Author Topic: 1964 230SL restoration in UK (Read 255671 times)

Jonny B · « **Reply #225 on:** October 24, 2015, 17:05:55 »

Garry, sure do like your car's pajamas! Classy

Garry · « **Reply #226 on:** October 24, 2015, 20:55:49 »

Jon,

Pagodas in Pajamas. Its amazing how much crap the jammys collect on them.

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #227 on:** October 25, 2015, 07:28:54 »

So it looks like I'm missing quite a lot then, more good news!

Garry what are they made of? Do you think they are chromed brass/steel or do you think they are aluminium.

I have emailed Shaun at MB to see if they are available so might have some luck there, if not I'll have to see what I can find.

Garry · « **Reply #228 on:** October 25, 2015, 07:35:56 »

Scott,

I think they are chromed steel. Also what do you have on the A pillar, there is some chrome there that is not on the late 250 and 280’s as well.

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #229 on:** October 25, 2015, 13:04:07 »

All I have is what you see in the picture. There is the chrome wrap around piece on the upright and the weatherstrip channel.

What else should there be? I wouldn't mind seeing a few close up shots of what the inside leather covered trim should look like.

66andBlue · « **Reply #230 on:** October 25, 2015, 17:08:58 »

Scott,
do NOT look at the 280SL, you'll just get confused.
Garry's photo shows exactly what you are missing, a wide trim piece that slips over the one you do have. I have marked it with red arrows.
Notice that your holders for the visors and the lock for the top are sitting on the trim whereas in Garry's photo they are kind of incorporated with the missing piece.
There is also a piece missing under the lock - can see it?

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #231 on:** October 25, 2015, 17:51:11 »

Yes I can see what Garry is referring to. It is listed on the sls website but not available. I will see what MB come up with. I was interested to see what Garry was referring to on the A-pillar, I didn't think I was missing anything from there, mind you I didn't know I was missing anything from the windshield so that doesn't count for much.

Garry · « **Reply #232 on:** October 25, 2015, 21:28:04 »

Scott,

Here is another photo of the top and also one of the A Pillar to ensure you have the pieces for that as well.

When SLS indicate that they don’t have the item it often means that MB is selling it. Those small end pieces come up on eBay sometimes.

Hope that helps

Garry

Jon, Bella will start complaining I keep pulling her Pajamas off!!!!!

66andBlue · « **Reply #233 on:** October 25, 2015, 22:43:55 »

Here is one third of what you want: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221717184111
plus another quarter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/351343826897
Shoot Sam at EUROCARS an email and ask him for a package deal!

And here is a bidding alternative: http://www.ebay.de/itm/272027010741

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #234 on:** October 26, 2015, 05:16:49 »

Thanks Alfred. I had seen the corner trim on there but not the piece that goes behind the latch. I already have the latches and they are away being plated.

Garry I am missing those upright pieces too......

Will see what Shaun from MB comes up with, then Tom at the classic centre, then ebay and here....

Benz Dr. · « **Reply #235 on:** October 26, 2015, 14:04:43 »

Quote from: mnahon on October 19, 2015, 12:14:36

Thanks very much Scott. Those pictures can be very useful to understand the inside construction and the potential rust areas.

I think this is a rust area/path that is not well understood because it's hidden. My own hypothesis is that the water originates from the soft-top box and, due to improper drainage, ends up inside the rockers. Once inside there, it ends up pooling at one of the ends, depending on whether the car is tilted nose up or down. As far as I know, there are no drain holes from the inside of the rocker; so once there, the water has a long dwell time. (The drain holes visible from outside are to drain the water that is between the rocker and rocker cover).

Meyer

The rockers do have drain holes front and rear. They're about 5 mm so they can plug plug up easily. Repro rockers don't have these holes so they should be added during replacement.

cabrioletturbo · « **Reply #236 on:** October 26, 2015, 15:48:53 »

Dr. Benz, could you provide a picture or description where those holes are supposed to be?
Thanks.

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #237 on:** October 26, 2015, 18:42:57 »

Yes it would be useful to see a picture of where the drain holes should be.

I haven't heard back from Shaun about the missing windshield trim but the classic centre say it isn't available so I am not too confident that he will be able to help. I have sent an email to euro car parts to see if he has any more to go with the ones listed on ebay, and I have put a wanted ad in the classifieds, Garry I used your pictures, I hope that's OK.

Still can't decide on colour, I have samples of all 3 contenders now and have shown them to a few friends and the general consensus is to go with the original burgundy red, much to JamesL's delight...I have been trawling the web for pictures of cars in this colour and have found a few, I must admit I'm starting to lean a little this way myself. I don't know really how much it may or may not affect the resale value of the car by not being in it's original colour.

