Update history

Mercedes-Benz Typ 219 W105 und 220S W180 mit Hydraulisch-automatischer Kupplung (Hydrak), Faltprospekt, Nr.376, 1957

Click the picture to download in PDF-format, "Typ 219 (W105) und 220S (W180) mit Hydraulisch-automatischer Kupplung (Hydrak), Faltprospekt, Nr.376, 1957, 4 S." © Daimler AG 

Below you can see what I have published on the web site and when:

  • 3 January 2023. Again, long time, no hear... But nevertheless a lot of things have been done to the site. A lot of corrections and additions in old articles as well as a number of new blog posts. The site has also been updated to Joomla v5. I've also started to locally draft the Assembly parts of the site. It'll take some time before you see it on the site though. There are a lot of notes and photos to go through. 
  • 30 December 2022. Now things have started to happen again. First, I updated Joomla to v4 as well as the remaining extensions. Everything has also been adjusted and optimized so that it's simple to maintain and update but still fairly nice-looking. I've also created a couple of blog entries from last summer's trips. At the time of writing not all are published. That'll be synchronized with some posts on Insta and Facebook. 
  • Long time, no hear... Since I've been fully occupied with life, the social media accounts, the car, and above waiting for my extensions to comply with the new Joomla 4 release, not much has happened here. In the process several old plug ins etc has been removed due not supporting Joomla 4 or not being used. Amp-support is e.g. removed. Joomla 4 is now implemented. Except for some minor modifications not much has happened content wise. I hope to be able to change that soon!
  • Since April 2021 I've made a lot of small additions, corrections, and updates (of both texts and pictures), added links to the MB219's accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest as well as added some blogg entries.  I hope you visit them all. 
  • During April 2020, thanks to one of my visitors, Gerd from Germany, I've been able to get some old-new pictures of the places my father and his family visited during their trip to the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany during the end of the 50ies.
  • 10 April 2020 I added a blog section to the site, 
  • 3 January 2020, more material around rust protection of the Ponton was added including Dinitrol's method, a site visitor's own experiences of the work as well as a German translation, everything in article "Rust protection". The final restoration steps of the ash trays and the internal mirror you can see in "Sun visors, straps", as well as for the "Blinker (82)", "Head- and foglight (82)", the working light in "Tools and accessories (58)" and finally the reflectors in "Bumpers". I also added a blog where I will document my Ponton's "life after restoration"; trips, Mercedes-Benz club related activities we take part in as well as work on the car like improvements, repairs, adjustments etc
  • 4 February 2019, the work on the front wall, sound dampening and the partition wall in the engine compartment, floor panels, rubber mats, bakelite parts of the instrument panel as well as a few words around the window frames, are described in "Instrument panel". I also did short write-ups of my choice of radio, Blaupunkt Köln with extra speaker and fader control, pull switch for the windscreen wiper and washer, the rotary switch for the head and fog light as well as the interior light switch, which you can read about in "Instruments and switches".
  • 20 January 2019, "Tools and accessories" was updated with the restoration of the working light, restoration of reflectors were added to "Bumpers (88)" and a write-up of the door locks can be found under "Sheet metal"-"Doors (72/73)". I also described my choice of material and "design" of the B-pillar cover and windlaces in the interior-article "Choice of material".
    For the technically versed it can also be said that I had problems with Joomla inserting erroneous microdata for Google Structured data of type breadcrumbs and NewsArticle. That whas removed by the tool ReReplacer - Advanced search and replace for Joomla! - Regular Labs. The article structured data is now handled by Google Structured Data by Tassos Marinos.
  • 8 January 2019, updates to "Windscreen wipers and washer (82)", restoration of deflector windows on "Doors (72/73)", sound and vibration dampening of hood under "Hood and trunk lid (75, 88, 89)", the straps were re-made and that can be seen on the same page where I describe what I've done so far on the ash-trays ("Sun visors, straps (81)"). Also the assembly of the front seats are now uploaded in the "Seats (91, 92)"-article. From a technical perspective I had to redo the Restoration-menus, had too many sub-menues. I also added Discqus if someone would like to make a comment on the contents (remember, you can always contact me directly).
