Restoration Difficulty Level

[Larry & Norma]

Post the pics, there will be a lot of interest here

[andyburns]

After agreeing a price with the painter I transported the 230 to his shop only for him to insist that the price didn't include blocking down the car.  So have been making the pilgrimage in each day and also doing that job myself.  A bit nervous as I am not a painter and dont really have too much experience with blocking.  The finish will depend on if I have got it right or not.  Time will tell I guess. 

[kampala]

Very nice to see the continuing progress ... always a pain when an agreement with a shop gets a bend it (blocking).  Did you decide on the color?  Obviously its very personal ... I am clearly partial to silver after seeing one of our member's car in pristine condition at the Euro Event in Belgium last September ... I believe it had recently been repainted. 


best

[andyburns]

I have decided on MB180 silver gray with parchment interior.  Very unusual and probably would have been frowned on by the boffins at the factory.  

I have 6 litres of it sitting in the garage so am now committed.  I did a contra deal with the paint supplier and designed him a web site in exchange for all the wet materials required for the car.  

Very nice to see the continuing progress ... always a pain when an agreement with a shop gets a bend it (blocking).  Did you decide on the color?  Obviously its very personal ... I am clearly partial to silver after seeing one of our member's car in pristine condition at the Euro Event in Belgium last September ... I believe it had recently been repainted.  


best

[w113dude]

Andy,

About blocking, I wouldn't worry too much about it, if you have done any work on your car and are not the type to rush things you can do it, remember to use long solid flat blocks (specially on the doors) a good squeegee, 2500/3000 grit paper and lots of water, I bet within a couple of days you'll be done, at the end your arms and shoulders will be done too. but when it's completed and polished it's most rewarding.
I've done a few complete projects and I'm about to do my own 250, hopefully it will be done in a few weeks.
 
Cheers
Shaun

[andyburns]

In the final stages of painting and under the intense lights in the booth a few 'issues' on the bonnet were noticed.  Not what I needed.  Almost every bonnet I have seen on unrestored car has bubbling paintwork on the bonnet for one reason or another.  I was a bit worried that the problem was on the surface of the aluminum rather than an an issue with the paint so I made the call to pull the entire bonnet back to bare metal.  I turned out to be a good decision as all the bubbling was corrosion between the factory primer and the base aluminum.   Will give the bonnet one last scotch tomorrow morning and hit it with some 2k epoxy etch primer.  With Aluminum you need to paint within two hours of removing the oxidization or it will return and cause the same issues.  Should sort the issue once and for all!   Total prep time for the strip was 4 hours.  I used a total of 2 litres of paint stripper, a cup of thinners, half a cup of wax and grease remover and two scotch pads.

[andyburns]

Progress pic.  Interior now sporting a fresh coat of MB180.  Really happy I went to the trouble of getting the interior right.  Absolute nightmare cleaning and sanding up into all the tight corners under the dash. 

[gerster]

You're doing a fantastic job Andy!

Greetings: Ger.

[andyburns]

Cheers.  Just hope I get an ok result and do this little car the justice it deserves.  Cant afford to give it to the experts so am sure some of it will be sub par.

You're doing a fantastic job Andy!

Greetings: Ger.

[kampala]

Nice color choice ... this will be immaculate.   Thanks for the Play by Play.    After this restoration you may be moonlighting in Pagoda Restoration Business     

[andyburns]

Cheers Kampala, re the suggestion of going into the restoration business...  I think I would be looking for another wife if I did that.  I have promised that this is the very last one. 

Nice color choice ... this will be immaculate.   Thanks for the Play by Play.    After this restoration you may be moonlighting in Pagoda Restoration Business     

[andyburns]

Starting to come together.   Engine Bay, door interior and door jams all now have the final paint applied.  Cant wait till I cart the shiny shell home and put it back in the garage.  Should be another 3-4 days of work.

[Larry & Norma]

Very impressive, looking good.
Should there be an inspection panel on the right side of the transmission tunnel?
Or is that only on automatic cars?

[andyburns]

I know what your talking about but this early little 230 doesnt have one.  Must be a latter modification. 

Very impressive, looking good.
Should there be an inspection panel on the right side of the transmission tunnel?
Or is that only on automatic cars?