Whilst I am not doing this to sell I guess it has to be a consideration, I am changing a few things on the car from factory spec anyway, ie USA to euro headlights, euro rear number plate trim, and probably leather trim over MBTex, and of course the 5 speed transmission, so I guess the whole originality thing has gone for a ball of chalk to a certain extent, although it would be relatively easy to change all that back with the exception of the interior material, but I wonder would anybody bother?

Anyway I can't make up my mind and the way it's going I don't need to decide any time soon.....

mnahon · « **Reply #238 on:** October 26, 2015, 18:53:21 »

Hi Dan, I would also be extremely interested to figure out where these drain holes are supposed to be. If you give me a text description (e.g. distance from rear of front wheelwell; distance from front of rear wheelwell; and distance from the bottom of the rocker), I can try to get a picture from Stick's archive and sketch in the holes to see if you agree with the placement.

Thanks,

Meyer

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #239 on:** November 02, 2015, 20:46:15 »

I got the horn pad finished up tonight. I tell you nothing went easy on that job, you would think swapping an emblem would be the simplest thing but it was a bear from start to finish. Looks nice now though.

I'm hoping to start on the bodywork proper this weekend.

star63 · « **Reply #240 on:** November 02, 2015, 21:54:38 »

I don't know how many tabs you broke of the emblem bezel (I broke one of mine). But your steering wheel looks absolutely perfect!

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #241 on:** November 03, 2015, 07:55:30 »

Thanks Petri

I broke a couple of tabs but in the end wound up cutting them all off anyway. I was really struggling to get the emblem and ring into the new horn pad as the hole is slightly too small for it and needed heat, when I pushed the emblem in to place the chrome ring came off and by then the emblem was stuck in and not going anywhere. I cut the tabs off and filed them smooth, heated up the pad again and managed to get the chrome ring on but it was really tight and very hard to get in, it's not going anywhere now though.

I got these a while back, my rear floor pieces are in pretty sorry shape and I was going to make new ones then saw these on ebay, they were removed from a new car in 1971 and stored since then, they are absolutely like new!

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #242 on:** November 05, 2015, 20:01:49 »

So this is the culmination of several weeks in my garage in the evenings having catalogued all the various fasteners and wotnot ready for plating. I have everything pretty much ready to go now, there's a lot of stuff there!

I'm past the point of no return now with regard to nuts and bolts, I had each set neatly labelled in bags with their location written on and then separated into sections, engine bay, suspension, etc etc, now they are all in one big box ready to go to the platers. I should imagine the bill for plating will be fairly stiff but I'm immune to it now.

What I do have though is a 40 page document listing where they all go, the sizes, and what each component uses, along with around 800 photos.....I tell you digital cameras have changed my life!

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #243 on:** November 05, 2015, 20:03:38 »

Here's a few more of various bits ready to be plated.

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #244 on:** November 05, 2015, 20:19:50 »

My Getrag got a clean bill of health from Neil at All-gears so they are going to press on with the rebuild of the transmission, it really only needs a freshen up, new bearings and synchros etc. So with that news I ordered the conversion kit from Mark Turnbull which arrived today. I have ordered the new mounts and coupler from BMW too so should have those next week. All-gears are going to have the casing vapour blasted for me too, and have the fasteners yellow plated so they tie in with everything else on the car.

I'll have the cross member powder coated satin black and I think I'll get the adapter plate yellow plated so it all looks a bit more like it should be there. I'll have a look at it when the transmission is in but I have half an idea to try and get hold of another factory transmission cross member and cut it down so it can be fitted along with the new 5 speed cross member, just a thought at the moment.

My clever scheme of buying the car and removing the gearbox then selling the car on wasn't so clever after all and blew up in my face a little bit....So I reckon that extra gear will have cost me about £2500 at the end of it, that was around the same as the kit to put the 5 speed in the mustang, but that was with a brand new T5 transmission, and the clutch, pedal box etc, I did look at the 6 speed option that I've seen advertised which I think was around $7000, so I guess I'm still on the right side of things..

We put a 6 speed into an early Corvette several years back and I didn't like it, the ratios were so short you were constantly changing gear and couldn't get in to 6th unless you were doing around 100mph, by which time you were too terrified to remove your hands from the steering wheel to change gear anyway. We have fitted lots of 5 speeds to Vettes and I think they are about perfect given the rear end ratios which seem similar to the Mercedes ratios of the day.

I sure hope I like this car at the end of it....

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #245 on:** November 05, 2015, 20:50:48 »

I just got a message from my chrome plater, one of my dash vents tried to kill the polisher so I need another, anyone got a spare???