  • 21 December 2018, minor updates but a whole new menu structure based on Norrnext.com's JMB Tree plugin (now discontinued) as well as AMP support based on wbAMP. Hope you like it! Especially the mobile users should benefit a lot with an improved menu access!
  • 11 December 2018, minor additions to "Fuel tank and fuel filter (47)", "Clutch and transmission (25, 26)", "Engine cooling (20)", "Radiator (50)" and under "Brakes (42)" and "Electric system" all their sub-menues you will find several updates as well as under "Sheet metal" and its section "Bumpers (88)". 
  • 9 January 2018, added some pictures, did some corrections and updated the articles "Engine suspension (22/24)", "Clutch and transmission (25, 26)", "Brakes miscellaneous (42)", "ATE T50 brake booster (42)", "Fuel tank and fuel filter (47)", "Cables" as well as "Bumpers (88)" and "Wheels (40)".
  • 9 November 2017, added work on the instrument cluster in "Instruments and switches"
  • 29 August 2017, gave the "Running engine on test bed" the final touch and added a couple of interesting pictures and drawing to different articles. Search and you will find ;).... A lot of smaller adjustments were made as well as a description on how you remake the old type of oil hose, the one that goes from the oil filter to the oil pressure gauge (you'll find it under the "Engine and oil pump" article).
  • 6 August 2017, updated the "Clutch and transmission" article with the final assembly of the gearbox, added some more contents on the "Combi instrument" article under "Instruments and switches", a picture of the new cable harness was added to the "Cables" article under "Electrical equipment and instruments", pictures of the restored generator and starter are added to the "Electrical equipment, engine" article, a clarification of how to pull the sealing ring holder on the water pump ("Engine cooling"), Bosch material under "Electrical equipment, engine" and "Electric system" as well as added two ATE brochures around the T50 brake booster in the "ATE T50 brake booster" article. I also added a new article, "Running engine on test bed", where you can see how I proceeded in testing the engine before installing into the car. Based on lessons learned during the testing I also updated the "Fuel pump and air filter" article. Finally I changed servers and went from the http to the https protocol to give you a faster and more secure experience. Beside of that you shouldn't be affected by it.
  • 12 June 2017, added content to "Instruments and switches" including the restoration of my combi instrument and clock. I also added the story behind my gearbox restoration in the article "Clutch and transmission". 
  • April 2017, installed the extension sh404SEF to get simpler management of my SEO including better control of my links. Some minor corrections of the contents was also made, as well as some decorative pictures from Daimler AG. Otherwise nothing new... Waiting for new spare parts for the engine.
  • 23 April 2017. Another total revamp of the site. It turned out that the gallery software I used was firstly a bit too complex to work with but above all it was not good from a SEO-perspective (Search Engine Optimization). The gallery software hid the existence of the file itself, and of course also all the information about the picture as well, making it impossible for Google et al to find my page. I started to notice this when other Ponton owners stopped mailing me and I could also see that the rate of visitors plummeted. I'm now using Kubik-Rubik's SIGE - Simple Image Gallery Extended which is much easier to work with. No not a fancy GUI as the other one had but I feel I'm in more control of what I'm doing and everything is clearly visible in text files making it easier for me to re-use the information if necessary. I also named all my pictures with an "understandable" name, not just keeping the digital camera's sequence numbers. Also good from a SEO-perspective. 
    I also changed the structure of the site slightly in order to follow the Mercedes Group-numbers more closely. Hopefully this will make it easier for you readers to find what you're looking for. While doing that I updated some texts and replaced some photos where I had better ones with better quality on my disk.
    Finally I have more text about the restoration work I have been doing in parallel to this site update (which probably have taken me up to 200 hours to finalize). Most of the work has been related to the engine and its components. So have a look there. And yes, I have a work, actually my own company, a wife, a house, two other cars to attend to and I train regularly. But I don't look at TV series :)! 
