Hello and Restoration 230 SL

[SouthPagoda]

First post! very excited to be part of this forum.

I just recently bought a 1965 230 SL, European version. Very excited as it is the car I always wanted.

In the next months I will be doing restoration work. I need to do body and paint, suspension, etc etc. The most work will be needed in the upholstery: the previous owner changed the leather seats for some cheap cloth material. Luckily, he did not remove the seat and I can restore it fully.

I have done restoration work in the past and I am very detailed, I like to restore to pure original. For that reason, could you recommend books that I should get for my work? Should cover parts, technical specifications, type of materials for different SL versions etc.

Also, can anybody provide detail on the type of leather for the 230 used in the 1965? I read that the pleats had a "basket-weave" but not sure of the leather in the rest of the seat. I have seen that older models have a more "coarse" type

Thanks to all!

[ChrisInNashville]

Laurence Meredith's "Original Mercedes SL Restoration Guide" is available on Amazon.  I found it very useful.

I believe I purchased my original spec MBTex upholstery from gahh.com.   

Hope this helps!

[Garry]

Hellow and welcome to the Group. There is a wealth of information here that you can study and as a Full Member you will gain access to the full Technical manual including the Linkage Tour necessare for anyone wanting to maintain their car in a top notch running condition.

The Meridth book whilst good should not be used as a reference for correctness as there are quite a few errors.  You should get yourself a parts book and the BBB known as the Big Blue Book which are a pair of service manualf for these cars that are invaluable.  Both these publications come up on eBay occasionally or you can put a ‘wanted’ advert here on the forum and maybe get parts of them.

Garry