Visit to Texas

I recently spent a whole weekend in Texas with Will who is masterminding the restoration of our 190SL and getting my hands on various parts of the car.

Will was great at showing me the engine running on the test bench and subsequently stripping the bottom end with me and splitting it from the transmission. We also inspected the carbs and other parts.

I spent time inspecting the nearly completed front seats and stripping down the front grille and assessing the components and other trim to see what needed replating or replacing. We also visited the body under repairs at Steve's shop to see the progress being made.

I will be posting more detailed info shortly but in the meantime here is a photo of the restored shell from Will's 190SL, also done by Steve.

No going back!

Steve at the body shop has really got stuck into the body repairs. The body has been braced and then the rear end and boot floor chopped out. This was followed by removal of most of the floor pan and side rails. removing the floor pans exposed rust in the cross member for the seat supports and these will need replacing as well. Additionally the rear inner wings (fenders) have been poorly repaired in the past and both need replacing along with the rear spring mounts. Well that's as low as it can go, the only was is up!

ng points

Bumper brackets

The bumper brackets are back from powder coating. Will is looking to rebuild and assemble the front sub frame and components in the next few days.

Door Hinge

One of the door hinges was broken and Will sourced a new one. When stripping it down he found the pin was bent so had a new one made up with extra grease threads in it as well.

Repair panels

All the repair panels arrived at wills and are now over at the bodyshop for use in the rebuild. here are shots of a few of them.

Replacement panel list

Here is a list of the metal panels that have now arrived for the repairs to the body.

spare tire well, right - boot floor, centre - boot floor L&R - boot floor rear - main floor pan, LF & RF - seat bracket, inner L&R - seat bkt, outer, left - firewall, lower right - booster box - battery box - cap, front frame L&R - filler panel (2) - tail panel - rocker panel L&R - hood bumpers (4) - filler panels- false floor steel L&R - frame rail L&R - cap, frame center, L&R - trailing arm support L&R.

The good, the bad and the ugly!

The body is now across at the bodyshop following blasting and has been shown to have a lot of the typical 190SL rot. In particular it has rotten frame rail caps floor edges, sill structures and boot floor along with right hand spare wheel well.

On the good side all the outer panels, except the rear panel are in great shape and the inner wings are mostly OK. The car has had replacement front and rear panels at some stage and possibly front wings (fenders) as well. previous attempts at repairs, including fitting the replacement rear panel, have involved the use of braze instead of weld which will all need removing. the rear panel will probably be easier to replace than repair due to some poor repairs.

Will has priced up the panels, including replacement floor, rear panel, rails etc., from K&K at approx $3,000 and they are on order, pretty good value and thankfully no outer panels needed except the rear.

Body off to the blasters

The body left Wills at S&S Imports a couple of weeks ago for blasting of all panels except for doors and front/rear hoods. It has now been done and waiting at the balsters for a dry day before being transported to the bodyshop for repairs and paint. You can see the section of the passenger side outer sill that Will chopped away so we could see what was lurking underneath. this sill has been replaced before and brazed in place incorrectly.

More mechanical progress

New rear axle mounts have been sourced by Will. He has also had the brake drums turned and blasted and new brake linings fitted to the brake shoes.

Blasted

Some of the major mechanocal componets are back from the blasters and ready to go off for power coating.

Mechanical rebuild progress

All the running gear has been removed and major components are going to be blasted and powder coated.

The engine is due to be placed on a stand with a replaced water pump and run to enable compression tests etc to be carried out. Hopefully we can avoid a major engine rebuild as the car has relatively low mileage.

External trim

The front bumper is almost perfect having been factory replaced at some time. Only issue is one missing aluminium spacer between 2 of the sections which Will is sourcing for me.

The main blade parts of the rear bumper are good as well. Rechroming replacement of the rear licence plate light covers and other small parts might be needed though.

Interior retrim progress

The new seat covers, made with Austian sourced leather/kits, are being fitted. Here is what one of the backrests looks like with its newly rechromed frame.

Bodywork strip down

Here are some photos of the bodywork strip down underway. A few extra holes have appeared but nothing dramatic. the rockers/sills had been brazed on and have been removed for replacement. The front end has suffered an impact at some stage, the good news is it has a new front section and factory bumper but the joining up to the front inner panels left a little to be desired and will need attention/

Major work has begun

After returning to work and reviewing how to approach putting the car back on the road we have changed our minds and decided to revert to the original plan of having everything done State side. this decision means that the mechanical work gets done by Will at S & S Imports as intended and the bodywork goes out to a local bodywork specialist who has worked closely on other Mercedes projects with Will.

Contracting out work on cars is something I have never done before and certainly not thousands of miles away, preferring to do the work myself. I am extremely confident in the work that Will produces and his attention to detail and he is now going full steam ahead to make use of the time in the body shop which we have waited for over 2 years for.

Here is a quick picture of the body being stripped, loads more to follow.

Body work plans

Due to a change in work arrangements we have decided to concentrate on the mechanical, structural and trim aspects of the car and save up for paint work to be done at a later date here in the UK.

The plan now is to press ahead with the interior, this is already underway. The mechanics will undergo a major overhaul with Will at S & S Imports as planned but the body work will be restricted to repairing the passenger side wheel well and part of the rear boot along with repairing several small areas of the chassis side rails and inner wings.

Will plans to get the underneath carefully blasted, repaired and repainted before completing the mechanical repairs.

This will leave us with a very usable car with a great interior which we can use for a number of years until we can afford a quality respray. We will also be able to get to know the car better and decide if we do want to take it back to its original colour scheme or leave it silver like at present.

Progress with seat frames

The seat frames have now come back from having the chrome on them renewed and are ready for being rebuilt with the new leather covers. The pink tinge to the paint work is just a trick of the light with Will's camera when he took the shots.