Author Topic: 1964 230SL restoration in UK  (Read 238372 times)

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #200 on: October 08, 2015, 06:57:33 »
More excitement here yesterday, the 'new' spot welder arrived ready to tackle the body repairs on my car, It's a hell of a thing and I'm well pleased with it, looks in nice order and a good result for me as I was getting a bit tired of trawling through ebay looking for one and they either were too expensive, too far way or looked like they had lived in a paint booth for 20 years so I hit the buy it now button straight away when this one came up for £450, especially when I was getting close to going for a very basic new one with hardly any attachments for over £3000...

Came out of a main dealer that had to upgrade their machine at a whopping £11500, yikes.

We call it.... 'The Chief'

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #201 on: October 08, 2015, 07:06:50 »
Had a spanner thrown in the works though when this turned up. This is the trade in on a 69 big block roadster I sold to Lithuania of all places, turned up on a truck late the other night and they took the 69 away. I was pretty disappointed when I first looked round it as it needs some body repair but I am getting a bit keen on it myself, trouble is I don't really need another project right now and I would need to sell either the Fiat or the Mustang to fund it.

A nice problem to have really! Car is a 1966 small block 4 speed car, was originally a 327/300 in Nassau blue with black interior, but now has a 65 Corvette 327/365hp motor. I always fancied a 65-67 coupe with a 5 speed and a hi-po 327 as a long distance cruiser, and Nassau blue is just lovely.....

Anyone want a Fiat 130 Coupe?

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #202 on: October 11, 2015, 07:31:39 »
Had a busy day on the Mercedes yesterday. I stripped the door internals, lock rods, window regulators etc so I could get the last batch of nuts and bolts for the platers, I will also take the regulators to him and see if he can do anything with them, if he can't then they will just get a clean and wire brush, maybe a light coat of something but I don't know what. I'd like to get them back to their original brown colour if possible.

Everything was pretty gunked up with old hard grease but has cleaned up quite well, especially the aluminium runners. I may get the main runners re-plated if the cost isn't too high. I am having some other stuff done so I'm sure they can just go in with that batch.

I took the lock knobs out to get re-chromed, I am still looking for a LH door handle but am having no luck there.

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #203 on: October 11, 2015, 07:47:13 »
Whilst I was sorting out all the door internals, I came across the metal plates that go over the access holes in the door, these were painted the same mushroom colour that i had try to get matched for the seats and other bits, I was pleased to find that once I had had the colour matted down some more it was very close to what was on there originally.

A lot of the underneath of my car was painted this colour, particularly the areas where there wasn't much undercoating.

I got some used hardtop handles and seat vents, there were a couple of broken tabs on the seat vents so I welded some new ones on ready to send those to the platers, in hindsight I wish I had followed Sticks advice and got new ones from SLS as I think these will cause me grief, but I just couldn't face 700 euros for a set, also having seen the originals v the repro, the originals are much nicer.

The hardtop handles came apart OK though, the hardtop for mine is not original to the car and has the later style handles, I was missing the handle part so I figured if I have to buy something I might as well buy the right thing so it at least looks like it is right and proper.

On a previous post I was talking about starter and alternator upgrades. Naj has been extremely helpful with advice on what to get, I got a new Bosch starter the other day and have ordered a 55A alternator, he very kindly supplied me with a later cast alternator bracket to replace the original steel one. The steel one I have is fine, this is more a preventative measure as I understand the original piece is a bit weak. I will still get the old one plated so it could go back on should anyone desire, so thanks Naj!




Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #204 on: October 11, 2015, 08:00:10 »
So I got home from work around 6 last night and Ronni was just about to go out shopping so I had an hour or so in the garage. I have pretty much finished the great nut and bolt extravaganza that has been going on the last couple of weeks. I need to get her Karmann Ghia out so I can get the boxes down from the rafters and go through them, make sure there is nothing I missed, but I was at a bit of a loss what to do.

I have a new steering wheel coming for mine as I was not happy with the restoration job done on my original one. I bought a new horn pad early on in this job but the emblem in the centre is different to mine so figured I might as well try and put mine in. I got a rattle can of Ford ivory which looks very close to the colour of the horn button so I started to clean mine down last night.

