Mercedes 300SEL 6.3 restoration
Discussion
A fantastic project, I am impressed. A quick glance through the pics but can't do them justice at work when I have to at least pretend I'm busy every few minutes.
Did I see somewhere you were also W. Sussex based? I will be keeping an eye out for this car eventually, as these and the 600s are amongst my favourite cars ever. I used to say I wouldn't ever own a Mercedes but a couple of years ago I re-considered my position and went for "I wouldn't ever own a Mercedes newer than a 1994"
the best of luck for you on this
Did I see somewhere you were also W. Sussex based? I will be keeping an eye out for this car eventually, as these and the 600s are amongst my favourite cars ever. I used to say I wouldn't ever own a Mercedes but a couple of years ago I re-considered my position and went for "I wouldn't ever own a Mercedes newer than a 1994"
the best of luck for you on this
Magnificent, the photos in your flickr are fascinating. It's interesting how similar Mercs were through the years, in construction. I've been doing a little work on my late W126 (1991) recently, and underneath it's virtually identical to my older W123; looking at your pictures, it's all very familiar! The same fixings, component finishes, mountings etc, yet 20 years between them. If I looked at a 50's car it probably wouldn't be much different either..! Each new design just an iterative development of the previous one.
Thanks guys, yes, I'm in West Sussex.
Just found a great picture on Flickr of what the car will look like when finished, it's the same colour as this one. From memory I think the owner might be on here as well, or I've seen this car pictured at a breakfast club meet a while ago.
Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 by pyntofmyld, on Flickr
Just found a great picture on Flickr of what the car will look like when finished, it's the same colour as this one. From memory I think the owner might be on here as well, or I've seen this car pictured at a breakfast club meet a while ago.
Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 by pyntofmyld, on FlickrRanchoGrande said:
Lagerlout said:
Would love one of these, how much do you reckon it would cost to do a full professional refurbishment? £30k - £40k?
Paracetamol said:
Given how far you have taken the strip down, you have the option to dip the car..is that in your plans?
It will be bare metalled manually as you can see at some points on the front. At the moment it's only being stripped enough to find any serious rust problems bit by bit. But the car is being restored front to back so everything will go to bare metal. Old fashioned way of doing it but it's the best for future paintwork. Blasting creates it's own issues with media getting everywhere and dipping can give problems with leakage from the seams even years later. The main exterior panels have been blasted.Been progressing on the 6.3 and found a few horror repairs. The double skinned near side wheelhouse area has been patched with folded over metal over the rusty bits instead of it being cut out properly. Terrible mess but I guess I'm lucky it's not the whole car just this bit with the real rust issues. Few new pics in the gallery including some of the metal that's come off and the sections that's been replaced so far. Unfortunately these wheelhouses are not available so it all has to be repaired by hand. Quite convoluted due to the complex shapes in this area.
So you buy a car you think has relatively little rust, then you start to discover the myriad of amateur repairs everywhere, the lack of available panels, and resign yourself to hand making the lot.. Beginning to understand why these cost so much to restore.. lol..
We're getting there though, as you can see, the rust free rear end, was really a massively dodgy patched rear end. New chassis legs, boot floor, rear clip repaired etc.
https://goo.gl/photos/6EUxSb2CBJfy7zrf8
We're getting there though, as you can see, the rust free rear end, was really a massively dodgy patched rear end. New chassis legs, boot floor, rear clip repaired etc.
https://goo.gl/photos/6EUxSb2CBJfy7zrf8
Wondering where this is at 3 years later after looking at your 1000 photos on the google link and seeing it got as far as the paint shop last year after an epic restoration!!
I hope it is getting close to something you like as these cars really are worth saving as the original hot saloon.
best regards
I hope it is getting close to something you like as these cars really are worth saving as the original hot saloon.
best regards
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