Restoration Difficulty Level

[Valvechatter]

Nice work on the bumpers Andy! That front bumper installation does look great.
Lin

[mdsalemi]

Andy, there are specialty wheels/abrasives suited for SS/Inox…if you don't use them it's a tough go. It's never an easy chore but the right wheel makes it a bit better.

[andyburns]

Cheers Michael,  I used sandpaper!  Pretty dumb ass dont you think?

[andyburns]

LICENSE PLATE LENS

My new rear license plate lens turned up this morning.  The old ones were probably the original ones that it left the factory with and were totally disintegrated.  Given the outcome of the sale at auction of the two black 300sl's highlighted on this web site I wondered if I am actually devaluing the car by replacing them. 

The new lens had one of the corners beveled off so the first mind teaser was which way around they were suppose to be oriented in the rubber gasket.  The only clue I found was a small hole cut through the rubber which would avoid being obstructed by the lens if the beveled edge was positioned in the same corner.  The hole didn't appear to be used for anything.

The next issue was that I was sure there was a chrome external cover which mated up to the lens to give a nice aesthetic.  The 108's have this but the plate lens face upwards and can be seen.  I searched for a couple of hours turning my parts stash upside down but couldn't find anything.  I am still confused if I have missed something.

I forged ahead and mounted up what I have.  The lens just seem to poke out of a rectangular sheet metal cutout and doesn't look quite right.  There is also a flap on the rubber seal which seem to come down and obscure almost half the lens.  I am not sure if I have this oriented correctly as well and also not sure what its purpose is.  Is it suppose to seal the chrome cover I am missing? 

Replaced all the screws with stainless.  All screws under this ledge were absolutely rotten.   

If anyone can check and see if I have stuffed up anything around these components I would be appreciative.

While I was fitting all this stuff up I was having a close think about what rots the rear double section panel directly below the bumper.  I am picking that water leaking through all the fixing holes on the rear panel pooling in between the inner and outer skins is the culprit.  After contemplating this I unmounted quite a few pieces from the rear section and dabbed in some clear silicon around the holes to ensure they are reasonably water tight.

[Garry]

Hi Andy,

No chrome cover, you are right.

Garry

[andyburns]

Cheers Garry,  appreciate it.  Every other aspect of the car has beautiful level of detail.  This one surprises me.  Just doesn't seem up to Mercedes quality.  Guess its because its o an unseen surface.  Suppose after all it is a SL and unnecessary weight is the enemy.

[jameshoward]

I agree. It does seem a little cheap. I replaced mine a few years ago. The original glass was broken. One needs to go carefully screwing up the new one. The replacement plastic parts are easily cracked. A dab of silicone is a good idea. 

I recall that on my first attempt at re-assembly I managed to get the rubber mount entirely outside of the chrome rather than correctly inserted. It stayed like that for about 4 years before I realised what I'd done.

[andyburns]

James,  I had quite a few difficulties getting them to sit in place correctly to.  There is bugger all clearance and after about 10 attempts to get it to slot in correctly I resorted to using swathes of dish washing liquid to lubricate its path.  This made it a doddle and it slipped right on in.  Without it the rubber kept on jumping out of the housing which is what it sounds like you encountered.  I think if you screwed up the plate with the plastic not seated you would definitely be at risk of cracking it. 

[andyburns]

Had another morning in the bead blaster cleaning up the aluminum exhaust heat shields.  One of them shields the fuel tank.  The other bolts up under the passenger seat.  Not sure exactly what this ones primary purpose is.  They both came up trumps after a lick or of the high speed silica.  I have a problem with one of the standoffs for the rear shield.  The mounting bolt rusted up and the head snapped off so I had to drill off the head to get it off the car some 8 months ago.  Now trying to repair it.  Managed to drill out the majority of the old fixture and have given it to my good mate Rodger to run a tap through.  Should be good as new after he has finished.  Also had some interesting guests to come and look at the car this weekend.  One turned up in a late model yellow Lambo.  Very different type of car from the one they came to view!   Quite strange how your ideas change over your life time.  Once upon a time I used to have posters stacked up on my wall of the Lamborgini Contach.    Don't get me wrong I still love them and admire the engineering and build quality but they just aren't my cup of tea any longer.

[andyburns]

Another load of stuff turned up from Buds this morning.  Quite frustrating as the one part I really wanted was the seals for the window wiper spindles.  It didn't turn up in the last shipment so David sent them again.   All in all I have been waiting over three months for these parts.  Now they are here I cant make heads nor tails of how they relate to the car.  They didn't turn up in a mercedes packet so I am thinking they are decidedly aftermarket.  To be honest they look like plumbing washers you could source at any local hardware store. 