I carefully scraped the paint off the inside, then flatted that down wet with some 2000 grade wet'n'dry, did the same on the outside and polished that. I only had T cut but I'll call in at work and pick up some finesse to do it again. It has come up pretty well though. I noticed a tiny bit of the chrome has come away from the star but |I am hoping some chrome spray will hide that.

There is a tiny craze just to the right of the star, but it is what it is, I quite like a bit of age to these things as long as it isn't too shabby looking.

On another note, I have a little TV on the wall in there with a DVD player built in, I have been mainly watching 'The Professionals' in there lately and lo and behold, a dark blue Pagoda popped up on there, quite nice to see!



Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #205 on: October 12, 2015, 19:01:09 »
Had a disaster tonight. I went through all the parts I have stored in the roof of my garage to look for any other parts I need to send to the platers and dug my heater assembly out and thought I would get the casing sandblasted and the fasteners plated. I was really struggling to get the fan wheels off the spindles as the long allen wrench I have has a wobble end and I couldn't get enough grip on the allen screw. I got one off eventually and then tried to get the other but couldn't get the wrench to bite.

I figured I would go out and get another wrench tomorrow but being the impatient boy I am I thought I would try a shorter one on a pair of pliers, They were super tight and I didn't realize I must have been levering against the fan blade as well and next thing I snapped one off, I'm so angry with myself.

I don't know that I want to glue it risk the fan being out of balance or it breaking off in use and having to take the whole assembly out again so I would like to try and find another.

Anyone got a heater fan??
« Last Edit: October 13, 2015, 06:11:53 by Scottcorvette »

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #206 on: October 17, 2015, 06:31:56 »
Got the horn pad emblem finished up, looks very nice. Shame the chrome outline around the star isn't just a little bit nicer but it is what it is. I had the chrome surround redone and that looks very nice. I never really compared the colour of the emblem to the colour of the new emblem and although they look quite similar in the pictures the new one looks more green. I know the colour of mine is pretty much identical to what was there as before I stripped it I sprayed the back of the emblem with the new paint where some of the original colour was missing, and the colour was indistinguishable from what was there already.

For what it's worth the colour of the new emblem is actually quite blotchy when you look closely.

I have a new steering wheel coming from Authentic classics which should arrive with me next week, as soon as I get that I can strip the new horn pad out and swap the emblems over, the back of the new pad has shorter sockets for the connecting pins, as a result of that it won't fit my original wheel with it's connectors so I was going to swap the back for the one from the original horn pad, I'll wait and see what the new wheel has and then build up the pad to suit.

That's the plan anyhow...

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #207 on: October 17, 2015, 06:48:16 »
We emptied the shop out the other day to move some cars around and pulled the 230 out of the never get done corner and moved it into a position where it can be worked on. The new 3 phase wiring for 'The Chief' has been installed and so work can begin in earnest.

I have a customer coming to look at a car today, I hope they buy it as I am on short rations until it is sold and am not allowed to order any more Mercedes parts....as soon as they are done with me I can get into some metalwork on this car. I'll have a bit of a practice with the Chief and see if I can master the art of spot welding then I'll cut out some of the toe board to get access into the sills and assess the extent of the rust.

I've been having a closer look at all the sheet metal after work the last couple of nights, and I'm pretty disappointed with the quality of the replacement panels, don't get me wrong I am glad they are available but just wish they were a bit better. The floor pans I got from Mercedes look pretty good although the teller will be when they go in the hole of course, but the seat mounts I got from K and K really aren't up to much, the RH one is about a half inch wider than the original one and the shape isn't all that either. I think I will probably wind up leaving mine in and just replacing the bottom half using a piece of the new panel.

Also the part of the floor that goes under the rear seat is totally different, maybe that's an early/late car thing but mine isn't like the replacement at all, it's a shame because that is the part on mine that is rotten, although I will probably have to use it as I will have to remove that piece to get to the frame rail that needs replacing. I was hoping that with the parts for these cars being so expensive then the quality would be A1, looks like I'm in for a fairly major reality check in the not too distant.

I have a couple of fairly expensive packages on their way from the USA and I am starting to get a little nervous about whether the parts are going to be right. I ordered a new heater control from MB and it has turned up but has the later style levers in it, well I can't fit that so I am back to square one there. Still, we will prevail.

Should have some pictures of a hacked up Mercedes Benz to post later....

