BJ

Unfortunately, Johnny has been a bit neglected these past few days. I had a 4-day trip which took me out of the loop for, well, four days and along the way I managed to catch a bad head cold, which knocked me for a loop. So I’ve been a bit loopy lately. Feeling  a bit better today, I went to work on the air cleaner yet again. Another hour of effort with only a bit of improvement and a sore index finger to show for it. There is so much pitting due to corrosion I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a lost cause. My choice is to continue and accept it for what it is, try to find a used one in better condition or see if NOS replacements are still available from MBZ. I have yet to dig that deep yet. My hope is to keep Johnny as original as possible, but that too may be a lost cause as I know a new front and rear bumper are on the menu along with new (refurbished) wheels.

After tiring of rubbing my finger in circles I decided to continue with the underside of the hood, a.k.a., bonnet for our U.K. listeners. This afternoon I attacked it with Mother’s Detail Spray, which worked a treat, making short work of the overspray form some well-meaning, but dull detailer. It leaves a nice sheen to the gray under hood bits without looking too glossy. Unfortunately, I accidentally scraped along the bottom edge of the hood pad and being old and brittle (the hood pad, not me) a small bit flaked off all over the outside vent intake and onto the engine. Out comes the leaf blower to blow the bits away and to my surprise a lot more foliage came up from the crevices down under. I did the same last week and thought I got most of it out, however, you wouldn't have known it by the amount of debris that surfaced yet again. H.R.H. stepped out just as I was finishing blowing the engine and said: “I guess you really love that car. I see you were giving it a blow job.” To which I responded; “If you really love me then maybe you… blah, blah, blah…” I can’t really print what she said here, but I will be dining (and sleeping) alone tonight. That said, if you’ve never thought of a leaf blower as one of the first tools to use when detailing an engine then think again.

I did encounter a bit of a shocker at the end of the blow job when I looked under the battery tray for any recalcitrant greenery. I know the battery tray is in need of attention, however, much to my chagrin I saw some surface rust on the body panel hidden underneath the tray. Something I did not expect or notice earlier. Let’s hope it’s nothing more than superficial. I would loathe having to pull the engine to do a major panel repair in that area. It would mean a cost escalation along the lines of the Navy’s new Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. I’m not looking to build a show car here, I just want as nice an example as I can have for display and to drive to MBCA events and along the way preserve a TV icon’s automobile for the future. I do take some comfort in knowing that this car cost over $79,000 when new in 1988, which adjusted for inflation is about $163,000 in today's money.

I did take JC for another short spin today in addition to a 38-miler yesterday. I’ve racked up the miles since picking up Johnny almost six weeks ago, but what the hell, H.R.H. (a.k.a., Avril, my darling wife) is right, I simply love this car.

P.S. While I was typing this tome my new best friend Malcolm called with the wheels I am in dire need of. Kind of makes up for the rest of the day’s maladies. Happy day!

Debutant

Yesterday was our local Cars & Coffee and the debut of “Johnny”on the local scene, but the promise of rain the night before made the outing look doubtful. Upon arising, the radar showed the massive blob of rain precariously positioned to strike from over parts of West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky the night before had somehow flattened and moved south of the NC/VA border. It was obvious it rained the night before, but the streets were by now mostly dry, so if figured why not?

I seem to be saying that a lot since we bought Johnny. At the time of his purchase I think I said or at least thought something similar, like; “Oh, there’s a 560SEC formally owned by Johnny Carson for sale on eBay. Maybe I should buy it… why not?” And thus the deed was done. Now no rational person would buy a 29-year-old car sight unseen over the Internet without at least some kind of PPI, or at least have a friend take a look. No fairly astute “car guy” would choose to ignore all the bad things that existed, which would automatically disqualify any other SEC from consideration. No rational human being would choose to believe all the accolades about the car from a guy three-thousand miles away whom you don’t know and never met, just because the car used to belong to the “King of Late Night.” No, no one would just say “Why Not?” and pull the trigger, but I did. But I digress.

We headed out to C&C and I really did not expect much of a turnout because of the weather and that proved to be the case. What also proved to be the case was the accuracy of the weather forecast. There were a few sprinkles on the way over and about 15 minutes after arriving it began a steady rain, which thankfully was very light and only lasted a few minutes. I parked in the Merc Section and there were a few ooh’s and aah’s along with a number of positive comments, but nothing over the top. Nothing like OMG! Johnny Carsons car??? WOW! Not that I expected that and I would have been rather embarrassed for anybody who reacted that way. In any event Johnny is not really ready for prime time, but it was nice to get him out and mingle a bit.

