1964 230SL restoration in UK

[Scottcorvette]

I think the notch cut out the top of the plate is kind of cool. Maybe I should do that.... I will have a junk license plate at work off something, I might try notching it to clear the boot lock and see how it looks.

I remember my wifes Karmann Ghia has a number plate bracket that makes the plate stand off the body that might work.

Who would have thunk mounting a license plate could cause such headaches!

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Hi Scott,

I once saw licence plate mounting brackets at Buds Benz, then I think the SL Shop might also have them.

Here —-> https://www.budsbenz.com/catalog/230-250-280-sl

Looks like the one you posted in the picture above also works were well.

PS. Love the work you did so far on your car. Good luck with the rest of it, i’m Sure when it is all done and you and your wife will take a spin again you will love every minute of it (I can only imagine it must be a difference like night and day from the spin you both took shortly after you took tat first drive in her).

Dieter

[Scottcorvette]

Thanks Dieter, I certainly hope so!

I have ordered the VW license plate bracket, it wasn't very expensive so I'll take a flyer on it. Im not very keen on the number I have been allocated so I have been casually looking for a nicer registration number for it. 64 SLL was auctioned a little while back but I was outbid on that one. I would still keep a standard sized plate though, even with a shorter number. Ive never thought shortened plates looked that good.

[Scottcorvette]

Ive been a bit nervous about replacing the rear wings. I have replaced plenty of Corvette panels and although it is a fairly major procedure on anything they don't really phase me. I guess in theory this isn't any different but it just feels like a big step.

There wasn't a massive amount of rust in the rear fenders but enough to make them more than a simple repair, for me anyway. I have been deliberating a bit whether to replace them or repair them. There were several small areas that needed repair and I didn't want IT to wind up like a patchwork quilt. I also didn't want to use a partial fender as I didn't want to weld all the way along its length and risk warping the panel.

The other thing that was putting me off replacing the whole panel was that the replacement had a different bolt configuration for the door latch so it would have meant removing the original captive plate off the original wing and then fitting it to the new one. It's all doable but it all goes to make the job a lot more complex.

In the end I decided to replace the whole outer panel but leave the original door jamb in place. First job was to remove the lead along the door jamb spot welds so they could be drilled and ground out.

This is my first time doing anything with lead. I don't have much use for a blowtorch and the only one I had was from years ago when I was messing around with boats which was pretty old and grotty. I didn't want to use that so I got a nifty new blowtorch that turns on the gas and ignites itself at the touch of a button and went for it...

The auto torch was a useful bit of kit so I didn't have to keep shutting it off manually as there was a lot of stop starting to wire brush and cool the panel. It all came off real easy and clean though. I was surprised how thick it was on the top of the fender.

[Scottcorvette]

Once the lead was out it was time to get serious. It's a very liberating feeling to take a plasma cutter torch to the body of your classic car!

I cut around the perimeter of the panel first to get the bulk of it out the way and make it easier to trim and clean all the mating surfaces where the new panel will join. It was a bit of a a mess in there, where the foam strip goes between the inner and outer fender it had rusted reasonably badly. Corvettes have a foam strip that attaches to the frame behind the front wheel to stop muck going up the side of the frame rail and they often rust there. I guess it is one of those things that seemed a good idea at the time, I think maybe this foam strip falls into that same bracket. There is a 3M weld thru seam sealer that looks like it might be a good product for this job, I was thinking about maybe using that to replace the foam strip. I have a replacement inner fender so will cut this one off.

More of an issue is the rust around the soft top storage box that will need repair. I will have to make the pieces for this as I don't believe they are available to buy.

[Scottcorvette]

Then it was a case of drilling and grinding out spot welds and removing the last of the panel. It was all pretty straight forward. The door still shuts and latches nicely and no more nasties found. Once all the old metal was gone I wire wheeled and cleaned everything then gave it all a coat of kurust to protect the bare metal and treat any pitting.

