Dear Friends,
Modified
As most of you know, I have now sold the car in this project. I still have lots of stuff that needs a new home. Please look at my other post on my Pagoda Project.
Howard
The time has come to pass my 280SL project to the next caretaker. The VIN shows that this car was manufactured in September 1969 but is was not titled by the dealership until 1971. This is a 4-speed manual car in Tunis Beige that I purchased in 2001 with about 155,000 miles. At some time before I came along, it had received a new paint job and new leather seats. This is a complete car where everything worked, with both the hard top and convertible top. There are no indications of any previous accidents, that I have found. All the stainless steel trim is in good condition and the most obvious defects were that the plastic ring of one headlight has broken and the bumpers need to be re-chromed. This was a reliable car and a real joy for the many events that I attended with it.
What most could not see and I did not fully understand is that there was considerable rust damage to the floor panels and lower structure. I drove the car for about 13 years before I decided that the rust problems had to be addressed. As most of you know, rust problems on these cars are always worse than what you can see until you open it up. Then it was clear that this car needed a full restoration.
In 2014 I purchased a rotisserie, made custom mounts for a W113 and started the project. I invested in over $4500 in new sheet metal from K & K Manufacturing. I believe that now 80 to 85% of the metal work has been completed. Each area with any rust damage was removed and replaced including the frame structure under the doors and all of the floor panels. As I disassembled the car each piece that I removed was sandblasted and painted, including all parts of the front suspension and the rear axle. As the metal work progressed, each piece was prepared with weld-thru primer and all internal voids were treated with Eastwood Internal Frame Coating.
In preparation for starting reassembly, I have purchased many additional parts including:
- A complete rebuilt engine
- a 3.27 ratio rear axle, I will include the original 4.09 rear axle
- All new components to rebuild the front suspension
- A complete new stainless steel exhaust system
- Tachometer and speedometer and other instruments were restored
- A new fuel quantity sending unit
- New brake calipers, disks, pads and brake lines
- New shock absorbers
This project stalled when my late wife became ill and I was just never able to get started again. I am now 82 and have had to realize that I will not finish this project.
I want all the tools that I have acquired for this project to go with the car including:
- The rotisserie with custom mounts for the W113 body
- An engine mount
- An Eastwood 200 amp MIG Welder
- A 2 ton cherry picker engine hoist
- A bench mounted drill press
- A sandblasting cabinet
- A large pressure sandblaster with personal protection equipment
- A Steel cutting chop saw
- Sheet metal tools, metal shear, break, shrinker and stretcher
I know that i have over $25,000 involved with this project to this point. I will offer this entire project for $15,000 or best offer.
I live in the Atlanta, GA area. Please contact me at 770-401-6677 or howard.long@ymail.com
