Color of Rocker Panels / Sills

[Douglas]

Okay, Neil's pix of his very handsome 230SL raise some questions that I'd like to air. I know we've covered this before, but I'd like to go into this in more detail:

1. If you were to order a new rocker panel cover today, how is it finished? Is it raw and unfinished or is it undercoated and painted black? (If it's NLA, how was it delivered when it was last available?)

2. Does anyone have a car that's untouched down there who can tell us whether the screws were painted over or left unpainted/silver? I actually prefer decrepit, rusty, faded original cars as sources of reference since no one has prettied them up over the years. (Tom Sargeant - what about your non-decrepit brown car?)

3. Can someone comment on the assembly line procedure at Sindelfingen? At what point in the assembly process are the covers screwed on?

Sorry to be so anal about these tedious details. It may seem trivial, but I think it's important to get to the bottom of this for future reference.

Douglas Kim
New York, NY
280 SL #016220

[Ben]

My opionion on this is based on nothing but speculation,

I feel that the procedures during a particular year,Country of origin, exterior colour and customers wishes may all have been factored in during assembley. The procedure, or standard, may have changed over the years based on demand.

It may be that these sills covers were even possibly numbered as many other parts were, not stamped as in the case of the hood/hardtop, but maybe even had written as in the case of Rodds original carpets.

Having said all that the fact remains that there would be eveidence of this, not merely from someone in the business who had removed numerous sills, but from something like the data card or dealer order form.

these are just my thoughts and I'm thinking as I write but I've jusyt looked at my original 230SL owners manual which, on page 31 & 32 the section regarding "Wheel Change", it shows a sketch, a primitive graphic, but it clearly shows a car with a darker sill section !!

Regards,
Ben in Ireland.
'64 230SL 4sp.

[mdsalemi]

Doug and others,

I have in my hands, two original 230SL brochures from 1964, and an original all-line brochure from 1969.  (N.B. as a reminder, my 1969 was originally owned by my uncle who bought the 1969 as a replacement for his wrecked 1964 230SL; that's why I have these brochures.)

THESE BROCHURES ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY TELL US: Nothing!

The brochure has various photos of the car in two colors; a White 050 and a blue--a bit darker then Neil's and unknown to me.  It is nearly impossible to tell with certainty what the car's rockers are--but if I were a gambling man I'd say that the white 050 had black rocker covers and the blue had body colored rockers.  The problem is that the rockers are often in shadow, so you can't really tell.  The brochures have a poster included and a very nice photo of the original and "unmolested" engine bay...I will bring these to the Tech Session in July and they will also be available for review by anyone coming to Gemultlekeit.

On a similar issue, I used to work in the printing industry, and some of my clients--particularly those here in Detroit and in New York--would often work RETOUCHING photos of cars for brochures.  You'd never believe me if I told you how many hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars were spent retouching these photos digitally.  This was often done AFTER an airbruch artist spent a similar amount of time on a large original poster-sized photo that was then duplicated into the transparency that was digitally scanned.  At the time of these brochures being published however, digital retouching didn't exist but my trained eye can tell that they were highly retouched in airbrush form prior to color separation and stripping into the brochures final form.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[n/a]

I can easily answer question #2. The new rocker panels are supplied in black primer, without any textured coatings.

Tom Hanson
Parts Manager
MBUSA Classic Center
Irvine CA

[Jonny B]

To add some more discussion ponts to the debate. I did some checking through my library last night, and like Mike said, there is no definitive answer.

Most of the photos to do not show in detail in the rocker strip. The ones that do, most (not all) show the rocker cover as black/dark. That said, there are several photos in the Meredith book and several in the Engelen book that show a car in a medium color, red perhaps (black and white photo) with the rocker cover painted to match the body. I would discount several of these as they show the car on a turntable, implying to me some type of show car or special set up.

There are a couple of shots though that show the car out on the road.

I also found a photo of a 230 brochure that had the cars in profile in different colors (caveat - it was a black and white photo) but again, the different shades still are evident. This showed the cars all with the rocker covers matching the body color! (this was the smaller Meredith book on the SL).

I suspect as Ben stated, that there was some special ordering or custom work available that people took advantage of.

I did not re-read the text in detail to see if there were any specific refrerences to the painting of the rockers. There might be, as most of the prototype cars for the 113 had many different schemes. There was even one that showed the car in profile with Cadillac style fins on it!!

My US$ 0.02 for Wednesday

Jonny B
1967 250SL Auto

[n/a]

I watch with interest! And on the rocker colour issue, I don't think 'anal' comes into it - that comment was directed - by others, but I wish I'd had the courage earlier - elsewhere I am sure.

When I get the time (presently attending to a very 'dead' SL - maybe it was all that molestation after all!) I might look further into my own example (all references to mint, unmolested, nice, original, unrestored,  personal attacks etc have been carefully edited out for this posting) and get back to you with an honest, non-ego based (I have nothing to prove) feedback. I might even remove the covers to see if it can shed any more light on this seemingly perplexing subject!

