1964 230SL restoration in UK

[Scottcorvette]

Got the most recent batch of chrome back from the platers at the end of last week and I'm really not happy with it at all. I guess around two thirds of it is usable but there are quite a few parts that just aren't up to the mark.

Haven't had a lot of luck with the chrome on this car. I am having them do the hubcaps again as the chrome looked bad on the stars, the wheel trims came back with rust holes in them, and now this lot. They have bent one of the trims that goes under the dash, bust one of my vents, and the other one has come out terrible. There is a blister on the tail light frames, all the seat frame side plates are shocking, and so it goes on.

One of the worst items are the door and trunk lock push buttons, they have been polished away to a sharp edge where the lock barrel goes in and now have a 'sharp' edge rather than a real squared off edge. maybe that is all that could be done but I would have rather they had called me before it was chromed so I haven't wasted money on plating them. Looks like I'll need to buy new door handles and trunk lock now...

I must admit when stuff like this happens it really puts a whole downer on the job.

[stickandrudderman]

Which plater did you use?

[Scottcorvette]

JD Wyatt in Thetford, have used them for years and years, normally fine with the odd problem piece, but this Mercedes seems to be nothing but trouble in the chrome department! Who do you use?

I stayed a bit tonight and welded one side of the inner fender repair in. I am not a natural sheet metal guy although it is a skill I would like to possess, so I it is a bit of a learning curve for me. Generally if it is anything like a wind shield frame repair or something at our place then Ronni does it as she is more sheet metal oriented than I am, in fact she is one of these gifted (annoying...?) people that can do just about anything well! I love her for it though.

Anyway I'm reasonably pleased with the way it is going, few ups and downs, but OK on the whole. I'm doing all the hidden bits first so I have a bit more leeway, seems to take me a little while to find my feet with this kind of thing, by the time I got to the end of the Mustang and VW I felt pretty good about the welding side of things but having had a break from it all and then starting again I've kind of lost my flow.

At least I've got plenty to practice on.

[stickandrudderman]

I use Collonade in Wembley. Slow and expensive but thorough.

[jameshoward]

http://www.cromagevoorspoels.be/

He's outstanding. Doesn't do much car stuff, as he normally does 30s-50s US duke boxes and pinball stuff, etc. Hence his attention to detail is off the scale. I used him for to reweld my chrome star and fix my surround, and rechrome the front and rear bumpers. A friend is having a £15K+ paint and bodywork job done by a well-known guy on the A303 and sent his chrome off with mine to save him some money. The sprayer was blown away by the quality and has switched to using the guy even though he's in Belgium, so I'd say that's a pretty good endorsement.

[Scottcorvette]

Making a little progress since coming back to work in the new year but have been busy with the paying jobs. Got the speaker repair sections spot welded in and finished up the inner fender/soft top box repair. Just waiting for the water guide piece to come from my sheet metal man, then can call the right hand side done, need to start on the left now....

Very pleased with the spot welder, has really made a good job of those panels, looks very proper.

[Scottcorvette]

The genuine rockers arrived on my last US shipment also, and are a much nicer piece of kit, as one would hope, so have decided that is the way to go and have started to drill out the spot welds holding the complete rocker in place with a view to removing it in the next couple of days.

I also got some very thin gasket paper and cut out new gaskets for the horns, so they are back together although untested at this point. They look very nice though.

[Scottcorvette]

Destruction mode went up to 11 last night when I cut the bulk of the LH rocker out. I have been a little concerned about such an invasive procedure but so far it has all been a piece of cake. I bought a plasma cutter last year when I was heavily into Ronni's VW and it has certainly made short work of this job, It had all been cut out within an hour, a whole bunch easier than the  myriad of grinders, cutting wheels, and grazed knuckles that I had when I was doing the Mustang, I would wholeheartedly recommend one to anyone contemplating this kind of work.

I took measurements of the door aperture before I started, and I also braced the seat crossmember so that stayed where it was. I kept checking my measurements as I went along and nothing seems to have moved, I think maybe the top part of the rocker that is still in the car has bowed out slightly but only by a gnats knacker and I think will straighten out once I pull it in against the new panel, assuming that fits OK, but there doesn't seem to have been any movement at all.

The first picture shows a piece that I cut out and illustrates the full extent of the rust that was inside the rocker, I could have gotten away with just the repair section although there still would have been some pitting and corrosion in there that would have needed cleaning/treating, I would have also had to have made local repairs to the jacking points so this is definitely the nicer repair I think, and of course it keeps it all genuine Mercedes - which is nice.

Once the rest of it is cut out which I will do today I'll clean the remaining metal and then prime and topcoat it all inside with the mushroom colour I had mixed, same with the inside of the new rocker channels. I also got some weld thru primer which I am planning to spray on the inside of the joints before I weld but I'll try a test piece first to make sure it doesn't interfere with the weld.

Am hoping to have the rocker clamped in place by the end of the day so I can weld it in Monday......

[Scottcorvette]

Didn't get a full day on the Mercedes on Saturday as I had a customer call in around lunchtime. I got the rest of the rocker cut out and all the metal cleaned up. I had one of my guys clean the black paint of the outside off the rockers and I got a couple of coats of primer on everything.

