Thank you Eric. I just spent about 30 minutes looking at the SLS catalog on line. My wife and I are of 100% German extraction, but unfortunately we did not listen when our grandparents were speaking in German! I was unable to find the rear fender trim pieces, but even if I did so, am not sure that I would have been able to figure out how to place an order. One of the girls in our art department manages German somewhat, so I may ask for her assistance next week. Contacting the fellow that makes the repros in Poland might be even more difficult, so I guess I will have to wait on KK-Mfg - they said the parts might be several months. Since the car can be reassembled without them, I guess I will wait it out. Either way, agree that these parts are required to keep the car as original as possible. While this car will not be judged, we still always attempt to keep our cars as original as possible.
We did body work (in our shop) on the rear fender bottoms and on the lower panel across the rear of the car below the deck lid. Patches were welded and smoothed over with real lead, so should last many years. We were careful to select the correct Mercedes color, which was the same color as used in 1985 when the car was repainted by R&D Auto in Cleveland, who serviced the car for the past 37 years. I enjoy documenting the history of all of our cars and have a folder to retain this information at work. Since Matrix furnished the paint and clear coat at no charge (we buy products from them), we will be featuring this cosmetic refurbishing in our spring catalog in a few months. I will let everyone know when this catalog is published in case any interest. We mail our catalogs free on request via 1t class mail. Catalogs are over 160 pages and generally have a feature article on one of our restorations, along with technical help.
Achim mentioned that I have the wrong seats in the car. How this ever happened and when is a mystery to me. Perhaps the seat wore out years ago and someone found a replacement set in a junk yard or something?? I posted these pictures before, but want to post them side by side to show the difference. The one with the 5 pleats was taken shortly after I purchased the car, and the picture with 4 pleats was taken after I sent the seats to a local shop to have them reupholstered. The seats in the 5-pleat picture looked good, but when the seat folded open, the stuffing was showing, as the material had rotted at that part. The other side had some worn areas too. While I am really unhappy that the local shop changed the pleat pattern slightly, I did use the original material that the previous owner (since 1975) provided. She had a sample cut out from the inside of the seat material and ordered a roll of the fabric material and the box was marked "Mercedes". Not only are the pleats wider from my local shop, the pleated area is thicker, but I will say it is more comfortable and the appearance is greatly improved.
History of this car to the best of my knowledge:
My wife and I bought this car at the Motorcar Portfolio auction in Akron, Ohio in the spring of 2012. After winning the bid, an older lady came up to us and said that she was the owner of the car since around 1975. She said that her husband had an office in Frankfort and bought the car from one of his clients, who purchased the car when new. The car is a German version of course, which in my opinion adds to the value and appearance as is fairly rare in the U.S. After buying the car, he shipped it to the U.S. and presented it to his wife as a surprise gift. It was sitting in the drive when she returned from shopping. She drove the car in the summer all of those years in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Since her husband died, she reluctantly decided to sell the car and was greatly relieved to meet my wife and I and that the car would be wall cared for and when we told her that it would be displayed in our car museum (
www.tipcars.us), she was even happier. She than gave us a very large pouch-type folder with all of the paperwork and all of the receipts for work done on the car and some photographs of the car when it was repainted in 1985. After this painting the car was entered in the big Autorama show in Cleveland, where it won first place in its class. This is a huge show, so such a win is quite an honor.
She said that most of the work done on the car was handled by R&D Auto in Cleveland (including the paint job in 1985 and a complete engine rebuilding around 2000). She mentioned that R&D auto was still in business and gave me the owner's name. We later contacted R&D and took the car to his shop to have a leaky (worn shaft) steering box replaced. He was able to locate a rebuilt box and there are no more leaks. He also told me that he had maintained the car for many years and that it was always a good runner. The oil pan gasket leaked somwhat, which we replaced in our shop before taking it to R&D for the steering box replacement. In reviewing the folder of receipts and information later, I added the total costs (over $27,000), which was more than the $23,500 we paid for the car at the auction! Most of the work over the years was done by R&D, alghough there was some exhaust work, some oil changes and batteries handled by others. Later she sent us the roll of seat material. At the time of purchase, one of the tail light lenses was broken (her neighbor backed into the car). She promised to bring a pair of lenses when received, as they were ordered from Germany at $710 each! About a month later, she and a lady friend drove from Cleveland to our shop in Canfield, Ohio and brought the lenses. We then showed her our car collection and her 280SL on display, which made her very happy.
So far, in addition to the above, we did the following: Changed all hoses under the hood and detailed the engine. Installed all new rubber grommets, etc on the engine compartment. In addiiton to having the seats reuphlolstered, I cleaned and tightened up the carpet, which had been replaced at one time and was like new, but needed some attention. We installed all new rubber gaskets on the doors, hard top and trunk. Tires had little wear, but for safety reasons were replaced with a set of Phoenix whiltwalls in the correct size from Coker tires. I researched the size and type of tires on this forum, so feel it is right. We pulled the brakes for inspection - no wear so we reassembled. The wheel covers were new, but the centers were not painted, which has now been done. We disassmbled the grille for cleanup and polishing and painted the black screen. The original German radio worked well, but antenna motor did not work, so we replaced it with a repro electric motor which worked perfectly (we wrapped up the original antenna motor and have it on shelf in our vintage parts department). The speedomter (Kilometers) quit working about a year ago, which we did not replace, as did not want to get into uncharted wates as yet. Same on the dash lights, which do not work, but will need to be fixed. Other gauges all work, as do the lights, turn signals, flashers, etc. I don't think the clock is working.
The rubber ribbed pads at the door entrance were worn and replaced. I did some minor repair of the black under the dash cover panels and both kick panels in front of each door. Door panels are excelent. The safety switch for the transmission did not work, so was replaced. We have been buying whatever we need from Millers in most cases. For painting we removed the hood, deck lid and hard top and trim, but did not remove the doors We cleaned the underside of the hood and deck lid to bare metal and repainted it in a satin black. We usually remove the entire body on cars with a frame, but of course did not do so on this car. We replaced the brake and gas pedal rubber pads. Steering is perfect and there are no rattles. We ordered in a new muffler and resonator which just came in and will be installed later. Inside the trunk and floorboards are good (no holes - some surface rust which we cleaned up and painted. The bumpers were good, but not perfect, so we ordered a new set of 4 from Miller's which are ready to install. No other chrome issues other than 2 strips on side of hard top which we did not yet remove. Underside of car is good - no holes or damage. When we do the exhaust we will clean it up, as I like cars to look good from below. Wheels were sandblasted and painted inside and out. Car still had the orginal correct jack and small Mercedes tool pouch and tools.
While it might not be perfect, it will be a beautiful car when finished and I will post plenty of pictures after we get it all back together. We are the 3rd owner of this car.
In addition to this Mercedes I have a 1962 220 SEb (hard top) with about 23K original miles in mint condition that I drive on occasion. At the present time it is in the brake shop for all new front disk brakes and new master cylinder. Other than that and some new (4 speed) transmission shift bushings which are being installed, the car is perfedt mechanically and appears to be like new, although the upholstery was replaced in original style and color. A picture of this car is attached. This car was purchased at the same Motorcar Portfolio auction at the end of the sale when almost all buyers either went home or ran ouf of money or storage space. We always stay to the very end and often come up with some unbelievable bargains. I call it "golden oppourtunity time". It had been for sale for $29.9 for 2 years and they let it go at no reserve at the last-minute. At only $10,000 feel that it was the bargain of the year for me.
Fritz
