Mercedes 300SEL 6.3 Racing Project

Grant V

Member
Messages
242
I sent all the glass side windows to a guy in near Pretoria to make me windows from Perspex. He matched the tint colour and then bent them to the correct profile using the glass windows as moulds. The result is very good and these were then fitted.

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I made and plated brackets to secure the windows in place to that they don’t drop down out of the channels, which are shorter than normal and purely in place for aesthetics.

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I’d been putting off cleaning the grill for ages – I had done this job previously on my 6.3 road car and it was a relentless chore. Do you know how many holes a 6.3 grill has?? (As some wit said: “more than the Women’s Soccer World Cup.”) Nevertheless, almost two days of slogging away with a tooth brush (several!) and a few tubes of Autosol Metal Polish gave results and the difference was marked.

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The grill surround had been re-chromed and when it came to assembling the whole thing, I found that the horizontal beadings I ordered from Niemoeller were wrong – they were too thin, like those used on a Fintail. So the assembly of the grill was all left aside while I ordered new beadings…only to find that they have again supplied Fintail beadings. Someone is going to have to tell Fritz that the 110 part number does not work on W108/109 grills. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but the reason I never got genuine parts from the US is that the beadings are farkin expensive – would have worked out at about $600

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The dashboard wood finally arrived back last week – third time lucky. I spent Saturday fitting the dash wood, adjusting the cubby lid and then fitting the dashboard top and bottom. Everything went together quite nicely and relatively easily. The original dashboard was cracked, so it was upholstered in leather, but the reverse side to give a suede look, like on period racing cars. The suede solution was not only good looking, but practical as well because there was no reflection off the dashboard onto the inside of the windscreen.

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Because the key ignition switch is no longer going to be used, I made a blanking plate out of aluminium, which was polished and glued onto the trim surround and then fitted in place.

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The windscreen got fitted as well. I asked some advice about the chrome beading insert and was told that this needed to be fitted first into the seal and then the seal mounted onto the windscreen after which the whole shebang gets installed. The windscreen is bent Perspex which is a bit floppy, so there was no way that any of this would stay together. I fitted the windscreen which went in really easily – no more than a ten minute job. Fitting the chrome beading was an absolute ball ache and probably took about two hours of much cursing and spanner throwing, but it finally came together.

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Oneball

Member
Messages
11,075
It’s the little bits you don’t see like those brackets that set some projects apart.

Absolutely love the wood and Alcantara dash.

Have you had a perspex windscreen before, I’ve stopped using them on race cars as they seem to scratch so easily, a couple of wet races and they need to be binned.
 

Corranga

Member
Messages
1,219
Just watched the 3rd (?) episode of the latest series of Top Gear, where they buy £6k cars, ending in them entering a 6 hour endurance race - Chris Harris buys a 1992 S Class that he decorates in homage of one of these, and I was reminded to come back and further appreciate of your meticulous work. What an amazing car, and project, really enjoyed catching up on your progress :)
 

Grant V

Member
Messages
242
Have you had a perspex windscreen before, I’ve stopped using them on race cars as they seem to scratch so easily, a couple of wet races and they need to be binned.

Fortunately rainy race days are in the minority, so I'm hoping to get some life out of the windscreen.
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,764
Every update this car just gets better, you're attention to detail is to be admired - keep up the good work
 

Grant V

Member
Messages
242
Before the windscreen was fitted, I removed the wood trim on the inside of the windscreen so that it wouldn’t get damaged. On trying to refit the wood once the windscreen was in place, the wood wouldn’t go in because of the roll cage. There was absolutely no way that I was going to take out the windscreen again, so the only solution was to cut it in half – this being a recently and expensively re-veneered piece of wood. Woodwork and I are not mates, but I took a jig saw to it which of course cut skew. Lots of filing and fettling and the result turned out well with the cut\noticeable, but neat.

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The door panels came back from upholstery a few months ago an I was not at all happy with the stitching at the bottom of the panel – the stitching was skew to say the least.

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I stripped the door panels up to the stitching and unpicked it, and then bought 3mm aluminium strips to use to re-cover the bottom of the door panels with the reverse side of the leather.

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The panels were all fitted along with the wood trim around the windows. The door handles and the window sills were the original mushroom colour items that were re-painted black to match the colour of the black leather.