I would really appreciate if any of you who have replaced these could let me know whats going on.  I hope one of you can make a fool of me as I really really dont want to wait another month!

Two of these rubber washers turned up.  They were solid rubber where what I scraped from the car seemed to be a double edged molded unit.  The inside diameter seems to be exactly the same as the inner wiper shaft.  I was expecting that it would be the same as the outer hollow tube which protrudes through the firewall so it could be slipped over and seal up against the paint work and the large washer which is clamped against it with the large nut.

Any idea appreciated.  Should I go to the classics center?

[andyburns]

Horn Button Repair - Part 1

I started the refurb of the horn button the other day by pulling it apart and sending the inner and outer ring off to the chrome platers.  They quoted me 80 NZ dollars for both pieces.  New early buttons are running at 500US plus now so any saving is good.  Also get to choose the quality and texture leather exactly matching the rest of the car. 

I have done a couple of these buttons before and have learnt from my mistakes.  Each one has got better and better so hopefully this one will be the best yet. 

First thing I learnt from the W108 buttons, which I think are identical, is that you have to get rid of the old cracked outer plastic shell of the old button.  If you dont two detrimental things may occur.  The first is that if there are any cracks in the plastic the leather will sink in and look terrible.  If the inner pad is also cracked you will run into the same problem unless you fill it.  I would personally keep on searching for a better uncracked second hand pad.

The second and more frustrating problem is that if you add to the plastic shell you end up with tolerance issues and the outer and inner chrome rings may not fit properly or at all.

It only takes a few minutes to slice off the outer shell with a knife.

The next important trick is to then glue the pad onto the plastic backing plate.  This allows much better control when stretching the leather on.  Even if you leave the outer shell on and glue over it the pad is still quite flexible and is difficult to get just right as its constantly flexing as you pull and stretch the leather.

[andyburns]

Horn Button Repair - Part 2

Now ready to mount the leather.  I have elected not to use a tool to clamp the leather into the center cavity.  I have found from trial and error it tends to pinch the leather (see photo) which makes your job much harder for the surfaces that face the driver.  I think its much better to glue the major surfaces and then concentrate on the tight corners latter. 

The Ados goes off very quickly so you need to have all the required steps in your head to work through before you start or you end up with a paintbrush lifting and re-gluing bits and pieces.  Very messy and fiddly.  Best to get it right first time!

[andyburns]

Horn Button Repair - Part 3

Once the leather is basically in place worked quickly to pat down all the main surfaces.  Important to do this as it makes working and stretching the leather into the center recess much easier.   Another important point is that you don't have to get the edges perfectly cut.  It pays to cut as little as possible until the glue has dried.  Trim up the edges last and make sure before you begin that you have the right overlap and don't come up short.  The stretching process eats up a surprising amount of the overlap. 

I allowed for a couple of cm extra on the outside edge.  Also when you cut the initial relief cut in the center that you are careful not to go to far.  If you do the edge of the cut will be pulled up the pad during stretching and possible be visible once the inner ring is pressed in.  Remember that when this chrome ring is put in further stretching takes place.  I got caught out with this one on my first pad attempt.

Until the chrome turns up the only other thing I can do now is sort out the center lapel.  Scrape off the paint and respray in black gloss.  Will document this when I get around to it.

[Valvechatter]

Great documentation on the horn pad fix, Andy! Thanks for your effort.
Lin

[andyburns]

No worries Lin, hopefully its of use to someone.  There is already another description of how to do this in the technical section but it requires a special tool.  I thought I would just chuck and alternative method into the mix that is hopefully a bit quicker and easier.  The whole thing only took about 30 minutes so not exactly rocket science.   

[andyburns]

Had a great day out with my son at a local annual car show held here in Auckland NZ called the galaxy of cars.  Typically get over 1000 cars in the show with the Mercedes club putting up a good show with around 40-50 cars including 6 pagodas and a beautiful 300sl roadster.    I didn't take my camera so cant share with you guys unfortunately.

Got home after seeing 'working' pagodas and roused up some motivation to go and try and get some more work done.  Decided to try to get the heater control cables in again.  I have been struggling with the little clips that hold the cables down for days now.  I just couldn't get enough force to clip them home on the tabs as they just bent went I applied force.  Tried all sort of things including buying special bent long nose pliers etc.

I had an epiphany moment and solution came to me in a few microseconds.  Bizarre that I hadn't thought of it before.  Really feel quite stupid but may as well share all the same.  I am sure you will have a laugh.  See photo for the simple workaround. 

