Dealing with pains

As mentioned in my previous blog, my left arm was broken on February 15 2015 while practicing bone strengthening technique of Cimande martial art. Going to share with you my experience of going through the pain up to this date.

I decided not to go to doctors but ask my Cimande guru to fix my broken arm, his name is Pak Mulyadi and he had lots of experience in fixing broken bones.

He came to my house at 5 PM on the same day, and carefully examined my left arm. What worried me was his face looked really concerned. He immediately hold my arm and pull it gently, I feel pain but I started to fell my left arm again and able to move my fingers. Shortly after that, he massage my arm using  Cimande oil it has very funny smell, and mixed white yolk with Cimande oil and secure my arm with four blocks of small wooden cast and wrap it with bandage.

The first three days was excruciatingly painful, it was difficult for me to get some sleep because of the unbearable pain even though I had some pain killer pills. Practically the first week was really intimidating, every small movement impacting in major pain. My biggest concerned was that my companies had set new target revenue and I need to do a lot of things to making sure that we achieve the target.

Entering the second week the pain was more bearable and I decided to started to go to work, there's one project I had to pursue in Malaysia, so I decided to flew on February 27 to Kuala Lumpur, it was a round trip travel. I took the earliest flight which force me to arrive at the airport at 4 AM. The meeting was at 10 AM KL time. The meeting went well our team had a great chance to win this project. While waiting for our flight back home I decided to take my partner Pak Daniel Lie to go to Batu Cave. What I had in mind was pushing my physical endurance during my recovery process. We need to take a very steep and long stairs up to the hill but it's all worth it. After that we were rushing to go to KLIA using the train, it was very tiring but I had a great time.

After one month I started to be able to lift my left arm with minimum pain, and it's an amazing accomplishment. I started to play guitar but it is still to painful for me to twist my left arm on the guitar neck.

On 25th and 26th April I had a business trip to Solo, Jogja, Kebumen and Banjarnegara selling Elitery and Inotech products and services, my left arm already functional now and it's really help in enhancing the experience quality.

These are the list of most valuable lessons I got by having this fractured bone experience;

1. Support from your loved ones is critical, my beloved wife taking care of me so patiently and I couldn't thank her more. My mom and dad also checking me every now and then, their genuine concern really shows their love to me.
2. You will realize that health is the greatest wealth, the first two weeks when I can move my left arm was really frustrating episode of this experience.
3. You will learn about commitment, whether finishing my tasks at my business life and continuing practicing Cimande.
4. You will be remember that Allah is the one to ask for health and speedy recovery since you have more solitude time on your own.

Fully restored Mercedes Benz W123 1986

My Mercedes Benz W123 restoration process was completely done in October 2014. My heart was filled with great sense of achievement, it was a long and tiring process because I had to deal with so many people.

It’s really great car to drive, I love the suspension works it’s so soft, almost feel like driving a tank above the cloud J.

Cimande Martial Arts, an amazing journey of commitment

Me and Pak Cun Cun Wahyudi

It was in October 2013 when I and my wife decided to search for martial arts courses four our sons. Part o f this decision was sparked by the fact that many students getting bullied in Jakarta. Our first son Raka was became the victim in early 2013 while he was in 5^th grade.

5 boys from 6^th grade were trying to intimidate him, but he managed to punch two of the boys and flee. We did some research on what kind of martial arts courses they should take. The obvious and preferred option were; Jiu Jitsu, Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Kung Fu, but after further intensive research we decided to chose Pencak Silat Cimande.

The main reasons were;

1.       It’s West Java heritage and full of deep philosophy.

2.       Very effective.

3.       Very famous and respectable form of martial arts both in Indonesia and abroad.

4.       Proximity.

5.       Instructor’s skill and experience

Rasyad climbing hay

So in December 2013 we enrolled Raka and Razan, it was fun to see them practicing Cimande happily. After the 2^nd week they were asking me to join in, I was instantly said yes and immediately asking my wife too. So it became weekly family event and it was a very fun way to build our character.

It was on the second month that we found it is very hard to practice it when our instructor introduced us to bone strengthening drill where we have to clashed our bones with other students, and the climax was when our instructor hit our arms so hardly that it made a huge bumps in our hands.

Pak Mulyadi

But however we did enjoy every process; it’s a great quality time for our family. In 2014 we had the chance to visit our elders Pak Mulyadi, Wa Darma, etc in Cimande Tarikolot. It’s a beautiful village populated with humble and warm people, it was an amazing experience we had. Our children fell in love with the great outdoors, paddy field and gardens.

On February 15^th 2015 I had an accident, while practicing Ketig (explosive punching technique) I broke my left arm, it was excruciatingly painful. Pak Mulyadi from Cimande immediately came to Jakarta to fix my bone; btw I decided to heal it with traditional Cimande method, using Cimande Oil, white egg and massage.

My beautiful wife

The first three days was very hard, the pain was so killing me, then in day 4 I feel my hand easier to move and the pain is more bearable Alhamdulillah. While resting I tried to relook at my journey in exploring Cimande, sometimes the thought of stopping continuing the journey crossed my mind, part of it because I’m reaching 40, and the healing process will took longer.

But looking how fun it is, and how it built our character I decided to carry on. We love Cimande, and we are committed to practice it!

