# Hymer s660... The ongoing Journey



## Horlix (Sep 12, 2013)

Hello guys, Thought id share some of the things I've encountered so far. Just to get the ball rolling i sold my old VW Westy at the end of the summer having been down to Plozeath in Cornwall and spotted a Hymer 670 on the same site as ours and decided this was the way forward, family getting bigger, westy getting smaller = Classic Mercedes Hymer me up landlord. The search for the right motorhome (i say motorhome as before i was in campervan territory and motorhome owners hate being labelled as owning camper vans!) started on the budget of 9K and began looking at rather tired s550's. We figured the smaller van wouldn't be such a shock to the system. The 550 relates to the length as I'm sure you're aware, a minuscule 5.5 meters long. Anyway the search was initially confined to the UK and pickings were extremely small, i contacted a few dealers and gained as much information from this great site and others as i could. I really considered going to Germany too looking on mobile.de and ebay etc but again high milage and condition restricted us. In the end my budget was in doubt and i had to raid the kids Uni money fund (bad i know but hey they'll thank me for it when were on the beach in the south of France) to 15K and then decided maybe the s660 or 670 might be the way forward (6.6 meters ). Ive driven a few LWB merc sprinters in the past so maybe this wouldn't be such a shocker. So, the search widened but alas the right van didn't appear straight away, still looking abroad, the Germans didn't really like replying to my daft approach at google translate and who can blame them... if i received emails of that nature from a foreigner id delete them too. So I decided an ad in preloved and gumtree was a possibility. After two months of looking around i got a call to go and see a nice 660 down in Devon which came in under budget. After my usual "getting overly excited" looking at photos and measuring my driveway in anticipation i had a feeling in my water this was the one. I ventured down to see the van (motorhome) with a wealth of new knowledge, i believe i know more about merc based Hymers now than i could have possibly imagined and ill know doubt forget it equally as quick unless i document it. When i arrived the van didn't disappoint, even though it had covered 200K the interior and chassis/Engine were superb, i got that "9 year old xmas buzz" all over again on the test drive but could smell a musty whiff which slightly put me off and after investigation pulled up the dash carpet to find... well... no dash really, the ply wood had rotted down the centre exposing the engine and the carpets were damp in the cab area.... now normally i would have bailed straight away but armed with a few posts of knowledge from this site i used this as a bartering tool to get a good chunk off the price and did the deal. I drove her home on the day and stopped four times over the 70 mile journey to soak up the vibe of the new purchase and get to know her... Anyone who knows these vans knows 200K is nothing if the vans been looked after, i know this because if your dash board is rotten and you can almost shake hands with the piston you kind of get a vibe for how the engine sounds if you catch my drift. It sounded very nice although very loud. So after getting her home there was a list of jobs to do to get her ready for action next summer. Its been a manic 5 weeks of constant Hymering but a great 5 weeks. Ive had a go at most things so far and will write these up at a later date. If anyone is looking to buy one of these superb vehicles (motorhomes) then use this forum and feel free to ask questions. A wealth of knowledge at your finger tips... It really will be an ongoing journey!. Thanks to everyone so far with great posts and great attitudes to these beasts


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## VanFlair (Nov 21, 2009)

looking forward to some pictures.


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## vicdicdoc (May 14, 2005)

You've come to the right place for advice & info . . There's quite a few of us Hymer owners here (all or most waiting for your questions & all or most waiting to give you our opinions & advice) :wink:


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## Horlix (Sep 12, 2013)

Thank-you guys, I will upload some pictures shortly, Im going to try and document the Hymer's story as it unfolds with pictures and literature. Generally she's in really good condition but reading up and from first hand experience there are a few issues as to be expected with a vehicle of this age. Im not a fan of messing around too much with a vintage classic, i am going to try and keep her as close to original as i can. The only modification to the engine has been a low pressure turbo fitted by TB turbos. Ideally i would have preferred to have the engine as standard, obvious gains in hill pulling and general performance however long term its a bit of an unknown, I have the original report from TB and they seem to have a good reputation, Id be interested to hear from anyone who has one of these strapped to a merc 2.9 engine and generally anyone who has a high milage one, Its fair to say these engines by reputation are good for 500K if looked after.... It'll out live me if thats the case![/img]


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## Horlix (Sep 12, 2013)

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Drafty sir?... anyone who buys a new(old) vehicle has to spend a bit of time getting to know it, i knew straight out the box this was my first big job to tackle. The previous owner was on top of the interior from the cab backwards but unfortunately let this go on for far too long. The rubber window seal had been letting in water for years and the water had tracked on to the dash, rotted it out and made the whole front end move when you drove the van. the pic shows the old ply wood which was covered by a thick rubber sound deadening mat and the original saturated carpet. Nothing apart from the mat was salvageable so first thing to tackle wa the seal. The Hymer front window seal joint on this one was and the bottom centre, it had separated and the outer rubber had pushed inwards causing any rain to divert straight into the dash. pretty simple fix, vasoline all across the rubber and a wooden lolly stick popped the rubber out and fingers and thumbs everywhere to get the rubber to drop down into position. Some black sikaflex sealant to repair the joint cap and that sorted the ingress. With that job out the way it was time to get the old dash out. This has been mentioned before on this forum and i used this info to help me. The dash on all merc Hymers is made from 8mm ply secured to the vehicle using screws, nuts and bolts and thats pretty much it. a poor design out the factory to be fair, i would have thought hymer would hve included bracing across the engine bay, i noted that a few owners have added bracing and bought thicker ply. my only issue with the thicker ply of say 12mm was that if the screen ever had to be removed getting a good re-seal was going to be a pain so i stuck with the 8mm and braced from the bulkhead across the centre to steady her up. The dash pretty much fell out in two halves. the bolts at the front had rusted and needed cutting off and the side screws were loose anyway so fell out too. Now, the only contact points for the dash are the front end fiberglass ledge of the screen and on the sides some very flimsy angle tin and of course the bulkhead. The tin on the sides are attached to the van using three screws per side, I withdrew these and used larger stainless self tappers and added three more per side, whilst doing this i noticed the drivers window had in previous years been leaking and de-laminated the side panel under the window and rotted it out. The 3mm ply fell out and exposed the insulation underneath.....great, another job but its worth doing with the dash out...