« Last Edit: October 17, 2015, 17:18:29 by Scottcorvette »

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #208 on: October 17, 2015, 17:14:37 »
Well I sold the car so I can get some more parts now....

Had a go with 'The Chief' which was a great success, I thought there might have been a bit of practice needed but it really is as simple as squeezing the trigger. I got a prefect spot weld my first time out. I'm very happy with this machine and will spot weld anything I can....I tried to do a destructive test on the piece and I couldn't get it to tear apart. It is hard to believe that such a tiny weld is as strong as it is. I just wish I had had it when I was doing the Mustang and the VW.

I didn't get chance to do much else today, I cut some of the rotten metal out from the wheel wells at the front and rear section of the rockers so I could have a look in there and try and make a plan. It was all pretty flaky inside, so I scraped what I could out and need to decide if I just rust treat it all and replace smaller sections each end or if I bite the bullet and cut the whole section out and use one of the repair sections in there. It is a bit borderline, not sure it's good enough to leave but not sure it's bad enough to warrant replacement, I certainly won't need to fit full rockers.

The jacking points are all solid except for just the bottom part of the plate, so they could be left with some local repair, fortunately all the rust is in the same areas so I think my cutting out can be kept to a minimum.

Picture 2 is the LH rear wheel well looking forward

Picture 3 is inside the RH rocker, looking back from the front wheel well

Picture 4 is The RH front wheel well looking back
« Last Edit: October 19, 2015, 07:13:34 by Scottcorvette »

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #209 on: October 17, 2015, 17:16:21 »
A few more of inside the rockers

Picture 1 is the LH rocker looking forward from the rear wheel well

Picture 2 is the RH rocker looking back from the front wheel well

Picture 3 is from the LH rear wheel well - I think!

Picture 4 is the RH rear wheel well looking forward
« Last Edit: October 19, 2015, 07:15:45 by Scottcorvette »

Cees Klumper

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #210 on: October 17, 2015, 17:57:05 »
Impressive progress, thanks for taking the time to post all the updates and pictures.
Cees Klumper
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stickandrudderman

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #211 on: October 17, 2015, 22:22:01 »
If you want to sell that spot welder when you're done I'd be interested. Mine is about 40 years old!

mnahon

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #212 on: October 18, 2015, 03:50:13 »
Scott,

Those are great shots of the rockers. I'm especially interested in them because I've been trying to sort out drainage coming from the soft top box, through the rear quarter panels and then through the rockers to the front of the car. It would be really great if you could label each shot in your post, like 'left rocker, from the rear, looking forward'. Some of the pictures are hard to locate.

Have you figured out why the rockers ended up rusting in those places? i.e. how the water got there?

The rockers look mostly sound apart from the ends.

Meyer
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Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #213 on: October 19, 2015, 07:09:56 »
I dunno Stick, The Chief and I have formed a pretty special bond already....

Meyer, I tried labelling the pictures but I couldn't. I'll list where they are in the text. It is only really the ends that are bad, but the bottom part of the sill is pretty pitted inside, I guess it will become more apparent what I have to do as I delve further in to it.

mnahon

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #214 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
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PMO956F

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #215 on: October 19, 2015, 19:30:29 »
Hi Scott

I was reading your post re Fred Pentecost , i dont suppose you have a valid number for him , (did he redo your pump at reasonable cost?)

thanks

Darren

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #216 on: October 20, 2015, 20:03:38 »
Fred Pentecosts contact details:
 
towerbridgediesels.co.uk 07944 977711
 
I haven't had mine done yet, he advised me to wait until nearer the time that the car is going to be run so the pump doesn't sit around. We did talk about costs but it is pretty hard for him to give an idea until he has seen the pump, fair enough as it could need just a clean or need everything.


Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #217 on: October 20, 2015, 20:07:21 »
Meyer I think you are right, there are some pretty bad water traps on these cars by the looks of things, but I think if they have lasted this long they haven't done too bad, and it is pretty unlikely that they will really get properly wet again...Mine has some pitting in the soft top well, and if you follow the path down it ties in with the rust round the sill and frame rails. Most of the problems on my car are toward the rear, so it makes me think the soft top well is responsible for an awful lot, incidentally mine had no seal at all in there when I got it.