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The correct beadings finally arrived for the grill. Apparently the early W108s take the same horizontal beadings as on the Fintail, which was what I received regardless of me sending the VIN number when ordering. The grill was reassembled and the installed – it looks proper.

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The leather on the steering wheel looked a bit worse for wear, so I stripped the steering wheel assembly, sent the boss for powder coating and then send the wheel to be recovered.

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Once everything came back, I bought some new leather-look vinyl and recovered the steering boss adapter and then reassembled everything.

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Grant V

Member
Messages
242
The novelty of polishing the aluminium beadings wore off ages ago, but I still had the beadings below the windscreen and the gutter beadings to do. After putting this off I finally got this done and the beadings are now complete.

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I kept the original seat bases from the car for length and height adjustment. These had fifty years of old grease and grime packed on, so I took the bases apart, sent the metal plates for powder coatings and re-plated the rails and adjustment handles. Plastic handles were not happy with the acid during zinc plating, so I had to re-paint the handles.

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In spite of me taking lots of photos, re-assembling the driver’s side seat base was a puzzle – at one point I wasn’t sure I would get the whole thing back together again. Nevertheless, it did all come back together.

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The frame for the seat base I was also powder coated and fitted, and then the whole shebang went back into the car.

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midlifecrisis

Member
Messages
16,102
Makes the Maserati 4200 heater matrix job look like a simple 5 minute job.
Unbelievable patience, dedication and attention to detail. Well done
 

GeoffCapes

Member
Messages
14,000
Absolutely stunning!

It almost makes me want to visit family in SA (who we don't really get on with) just to see this car.
 

Grant V

Member
Messages
242
Progress has been consistent, but everything takes time. The gearshift mechanism was a bit tired, so I overhauled this with new rubber bushes and plated the gear links. The gear lever was polished up and chromed.

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A couple of years ago I went on a sheet metal course where we learnt how to shrink and stretch steel, use an English wheel and other metal work machines. We were asked to bring along a project that we wanted to work on and I decided to make a switch panel between the front seats of the racer for all the necessary switches. It’s usually a bit difficult to reach some of the switches on the dash when strapped into the car. This was the result and it’s been lying around gathering rust ever since, and it was finally completed:

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It was then cleaned up and painted in a crackle finish for that period look:

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Finally, all the switches were fitted, along with a neat little seal around the opening for the wiring loom. The labelling has been done in Dymo tape for that real period look, and of course all labels are “auf Deutsch”.

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The switch panel was secured in place and the gear lever gaiter was fitted. The pattern for this was drawn up by my other half and stitched together in leather.

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When it came to re-fitting the brake cooling ducts, I realised that the brackets I had made previously were just too heavy. They were made from 20x3mm flat bar, so I re-made them in 19x2mm flat bar, plated them and saved almost 1kg. The ducting pipes were a bit used, so these were replaced with new ones.

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Grant V

Member
Messages
242
The fuel tank was made a couple of years ago from a cardboard mockup I made using internet photos as a reference. The tank is gorgeous and the welded seams are beautifully done. The tank was fitted and I set about modifying the filler with the breather pipes so that everything aligned. Once done, it was sent for powder coating and then I painted the top bit in red to match the colour of the car.

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A breather pipe was made and plated to fit in the top of the tank and all was connected with rubber hoses and clamps.

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The car is now effectively finished except for a few detailed things and work on the engine has been going on in the background. New inlet and exhaust valves were made in the UK, with the stems being slightly thinner and the inlet valve being increased from diameter 49mm to 51mm. There are people locally who can make valves, but during testing, the heads kept on breaking, which is never going to be desirable. The valves took three months to make and in the meantime the block was sent to be bored, taking the cylinder diameter from a standard 102mm to 107mm. It is now a genuine 6.8 liter Red Pig. The block was returned and got painted.

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The cylinder heads were sent away to be ported and polished by an old tradesman who is now officially retired. It has been beautifully done. The new valve seats have been made and fitted, but the corrosion from the cooling system is quite severe. The holes will be welded up and re-drilled slightly off center to make allowance for the larger engine bore.

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All the relevant nuts, bolts and washers have been plated and the various ancillaries have been overhauled, like the air suspension compressor and power steering pump unit, oil filter housing and distributor. These have been sand blasted and painted with all the nuts and bolts plated. Even the coil got painted.

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