Vehicle: 1971 280se conv. European spec 6 cylinder imported here years ago and converted to a V8
Location: Upper Montclair, NJ
Posts: 36
1971 280se conv resto questions
So, stripped the interior and chrome off the 280 and it is off to be soda blasted this week but I have a few questions:
I have found a hole which goes from below the brake master cylinder and comes out of the drivers' front wheel well. It had been plugged up before. Is this a drain hole or should it be plugged?
How do I get at the (broken) radio ariel which is on the passenger side front wing. I am hoping I really don't have to take the wing off!
The back of the car says "280SE" with the word "Automatic" below on the left hand side. "3.5" is on the right of the trunk. The auto cars I have seen in photos only say "280SE" on the left so do I need to fix this? The car is an auto.
Any idea where to get thick padding for the transmission tunnel covering or the tar mats which cover the floorpan?
Please do yourself, and the other members a favor and complete your profile including your location. This will make our suggestions more relevant as to sources of parts, etc.
If the W111 is similar to the sedans, there should be a removable panel in the right front wheel well that will allow access to the radio antenna.
If your car says "automatic" on the trunk, there is a high likelihood that is is a European, as opposed to a U.S. version of the vehicle.
I have not seen the "automatic" badge on an off-line convertible, but have seen it on a number of European W113 SLs. The 3.5 coupe/cab was available with a four speed manual in Europe, but came only in an "auto" for U.S. delivery.
The chassis will typically have a few extra "holes" that are plugged; this arises from the need to make specific modifications to the chassis set-up for different markets, e.g. right hand drive, etc.
Vehicle: 1971 280se conv. European spec 6 cylinder imported here years ago and converted to a V8
Location: Upper Montclair, NJ
Posts: 36
Thanks JR
I filled out my profile!
The naming on the back makes sense because it is a Euro car and still has the KPH speedo which I want to replace (anyone got one?). I may take the Automatic name off and just have it liek the American spec. The car has been messed around a lot anyway, so I may as well try and get it to look like a US car at least.
I undid the 2 bolts that hold that panel on the wheel well but the panel didn't budge. I wil have another look at it but maybe the panel has just got so much sealer on it, that it is stuck.
That is the longest car description I have seen in a profile, but it sure tells the story.
Be careful with that panel in the wheel well, when I removed mine in a sedan, [a California car, BTW] it was sealed pretty heavily. With a European version, now located on the east coast, I would be very wary of the potential of rust actually being the "tie that binds," in this instance.
The naming on the back makes sense because it is a Euro car and still has the KPH speedo which I want to replace (anyone got one?). I may take the Automatic name off and just have it liek the American spec. The car has been messed around a lot anyway, so I may as well try and get it to look like a US car at least.
I undid the 2 bolts that hold that panel on the wheel well but the panel didn't budge. I wil have another look at it but maybe the panel has just got so much sealer on it, that it is stuck.
I will plug the holes!
Thanks for your tips
Adrian
There are THREE bolts holding the panel in place . it's no big deal to remove the wing. It will come off in under 10 minutes on even the rustiest car. The other bolt is in side the engine compartment in line with the wing bolts.
Keep the ariel if it is a hirshmann because they are repairable and very desirable in terms of quality and originality.
Check the rubber seal on the outside of that panel and in most cases it can simply be washed in hot soapy water to bring it back up to scratch.
Remove both panels and carefully check inside the cavity for rust,because being a euro car it will be on the cards that rust will be there ,just hidden.
The car should be body color painted in the wheel houses ,not black chassis paint! only those two removeble panels are black and i use POR15 on them to prevent rock damage.
In fact i would remove the front wings anyway and refinish under the front to clean up 40 years of road grime,check the front suspension and overhaul it if neccesary and over the brakes. No time like the present as they say.
When ci first read your desription of the car i thought" oh no,280 SE 3.5 convert in the hands of a DIYer ...!" because a real 3.5 convert is a seriously valuable car.It's still desirable even with the V8 conversion. Good luck with it.