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #218 on: October 20, 2015, 20:11:49 »
it has been another very exciting day, my shipment from the USA arrived and there was a fair bit of Mercedes on there to keep my interest...Corvette parts just don't seem to do it for me any more.

Here's a sneak preview....

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #219 on: October 21, 2015, 05:49:51 »
With the arrival of the new steering wheel I set about swapping the horn pad emblems. Not as straightforward as one might think. The new steering wheel has short plugs for the horn pad to push on to so I either need to replace those with longer ones or swap the base over. I figured I'd swap the bases so I didn't have to get new plugs.

Getting the new emblem apart was easy enough, I just used a small pick to ease the tabs in and get the outer chrome ring off. The the rest of it just fell apart, the new emblem is just stuck on with some double sided tape, I never thought it felt as sturdy as the original.

The problem is there seems to be just a little more bulk to the new horn pad than the old. I was having trouble getting the outer chrome ring to snap over the cushion and the original plastic base so may need to go back to using the new base and getting longer plugs, the screw threads start further down in the new base hence the original plugs are no good.

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #220 on: October 21, 2015, 05:56:42 »
The other snafu is that the new emblem is just a snap smaller than the original with the chrome bezel so I cant get it to push in. I carefully cut the slots with an exacto knife but I still can't get it to push in. The original has a complete covering for the emblem to sit on but the replacement has nothing there so it is just catching on the edge of the hole.

I'll have another go at it tonight but I think I'll need to nick Ronni's hairdryer and warm it up a little bit to get the emblem to push all the way in. In hindsight I think I would have had a go at recovering the original pad but figured the genuine replacement might make life a little easier....

I bet all the little tabs break off the emblem bezel when I try to bend them back over too.

JamesL

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #221 on: October 21, 2015, 06:31:09 »
Ivory wheel would look awesome with maroon!
James L
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Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #222 on: October 22, 2015, 07:29:34 »
The ivory wheel is going to look awesome with any colour.....

The horn pad has really given me some jive, I took it in to work yesterday and warmed it with the hot air gun, the emblem slipped in nicely and looked really good in it's proper place. Struggled like hell to get the chrome outer ring to snap back in to place, the pad itself needed a fair bit of pressure to press down where the emblem goes in, and of course the first couple of tabs on the ring broke.....

I then changed back to the later base, that whilst they look the same other than 3 nuggets on the original that locate into the emblem, and although I can't see it the curve must be slightly different to match the pad as it needs less pressure to push down, so that is the one I'm going with.

The broken tab must have hit the back of the badge as I noticed a dot in the paint, so that had to come out and be repainted. I'm now going to give that a couple of days to fully harden and have put a couple of layers of 3M padded licence plate tape on the horn pad to hold the emblem in place, just like the MB replacement was and I'll forget about the tabs on the chrome ring. I'll warm the pad up a bit too to really make it easy to push the emblem home. Trouble is I'll really only get one shot to get it in straight so I'll mount the pad to the wheel and go for it.

For anyone else going to do this, the benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing, I could have just pushed the old badge out from the back and pushed the new one in from the front. Instead I've had a load of stress and grief to achieve the same result....

My new fuel injectors arrived too, so that was good.

Scottcorvette

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #223 on: October 24, 2015, 05:48:01 »
I think I am missing some windshield trim. When JamesL came to visit with his 280SL I noticed he had additional chrome/aluminium trim on the inside of his windshield frame between the outer chrome trim and the inner leather covered piece, picture 1. Pictures 2,3, and 4 are mine.

I do not have this and at the time didn't realize anything was missing, mine is VIN 04260 and is mid 1964, maybe this was a later addition or maybe it was on all cars from the word go. I don't know and am hoping that someone can shed some light on this and if it should be there point me in the right direction for getting some.

I found a few more pictures of the inner windshield trim on this site.

http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=7310.0

http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=8234.0

I ma also missing the inner leather covered trim. I assume this is a wood piece that is covered like the upright windshield trim pieces.

Any ideas?
« Last Edit: October 24, 2015, 05:55:03 by Scottcorvette »

Garry

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Re: 1964 230SL restoration in UK
« Reply #224 on: October 24, 2015, 06:51:39 »
Scott,

Here is a photo of my top right hand side for the “65 230SL

Quite different ??? There is a second inner piece you are missing.

Garry
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