  • 29 November 2016 Added pictures and text regarding my extra work on already restored engine and carburetor as well as some other items under "Engine and its auxillary systems" and "Carburetor". Also added a new article, Electrical equipment and instruments, with the first content being the restoration of the "Dual tone horns" and also a story about the "Battery". Updated my text around plating on the Restoration page. New content can also be found under Miscellaneous and "Sheet metal" and its sub-articles. 
  • 6 November 2016 On demand I added some pictures of the old Webasto roof cloth, "More pictures of the old Webasto sliding roof". Maybe not interesting for everyone..... More details of the Webasto assembly can be found under "More Webasto sliding roof assembly pictures".
  • 6 October 2016 Moved the site to its own domain, https://www.mb219.com.
  • 14 July 2016 More technical data around the MB219 in The car as well as some corrections. Added some persons and organizations under "Acknowledgements". Presently  working on the car so with a bit of luck there well be some restoration updates in a couple of weeks!
  • 20 March 2016 Added pictures and some pdf to lighten up the long sections under "The Mercedes-Benz 219", "Restoration", "Chassis" and "Webasto sliding roof". I also added so much material around the early days of the car so that I had to divide it into three sub-articles. And, finally I found an original article about rust protection of a Ponton, have a look at "Rust protection".
  • 13 March 2016 I remade the text on the Restoration and Restoration-Chassis pages. I also added two new restoration sections, Interior and Webasto sliding roof. And of course I had to add some social media functionality, that was achieved by the plug-in Fast Social Share. 
  • February/March 2016, since it now start to happen things with the car I thought it could be a good idea to update the underlying technology of the site. Over 15 years after its birth. Migrated the old, pure html-based site into Joomla 3.4.8. Since there's a lot of photos and Joomla's media management isn't that good I installed Phoca Gallery component. Beside of that I stick to standard Joomla in order to have easier upgrades. Development environment is Wampserver.
  • 21 January 2014, story continues, not much has happend. But the new leather interior in Mercedes-Benz original color code 1079 Roser Red is now done and the car is presently standing in a shop having a black Webasto top assembled. 
  • 2 August 2012, not much has happend beside working mainly on the interior but also some small work on generator and some other minor parts. House project and life in general take its toll :). Cleaned up the "Links" page now
  • 22 January 2004, not much has happened beside having moved to a new house. I have at least corrected the site and added a new link.
  • 20 October 2003, visit to the painter in August 2003 (Chassis-Putting it all together)
  • 19 October 2003, more pictures and text under the Restoration-Engine articles as well under "Pedals" as well as from Hjulafton 2002 (Chassis-"Putting it all together")
  • 16 October 2003, Pictures of the newly restored engine, still in Peters shop, added.
  • 27 August 2003, The chapter "Why a Ponton", written by my father added to "History of the car". Also added copies of photos of a trip he and his brother with parents made to the Netherlands, "Trip to the Netherlands".
  • 25 August 2003, Guestbook and Search my site added, answered the question "How long time does it take?" on Restoration/Dismantling and completed the description of the brake booster restoration.
  • 17 August 2003, Heating and ventilation part finished. New picture of finished fuel pump as well as a short description of the water pump restoration under Restoration-Engine. Do you want to know how I mix semi gloss paint now? See Miscellaneous. I've also added the Restoration-Brakes page. There are only some pictures there at the moment. To be described too.
  • 13 August 2003, Addition of heating and ventilation parts under Restoration-Miscellaneous.
  • 6 July 2003, Acknowledgements list updated as well as some minor corrections.
  • 22 April 2003, the site moved to my own, new domain.
  • 15 April 2003, restoration of doors, fenders, hood etc has been put on an own page. Pictures of the ongoing restoration of the doors were added. You can also see that all parts were test mounted on the chassis before the final painting. Restoration-Chassis has been divided into three different pages. The newly started engine restoration can be found on Restoration-Engine. Three more pictures of screws (!) can be found under Miscellaneous
  • 1 December 2002, put some new stuff under Miscellaneous, Restoration-"Front axle", "Rear axle" and Restoration-Miscellaneous.
  • 29 September 2002, you'll find a bunch of photos under Restoration-Propeller shaft, -Motor, -Chassis and Miscellaneous as well as some interesting things under History. 