I need to cut the door jamb off the new wing and can then start trial fitting the new panel. I hope it fits OK. Unfortunately I only ordered a wheel house for this side and the other side has now being discontinued. The other side seemed better which is why I never ordered one but I'm now concerned that the inner fender is going to look the same as this one when the wing comes off. I can get a repro part but would rather have had the real deal.

Exciting stuff eh!

[Scottcorvette]

The VW license plate bracket arrived but is not wide enough and I think the plate will vibrate a bit so Im going to go back to Sticks method of the rubber spacers.

I cut out the bad metal of the left side of the soft top box on Saturday. I knew there was going to be some rust in there but once the wing was removed it was quite badly pitted and it seems daft not to deal with it. I did some small repairs on the other side ages ago but I think I might have to go a bit further once the wing is removed from that side.

It should be a pretty straightforward repair hopefully.

[Shvegel]

Scott,
Fit the rear wing before you weld up the outer wheelhouse.  From memory in my car the rear outer wheelhouse will not be in exactly the same position when you get it all fit together.  There are some slight variations in the rear wings so in order to get it to all line up at the door jamb and rear panel you have to slightly shift the wheelhouse a bit. 

[Scottcorvette]

I will do, I think I remember reading something about this on here. The other difference is that on my original wheelhouse the mating flange went all the way around, whereas on the new one the flange stops around 2/3rds of the way. I'll get my sheetmetal guy to make up an extra piece of flange that I can weld to the new wheelhouse.

[Scottcorvette]

The soft top box is about at an end, I just have to give the inside a skim of filler and we are done. As usual it has taken longer than I imagined but has all gone OK.

I noticed the later cars have a different drain guide on the inside without any sharp edges so I wonder if tearing the soft top was a problem on these earlier cars. I think I will put a strip of something over the top of these to protect the convertible top when this is all done.

I spent last Saturday trimming and trial fitting the rear fender and inner fender. Im having a bit of trouble getting the area between the deck lid and trunk lid to line up but I think Im just being over cautious with the trimming. I'll get Ronni to give me a hand with it this week.

[Scottcorvette]

The last batch of plating arrived back recently too and I've been spending the evenings sorting through them, theres a couple of bits I want to get done again but I almost have a full set of fasteners now. I also had them polish the wiper caps and nuts.

Pretty cool huh!

[Shvegel]

Your project and mine remind me of an article I read in BMW Excellence Magazine tears ago written by a man who had just restored a BMW 2002Tii. He said that everyone knows the common places these cars rust like near the turn signals and around the rear stut mounts but not everyone knows the more obscure places like eveywhere there is a seam and everywhere there is a bend in the metal.

[Scottcorvette]

Yes its all the hidden bits that really eat up the time, I mean look how long it has taken to do the soft top box, and I don't think I'm all that slow at this, I guess an experienced Mercedes metal man would have knocked it out a bit quicker, but I cant imagine it would have made that much difference. I wish I had bought a metal folder early on in the job but I kept making do and it is probably a bit late in the day for me to get any real value out of one now.

True to form the Mercedes has thrown me another curveball. I was struggling a bit on Saturday with the rear fender. I was getting the hump with it and felt I needed another pair of eyes and hands, Ronni is very good at this sort of thing so she and I had a couple of hours on it this afternoon. It is amazing what fresh perspective and a skilled wife can do....

It was all going so well, I was just about to put a tack on the inner fender when I thought I ought to try the rocker moulding on before I do anything final, seems that either at some point in the mid 60's Mercedes decided to shorten the distance between the door and the wheel well by 5mm, or I somehow made this car a bit smaller.

My original fender was 195mm between the door and the wheelarch, the new one is 190mm. Seems a small amount but it really screws things up and now the rocker moulding is that bit too long. I must be getting all zen with this car because rather than throwing a tantrum I just kind of smiled and carried on....I'll have to cut the rocker moulding down and weld the return back on I guess.