  

Pak Mulyadi and Owen

Happy birthday my lovely wife

Enjoying the view of Kuningan

 

Duhai bidadari bertabirkan halimun senja, selamat ulang tahun sayang. Ayah tahu bahwa Ayah tidak pernah memberikan hadiah terbaik untukmu, dan Bunda memang tidak pernah menuntut untuk itu.

You know what, dari perjalanan bersama kita Bunda lebih banyak memberi, dan tidak pernah mengharapkan imbalan apapun. I thank Allah for that for having a caring and giving wife. Having said that you are Allah's gift to my life, Bundalah hadiah terbaik untuk Ayah di dunia fana ini dan semoga berlanjut juga di akhirat nanti.

Semoga di usia Bunda ini semakin bisa bersyukur, bersabar dan memberikan manfaat lebih kepada lebih banyak mahkluk Allah.

Semakin sabar dalam membantu Ayah dalam mendidik anak-anak kita yang luar biasa, semakin tegar dalam mendalami ilmu dan semakin menyayangi keluarga.

Terimakasih untuk dedikasinya, terimakasih untuk pengorbanannya dan terimakasih untuk ketulusannya.

 

Love you Bunda,

 

 

Ayah

Mercedes Benz W123 suspension and interior restoration.

Having all the body works almost completed, I started to tackle the suspension and interior section. As part of the vision in building this car, I replaced most of the fast moving parts of this car. Surprisingly the parts’ price were not too expensive.

Razan my second son was so happy that day :)

At the same time I started to source the original Palomino interior for my car. Typically 1986 W123 came with velour type of interior, but I don’t like this kind of fabric because it is very difficult to maintain and very difficult to remove stain from it, the other thing is when touch to your skin it will make you itchy.

It was quite a challenge to get the full Palomino set, many MB W123 enthusiasts told me that Palomino is one of the most preferred color scheme, that’s why it’s very rare to find.

With the help of good friend of mind Wilfi Thalib and Irwan Dwiputranto, I managed to get two set of Palomino interiors. And Joshua Autoworks helped me in cleaning, repairing and installing it  to my car.

Selecting the best parts!



Cleaning and repairing at Joshua Autoworks

Only best parts are installed



All hands on deck!

Final detail is important!

Balancing and aligning

Details are everything

Polishing the head cover

Pheeew it wasn't easy

Polishing all the chrome parts 1

Polishing all the chrome parts 2

Polishing all the chrome parts 3

Boy, it was a very long and tedious process, thank god all the job is done now, only few things are left; Replacing the exhaust pipe, installing new window film, fixing the air conditioner, and polishing the front side windscreen.

Mercedes Benz W123 86 Engine Restoration

Mercedes W123 Engine Restoration

 

The engine was completely stripped down
 and thoroughly assessed

While being completely dismantled, I started to ask my mechanics to deconstruct the engine. The engine works really fine, and there was this accident when I forgot to left the key inside the car while the engine is running for more than 4 hours, but fortunately the temperature is still normal. And I drove the car multiple times reaching 120 km/hour with no problem.

Changed all the essential parts

Even though there’s no mechanical problems with the engine, with the same principle as the body, I also plan a complete restoration of the engine. I replaced and overhauled most of the parts, and keep all the invoices for my documentation.

As part of my childhood dream, I also replaced the gearbox to automatic, lucky for me the parts is still available.

Here are some of the list of the spare parts that was replaced;

Too many parts!

1.       CDI

2.       Radiator

3.       Piston rings

4.       Oil filter

5.       Air filter

6.       New throttle cable

7.       Fuel pumps/Rotax

8.       New spark plugs

9.       New cables

10.   New fuel filter

11.   New oil filter

Pak Rady is checking all the new parts, the car was on the background

New set of radiator

I also took the engine to the machine shop to have it ported, balanced and polished. When we tested the engine it runs so smooth. Thanks to Pak Rady for the great Job.

The engine was completely overhouled

I also took the engine to the machine shop to have it ported, balanced and polished. When we tested the engine it runs so smooth. Thanks to Pak Rady for the great Job.

The talented mechanic done a great job!

Mercedes Benz W123 Body restoration

Peeling the paint to bare metal

Mercedes Benz W123 is my childhood dream car, I love the design, durability and legend of it. Back in the 90s I was completely stuck with one particular color Maroon Red with Palomino Interior it’s a killer combination. So with this in mind I was targeting to repaint my car in red and change the interior to Palomino.

Some corrosion spot was clearly visible

By assessing the body condition, at first I was planning to just go with re spraying my car without thoroughly peeling the old layers, this is to minimize restoration cost and time. But my friend Dodo managed to convince me that it will good for investment sake to do a bare metal restoration. This is to minimize the risk of having rusted spot being overlook.

It was one of the best decision in this project, Dodo and his team were peeling all the paint back to its bare metal, it was a long and meticulous job, and Dodo was right, there were many little spots already rusted and easier for the team to remove it from the body shell. Yes it needs an experience hands and eyes to do the welding job, luckily one of Dodo’s team is really good so we managed to keep the original curves and lines of this car.

While we were doing the deconstruction, we also pull out the interiors, engine and suspension system.

 

Really looong process!

This was a long and frustrating process, since your car was exposed and I realized that I had to tackle this tons of jobs.

Priming started after welding process is done

Despite all the troubles, it’s really worth the effort!

 

Solid right trunk platform

Left trunk



Priming and checking the original lines and corrosion spot

First layer of the paint

Engine hood and trunk were separately painted

Sanding off

Engine bay

Started to shine

Rear end

Rust free body