I’ve had my car, a late 1968 280SL with manual transmission (VIN 6581), for a year now, which overlaps pretty much with this very strange period of worldwide illness and quarantine / on-and-off lockdown, and political new ground.
During that time, this is what happened to the car:
- broke-in the engine, which had been entirely renovated by the PO after a high rev incident that resulted in a damaged piston and rod; retorqued the head and adjusted the valves (the latter two were done by a mechanic)
- restored the cold start system to normal (it wasn’t working at all); turned out the wires to the TTS had been switched (G to W and vice versa), and the CSV was plugged by 50 years of debris and a decomposed seal ring
- worked on the ignition: dialled correct program into 123 distributor (it was using E instead of
, fine tuned the timing (off by about 10°) and changed the coil from blue to red (no more backfiring when decelerating, smoother acceleration, a bit more oomph)
- changed all the bulbs to LEDs (save the instruments and gauges), which required installing a new flasher for the direction lights
- restored the headlights flasher function (disabled from factory for US cars) by adding the necessary wires to the wiring harness and pins in the connector under the steering wheel
- checked, cleaned and protected (with silicon spray) all the accessible parts of the wiring harness/connectors/pins throughout the car
- cleaned all the outside lights (lenses and reflectors) and replaced a reflector for right hand side front direction light
- renovated the windows winding mechanisms (both sides), as the windows would ‘pop out’ of the rubber tracks at speed (a little bit like Dumbo) and otherwise rattled a little bit on bumpy roads; the jaws had fallen off inside the doors; cleaned, changed the plastic parts, lubricated, reinstalled, adjusted (an iterative process, to say the least, luckily converging towards the end!)
- changed door seals (the sound of a door closing went from a nerve rattling ‘clang’ to a more soothing ‘chonk’ accompanied by a tiny rebound) and checked or changed all the screws and bolt holding external parts and/or trim all around the car
- checked the cleanliness of gas tank, volume of gas flowing through IP
- generally familiarised myself with the car, its main organs and systems (nothing too hardcore yet, as I have no experience of delving into an engine, no tools, but luckily no need to do it so far)
Still to be dealt with (easy and cheap or not too expensive):
- strange reading of the revolution counter / tachometer (seems to be 20% higher than it should be)
- have the radio restored to full function (Becker Europa II Stereo, functioning but low output on only one canal)
- maybe improve the linearity of the gas gauge (although it is working mostly fine, it shows a lower level than actual once the needle reaches more or less half tank and lower)
- improve the glove box fitting in the dash board (I’ve already restored the open/close spring mechanism using the ‘copper pipe tip’ from the Tech Manual, but the fit is still to be dealt with)
Not so cheap:
- the chrome parts and paint are neither here nor there, not bad from 10 feet away, not great as you get closer (but there is no rust other than superficial, mostly on the underbody moving parts that come in contact with the elements, such as suspension wishbone etc.)
- the front hood shows signs of having suffered damage; it is the only part of the car which is not original, and the underside has quite a few dings, bumps and bends, although, remarkably, the outside is straight and the fit to the engine bay seems correct)
- soft and hard top are perfectly functional, but again not on par with the mechanical status of the car (impeccable) and the inside (not bad at all)
Altogether, I'm very happy with the car, have had a satisfying experience working on it (no disaster, no wishing I had left well enough alone, reasonable to complete success in making the hoped for improvements, some head-scratching moments, sometimes for days, leading to some interesting discoveries and learning opportunities), thanks in no small way to all the help I received from members of this forum, and look forward to making continuous improvements and enjoying this beautiful, sophisticated, old but noble combination of machinery and art.
And wishing all of you a very merry Xmas and Happy New Year, in spite of everything else, no matter the circumstances.