I looked on the SLS website and the replacement rocker moulding is listed for 1965 on, I wonder if some alteration was made to the shape of the wheel arch then to give a little more clearance at the front of the tire.

Anyway showing true grit as normal I pressed on, once the inner fender was aligned I got a couple of tacks into place on the front and a couple of spot welds on the rear, removed the rear wing again and pressed 'The Chief' into action.....

[Scottcorvette]

The spot welder has really sped things up when it comes to this kind of work, it wasn't going ever so smoothly when I first got it, I was having a lot of trouble with welds blowing through and would have to redo them, but as I have got more experienced with it things have improved no end. I spend more time now ensuring I have a real good clean earth, and keep the end of the electrode very clean and rounded off, and its really working well for me.

I have a bit of a gap where the two inner fenders meet and think I will have to increase the size of the overlap from the inner wheel house to the outer wheelhouse to cover the slight discrepancy between the two panels.

[Scottcorvette]

The other snafu that I came across was that the inner wing doesn't have a flange that extends all the way like my original, had I noticed this at the time I could have left mine attached at that point and but welded it, but hindsight is a wonderful thing right....

I was hoping to have got all this painted this week so that I could have pressed on with getting the fender on this weekend but I have quite a few bits to sort out on the inner fender before I am that stage, I'll do that on Saturday and then do my seam sealing and painting next week, hopefully I'll be able to get the fender on toward the end of next week. I hung it back on once the wheelhouse was welded on just to make sure it was OK and it fits pretty well.

I'll take the chrome strip that goes between the door and the wheel arch in today and make sure that fits the new panel.

Of course the downside to all this, other than the extra work needed on my already painted and finished rocker moulding is that I will now have to replace the outer wheelhouse on the other side regardless. I didn't buy one at the time as I didn't think Id need it, and since then they are no longer available at Mercedes, so I either need to try and find an original or go repro. My experience so far has been that the original panels fit much better than the aftermarket stuff so wold have liked to be able to stick with the genuine part.

Anyone got a RH outer wheelhouse they don't want???

[Scottcorvette]

Seems the outer wheelhouse is available again. When I enquired to Sandown Mercedes and the classic centre a couple of weeks back they were listed as discontinued. I emailed Tom Hanson again yesterday and all of a sudden they are available again and I have one coming from Sandown.

Good news!

[Shvegel]

You are almost to the part where you get to spray a heavy coat of “rubber” over all the work you spent months agonizing over.  I ended up having to reapply my undercar gravel guard after my painter decided to paint it all body color.  I decided to research products again as I wasn’t happy with how it turned out before.  This is U-Pol Raptor tintable truck bed liner (8 liters to do the wheelhouses and floorpans)sprayed with a Sata HRS rustproof gun at about 10 bar line pressure and as little air flow as possible.  This was sprayed without a nozzle on the gun.  Just the quick disconnect. Messy operation.  Mask garage floor at least 3 meters around the car. 

The Sata gun is expensive but there are knockoffs available on your side of the pond.

[JamesL]

Still awesome!

[Shvegel]

Scott,

I just read your comments regarding the rocker molding being too long. I was just about to chipguard and paint mine when I read you comments.  Maybe I will make sure they fit the car first.  The car is currently on a frame that pins it through the jack points so I am off it for now.

[Scottcorvette]

Yes I guess it seems a bit odd to go to great lengths to have spot welds visible and then hit it all with a heavy coat of undercoating... I had a young guy working with me a while back and he thought it was crazy to spend a lot of time and effort on something that no one would see, needless to say he didn't last long.

I was planning to use UPOL Gravitex on the floors, I have an undercoating gun that I think will do it but I'll run a test piece first, I think if I apply it pretty heavily I should be able to get something like the original finish. I'm not sure what the finished colour underneath would be, mine was really dirty and patchy so it was hard to get an idea. The mushroom colour I had mixed looks very close to what was on the inside of the panels I have cut off but Im not convinced thats correct for under the car.

