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.

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.

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.

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.