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #246 on:** November 06, 2015, 20:30:35 »

We got some sandblasted parts back today and amongst them were my heater box, the new battery tray, the replacement alternator mount, courtesy of Naj, and all the aluminium parts that weren't up to par the last time. They have come out really nicely now so that is all very pleasing, another task that can be ticked off the list.

It's all a pretty slow process really, if only everything was like it was on TV, I'd have had this done in 7 days....

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #247 on:** November 10, 2015, 06:10:13 »

I made a proper start on the sheet metal repairs on Saturday. First job was to get the body levelled up on the cradle which took a while. That may prove to be unnecessary but nice to have a good level datum to work from. I was unsure if I would have to get new toe boards or not so the first job was to remove the foremost part of the front floorpans to see if they were rotten where the two pieces joined. I had already cut a section out that was rusty to have a look inside the rockers. I may wind up replacing the bottom portion of the RH front but the drivers side seems ok and is just a little bent out of shape where I guess someone tried to jack the car up.

I also drilled the spot welds from the drivers side front floor to the rocker to see what that portion of the rocker was like and it seemed good. I wasn't sure how high up I would need to go on the repair of the rocker but I think I can keep it all pretty low and just replace the very bottom section all the way along rather than the whole thing.

I was going to get these:

http://www.sls-hh-shop.de/230-280SL-R113/62-Rohbau-Karosserie/61-Blechteile-Bodengruppe-230SL-250SL-280SL/Rep-Unterteil-Laengstraeger-li-Rep-Unterteil-Laengstraeger-li.html

Anyone got any experience of these? My only concern id that the profile is different to original and may cause me problems, it is either that or I make a former and get a piece bent to pattern, that would take longer and cost more but at least I know it would fit straight up.

I then started to look at the area under the rear parcel shelf. This is where quite a lot of the problems are on my car, in that floor area and the part of the frame rail that connects to the rocker, so it took me a while to figure the best way to tackle it. I had some Corvette parts to paint as well so I had to keep stopping to do that...

The replacement floor parts I got for that area are really not great so I am hoping to avoid using them. I think I can keep the area that needs replacing fairly small and make a new piece for that. The part that is cut out for the cover plate is not as pronounced on the new part and the shape is nowhere near as crisp on the repro, also the part that is rotten on mine is in the outboard corner where it drops right down to a point and that is missing on the repro panel so I'd have to make it anyway, all a bit disappointing really.

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #248 on:** November 10, 2015, 06:26:15 »

Once all that was out the way I started to look at the frame rail kick up by the back of the rocker, this is all very manky on mine. Once again I want to start small and keep the repair to a minimum. I started to cut the bad metal out the way. The inner fender had a few holes in the lower forward edge. Initially I was going to cut small areas out and replace them but after looking at it for a while I decided to remove a fair chunk of the inner fender to give me access to the area that I need to repair, and also decided it would be better to replace that entire section.

I cut away a fair chunk of the frame rail probably as far back as I need to go now. I left the part of the parcel shelf floor in there to spot weld to. I still have the piece at the front to cut out but by this time I was running out of day. We have a policy at work of no heat, cutting, welding, sparks of any kind in the last hour of business which I am strict about so I spent the last hour or so tidying up and priming the bits I had sandblasted.

I have the front part of that frame rail to remove where it attaches to the rocker, I think that will be a bit of a rave but I want to try and disturb as little as possible around it. My lack of familiarity with these cars means it will take me a little longer as I have to figure out each stage but I think it will come out ok. I am not really a naturally gifted sheet metal guy either so I have to work a bit harder at it than I'd like!

Just for reference the bottom picture shows the material removed laid over the replacement panel, I will need to replace all the metal forward of these pieces but I think I am about as far back as I need to go, I have all good steel from there backward. I am still deciding whether to weld along the length of the frame rail or cut it right back to the inner fender and spot weld it. I want to do a series of single sided welds with The Chief and see how they look and feel. I want to make sure they are going to be strong enough as I can't get the pincers in there to do a double sided weld.

I will have to replace a small area of the main rear cross member on both sides too, just where it joins the floor.

Scottcorvette · « **Reply #249 on:** November 10, 2015, 20:13:07 »

The gearbox parts I had ordered from BMW arrived today so once the transmission comes back from all gears, hopefully looking and feeling brand new, I'll be all set, I have both parts of prop shaft and the new BMW end bush so I can send that away to get altered.

I also top coated the satin black parts for the heater, gas tank and battery tray, and top coated the rest of the brown bits for the doors, floor, and glove box. I'm hoping to try and bunk off work for a couple of days or so next week to get a bit more into the body repairs.

News:

Author Topic: 1964 230SL restoration in UK (Read 255671 times)