Regarding the rocker mouldings, I was  looking through Pagoda Notes last night and saw a note in there that in January 1965 quite a few panels were altered, including rear quarters and trim, to allow for bigger tyres, hence the difference in rocker moulding length. I must admit it seems a shame to alter mine as they are in perfect condition but needs must I guess

I finished up the LH wheelhouse last Saturday, I had to make and fit the missing piece of flange for the rear part of the fender and also make a new water diverter for the front, the original one was right where the hole needed to be. I'm putting all this down to the variation in panels because I had the outer fender on holding the inner fender in position, the front and rears lined up so it must be right, right???

I was going to get ready for fitting the wing this week but I will make the piece for the inner wing and fit that so I can paint the back of everything before the wing goes on. I ordered a litre of the dark grey and thought I'd coat all the hard to get to parts before I fitted the wing to make sure everything had some protection.

[Scottcorvette]

I spent last Saturday finishing up the inner fender and welding in the left trunk floor. The replacement panel had a couple of extra holes for wiring harnesses that mine didn't have so I filled those in, there were a couple of tabs for the trunk liner that weren't on mine so I took those off also. I had originally planned to fit this after the new fender went on but access looked very poor, not only that, I'm nervous about getting this wrong and I kept trial fitting the fender over and over.

I thought it might be a good idea to try my tail light frames and Im glad I did, the outside curve of the tail lamp panel was different to the curve on the tail light housing and by bringing the floorpan out it pushed the tail light panel out to meet the curve of the tail lamp frame. The outer part of the fender is pretty much flush with the outer parts of the tail light frame and I'm pretty sure it should be slightly proud of the fender but I cant figure out any way to alter that.

Anyway I kept going back and forth and figured I may as well just go for it. So I did. As usual 'The Chief' was boss of the job. After it was in place I used my newly acquired jack to position the mounting bracket and spot welded that into place.

Another job ticked off was the little piece I had to add to the inner fender to bridge the gap between the old and new. We move inexorably toward our goal!

[Scottcorvette]

After that I squeezed some seam sealer into the joints and gave everything a coat of primer. It was good to see it all in one colour!

[Scottcorvette]

Its been a funny week here, we have had a bit of snow here and it screws everything up completely, we aren't geared up for any kind of bad weather and everything grinds to a halt. This was more than we normally get though, and combined with some big winds it has drifted across the roads and has been pretty cold.

We were low on gas for the workshop heater and had some on order which was supposed to be delivered this week but hasn't arrived due to the road conditions, as a result it is freezing in the workshop and we've had a couple of 'snow days'

The first picture is the road that leads to our shop, the banks either side of the road are around 3 feet high and the snow had drifted across the road to the same depth, the second is driving through the plowed road with the snow blowing across the road, even the mighty Touareg slipped around a bit in that, and the third is my shop shrouded in virgin snow and looking majestic....

[Scottcorvette]

Despite the bad weather I have struggled on...after the primer I gave the seams a coat of brush on seam sealer and then a spot prime on top. I also flatted the inside of the fender and re-primed that, then gave both a couple of coats of topcoat. I wanted to get as much protection on there as I can before the new panel is fitted.

It was also a good opportunity to get some paint on the bits that would be difficult to get to once the new wing is on. I had some dunkelgrau mixed up and will shoot a little of that on the inner wing and floor before the wing is fitted to help to seal everything. Its all about protecting against future corrosion, once the car is painted I'll go around everything that isn't seen with a coat of wax.

The original inner fender had a 3"x2" strip of sound deadener on there so I cut a new pice of sound deadener and stuck that on, I gave it a spot of topcoat there before it was stuck on to make sure everything was sealed.

Looking forward to getting the wing on!

[stickandrudderman]

Nice work Scott.