this time monitor the dashboard temperature to see if the fan switches on at say 80 degrees. A mechanic here did mention that the cooling fan would not work until the instrument cluster was able to power up, so I may go ahead and brave another few minutes of having the engine running, to see if this fan kicks in at the right time, now that the instrument readouts are alive again. I'm still a bit concerned about the rattle emanating from one or more of the serpentine belt pulleys, but apparently replacing pulley bearings is a routine, uncomplicated fix.

The first junkyard cooling fan brought to me was clearly intended for a larger Mercedes, probably a ML550 SUV, so that mismatched fan was returned to the seller, and replaced with a cooling fan whose dimensions and attachment clips fit the CLK550's radiator perfectly. When the original cooling fan in this car was hurriedly removed in the Texas auction lot, the four wires and connector were simply sliced off, so I wound up buying a replacement four-wire plastic connector, and having the four cut wire ends spliced into the matching wires that were cut so close to the connector as to make the wire splicing job a real chore to accomplish.

Despite the snags that are being encountered as I seek to revive this car, there is something very satisfying about patiently working through the various mechanical and electrical problems as the crop up, in order to restore this fine automobile to a close enough approximation of its former glory. Barring any major issue such as a timing chain failure, I expect to have this car on the road after spending significantly less than the car would have cost if it had been purchased in perfect working order. I do not for a moment regret this particular purchase, knock on wood.

C280 Sport

CLK is coming along very nicely. Keep up the great work! Pics are awesome!

xsever

Can you try powering the fan directly with 12V to see if it's functional at least and not seized? This way you can isolate if it's a fan problem or signal problem.

Merc Mania

As soon as it is daylight I will definitely carry out this easy test, Xsever. Now why didn't I think of doing this before ? Couldn't see the forest for the trees, as often happens with me. I sure appreciate the reminder. This simple expedient means I can avoid the risk of running the engine too hot, while waiting for the fan to start up. Much thanks again, sir.

Finally I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is now much less likely to be an approaching freight train.

xsever

Check this out as well: https://mbworld.org/forums/clk-class...t-running.html

I am not 100% sure whether the fan voltage is 12V or 24V. You may want to double check before powering it up, but yeah you have an easy test ahead of you. Good luck!

Merc Mania

I do believe, Xsever, that you have diagnosed the problem with this cooling fan, from the comfort of your home several time zones away from here. I followed the link you provided, printed out the picture of the 125-amp fuse that connects the cooling fan to battery power, generously provided by none other than The Oracle himself, and then , armed with my voltmeter, proceeded to measure resistance between the flat jumper connector atop the fuse box located adjacent to the battery, and the top retaining nut securing Fuse 5.

Lo and behold, Fuse 5 was burnt, as indicated by an open circuit on my meter, so I am going to order a replacement fuse right away from Pelican Parts. I am all but certain that the fuse got fried when the enterprising car-parts miners scouring that auction yard in Texas neglected to disconnect the car battery, before taking a knife to the thick cables connecting the cooling fan with the car's power and control signal lines. All it would have taken to instantly destroy the the cooling fan's fuse would have been for the surgeon's knife to short out the power and ground lines mid-slice, while that heavy-handed bandito car mutilation was in progress.

If I was being charged on a pay-per-view basis for all the time-saving and cost-cutting insights I have gleaned about this car from this forum, I'd be broke by now. I am enormously grateful to yourself, and to other highly knowledgeable CLK expert contributors to this form, whose pointers have enabled me to navigate just about every problem this car has thrown at me, ever since I first took delivery of the vehicle. This is one huge burden lifted, and now all I need do is patiently await delivery of the 125 amp fuse for the cooling fan, while in the interim, ensuring that the rattle coming from the serpentine belt pulleys can be diagnosed and remedied.

I am enormously grateful for your help in resolving this baffling predicament, and now I am absolutely convinced that this car can be restored to full flawless operation, over the course of just a few weeks from today.

xsever

Please don't mention it. It's my pleasure and I'm glad I was be of help and that you were able to successfully diagnose the problem. That's what we are all here for: help and get helped.

I seriously felt some pain when I saw what they did to the car and that's the least we can all do to help bring this car back to life.

aleks001

This is one of the most interesting threads i think i have ever seen in my life haha it has everything it could literally be a movie. The highs the lows, the anticipation im literally hooked

i would recomment you try some other companies apart from pelican parts. Nothing wrong with them but they have gotten expensive over the years compares to others. Try fcpeuro.com and rmeuropean.com. Fcp has some of the cheapest international shipping i have seen (im in Australia so I have this shipping issue to, plus its fast, ive gotten packages in a week!) you can also use shipito.com as a mail forwarding company they generally have pretty good rates too.

Yidney

I will never get over that the mangled hood was saved. But not just that it was saved, but how it was saved - by a guy with simple tools kneeling in the dirt. There's some sort of humbling lesson in that.

megacrazy

The whole painting process gave me anxiety....just reading it and looking at the pictures. That being said, it's very entertaining to read. Perhaps some processes are over-complicated if a guy with the most basic tools, working on a dirt surface can get essentially the same things done.

Merc Mania

I agree about the lows encountered on the way, for sure. This was the view from the driver's seat not too long ago.

aleks001

These days eeverything in the west has become overly complicated to make you believe that only “professionals” can do most jobs and that you cant do anything yourself. Its just a way to get us to spend more, but people are starting to diy more these days since the cost of everything has skyrocketed.