Evan

Ta da! That's the last bit of rust on the shell taken care of, you can see some pitting on the parcel shelf but meh, it'll be ok. The whole thing is in primer now and at home while I save some more money before having the actual panel and paint done.

Also the new sills have been fitted to both sides, both front jacking supports were replaced while they were off along with new inner front sill sections. Repairs have also been made to the front right corner of the drivers floor pan, left hand side of the front passenger floor pan and replacement of the whole rear left floor pan The next step is to fix this gem. The previous owner had begun cutting out sections of the rear parcel shelf/bottom of rear windscreen area including the lip that the rear windscreen seal sits on. Originally I thought I could still get these panels new from Mercedes like I did the boot floor which would of meant a simple(r) case of drilling out spot welds and welding in a whole new panel. Turns out I was wrong on the availability of replacement panels and this guy is going to need to be repaired, oh yay.

Some more cutting and welding has taken place, this time in the rear seat/ C pillar area. I haven't got any photos of these bits all sealed up but they aren't holes anymore.

Did you know it takes 2 weeks to get sills through Customs in this country? TWO WEEKS.

These photos are hot off the press from the panel beater, received these this evening, haven't seen this in person yet. And what I reckon is the best bit.. A FLOOR! Left hand side: Right hand side (spare wheel well) Have asked them to take a break on it for a couple of weeks while I wait for the new sills to arrive, and to give my bank balance a breather so will have more in a month or so.

Some progress pics

Went and had a look yesterday, the doors are now less self draining than they were before, with the lower door skins having been fitted and the lower frames replaced on the front 2 doors. However the self draining capabilities of the boot floor have increased substantially since last featured Have new sills on their way from Germany at the moment, I think they will be the last repair panels I'll buy in, everything else that's needed will need to be made here. Also I got called out the other night with who I have/haven't given thanks to in previous posts. An Honorary mention must be made to @Ned for storing the car for the 4-5 month period between it getting blasted and going to the panel beaters.

How many hours do you spend sanding something like that?

Another couple of boxes arrived from Germany, containing lower door skins for all 4 doors, lower frame for the drivers door and new pieces for the bottoms of the rear 3/4 panels. Also the Panel beater has made a start, hopefully have more photos after the weekend. this corner was a bit worse than it originally appeared.

In other news I've received the first of the panels from Germany, first photo shows a new lower door frame for front left door, front left inner sill section, LHS spare wheel well. Second photo shows new boot floor, RHS spare wheel well and vertical panel that connects boot floor to the LHS spare wheel well, you can see stickers on these pieces, they're all Genuine Mercedes panels that you can still get new, whoop! Have just put through an order for lower door skins, Lower drivers door frame and patch panels for the bottom of both rear 3/4 panels. Hopefully this order doesn't bounce back, have found some of the overseas merchants list items on their websites that when you hit buy now they come back saying 'sorry these are NLA'. It should work out cheaper to import these pieces rather than have them made here. The car went to the panel beaters last weekend so hopefully will have more progress to report reasonably soon.

Hello, Have skipped forward 756 steps and made a start on tarting up the wood interior pieces (wood interior, daaaaaaaamn). The original varnish has faded/cracked/gone yuck after 50+ years so I thought we can't have that. These photos are a bit out of whack but give a comparison: Before, as you can see - yuck. After 3 applications of paint stripper/scrapping parts came out like so: I took a trip to Bunnings to find some new varnish/stain. After 10 minutes staring at the shelf wondering 'do you get interior stain because it's for inside the car, or exterior stain because the car is outside in the sun...????' I walked out with a pot of Cabots interior stain and proceeded to throw 3 coats on things New vs OG: Ta da, photos are a bit weird, they make the pieces look like they're rough textured or has a bit of grit in the stain, but they don't they're smooth and look choice in person. Have a couple more pieces to do then that's done.

I've watched a few of those vids of that CF 240z. It's a bit of a balls up how all he is doing is laying carbon over the factory panel to make the new panel, then removing the original panel to attach the new CF panel. The whole car is going to end up fractionally larger that it should be, curious to see how it affects panel gaps and things like tail light fitment. Also the nice smooth finish ends up being on the inside of the panel, which you don't see...

I've considered that, could make some additional moulds to work with what I've got and give that a go too, I just don't know if it would be runny enough to get into all the spots.

Yeah from what I've read it depends on the resin and what temp you cure it at, some are 70 C, some are 90 C some are 140 C. Don't know until you try, if it doesn't work out no harm done etc.

Has anyone here done anything with prepreg carbon fibre? I've been umming and ahhing over what to do with respect to the intake manifolds I've printed for the v12 Jag engine I have. The obvious thing to do would be lost wax casting but I'm not really interested in that. After watching those easy composites videos approx 18 months ago I've wanted to try and make something out of prepreg carbon ever since so thought I'd try and make these manifolds out of carbon. I sprayed the print with some high build primer and sanded it back to smooth it out. So far the biggest decision has been what to make the mould out of, have decided to give silicone a go as it's supposedly temperature stable to like 220 degrees Celsius. Will put a box of some description around the mould for support and hopefully be able to out-of-autoclave bake it in the oven to cure the carbon. Plan to import one of the easy composites starter kits with the vacummn pump etc and have a play. Hope to report back with how I get on. I stuffed up when i poured the first half of the mould and forgot to put locating dowels in to align the 2 halves, should be able to wing it though. I should really start with a simpler shape haha...

You didn't used to work with an Aussie guy called Julian did You?

You get this sorted?

A+

Bags, 1GZ and brown paint That is all.

Yeah would do an m117

You're all wrong OM606 or bust

Check again for rust updates. you got any photos of yours pre-paint for a comparison? RE Lexus, those photos are taken at Neds, where it's being stored for the next couple of months while it waits for a panel beater, it's his Lexus

And the LHS shown here There's other bits an pieces (holes) all over but that's the worst of it. I'm not sure if it has had work done in the past or whether it could be from the factory but there are a number of parts on the car that are lead filled/patched (how bad ass is that!?) Anyway, I've been trawling Ebay.de and niemoeller.de ordering repair panels, still need to get the big ones through (left sill and boot floor). You can get quite a lot for these cars from Germany which is good. Standby for more. Shoulda just bought UJs one.

The not so good: mainly seems to be contained in the LHS and boot, with the boot and spare wheel wells shown here:

It turned out to be a bit holy-er than I thought it was. We will start with the Good - the roof! Apart from a small dent above the right rear door it might as well be brand new! You can semi make out in the bottom right corner of that second photo and the top of the next photo some cut marks around the upper lip of the parcel shelf. The previous owner has cut chunks out of that entire lip all the way around, which is going to be a pain to correct The Engine bay isn't bad either, a few pin holes around where the brake master cylinder bolts up, but no rust under the battery mount.