That was about as far as I got. I went in today and top coated the inside of the rockers and will offer the new part up tomorrow. I'd normally wait until next Saturday but I really want to get the new piece in and solid again.

The painting has really slowed things down but I really want to protect everything in there as best I can, don't want to be doing this again in 10 years time.....

[Pinder]

Looking great. I cant wait to get to the paint stage on mine. Planning on painting the car myself. once the weather warms up.

[Scottcorvette]

I'm a long way off painting the car yet. Way things are going I'll be lucky for it to be in paint by the end of the year.

Finally got the new rocker welded in though and I am very pleased with the way it has all gone. I think it looks good and my dimensions are all exactly the same, I took a number of measurements fore and aft and top to bottom, I also checked the relationship of the inner sill to the outer where it sits under the door with a profile gauge and it all checked out fine.

Assuming the door fits OK then it is all good....

[Scottcorvette]

The spot welder has certainly made the job a lot quicker, and much more correct looking than plug welding and grinding. All in all, a great success.

I have a few small welds to finish off, but they will have to wait until I have sorted out the problems with the inner fenders/wheel wells. I also had to bend back a bit of the kick panel to get the rocker out. I have tapped it back down but will need to plug weld that back to the rocker. Once that's done I'll grind it back and then use the spot welder to make it look factory.

Nice to look in the end of the rocker and see it looking all brand new though!

[Scottcorvette]

I cut the front floor pan out while I had all my gear out still. Whilst I have good access I'll repair the hole in the kick panel that has been cut out for a speaker, once that's done I'll fit the front floor pan. At first try it seems to fit not too badly. It is a repro one that I got from Mercedes so I don't know who the original supplier is.

You can see the big speaker hole in the 2nd picture. Getting the rocker in has given me a bit of a boost. I was starting to get a bit negative about this project but seeing a major part completed is quite pleasing, even though there is still a long way to go.

[Pinder]

Metalic grey is a great colour choice.

[Shvegel]

Looks like you are having fun!

You might want to mount the hardtop before you weld it up.  A fraction of error down low could add up to big problems by the time you get to the top of the windshield post.

[star63]

Great work!

I may have to invest in spot welder...

[Benz Dr.]

I cut the front floor pan out while I had all my gear out still. Whilst I have good access I'll repair the hole in the kick panel that has been cut out for a speaker, once that's done I'll fit the front floor pan. At first try it seems to fit not too badly. It is a repro one that I got from Mercedes so I don't know who the original supplier is.

You can see the big speaker hole in the 2nd picture. Getting the rocker in has given me a bit of a boost. I was starting to get a bit negative about this project but seeing a major part completed is quite pleasing, even though there is still a long way to go.

I believe that MB never offered floors as a repair part and my dealer's book doesn't show a part number for it. Odd they wouldn't do that.

I think the floors they sell are made in the USA.

[Scottcorvette]

I have one floor pan prepped and ready to weld in and the fit seems pretty good, they came from Mercedes in Poole but as I say I don't know who made them. They had a sort of mottled grey paint on them when they arrived.

Things are starting to move on quite nicely on this now. I spent a bit of time Friday night and Saturday morning filling the hole in that someone had cut out for a speaker. If I wind up fitting a radio to this car I will stick with just the dash speaker. If I want to listen to music I will use a bluetooth speaker.

I got quite a lot of shrinkage round the weld on the speaker repair that I couldn't dolly out from the back due to lack of access, and I thought I had taken the welding pretty slow but I guess it is what it is, so I gave it a skim of body filler and a coat of primer and it looks great, be even better when it is covered by a kick panel.

[Scottcorvette]

While all that was going on I carried on with getting the seat belt mounts sorted out. On Naj's recommendation I got in touch with Sue from FDTS http://www.fdts-seatbelts.co.uk/index.html who has been very helpful. I really would have liked a set of original Kangol belts but haven't seen any for sale and don't want static belts, they are always getting caught in door shuts and what have you. Since then I have a set of NOS Kangol buckles coming thanks to Scoot so I can have the retractor belts made up with Kangol buckles and have the best of both worlds.

Sue sent me some spreader plates to weld in and a seat belt retractor to use as a mock up part, I set everything up where I want it. Having done research on this site I decided that under the rear floor boards was the best place for the retractor, and as I am about to weld in that piece of chassis figured I could put the spreader plate in behind there before it was welded on.

Once it was all marked out I spot welded the spreader on and also put a couple of welds on each end in case the spots didn't hold given the massive difference in metal thickness, last thing I want is the retainer plate starting to turn as I tighten the bolt up....I thought I'd then give them a coat of paint on the inside and while that was drying I got on with.....

[Scottcorvette]

...the seat crossmember repairs. I had got a replacement from K&K and I don't know if they are different on a later car but these were a mile off, the drivers side was taller and slightly deeper and didn't appear to have a slope to it, the passengers side one is maybe a half inch deeper than the drivers side one, so much so that the bridging piece of floorpan was not wide enough to reach past it to weld to the floor properly. Also the seat retainers aren't as nice.