[andyburns]

Has anyone encountered issues with factory B pillar lead during restoration.    I used a 'professional' panel beater to help with some of the structural rust removal.  When I was not around he encountered the factory lead on the B pillar which he proceeded to melt out into a pool on the floor without first discussing the ramifications with me.  I didn't think much about it until 4 day ago when I went to mount my door in my well detailed, paint finished shell.  The striker plate was 5mm from where it should have been in relation to the door catch pin.  Additional striker plate shim simply wouldn't cut the mustard.  It would seem that the with the front and rear guard being welded in place at the factory the only adjustment to sort out this issue and door to guard gap issues is the use of lead on the B pillar.  I spent a great deal of time researching leading and modern bog technologies and finally decided that the ease of application and durability of the modern steel impregnated body fillers like Nu Tech would be a better replacement than lead.  I took everything back to bare metal and then put down a coat of epoxy 2k primer and started the very slow task of building up the B pillar.  The panel gap issues were quite easy to solve with a thin smear of filler.  The issue of the door striker was an absolute nightmare to sort.  The angle this plate needs to sit on seems to be critical.  It has taken a good two days working on the striker.  I have it sorted now.  Just wondering if anyone has hit this issues before and how they solved it.  Will post some photos if anyone is interested.  Last issue now sorted before final exterior blocking and painting can be done. 

[Larry & Norma]

Yes would like to see the photos.
Cheers

[star63]

I used lead to adjust the door gap. There is no filler or lead under the striker plate. Instead, there is a 1.5 mm shim plate on the right side - the driver's side needed nothing.


- Petri

[andyburns]

How do you know there was no lead under the shim and paint.  Looking at the photo I can see where the lead has been loaded at the base of the pillar.  On mine it was applied right up the face all the way to the top.  With all the lead melted out there was absolutely no chance of the striker plate hitting the mating pin correctly.  The tell tale giveaway is to remove the striker plate and carefully look at the holes cut in the pillar for the bolts to go through.  I could see the lead piled up at least 2-3mm under the plate.  The pillar also bore the original factory paint (and all the coat subsequent owners applied) so I know it must have been applied at the factory.

The photo you have posted looks as if it shows the lead at the base of the pillar where you have taken off the paint.  Its not that obvious unless you apply heat!

Has anyone else had to deal with this issue.  Perhaps because mine was such an early 230 that the factory hadn't quite got the jigs set up and used more lead to sort out production 'teething' issues.  I am picking after several years of production things would have been fine tuned and these type of tweaks would have been minimized.

I used lead to adjust the door gap. There is no filler or lead under the striker plate. Instead, there is a 1.5 mm shim plate on the right side - the driver's side needed nothing.


- Petri

[star63]

The lead at the lower corner was applied by myself.
I know that there is no lead under the striker plate because you can see (and measure) the thickness of the sheet metal when the striker plate is off.

[andyburns]

Looking at the paint on your pillar the guard has never been off either so must be factory. What was the original color of your car? Thanks for the photo by the way.  Really helpful trying to understand my current issues.

[author=star63 link=topic=18284.msg131540#msg131540 date=1373747637]
The lead at the lower corner was applied by myself.
I know that there is no lead under the striker plate because you can see (and measure) the thickness of the sheet metal when the striker plate is off.
[/quote]

[star63]

My car has been repainted more than once. The original color was G172. It was recently painted with 396. I'm currently putting it together after a 4-year "restoration".

[andyburns]

Have you been doing all the work yourself? Any idea of how many hours have been tied up to the point where you are putting things back together?  I have not been working for the past 6 months and have been doing more than 40 hours a week on average and am sitting at around 1000 hours just about ready for final paint.  Its twice what I had anticipated.  I am interested in how many hours it will take to reassemble as well.  I still have most of the bits going back in the car to restore/refurb.  I am thinking another 500 but that might be a bit optimistic.

My car has been repainted more than once. The original color was G172. It was recently painted with 396. I'm currently putting it together after a 4-year "restoration".

[star63]

Yes, I've done everything myself except the paint work, chroming and zink plating. When I bought this car in 2009 it was claimed to be "absolutely rust free". It sure looked nice but was actually very rusty when investicated deeper .
I ended up repairing or replacing all the floor pieces (including the trunk), sills, most of the cross beams, front fenders, inner front fenders with stiffeners, rear quarter panels, front piece etc.
At the moment, I'm upholstering the dash.

I don't have any log of my hours spent. 1500 hours might be close. I thought that the reassembly would be done in a couple of weeks but it really seems to take time to fit all the pieces properly.
I still have a few weeks left before the European anniversary event...

[andyburns]

Sounds as if you have been through the mill.  Would love to see some photos of your journey.  Can certainly appreciate the effort you have no doubt been too, especially if you have been doing this on top of your day job.  Certainly have a healthy respect for anyone who is capable of doing this.  Am interested to know if you would have ever started if you knew how much effort it would be.  I have been constantly pondering this over the past couple of months.  Am sure when the car is complete all the pain will be forgotten... kind of like child birth  

[pj]

Hi Andy,
amazing story and thanks for telling it in detail. It's inspiring to see all your hard work.

I have a quick question that I should have asked months ago. You did most of the work in your garage and you used a lot of chemicals. So what did you do with all the nasty stuff that didn't stick to the car? Did you let it go down the drain? Everyone's so worried about "being green" these days. I hesitate even to try and wash the greasy icky stuff away from underneath my 230SL because I don't want the dirty water running down my driveway and into the street and down the sewer.