Restoration Difficulty Level

[DaveB]

Still after all the effort I have gone to keeping it original..

So why not retain the manual steering? - it doesn't seem overly heavy to me

[andyburns]

Dave,  I may end up doing that.  I really want my wife to be able to easily drive the car.   I also have a friend who drove his manual non ps car for 3 years before converting it.  Around town he hated it when doing low speed manouvers and now that he has converted it will never go back again.  I am very very interested to here from other people who have had both options and can give me a better perspective.

[DaveB]

Fair enough - sounds like you are 90% there.

[spraydav]

I've just joined this forum after restoring a 230SL earlier this year for a client and totally appreciate what you've been going through!! I've been painting cars professionally for over 30 years but  nothing frustrates more than restoration projects, however, the sense of achievement when you've 'cracked it' is worth all the efforts.
 Things you would expect to take a couple of hours turn into marathons, (it took me 6 hours just to re-fit the door window regulator for example!) and everything seems to be fitted, checked, removed and re-fitted to ensure it's right, patience is a virtue!
 When we were doing the restoration we used      http://www.motoringinvestments.com/MainPage.htm    as an invaluable reference for originality, there's also a few  pics on my website of the car in progress and completed:           

http://www.matchboxrestorations.co.uk/     

 I've got loads more if anyones interested?

[andyburns]

Hi Spraydav.  The motoring investments site is indeed a very valuable source of information.  I have spent days and days looking over the photos.  I took a look at your site, very nice work indeed.  I would dearly love to kick my day job (software engineer) to the curb and restore these old beauties.  Don't think it would be economical though as things that take a professional restorer hours to do would take me days!  Nothing beats experience in any industry!

I spent four hour yesterday trying to reassbemble my door handle.  I had all the bits chromed and pulled it right down.  You need about four hands to put the thing back together!  Will post some pics latter in the day.  Still didn't work with something now wrong with the tumbler which no longer accepts the key!  Apart it all comes again and I will take the barrel down to the locksmith.  I could try and pull it all apart but think at this point I will bit my pride and take just that part to an expert for a further look.

[andyburns]

Can anyone help.  I took my tumbler to the locksmith this morning due to the key not fitting.  They think the tumbler has had it and I need another.  I have checked with a MB parts stockist here in Auckland and MB only seem to list the entire door handle.   All I need is a barrel that accepts a key and I can swap over my pins to get it going with my key.  If anyone has an old door handle floating around I would be happy to buy it off you.  To rub salt into the would I have discovered that I have almost spent the same amount re chroming what I have as a new handle is brand new.  Any help appreciated. 

[andyburns]

Just had a huge clean up getting reading for the next big push.  I came across all the bits and pieces I cut out of the car.  I dont know why I had kept them.  At the time when I cut all the bits and pieces out I thought I had one really terrible car.    My W108 had absolutely no rust in it at all.  Looking back now knowing what I do now I think comparatively  had very little rust.  The first photo below is of every bit I cut out.  Most of the repairs were where previous owner plated over rust to 'keep it going' or pass fitness tests.  It took me a good 4 months to put back these bits of metal back to the point you cant really notice the repair.  Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better to sacrifice some of the original spotwelds and have simply welded in new panels.  To late to worry about it now!  Have decided to throw all the bits in the bin and move on.

[Bonnyboy]

That's all you cut out of the car?  That would be considered a rust free car in many parts of the world

I love following your threads and admire your attention to detail.  Remind me to buy my next vintage car off you instead of the typical hack who thinks a restoration can be done with a wire wheel, yard of chicken wire, couple newspapers and a bucket of bondo. 

[andyburns]

Cheers Bonnyboy.  I still don't consider I am restoring rather than refurbishing.    I just hope what I have done will preserve the car for some time to come.  I think a proper restorer would not be patching like I have done but would strip entire panels out and replace them.  I really only started documenting the restoration on this thread well after I had done all the rust repairs.  I might put some up now to show the type of repair I employed.  Before I started the restoration I purchased a really tricked out little mig welder that you dial in the thickness of the steel and it sorts out all the wire feed speed and current.  This purchase paid for itself many times over and meant the welds were all nice and clean with minimal blow through.  My welding usually sucks really really badly but with these new welders alot of the guess work is taken away and the result is very clean and professional looking result.  Highly recommend for anyone wanting to take on repairs at home.  Including the gas bottle the entire set up cost about 2000 dollars.  When I have finished I will sell it and recover at least half of the investment.

[andyburns]

A few more pics of the final floor panel under the gas pedal.  Also another area I found rust tucked away in was inside the front guard above the rail.  I had a nasty decision to either take of the front guard to get at it or saw off the lower portion of the guard.  I choose the latter to preserve the spot welds.  The removal of the front guard would be a nightmare in any event with it being welded in dozens of locations to the body.  Dont think mercedes wanted this panel to come off... ever.  So off came the lower portion of the guard.  Gave good access to the rusty area.  Once the new steel was welded in I decided to go overboard and put about 5 coats of POR15 on the bare steel.  I never never never want to have to go back in here again.  Even after the guard section was welded back on I managed to get my hand in from the tyre well and paint another couple of coats over the burnt weld sites.  After this I then blew two or three coats of wirth stone chip to reproduce what the factory put in there.  On top of that I ended up also painting over the silver body color and also a coat of clear.  So fingers crossed it wont rust again.

