Matti´s 280SL

[mercakungen]

Hi Everyone,

Here´s some pics of my 280SL which I bought on my 40th birthday in 2008.

050 White, 249 bamboo leather/brown carpet, parchment soft top, no hard top ordered

426, 461, 491, 503, 533, 551, 591

I´m aware of most of the flaws/not correct things but any help from you is appreciated. My future plan is to do rotisserie restoration. Flaws I know:

- Low quality paint job
- Wrong color interior but I kind of like i.
- Sun visors, steering wheel pad and arm rest are covered with leather. Home made arm rest on center console
- The shifter knob should be same color as the steering wheel?
- Euro halogen headlights, not gonna change these
- Side markers are removed, holes filled with bondo
- Some details on the engine bay are in wrong color

BR,
Matti

[Jordan]

Welcome to the group Matti.  Your car looks great and I like your interior colour.  Personally I wouldn't change it as it looks to still be in excellent shape.  You might also want to paint your hub caps so they match your hard top.  Can't tell what colour it is.  I love two tone cars.

Hopefully you aren't planning to put back the side marker lights.  Again personal preference but I like the cleaner look without them.  I would also get rid of the over riders (bumper guards) but some like the look.

If you replace the shift knob with an ivory one (yes it should) get yourself some touchup paint from MB and paint the plastic tip of your hand brake.  I believe the tips are suppose to be either black or ivory, depending on the colour of your steering wheel.

And the data plate on the passengers side inside fender should be on the firewall.

[WRe]

Hi Matti,
your car looks great, welcome to the group!
...WRe

[badali]

Your car looks great.  Unless there are any rust problems underneath I would keep it as is.  A full restoration will cost a lot and take away from driving it for quite a while.

[Jonny B]

Absolutely - welcome to the group!

I also like the color combination. I have always liked white, just a classic kind of look.

Did you purchase a hardtop after you got the car, or did it come with the black top? Per the data plate by the hood latch, there was no top from the factory. The line with the 050 G (white) then three dashes (which would give the hardtop color if present)  and then a single dash (indicating no hardtop fitted) indicates that. So the white hubcaps would have been proper for the car as delivered. But as already stated, if you use the hard top the caps should match.

You also indicated you were going to keep the Euro lights. This is a US delivery car (the last line of the painted tag, the last number = 7), the VIN plate should be on either the A or B pillar, depending on the VIN number (Switch to B pillar just below the door latch was at 10704 ). Also at VIN 11948, there should be a small tag on the inside of the windshield on the driver's side with just the VIN. This was in the US only to provide a VIN number visible from outside the car, in Engelen listed as for the model year 1970.

Highly recommend you get rid of the cheese slicer clamps on the heater hoses, and anywhere else. These are poor substitutes, and the proper clamps are available through the usual sources.

It is hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like there is no hold down clamp for the battery, these are available.

The spark plug lead for no 1 cylinder should be the same as the other five, not a 90 angle.

Along the firewall ridge, there should be three small rubber bumpers (which are commonly missing) helps some with a snug and rattle free fit.

Pardon our rantings about details, it is some type of genetic flaw...

[StevenF]

Matti,
Welcome to our club!
You will find everyone is very helpful, friendly and there is a wealth of information available through our knowledgeable members

I have a question---does that armrest come out?  who made it?  Dimensions?
Regards
Steven

[star63]

Welcome to the group Matti!

In the pictures your car looks great!

Petri

[mercakungen]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your compliments and comments.

The first photo I sent before has been taken on my 40th birthday (2008). The situation in the photo is real. I was driving home from the seller when the tachometer started to make a screaming noise. I had to pull of to disconnect the tacho cable. I bet most of you noticed the disconnected tacho cable in the engine bay picture...

What I´ve been told I´m the fourth owner of this car. I don´t know the name of the first owner. The second owner was a German businessman and he bought this car as "almost new" while living in California. In 1996 he moved back to Germany and took the car with him. The third owner (Finnish) bought the car to Finland in 2002 and I bought the car from him in 2008.

The total mileage is unknown. Any service book or owners manual didn´t came with the car. The speedo/odo meter has been changed to a km/h one. Yellow control marks on shock nuts seems very authentic. I believe that the shocks are original ones from the factory.

Jordan: The side markers lights are not coming back. All the chrome parts are redone and the bumper guards are gone.

Jonny B: The black hard top came with the car. You are right, this is a US delivered car and has been ordered without hard top. The VIN plate is on B pillar and the small one is on the inside of the windshield as you wrote. The one in the engine bay is extra, not from the factory. It will go when the time is right.

I have rebuilt the engine and spark plug leads are already changed. Hose clamps are still the same but i will fix that with new hoses (when the time is right...). I have a repro battery holder waiting for assembly.

StevenF: Check the photo of the arm rest. The construction is very simple. Height/thickness of the pad is approx 2,5 inch.

Some fresh photos attached.

BR,
Matti
 

[mercakungen]

More photos:

I don´t expect to find major rust issues. The trunk floor may need some welding and of course I will do the filling of the side marker holes properly (TIG).

