1966 230 SL restoration thread

[w113bkk]

I'm going to start a thread for the restoration of my 66 230sl. I bought the car in its current state and will be putting it back together. Here are some photos of the car and some parts I ordered this week. My photobucket account is greasemobile here is a link to my photobucket
http://s1117.photobucket.com/user/greasemobile/library/?sort=3&page=1

[cabrioletturbo]

Looks like major things were done already. I hope it was a great deal.
Good luck with the project, should be an easy one.

[w113bkk]

All the major work has already been done. Now I have to put the puzzle back together. I sent the chrome out and just ordered new upholstery. Hopefully sooner than later I'll send the car to the upholsterer to do the interior and the top.

[w113bkk]

The voyage home

[mmizesko]

W113bkk and Igor,

I've noticed both of you getting more active on the site, and we are thrilled to have you sharing your projects and using our resources.  Any chance you would both becoming full members? I think you will find the nominal annual expense well worth it, and I'm sure you'll have lots of questions to ask our members throughout your ownership.

Mike Mizesko
Columbus, OH
Pagoda SL Group Board

[w113bkk]

Mike,
thanks for the info. I will look into becoming a member.

John

[vande17941]

I have a 230 SL manufactured in 1966 also that I have been doing major upgrades on. What do you figure will be your approximate total cost by the time you are done with the whole thing? I'm just interested to see if I'm on track or not.

[Benz Dr.]

It used to be that you would need to spend about 50K in order to have a nice car. This could be done at purchase time or by restoring your car to a nice number three level. I'm going to say that that figure is now out the widow. With the sudden increase in the price of parts it might be more like 60 - 70K to get the same results as only a few years ago.

[Jonny B]

And that is if you can even get the parts. The folks here in SoCal have a running issue with getting things from MB.

[w113bkk]

I bought my car as you see it on the flat bed. The previous owner did a rotisserie restoration and put everything back together with lots of attention to detail. I have a stack of papers that log all the work that was done mechanically and for sourcing parts for the restoration. Vande17941 in terms of the interior parts, the cost of plating, soft top and hard top, and interior upholstery and all the original parts from Mercedes especially the headlights and steering wheel are defiantly a pretty penny. What I spent restoring my 65 mustang fastback completely in the 90's is less than what I've spent in parts over the last few weeks. In the end though I look forward to have a real fun car to drive.