As a result of this I am only using the upright portion of it, so I trimmed the front floorpan to the right size and marked out the section I wanted to use. I originally planned to use a joggle to weld the two together but the new piece was thicker than the original so that wasn't going to work. I don't like joggling as a rule as I don't like to see that on the inside of a panel but I figured it was completely enclosed so wouldn't get seen and would be a bit stronger, however was not to be.

In the end I but welded it. I'm pleased with how it has come out, The flange on the crossmember is just about a perfect match to the floorpan, the bridging piece doesn't fit too well, which is disappointing as it came from the same supplier as the floors.

The weld thru primer is good, I have been using it on all the joints, I did a test piece and it didn't seem to affect the weld one iota, I figure it has to give better protection than leaving it in bare steel so will stick with it. I had one of my guys start seam sealing the repairs I had done up to now so I could get a coat of primer on the welds round the rockers etc and he has made a nice job of that so we are starting to get somewhere now.

[Scottcorvette]

And that's where were at right now. I have the chassis repair section and the front floor pan trimmed and ready to go on that side, all I need to do first is weld on the bracket for the accelerator pedal. I have sandblasted/sanded the paint of the areas to weld and sprayed the weld thru on. Once they are in I will start on refitting the bits of B-post and rear crossmember I cut out for access, then the rear floorpan, and I have the same repair to do on the rear of the seat crossmember. It certainly is a fairly long process.

I then have the Trailing arm floor section to repair. It is not rotten through but is quite pitted inside so I wanted to do something with it. I got a replacement but it really is garbage and only any good if the original is beyond repair. I can't bring myself to cut the original out to replace it with that so unless I can find good originals I will have to make sections and repair what I have. It is only the outer third that really needs replacing so I think I can do something with it.

I'm really enjoying myself on it at the moment though and have renewed enthusiasm. Question is for how long, got the same again on the other side yet....

[Scottcorvette]

Looks like you are having fun!

You might want to mount the hardtop before you weld it up.  A fraction of error down low could add up to big problems by the time you get to the top of the windshield post.

That's easier said than done at the moment. I have no mount points anywhere and the car is 6 feet up, but it wouldn't be a bad idea. Also the hardtop is in a different location.

I was pretty careful with my measurements, also the cradle the car is bolted to supports the front and rear pretty well so in theory there is nowhere for it to go, and certainly the measurements didn't alter all the way through so I think it is being held pretty rigidly. The rotisserie bolts onto 8 mount points round the body and there is a pretty substantial brace in the door aperture.

Corvettes suffer very badly with this, in fact once the body is removed from the chassis it is a big no no to open both doors and on a roadster even with both doors closed the rear door gaps will open out massively. The rotisserie framework we got from the same people to hold a Corvette body holds it so rigidly that both doors can be opened and gaps aren't affected at all. It really is a well thought out piece of kit.

Of course it may well bite me yet.

[Scottcorvette]

I had to work all Saturday on a Corvette I was getting ready for the painter so my weekly Pagode had to get delayed until Tuesday. I had a fairly busy day with only a little bit of Corvetting to disturb me...

I had got the chassis repair piece in place and had tacked and welded that in over the previous evenings, I just had to tidy the welds up a bit and then spot weld the panel in. What you would imagine not taking long took ages, everything needed little tweaks to get it in the right place. the profile of the new piece was very slightly different to the original so I had to split the new bit along it's length a couple of inches to be able to push it to meet the original and then zip it back up.

In hindsight I may have been better trying to replace the entire length, although I'm sure that would have brought it's own issues. I'll maybe go that route when it comes to replacing the other side.

[Scottcorvette]

Once everything was in position I started to spot weld it in. I have coated all the joints with weld thru primer to give it a bit of protection which seems to be working well for me. The spot welder makes short work of the weld but is still time consuming as I have to G cramp the work in place then spot weld either side, then move the clamp, spot weld and so on. Still makes life a lot easier and looks more correct, even though the spot welds differ very slightly from the original Mercedes ones, once they are painted over you would need to look pretty hard to tell.

Once that was in I started on the drivers front floor pan. I had got this pretty much where I wanted but needed another pair of hands to help me push everything into place. Again that was a pretty slow process but by the end of the day the floor was in a fits well. I had a bit of a job where the floor has a curve by the gas pedal as the profile didn't match so I had to use sheet metal screws to pull the two panels together then spot weld. once that was done I removed the screws and welded the holes...

I had originally planned to spot weld the gas pedal mount to the floor before the floor pan went in but the bracket would have been right over the area I had to weld so I'll put that in after. I also had a few little repairs to do on the bottom of the toeboard. I was going to replace it but it just wasn't bad enough so I dollied it back into shape and plug welded a couple of small holes once the floor pan was in.

It's all going OK, taking forever though.

[vegimite]

Hi Scott,
I also own a 64 230SL RHD which I bought in California. the car originally came from Blackburn UK. I have just completed a total restoration...........and your right about expensive parts.
Further to that I have a nice 65 Corvette I bought from Texas 5 yrs ago...it was already restored but I have added a few personal touches.
I live in Australia on the Gold Coast
good luck with the W113 project.
Paul Nelson