23 August 2013, Friday .
To restore a classic car its not so simple. There are some details that can turn an excellent restoration to an average restoration or a bad restoration.
I will try to explain how a good restoration can be done. One thing you can be sure, its not cheap, and it takes time. There are different ways to do that, some more expensive than others, and not everyone do the same way.
The classic car that you will see being restored is a Mercedes Benz 190 SL Coupé. The color that you see bellow is not its original color. The original one is Silver and i will try to tell more about it with the pictures bellow.
In this picture you can see the front and the engine compartment empty, prepared to go to sandblasting.
In this picture you can see the rear end, and not too much rust that you can see
The main body is clean after you take out everything. You must then make sure that the glue and silicon are out otherwise it is very difficult to take it out with sand blast.
After sand blasting you can see in the front and engine compartment that there is not so much rust for a 59 car.
As you can see in the floor of the main body a bit of rust shows up. In these cases you have no choice,
you must buy a new one or make a new one.
In the rear end again not too much rust, but as we can see in the next pictures only when we begin to look in more details sometimes we have surprises.
After dismantling part of the body frame, it is ready to go again to sand blasting.
You can see that the corrosion is in other parts that before you weren´t able to see. That’s why sand blasting is again useful.
In this picture, without the floor that will be brand new, you can see that the main structure iss in good shape for a 1959 car. What we can also see is the previous poor intervention.
In the trunk section you can see that there is not so much to do. However it goes again to sand blasting.
The look of the front and the engine compartment after the second sand blasting and primary paint ,to avoid oxidation.
Main body after second sand blasting and the primary paint
Rear end and trunk compartment after the second sand blasting and primary paint
New Floor: as you can see a complete brand new floor is already in place
After all parts replacements, sand blast to clean all the dross and welds.
In the picture you can see the front part
The inside part, after the sand blast
Restoration Mercedes Benz 190 SL - As you can see in this picture, all the rubber seals, hydraulic pipes were replaced in the front axel
Another picture from the front axel
Preparing the rearend for painting
Preparing the fllor for painting
Preparing the engine compartment for painting
Preparing the inside compartment for painting
Luggage compartment ready for paint
Preparing the front
Front part ready for paint
Inside compartment ready for paint
Lugagge compartment ready for paint
Preparing the engine
Another picture of the engine
Preparing the floor
Floor painted
car painted
Testing engine
Preparing the car for engine
New electric wires
Replace engine
New tires
New exhaust pipes
New electric wires
Engine already replaced
New shock absorver and exhaust pipes
New electric cables
Installing electric instalation in engine compartment
Preparing to install the fuse box
Installing the new chromes
Installing electric part in the rear
New rear lights installed
Rear almost finished
Almost finished
Preparing to have the leather and carpets inside
Almost finished
New leather and new carpets with original colour
Preparing the 3 rd seat
Preapring the dashboard
.JPG)
Preparing the soft top
3 rd seat installed
ALmost finished inside
Front seats installed
Almost finished inside
Dashboard almost complete
Sft top as arrived
Installing the soft top
That´s how it looks
Another look
Almost finished
Finishing the soft top
Final parts
Details take us a lot of time
Only missing the grill and the fog lights
Testing the soft top
Waiting........
It looks very nice
The interior looks very cool
Amazing car
Another view. Beautiful colour combination
And the car is finished. It looks the same as in 1959 when he came out of factory
Engine was full restored
0 Km since rebuild
Interior full restored
Original rubber in the floor
Brand new White Wall Tyres
New soft top
Beautiful colour combination
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