[mercakungen]

More:

[mercakungen]

More:

[mercakungen]

As I wrote earlier I have rebuilt the engine. Very soon after I bought this car I noticed that there were something wrong with the engine.

When I started the engine (cold) it run only on five cylinders until warm up. After the engine has warmed up everything was normal and the car worked perfect. This happened every time when the engine was cold.

I removed the spark plugs and found rust (!) on the spark plug of the 2nd cylinder. The head gasket was leaking coolant to the 2nd cylinder. I was very disappointed. The leak was very small and it didn´t cause any heating problems or loosing coolant.

I pull the head of and found out that the block was recently bored to first oversize without honing! Now I was very angry and disappointed. What a waist!

I found a NOS set of 2nd oversize pistons on the internet and let the machine shop take care the job.

The engine is now "blueprinted" and fully balanced. Weights of the pistons and the connecting rod ends are now even (the difference is less that 1 gram). The crank , the damper and the flywheel/flex plate are balanced separately. Volumes of the combustion chambers are also even. The head has now new valves, -seats, -guides and three angle valve job.

I kept the original (?) cam because it was in good shape. The cam is hard chromium plated. I didn´t do anything for the fuel system neither (if it isn´t broke, don´t fix it).

Deburring the crank and the rods got out of hand, I think...

BR,
Matti

[Iconic]

Matti,
That looks like jewelry to me. 
That looks soooo smooooth ..... I'll bet that engine will run smooooth too.
Thank you for sharing !!
Mark

[Jonny B]

What an apt term, jewelry indeed! Wonderful, just plain wonderful. Thanks for posting!

[Shvegel]

Looks like a great starting point. A couple of adfitional details I noticed.  The top of the power steering reservoir should be black.  The brake fluid is an older replacement with squared off corners.  There is a newer reproduction that is more rounded which is correct.  The spark plug wires are wrong as mentioned before but also the distributor ends of the wires should be 90 degree ends.  There should also be a black cover over the distributor cap  and wires.  The final thing I would mention is the hose for the power brakes is mostly correct with the narrow check valve and whitish clear hose.  The new replacement is black hose, silver ends amd a bigger diameter check valve.  I would suggest cutting the end fittings off, sending them out to be yellow cad plated.  Het the correct color nylon hose from Authentic Classics and preserving the original check valve.  Sounds like a lot of messing around but it is right on top of the engine and really sticks out when it is wrong.

[Shvegel]

Here is a really good guide to underhood originality on a 1970 W113:

http://historic.motoringinvestments.com/Gelson280SL.htm

[mercakungen]

Thanks Mark and Jonny B. Yes, the engine revs very freely.

Shvegel: Thank you very much. That kind of information I´m looking for! Looks like the brake booster is replacement part too.

I have bought a lot of spare parts for future since I bought the car. A hose for the brake booster is one of them. It´s a original part and looks exactly same as the one the Motoring Investments put on their customer car. I will do as you suggest. My car has not any bracket for the windshield washer reservoir. Neither do that reference car. Should there be one?

The fire wall insulation of my car is in bad shape. I´m not gonna use it after restoration. I have a new but it has (of cource) wrong pattern...

What do you think about the result of Motoring Investments restoration? Should the oil cap be silver/blue instead of yellow? Yellow fan? I think that the yellow color is too rich.

BR,
Matti

[Iconic]

Matti,
I am surprised about the yellow cad oil fill cap and what appears to be the fan too by Motoring Investments.
The oil fill cap should be silver/gray and the fan should be silver in color as you suggest.
Mark

[Jonny B]

Agree on the color of the oil cap, greyish, not CAD.

And yup, no bracket for the windshield washer reservoir.

[mbzse]

Agree on the color of the oil cap, greyish, not CAD

To throw a curveball into this discussion, I happened to look at a nice 571 red 280SL (supposedly original) in this website:
http://www.hatchandsons.com/pages/sales/JB130/
The oil filler cap (pressed metal late type) certainly seems yellowish to my eyes...
I do certainly know, that the cover (lid) for the coolant overflow reservoir (plastic in this picture correct for late 280SL) was yellow cad.
One thing with this yellow chrome surface treatment; it is sensitive to fading and easily turns into a dull grey shade. Detrimental factors are moisture and heat.

[Jonny B]

True in the photo the oil cap appears on the yellow side. I would take a grain of salt on the full "original" the 100 degree switch on the thermostat housing is from a later version. The fuel injection lines look to be a bit "used" (although that would lean in the side of being original, and never messed with)- seems like the oil cap is pretty fresh.

[mercakungen]

Hello,

The project has been started. Well spent three weeks of my four weeks vacation... I think.

BR,
Matti

[kampala]

Matti,

Based on the photos, that is one of the nicest cars I've seen being stripped to the bone and rotisseried.   Will be great to see your updates.  At least you know what you will be doing on future vacations.   

Best of luck,

[mercakungen]

Front fender notches are not all lead. There is a small notch on sheet metal too (center of the photo, the car is upside down).

[mercakungen]

What a surprise. Notches are all steel. My car has one over spray plus some repairs (dings and dents). The only place I found lead is the overlapped (spot welded) seams between rear fenders and B-pillars. Seams above tail lights are brazed.