Thursday, August 11, 2016

Hard top restoration part 5 - fitting of the rear screen

I am normally more than happy to fit my own screens but the screen for the large back window 190SL hardtop is panoramic, narrow and fits under a cowl that extends down from the roof.  I decided to call in a professional to help. I found a real professional in Rory from Windscreens on Wheels in Newport Pagnel. http://www.windscreensonwheels.co.uk/  He was patient and persevered to find the right way to fit the screen. 
We found that the way was to have the upper chrome trims in place and the lowers removed.  The window then had to be tilted in under the roof cowl\brackets for the chrome; once the screen was in place the lower chromes could be fitted.  It took a couple of attempts before we got it right but it looks excellent.  The rubber did tear at the lower corner joints, something I have seen on replacement screen rubbers for other manufacturers but didn't expect on an OEM one from Mercedes-Benz.  Easily repaired and now unnoticeable.

All finished and worth the effort.

Hard top restoration part 4 - back on the car and awaiting the rear window

Here are a couple of shots with the hard top back on the car.  The lighting for once shows that the car is blue and the colour contrasts well with the black hard top.


Hard top restoration 3 - trimming part 2

I took it steady with the fitting of the lining as whilst I took plenty of photos the condition was poor and not a good template to work off.  The most enjoyable piece was the leather work, skiving the leather down to a thinner profile so that ends could be folded and then working the leather over the 3D shape of the ledge under the rear window without ending up with creases - looks great inside now


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Hard top restoration 3 - trimming part 1

I had collected the new rubbers over the last few years starting with an MB rear screen rubber that Will Samples, restorer of the car at S&S Imports, Dallas, sourced for me.  I picked up the side seals from SLS Gmbh in Germany and came across a lucky find on e-bay for original front header rail and rear body seals at a knock down price; helped to keep the costs down.
The headlining, in a tan colour which was the same as the original. The sound deadening needed gluing back into place and the metal fitting bows were all de-rusted and treated before being inserted into the new lining material



 came from KHM in Germany also, it turned out to be for the earlier small window version but worked well with plenty of careful trimming back.  When I removed the old under window leather trim the model number was stencilled on to the leather.

Hard top restoration 2 - painted

The hard top was repainted at Paintshop pro,  http://www.thepaintshoppros.co.uk/category/painting-cars/  They made a great job or repainting it as mentioned in a previous post back in June. Also mentioned in that post was that all the chrome trim was refinished by Capital Chrome (formerly London Chroming Co) in the Old Kent Road - used them for 30 years and always had great results.



Hard top restoration 1 - Original condition

When the car was restored I didn't have the hardtop done to keep the cost down and because it wasn't critical to enjoying the car.  Theresa quite likes the hard top and it does make the car more usable in the UK during the winter so I decided to strip it out and restore it. Here is what it looked like beforehand on the inside and stripped out at the paint shop ready for a repaint.


Unexpected success at the SL day held at thge Bicester Flywheel event

The Mercedes-Benz Club held part of their annual SL weekend at the Flywheel event held at Bicester heritage.  Great combination of planes, classic and sports cars. Great to see Sir Stirling Moss being driven around a temporary course in one of his old competition cars.
Having thought it was a show and shine it turned out to be a judged concours with various classes of SLs being judged.  At the end there was no winners sticker on our car so we continued to look around at the other great cars and winners.  Winners' cars were called forward to receive their trophy, a nice touch.  Just before the end we were asked to take our car into line - turned out we had won best car in show. Really pleased!




Success at the 2016 Mercedes-Benz Club Concourse

Having won the SL class last year our 190SL was entered into the Masterclass for all Mercedes-Benz sports cars.  Fantastically it came first which was excellent - must have been the polishing by Theresa.
The masterclass cars were displayed alongside 'equivalent' new cars in from of the MB headquarters which was a nice touch.