The tar mats are available from auto paint supplier and are called "bostic sound deadning mats".They come in boxes of 50 or so,enough to do several cars...so visit a paint supplier and see if they can direct you to a panel shop which may sell a few. The speedo is rare ! KEEP IT! ,.
Last edited by mercmad6.3 : 05-07-2008 at 04:05 PM.
Vehicle: 1971 280se conv. European spec 6 cylinder imported here years ago and converted to a V8
Location: Upper Montclair, NJ
Posts: 36
Great advice
So the car goes off to the soda blaster today. I am going to ask them to take the wings off at the same time they take off the doors etc to get to all the old paint. I will make sure I look after the ariel and will get it restored if anyone can point me in the right direction.
The wheel wells are completely covered in thick tar and I removed some where it was cracked to reveal clean rust free metal underneath, which is a good sign. I am happy to leave the tar on as am more interested in protecting the metal rather than being super original.
Funny about the DIY comment. I have really enjoyed taking the car to pieces ready for the resparay. The whole point of this respray is to remove a really bad old paint job whic is cracked and peeling. The car is surprisingly rust free. There was no rust on any door bottoms, sills or wheel arch outers. The only place was a hole in the floorpan where the gas pedal is and on the driver's side trunk lower wheel well -which I gather s pretty much standard.
The firewall had some gaps so I think water has been trickling and gathering in the floorpan, so that's an easy fix. The idea of all this is to get a car that we can use as a family. A car that looks good and has been made inert in terms of rust etc, but not one which we have to treat with kid gloves. It doesn't matter what the car is worth, so long as the restoration we are now doing is not more than its value. I figure that if we spend the $20,000 redoing the paint properly, rechroming the rear bumper, adding new carpets, plus the few mechanical repairs such as new exhaust etc and get ten years happy motoring, it's money well spent. If it isn't treated now it really will start to get bad, so even my DIY efforts are helping this car stay healthy. If we sell it in 10 years, someone will have a solid car to start with and do all the things they want to make it into a show car or whatever. That's not our intention.
In terms of the speedo, I would rather have something that we know what speed we are doing, wich maybe means adding stickers to the kph dial or swapping it out. If the kph dial is rare, I would be happy to use the money to buy a mph version. As said before, the car is a messed around version that is mid atlantic at the moment - I want to make it American spec, as this is where it lives!
BTW, my first car at 21 was a Jaguar 420G and my current daily driver is a 1971 Buick Riviera.
Adrian,dont use tar under the car. The only stuff to use is Wurth SKS. It's almost the same as the original stuff Mercedes used which was PVC. WURTH USA Inc. - Catalog
Tar goes hard in cooler weather and cracks easily letting moisture in underneath.
The Antenna can be fixed if there is actually anything wrong with it. They are bullet proof and the only real problem is usually the drain in the bottom getting blocked and corrosion happening inside the guts.
Antenna refills can be bought on ebay.
You buy a rear bumper cheaper than getting one rechromed and Mercedes Chrome is always better looking than some of the rechrome jobs I have seen.
Look on ebay.de for "oldtimer Mercedes" to locate W111 bumpers.
Don't forget it's a Mercedes so kid gloves won't figure in the way you treat it,just ensure you keep it serviced regularly which is the secret to Old Mercedes happiness.
Vehicle: 1971 280se conv. European spec 6 cylinder imported here years ago and converted to a V8
Location: Upper Montclair, NJ
Posts: 36
Thanks for the tips.
The tar is only in the wheel well so I think that so long as I keep an eye out for cracks, it can stay as a protector for now. The paint shop offered to remove it or even smooth it so it had protection but it would look like a metal panel but I wasn't interested in either solution. It can be an easy future project if necessary.
Vehicle: 1971 280se conv. European spec 6 cylinder imported here years ago and converted to a V8
Location: Upper Montclair, NJ
Posts: 36
BTW, the paint shop is recommending coating the inside front footwells with a plastic used on truckbeds. Firstly to seal it completely watertight and also to prevent further rusting and add a bit of extra strength and thickness to cover that lost by the rust.
I am sure the pursits would hate the idea but he says he uses it quite a bit on other classics. This guy is good - he is currently working on a duesenberg, so I guess he wants to give me options.
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