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## Horlix (Sep 12, 2013)

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So with the old dash removed i used what i could of it as a template to make the new dash, Popped out to Wickes and picked up the 8mm and using a jigsaw i cut a new one. For info i called Peter Hambilton initially and was quoted £700 for a new dash to be fitted. a no brainer to do it myself as those prices scare me enough to get motivated. I wanted speakers inserted onto the dash also so i cut these in prior to inserting the new one along with the vent ports. I marked the holes from the original dash and drilled the new dash to match. Once i was happy with the fit i took the new dash out to the garage and started looking at sound deadening materials. I used the old rubber mat which was in good condition on the underside and then covered this with a heat shield pad i made up from fire wool and lagging liner. I then drilled through enough to attach bolts and wire a loom to keep it all from dropping onto the engine, Its heavy but it works well. I felt it maybe defeated the object having speaker holes in the dash but with the majority of the engine lump under the bulkhead i thought it was worth doing.

Once you start a job like this you begin to realise other things need attention, with dash and old dash carpet out i thought id check under the cab carpet too, this was damp where the water ingress had gone on to the floor area so there was no point in keeping it, i took up all the old carpet over the arches and sidewalls and as it was coming off you could smell the damp. again the previous owner had laid soundproof matting on the floor over the original carpet, yes it kept the sound down but retained all the moisture underneath, I removed everything back to wood and metal let it all dry out for a few days. I had the kids pouring buckets of water over the windscreen to make sure my windscreen rubber fix was good and i was happy nothing was leaking.

It was at this point i started looking into sound deadening the floor. So many makes of acoustic material to do the job from Dynamat to rattle tat tat.... In the end i went to the local builders merchants and bought Flash band and with the use of a hairdryer i laid it over the cab footwell area. Flashband gets mixed reviews from various forums, in hot weather it is supposed to move and in cold weather crack... i took the view if it'll keep your chimney or roof dry then that covers all temperature conditions, and simply £12.99 vs £200 there was only ever going to be one winner. Its a clean tidy material to use and went down well in even the tightest areas of the fit.

The side wall de-lamination was straight forward, once the old rotten wood was out i got some 3mm ply from Wickes and made a stencil out of A4 paper cello taped together and made a new panel. I used a good quality bond adhesive and fitted it to the insulation and treated it with wood preserver. Worth noting here to check the window seal, mine was fine as it the whole window and frame had been replaced last year after some idiot had put a brick through the window in the previous owners possession.

Right, dash still in garage, floor treated to a flash band and interior side panel fitted... what next?, well whilst your in this situation you can have a good look round the engine bay, check for loose connections and fittings, easy adjustment of your headlight angle (i'll deal with this later) and if your in the mood get all the old insulation out from behind the heater matrix and side walls (inside the engine bay). Use a scraper and it crumbles off, 21 years old and its not going to be as new as the whole front underside of your beloved Hymer is open to the elements, If your plastic wheel cover pads are loose they will peel back and any rain will whip up and damped all the insulation, mine had a split in both sides. I used some adhesive plastic glue to join mine back together and re-fixed them to the underside of the wheel arch. again i used fire wool and padding to pack out the alcove on the sides (inside the engine bay) left and right, the more you can pack in the better as this is a good route for engine noise to enter your cab and the old insulation was probably only 10mm thick when new so as long as its fixed and retained well your going to notice the difference when driving.


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## Horlix (Sep 12, 2013)

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## Horlix (Sep 12, 2013)

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Next... to get the dash back in. If you can use stainless nuts and bolts for obvious rusting reasons. My advice would be not to glue or seal the dash to the edges as if you've done enough on the surround mounts its going nowhere plus at some point sods law says its going to need to come off again if any substantial engine work needs to be done. Plenty of fixings and the jobs a good un. Once you've offered the new dash in it may be a good idea to pack some fire wool strips of about 5mm under the edges, theres going to be holes all over the place and even screwed down there will be gaps, a bit of packing will plug the gaps and reduce sound. Once packed start screwing in the self tappers at the bottom where it fixes to the flat metal plates and work your way round. The fronts are the only fiddly ones to do as it needs two pairs of hands, one inside the engine bay with a 10mm spanner and the other in the cab with the same. You can now do a war dance, throw a bowling ball at it or whatever takes your fancy.. Time to fix in the vents, connect in the speakers and tale her for a test drive... for me the transformation was massive as i was used to the old "being at one with the engine" technique. No drafts and no windscreen wiper motors winking at me.

Im currently awaiting my carpets to be delivered. i found a company called bespoke rugs who are using my old carpets as stencils and making me some new ones. I will post pics as soon as i have them fitted.


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## celtichymer (Mar 30, 2015)

Great article


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## MoocherMcGee (Oct 24, 2013)

*Great work*

Very well done, keep on showing us your progress, I really enjoy this type of post.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Not been on since January.


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