Videos of trial fitting of parts to completed body

Here are a series of videos showing trial fitting of the front grill etc.

Tour of body during final stages of work

Here is a short video of the body during final stages of work when various brackets etc were being recreated. the body was resandblasted afterwards to remove traces of rust.

Restored carbs

Here is a photo of the restored carbs. Saen replaced gaskets, removed and refitted the butterflies and replated the various parts. The carbs had been replaced on the car at some stage and are the final verion of the ones fitted.

Transmission rebuild

Here are photos of the transmission rebuild.

Driveshaft rebuild

Here are photos of the stripped and rebuilt driveshaft before repaint and installation.

Finished rear axle and transmission

Here are pics of work on the rear axle and it finished prior to instalation along with the finished transmission. here is a link to a video clip about the rebuild of the rear axle:

Diff installed

Here are pictures of the diff installed and with shocks, trailing arms, coil springs and brake lines attached.

Hub caps

Here are a couple of pictures of the hub caps which have been rechromed and now sprayed undernmeath by Will in the correct colour.

Across in Dallas 3

The drivers side heater box is made from a compressed fibre, unfortunately it had a large hole in it which Will telss me tends to happen when owners don't secure the bonnet stay properly and as a result it punctures the casing when the engine is closed. there are ABS plastic replacements available but I set out with some great ideas from Steve on repairing it.

I used fibreglass matting and resin on the underside of the hole to reinforce and then created paper mache to in fill. this was all then covered by 3M rubberised undercoat to cover up the patch. I also reconditioned the passenger side metal cased one as well. Whilst things were apart, we removed the valves and inserted new sealing washers.

Across in Dallas 2

When I have restored cars in the past I have done most of the work myself so the big attraction of going to Will's wasto be involved, learn about the car and feel I have had some input - all of this was achieved with Will's great help and that of his new assistant Steve.

My main tasks were around cleaning and preparing parts for re-installation and observing the re-assembly of the engine. The car has received a new block and head at some time from Mercedes, restamped with the original engine number. Steve thinks that the majority of the internals were retained at that time but a good number were changed this time.

Across in Dallas 1

I spent a week across at Will Samples where the car is being rebuilt. Will is expertly leading the rebuild of the car alongside undertaking the mechanical work and has used the services of Steve Crowley for the bodywork and paint. The big excitement was that the paint was just about finished and the car was scheduled to turn up at Will's part way through theweek which it did and looks stunning.

I changed the colour from Grey\blue to Dark blue (DB332) and am really pleased with the choice. Steve used Glasurit Line 22 paint system for the finish.

Here are some shots of it at Steve's body shop receiving final colour sanding with Steve and John and photos of it finished and back at Will's.

Long time, no post

It's been a long time since I posted to this blog. In the meantime the body has been finished and prepped for paint. We spent a long time trying to find the correct paint formula to match the DB166 GrayBlue that the car came in originally. Perversly enough once we had a close match Theresa and I decided we didn't like it - better now than later. We are going instead for Dark Blue (Dunkel Blau) DB332.
Mechanical work has sped on over the last few months with the carbs being tidied up and new gaskets and metal ware - they are later replacements and didn't need major work.
The transmission has been cleaned out and reconditioned as has the rear axle and brakes.
I will start posting some of the details of What Will and his new assistant Steve have done on the car over the last few months so that the blog is more up to date.
I am off to see Will and the car at the end of November and hopefully help out in the re-assembly of the car if the paint has been finished by then.