18/06/11. This could turn out to be my biggest project yet. It a late 1980's LWB 2.8 petrol. Much to long a story to bore you with but the bottom line is that it has been sitting for almost 10 years at a friends place. I've walked past it for years and paid little attention to it. Until now. For ages now I have been looking for something really different to what I'm used to and I think this may be it. I may be jumping the gun a little to as I have'nt got it home. It has only covered 29,523 miles from new but apparently the engine wasn't running properly and the car ended up just sitting. My plan is to restore it but also to modify it in a tasteful way. I think you'll agree I've a challange ahead of me.
The body is in overall good condition (I think) despite all the green moss.
Its missing a corner spat or whatever its called. It goes onto the wing in front of the front wheel.
You an see it on the drivers wing, the black flat thing just behind the bumper. I'll need one for the mot but future plan is to upgrade the bumpers.
Its not as mossy on the passenger side, that's a good thing 
although the bottom of the rear door is starting to bubble a bit.
The rear inner arches don't look to bad,
But the front inner passenger side has a hole and I would guess the drivers side won't be much better.
Probably the worst part of the car is around the tail light/door hinge area on the passenger side rear. A bit of work will need to go into this. And I see to a tell tale piece of diy checker plate has been fitted to the bottom of the door. That usually indicates rust has set in at one point and its being covered up.
The drivers side is starting to go the same way, along with the bumper.
The engine is just a little grubby but more worrying is te fuel distributor has vanished. I think this may cause starting problems.
The best part of the car is the interior, its very clean for sitting about so long.
Serious amount of room but a little plain. I intend upgrade the interior a lot but one thing I'm definatly making sure of is that I take all the original seats and door cards out and put them away for safe keeping so I have the option to turn the car back to original at some point.
Ignore the big coke tin. you can't, can you
The dash is really plain, I have an idea but need to give it a bit of thought.
Yes that is the original mileage. Crying shame the car has been left like this.
The bag of cement comes free I think with the car. Love were the speakers are.
I've already got a pair of front seats for it, out of a BM M5, electric and heated.
02/07. I got a chance today to clean the moss off the car before I bring it home, as understanding as my Wife is I think she'd blow a gasket if it was sat at the front door in the state its in. It took me almost 3 hours to get the moss off and to get rid of "most" of the spiders and their homes. Boy there were a lot of them and some huge ones 
I don't like spiders 
I can now see the bad areas better, a couple of the door bottoms will need attention, front panel and rear door area being the worst. I might even be lucky enough that the roof will come back up with a good polish.
The mate even managed during the week to get a fuel distributor for the car as it was missing.
30/07. I went today to see about getting the car out of the field its been sitting in as I'm hoping to arrange a trailer to get it home during the week. I was expecting the brakes to be seized for sure due to how long the car has been sitting, and what else might be seized over the years. I put the strap on the towbar of it and my ML, took up the tension and pulled half expecting either the towbar of the G to snap off or the strap to snap as the car wouldn't budge.
It just moved with no problems at all, even with 2 flat tyres. No drama. My mate Aiden breathed again.
We pulled it to were we could blow the tyres up.
Couple more photo's now its on concrete again.
And then we put it were it can be got easily for the trailer which as I said I hope to arrange during the week. A good days work made easy by the car playing along.
06/08. Finally its home. I hired a trailer this morning an went and got it.
I had to open the rear door to clear the boot out. The bottom hinge area is in a bad state, the hinge is actually siezed. Its going to take a bit of repair and probably is the worst prt of the car.
The boot as it is at the moment.
08/08. I nipped out at tea time tonight with the hoover and gave the car a quick going over. I did the doors with a cloth just to try to tidy it up a bit. It was like this to start with.
I was quite pleasently surprised how well it looked 15 minutes later.
And the rest of the interior.
03/09. I went to my friend Peters today to see and hear a 280 petrol engine running. The engine in my car is actually a 280 SL Sports car engine so its a high compression engine were the g engine is a low compression for pulling over rough ground. Plus there's bits missing off mine. The engine was running very sweet indeed so I have bought it and will be going to strip it out of the car its in next weekend if the weather holds up. It will mean I have a running car much sooner than I tought I would have and will be able to move it to the garage to work on it. So when I got home I had an hour which allowed me to start stripping the engine bay to get my engine out.
07/09. It stopped raining for an hour tonight so I was able to strip the passenger front wing off. It bolts on and despite the car sitting for such a long time not a single nut gave me any trouble. So far its been a really easy car to work on.
10/09. Big day today, taking the engine out. Went out to start at 08.00 and I'm not making this up, as soon as I had all the tools set up the heavens opened! It went on for about 4 hours. Anyway back to the engine. I was going to take it out with the gearbox attached but on checking everything it looked as though it would be easy enough to do it and leave the box in. So I set to work removing any wiring and then the radiator.
Radiator out and the ground cleaned a bit I then removed the exhaust and manifolds.
all the bolts to the bellhousing and the starter. One bolt on the top of the box was hard to get off as a bracket was blocking it.
Every off that should be off, time to attach the crane and lose off the engine mounts. It came out straight away with nothing more than a good tug.
Engine out I gave the engine bay a quick power wash so I could check it over. The chassis is in extremely good order considering the length of time the car has been sitting. These things were really built to last.
On taking the clutch off although it was complete, bits of it had welded to the plate. I'm going to have to clean the plate up before it goes back in with a complete new clutch kit of course.
17/09. The old engine set off to be swapped for a proper G Wagen engine that's running and in really good order.
18/09. Brought the new engine home yesterday but only got taking the photo's.
28/10. Took the clutch slave cylinder off to see if it needs replaced. After a good check it is working fine so no need to replace it. I was a bit surprised that with the car sitting as long as it has a lot of stuf is working fine and bolts arent coming off without shearing.
04/11. The new clutch kit arrived today.
05/11. I had sent away for a new owners manual
'new' service book. once the car is registered and with a new mot I will use this book to record its history from that point.
And I was able to get this pocket workshop manual that I will keep in the car as a backup.
25/11. Called out with the local guys who work on G Wagens and got a proper alternator which has its own snorkle and a starter. Sean let me take his 280 GE for a drive and I'm very pleased to say that a G Wagen drives a lot better than I'd hoped. Very civilised indeed.
Cleaned up and on the car.
I got the oil filter and spark plugs and fitted them as well.
26/11. Put the engine back into the car today. I was unable to get any photos as the rain came on pretty heavy along with gales! I still have to get it bolted to the gearbox, but at least its in. (got photo)
28/01. I bought another G Wagon today. A short wheelbase one for parts for mine. It's an 86 with 300K on the clock and has been locked away in a garage for the last 8 years. It will warrent some good parts. I'm bringing it home next Saturday.
04/02. Got the donor G Wagen home this morning. Its actually in much better condition than I thought it would be.
21/02. There's not much to write about at the moment as the Panda is my main priority but I did buy a new set of genuine mudflaps for the car today.