Nevertheless I repeat what I said in reply to Douglas in another forum, which was "leafing through my Mercedes Gold Portfolio book, with reprints of original, unmolested articles and photographs, I see on pages 9, 21, 25, 26, 31, 32, 35, 41, 51, 59, 60, 61, 67, 74, 77, 85, 134, 147, 157, 158, 161, 162,165 and 172 clear photographs of other SLs that" ...also have contrasting sill or rocker panel covers. I have found this freely available book (try www.amazon.com, which was my source) invaluable and a fun, relevant (all period articles and pics), and relatively cheap read.

I deliberately did not include reference to photographs in which the contrasting shade (the book, after all, is all B&W) may have been due to lighting conditions. And if Michael's offerings are true, obviously retouching was a bigger employer in those days than photography or publishing!

Cheers to all.

Neil
'64 230SL with questioned dark blue rocker panel (sill) covers.
Point your browsers to www.realnoteguitars.com.au/merc to see all the non-flattering (yet controversial!) pics.

[Benz Dr.]

The covers were probably placed on the car after is was painted because you should be able to find body colour under the rocker cover. The body colour will show below the rocker cover when you look at the car from the side if you got ther paint all the way down to where it should be.

The rocker covers come in two ways:
 Painted black like any other body replacement part and covered with a light gravel guard in black just like the mud gaurds inside the front fenders. ( I've seen them coated and not coated too ) I've seen both as new parts shipped as LT and RT - both different and in the same shippment.

As the wiley turkey hunter said,
'' Never say always! ''

Daniel G Caron

[n/a]

To me this picture says it all.
Detail picture of: Dark blue sill cover on Horizon Blue unrestored '64 230SL

[Tom]

Neil,

Removing the Rocker Covers would destroy your original rubber seals.  The new seals do not have the same look/feel of the original (thinner and too much shine).  Unless you hav a rust issue to attend to, I would encourage you to leave those rocker covers on and as they are.

Best,

Tom

1971 280sl Tunis Beige Metallic (restored & enhanced)
1971 280sl Tobacco Brown (low mileage stock)
1970 280sl Deep Red (Project Car)

[Vince Canepa]

The rocker covers on my car are original and have never bee touched up.  They are exactly the same color as aussie230sl's.  I would descibe it as more of a gray than a blue.  The screws are exposed.

Details on that car and mine are very similar.  That is reassuring because I've tried to keep mine is as close to original as I could keep it and actually drive it for the 32 years I've owned it.

Vince Canepa
1967 250SL
113.043-10-001543
568H Signal Red
116 Caviar MB-Tex

[George Des]

Rocker covers on my 1967 230 Sl Euro were originally a gray color with a stoneguard finish. I know this is how it came form the factory since the car was never repainted before I got it in 1976 and had spent considerable amount of time garaged by the first owner--an Italian physician in Rovigo, Iatly. Under covers it is body color (DB-050). Over the years the covers have been refinished and are now black.

George Des

[Benz Dr.]

That makes sense. What we have here is something that was sort of black or dark gray when new but has since turned color and is more blue green now. As the under coating gets older it has a certain patina to it.

Daniel G Caron

[Mike Hughes]

quote:Originally posted by aussie230sl

To me this picture says it all.
Detail picture of: Dark blue sill cover on Horizon Blue unrestored '64 230SL

NOW I think we are getting somewhere!  It probably wasn't dark blue when it was new - it has simply aged to a bluish patina over time!  What I think I see in this picture is the original very dark gray material on the rocker cover that has uniformly leached a bit of its pigment over the years to the point that it now has a bluish tint to it.  This would be consistent with the overall untouched condition evident throughout the car in the photos on your site!  I have a British Racing Green 1967 MGB that has a similar issue.  The original paint has leached a bit of its pigment such that it now is a lot more "navy" showing through in some areas than it did when I bought it 30 years ago.

- Mike Hughes  -ô¿ô-
  1966 230SL Auto P/S
  Havanna Brown (408)
  Light Beige (181)
  Cream M-B Tex (121)

[Bob G ✝︎]

I tried to order new rocker panels from Mercedes-Benz when I got my car.Tom told me they do not come pre coated from the factory and that they have to be done at a body shop.
It seems over the years I have seen these rocker panels painted on early 230SL body color or black. or just faided with age. When the 350SL came out the rocker panels were black then changed to gray when Mercedes-Benz went to the 560SL.
I guess we would have to track someone down on the assemblie line in the 1960 to 1971 who worked on the cars and ask him?
Bob Geco


Bob Geco

[Benz Dr.]

They do come pre coated - I've seen this. Some don't, so it's right to say they don't. Just not always right or wrong.

Daniel G Caron