  • 12 August 2002, two more pictures on "Propeller shaft" for our discussion on the list. 
  • 9 August 2002, added a new section, Restoration-"Propeller shaft". Only added some pictures of the dismantling process due to a discussion on the Ponton mailing list. Text will be added later.
  • 26 June 2002, added some links
  • 24 June 2002, Updated my rear axle question. I do hope you understand now!
  • 17 June 2002, new "Question to my visitors", this time regarding the rear axle. Also added a couple of photos the Restoration-Rear axle. How now found a garage, just waiting for a contract to sign so I'm not 100% "home" yet!
  • 30 May 2002, moved everything connected to group 88, Chassis Sheet metal parts from Miscellaneous to Chassis. In the chassis section you'll also find info about doors, hood etc etc... So there are some new pic's.
  • 27 April 2002, added text on the Restoration-Miscellaneous-Steering box
  • 24 April 2002, corrected the link to MB Ponton pages (thanks Jeff!) as well as updated the Acknowledgement and Restoration-Miscellaneous
  • 23 April 2002, added some text to the Motor page as well as some stuff - incl pictures of the work with the steering box - on Restoration-Miscellaneous
  • 9 April 2002, more photos added to Restoration-Motor. Have been working intensively with carburetor, fuel pump, steering box as well as intermediate steering lever ("Steering"). Everything takes 10 times longer than planned; new parts take time before they arrive and are sometimes wrong, when one tries to use them one realizes that the shop that repaired carb/pump/etc 15 years ago did it in the wrong way and so on and so on. And don't forget all the time you have to spend on trying to figure out how it's supposed to assembled in real life (and not according to the shop manual where everything is very easy), which tools you have to have at hand (or you have to spend half a day to find somewhere to buy it), that paint has to dry, that you have to be nice and social with neighbors. All in all - great fun! And still I haven't found my needed garage. I've got one but it's a little bit too small, but it's much better than no garage!
  • 17 January 2002, more photos added to the chassis incl the sliding roof frame as well as to the new page Restoration-Motor.
  • 14 January 2002, photos added to the chassis and rear axle section. I also started to compile an page with acknowledgements which can be found from the main menu.
  • 6 January 2002, added some new links. Some work has been done during the Christmas holiday; carburetor, fuel pump and filter dismantled, and glass beaded, all screws, washer etc re-finished in yellow, new parts ordered. I also dismantled the steering box for its coming repair (new gaskets and sealings as well as new bearings). Photos will come up here as soon as possible. Now I've probably found a garage, something like 25km south of me, but hey, it's a garage!!
  • 3 September 2001, Some minor corrections. Only some minor work has been done on the car so far since I'm missing the needed garage.
  • 23 July 2001, new links and some minor corrections
  • 6 July 2001, "How to take a car apart"-section added. Some photos moved from the chassis-restoration section to the new one.
  • 1 July 2001, small layout update
  • 29 June 2001, ooops, I discovered that I had no link to Ray Ilich's and Jeff Miller's Ponton page! Sorry, it is now added .... I did also update my style sheets and did some other stuff regarding the layout. I hope it works for all of you!
  • 26 June 2001, erased the web ring... didn't work. Anyone with information about this web ring? Added a Restoration-Miscellaneous. A photo of my welder is also added under Main-Miscellaneous as well as more photos and text under Chassis. The Rear axle-section do now have some information to share. The Front axle-section has one more photo...
  • 7 June 2001, tried to join, insert and get the Mercedes-Benz web ring to work.. Is it really up and running???. I also added more photos and text under the Chassis section as well as some new links
  • 18 May 2001, new question to my visitors plus more photos of the ongoing work on the chassis. There is also a new page about the work with the rear axle, but it only relates to the Chassis page. Photos and so on will be added as soon as they arrive...
  • 24 April 2001, counter from WEB counter inserted
  • 23 April 2001, new historical photos as well as the latest photos from the garage
  • End of the 90ies, first tests and the first publishing on Compuserve's OurWorld Web pages. I followed MBs first web page attempts in terms of layout and color and I remember I had a higher hit rate than them.