By the time C&C was over and got home I went to work removing some scratches that were bugging me on the left and right fenders. Fortunately, they were not too deep and came out pretty good. By then I was too tired to continue being as the day before was my birthday and much merriment took place, plus a had a boat load of chores to do around the house before departing on my trip early the next day. Instead of tackling another job on Johnny I decided instead to sit down and watch the 12 Hours of Sebring. Long story short, it was a good race for the home team as Mercedes AMG WeatherTech took home the GTD Class win and mostly dominated their class the entire race. After a few hours of that I switched over to Wheeler Dealers where Edd was working on a 560SL. Watching that along with the sun finally coming out and the temperature rising, was enough for me to get off my sorry butt and do another Johnny Job.

In my continuing quest to detail the engine I decided to tackle the air cleaner assembly. I contemplated a number of ways to do this. First I tried Brasso. In the olden days Brasso was good for anything, aluminum, stainless steel and even brass, but it was not the proper formula for this job. The assembly cover was a bit aged and was starting to develop some aluminum corrosion and resulting pitting, so I thought I’d try some Scotch Brite to take of the heavy black bits. Wrong answer! Fortunately, I only did it in a rather small and inconspicuous place so the light scratches it left behind are not noticeable. Finally, I resorted to Mother’s Aluminum and Mag polish, which worked a treat, however, it takes a lot of time and a lot of rubbing. My only fear is that it may be too shiny at the end of the day and the ends of my fingers will disappear along with the corrosion.

While hard at work on this endeavor, my neighbor Pat came over with a very nice present. Pat just came back from a business trip to Germany and bought me a very nice Mercedes-Benz baseball cap while he was there. I supposed he was returning the favor from when I brought him a case of Red Oak beer from Raleigh where I stopped off at the brewery on the last leg of Johnny’s 10-day journey to his new home a couple of weeks ago. So with that and seeing as my fingers were by now feeling like those of a novice guitar player, I decided to call it quits for the day and have a beer. Therefore, there are still many joyous hours to go on just the engine bay alone. One of these days I’ll get around to posting what has already been done and what more needs doing. Stay tuned.

St Patrick's Day Update

I didn't think I would continue this Blog past the arrival date; however, after a couple of weeks off I figured, why the hell not. Today I started detailing the engine bay. I hoped to spend most of the day getting a handle on it, but we had to do a home visit to place a rescue dog and then grocery shopping, etc., etc., so what I planned to be a six-hour stint turned into two hours, thus barely scratching the surface. If you have ever detailed a neglected Mercedes-Benz 560SEC engine bay then you can feel my pain. The amount of debris collected in every crease and crevice is substantial. I began by blowing it out, first with a gas powered yard blower and then with a hose attached to my air compressor to reach the tighter spaces. After that it was on to the Shop Vac with assorted attachments. I is truly unbelievable the amount of crap that accumulates when a car is left out and neglected. From there I thought I would tackle the air cleaner housing, but as I started I realized the worst part under the hood was really the space below the windshield. Whatever idiot moron that passed himself off as a "detailer" sprayed that damned dressing all over the engine compartment, much of which ended up on the black panel immediately below the windshield. Almost the entirety of the two hours was spent on this area alone. Needless to say little else was done in time for "Johnny's" not ready for prime time debut at Williamsburg's C&C in the morning. It does look like rain tomorrow so the whole exercise may be moot and instead I can spend the day continuing to clean the engine compartment. If you have not had the pleasure of detailing under the hood of a 560SEC then you are missing a treat. There are more hoses, hydraulic lines, wires and electrical connections than on the U.S.S. Enterprise. This is going to be a long job, but for me it is a kind of therapy. My day job can get rather stressful, so it's nice to have this escape when time and conditions permit.
Yesterday I had "Johnny's" battery replaced. The "Used Battery" so prominently displayed was by now was such a complete and utter point of  annoyance I simply had to do something about it. The fact that I asked the PO how old the battery was before I picked up the car and him telling me it was only two months old, only to find out it was a "used battery" was flabbergasting. Be that as it may, along with a number of other details, including the  promise of the "second set of keys" which subsequently turned into one other "spare" or "flat" key that has never been sent despite numerous promises to the contrary, I still absolutely love this car and don't begrudge Mike the premium I paid him. We have a long way to go yet, but at the end of the day "Johnny" will be a primo example of the series and with his pedigree he is bound to be a fan favorite. I have no intention of "flipping" this car or selling to anytime soon. Although this will not be my only project, nor my last, I do not expect to say sayonara to "Johnny" for a long, lone time.
Next time I'll cover what has been done mechanically to date. It's quite extensive, although I believe it is only the tip of the ice berg. Stay tuned.