[andyburns]

Some other photos I thought you guys might be interested in as well.  Fuel tank was actually quite good when I got it but as with all my other cars I got it acid pickled to take out all rust and scale inside out.  It showed up some pretty wacky repairs from previous owners.  A few dents from the car backing into things.  Not too deep but someone has decided to bog it up.  I pulled all this out and got a friend of mine to pull out the dents with an awesome little tool which welds small sections of wire to the surface which enable you to get a puller on.  After you have finished you simply carefully grind off the stems.  Sealed the tank really really well on the inside.  I think quite a few fuel issue with the engine can be traced back to rust scale getting sucked through.  I hopefully have set this tank up for another 50 years of use.

The other photos show the rest of the floor pan which was really in outstanding condition for its age.  Only sections worked on were the gas pedal and the section under the passenger seat.  All the rest was mint.    Seam sealed everything three or four times and then top coated the whole lot one last time with the epoxy primer.  I was actually stunned at the lack of protection the factory put on the floor panels.  In some places there was only a dusting of primer and then they slammed over the bitumen matting. 

I have been searching for a long time for the 'correct' bitumen mat to put back down.  Recently found something very close to the original which I will detail in the next couple of weeks.  I know a lot of people don't put this back and use modern equivalents but I am shooting for as close to factory as possible.

[star63]

Very nice work!

I also, would call that a really well preserved car with only minimal rust...

- Petri

[tel76]

Andy your inbox is full

[andyburns]

Big push to get all the sound dead material in the cabin ready for the interior refit.  Took about 8 hours to get 80% of it down.  Lots of templates.    I used a German product from Wurth which was as close to what came off as possible.  Its about .6mm thinner than the original but will probably be ok.  I may even put down some fat mat to really cut the cabin noise down.    The first photo is the car with the remnants of the original material.

[andyburns]

Also worked on the cars dog tags today.  The firewall plates are always hard to get looking good.  I really put a lot of effort into getting it half decent as I am loathed to put in some tacky recreation.  I have seen some shockers!

The photo below shows a 1971 W108 tag which was in about the same condition as the fresher looking 1964 sl tag.  I used 2000 grit wet sandpaper to linish off all the oxidization and then polished with a very fine cutting compound to try and bring back some of the lettering.  It did take a little of the black background off but at least you can now read most of the tag.  Then sealed it all in with a good quality 2k clear coat.

I can now tick this off and move on my new diamond firewall pad.  Good to start putting stuff back on.

[getsmart]

Hi Andy been watching your thread with keen interest. Great job !!! My car is 113.042-20-002726. Only 8 difference !!!! Thats puts our cars in around March 1964 build !

Here's my progress but I've gone slow in the past 6 months, waiting for that 2nd wind !

www.getsmartpagoda.tumblr.com

Regards, Joe

[andyburns]

Joes, thats really neat.  It even looks as if your car is the same color as mine (originally I mean).  I am interested to see if this is the case.  Light Red was a very rare and unpopular color.  The factory discontinued it after two years.  I struggled with not going back to that color and even had some mixed up and sprayed onto quite a large test card.  I quite liked it but have always lusted after a silver pagoda.  Was quite an epic mind bend trying to decide on which way to go.  Are you going to leave the car red?  Would love some photos of it before you started pulling it apart. 

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Andy, you are doing a fine job! Cannot wait to see the end results

[andyburns]

Cheer Rolf,  It might be a while till you get to see it finished but hopefully I have entertained you with my babbling commentary along the way.

This morning I have been fitting up the diamond firewall pad.  Not perfect but its quite presentable me thinks.   Threw in a couple of pics for everyone and also included one of the front suspension wishbones... just cause I thought it looked cool!

[getsmart]

Hi Andy, mine was signal red 568, with interior trim of white-grey mb-tex...

I don't have any before pictures as I purchased mine when it had already been stripped (unfinished project). It was owned by a panel beater who had a bad accident and wasn't able to complete the project.

What colour code was yours ?

I'm undecided what colour to paint it in. i'm leaning to silver (like yours ) but was thinking black initially. THe color choice does not hit me between the eyes yet !

Regards, Joe

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Andy, pictures look cool, keep them coming ... You know what they say one picture is worth 1000 words and you know what it's true 

BTW ... I also had a 2002 ///m3 e46 sold her in 2010 ... Still kicking myself that I did that, more now then last year since the 280 SL is giving me more fun then my now DD a e92  ///m3

[GGR]

Nice! It's coming together!

Is that a BMW M10 motor I see in the background? Out of a 2002 TI?

[andyburns]

Thanks guys.  Love getting feedback from you all.  The engine in the back is indeed a bmw m10.  Have been building it since I was in my early 20s.  Strange the way your tastes change.   Almost seems offensive to me now.  Radical schrict 316 duration cam and weber sidedraft 48s.

[andyburns]

Cloud 9..... that's what I am on!

Thanks to this forum and the fantastic support I have had,  I have finally tracked down a fabled 217 rhd pitman arm which is currently winging its way to me from the UK.  Think I would have given up this restoration without you guys.  Sincerest appreciation!  I don't want to jinx anything at this point but am certainly excited about the prospect of this particular package turning up on my door step.   Can now go ahead and get the steering shaft cut by 40mm.    Huge!

[66andBlue]

Andy,
before you get off cloud 9, reward us for all the free advice you got and join us as a full member. 
I bet you'll get even more!