I used the marks on the cables where the clips had been previously clamped as a datum for re-clamping.  The biggest risk here is not getting enough length on the sheath for the lever end to home into the square lugs.  If you were putting in new cables I would start at the lugs and work backwards toward the motor. 

Anyway its all bolted back up and working now.  Quite a good feeling as the levers were the first thing I restored just over a year ago.   Was a bit of a time for reflection,  looking back quite a lot of water has gone under the pagoda.

[andyburns]

Trying to get back on track with goal of one part refit per day average.  Though I had an easy target today with the clutch master but proved a bit tricky with the pipework.  Everything went back in very smoothly until I tried to fit the high pressure pipe up.  Originally there was a cut out in the firewall mat so it sat flush with the carpet.  I replicated this but then still had issues getting the fitting to thread.  Quite a few swear words latter I manage to tweak the pipe to get it to an acceptable fitment.  I have no idea why it didn't just drop in until I compared the old cylinder when had slightly different dimensions and relative fitting locations.  The high pressure outlet pipe is quite thick and needed quite a bit of force to tweak.  No big drama and another job done and dusted.

[andyburns]

Moved on to looking at the gear shift rubber seals.  This one mystified me.  David from Buds insisted that there were two seals underneath the plate.  I could work it out until it arrived and I sized things up.  Take a look at the photos and tell me if I have this one correct.  Seems both of them fit up into the plastic cover than bolts up from inside the cockpit.  The last photo is what I scraped off several months ago.

[Larry & Norma]

Hi Andy, just thought that I would mention but you are probably aware that dishwashing  liquid contains
an awful lot of salt. Be sure to wash it all off after use. Bought a car once that turned out to be washed with dishwasher liquid
regularly, when the windscreen had to be replaced there was very little metal left to hang it on
Moved that one on pretty quick
I use a product called 'Hellerine' which is mainly used for threading cables through tight places, works well.

[andyburns]

Cheers Larry.   That is sound advice indeed.  I didn't know that it had salt in it but I have been very conscientious to wipe it off.   Think I will get away with it but always worth thinking about.   I used to use lanolin but ran out.

[Garry]

Andy

Two door handle barrels in the mail today for you.

Garry

[andyburns]

Thanks Garry.   Really appreciate your help.   I will be sure to document the process of swapping over the pins and the reassembly in the coming weeks.  Hope i get to repay your kindness by at least shouting you a beer at some stage.  In the mean time if i can help you out in any way just shout out.

[andyburns]

Air Filter Refurb

Picked on something which I knew would get my daily part refit tally up very quickly.  Rodger who is also a member in here and drives a beautiful 280, dropped off some pre cut filter material from a commercial air con unit.  His industry so he knew his stuff when it came to this sort of material.  Its been sitting around for months waiting me to catch up on the refit.  Today was its day!

I think this is nice simple way to save a few dollars.  Guess there is all sorts of material you could use effectively.  Even open cell foam would do the job.  Anything that breaths I guess.  Just lucky that Rodger has supplied me the Rolls Royce of filter materials for free!

Drill the rivets and pushed through the new ones with a close fitting washer on the opposing side for the rivet to bit down on and clamp the material to hold everything together in the same way the old flat heat rivet did.

All in all a five minute job that save 50 or 60 US.  Good hourly rate as they say!

Fitted it all up now as I am pretty much well done with all the vent control cables.  Finished them all off with a smear or 5 of sealer all over the firewall seals.  This was how I found it when it came apart and I am sure it was all factory.  A few others in here have supported that notion which is good enough for me to run with.

[andyburns]

Started looking at the air scoop.  Fitted up the window washer squirter.   When I pulled it off it didn't have any form of rubber gasket under it between it and the paint job.  It had formed quite an impression in the paint after being clamped so hard with the factory steel spring clip.  I figured there was suppose to be some sort of gasket there and went and looked at all my W108 which all had pretty much the same setup with and identical squirter and all having a rubber seal.  I stole the one off my parts car and fitted it all up.  Can anyone tell me if this is correct for the 113.

Cleaned up the chrome 'mouth' in anticipation of the final fit.  I really really take great pleasure in seeing these sorts of bits back up on the car even though its only a trial.  I got really carried away, and like a drug addict to a big pile of free cocaine just couldn't resist the urge of digging a correct clock out of the 'ready to go in' parts pile and trail fitted that as well.  Must say it made me happy.. pointless but really happy.  Seeing familiar features that classically define the car one by one reappear really has given me a huge boost.  

Cant wait to start glueing up the leather!

[Garry]

Mine doesn't have a seal nor did my 280