1979 Mercedes Benz 450SLC 5.0
I bought this car from a deceased gentleman's estate in Dallas, TX. He was a huge enthusiast of the 026 cars this one of his collection. When I bought this car, it was in pretty bad shape and did not run. It was had a few dents and a few rust spots. The PO was working on the car at some point and the back seat was removed and so was much of the dash panels in order to wire speakers.
Lifting the hood revealed that rats had nested in this car and the engine block was covered in nut shells. The tires were dry rotted.
The interior was very moldy. I vacuumed the engine bay and replaced the fuel pump before cranking the car up.
After the fuel pump was replaced, I cranked the car up and it ran but I immediately saw that the car was leaking oil severely at both valve cover gaskets. I replaced these and adjusted the CO mixture to the point where I could get the car running to the point it was drivable. Finally in order to get the car to run perfectly, I replaced the major ignition components and cleaned the injectors.
When I bought this car, it was painted in thistle green. I'm not fond of this color but I am fond of this model. When I checked the vin, I found out that the car was originally painted in DB 419 Icon Gold. This made me happy because this is one of my favorite colors of the era. I had to change it back.
I've done some researching of good paint shops in the area and during my time there, I became friends with Mahesh Rohra who is the owner of the Maaco collision repair store on Harry Hines Blvd in Dallas. Mahesh was very accommodating and allowed me to walk around the shop and check out his work. He is a professional and so is his painter.
They managed to repaint this car in the original color at very little cost.
I would like to add that I am in no way financially incented to make recomendations and am making this recomendation because this Maaco branch was able to perform high quality work at considerably less then other stores and I would like to recomend them to other enthusiasts in the area who appreciate these older cars but cannot justify spending two to three times the cost of the car on the paint job.
Here are some pictures of the car during this restoration progress and you can see pictures of my freshly installed Installed Hood Pad
This is the state of the car when I first bought it. The car was very dirty and a non runner.
This is the mighty all alloy prototype 5 liter v8 engine. As you can see, there are a lot of nut shells here from nesting rats.
Interior has many parts missing and was moldy. The mold was cleaned using vinyl cleaner and I placed a full size dehumifier in behind the front seats and let it run for a couple of days in order to dry it out.
Finally at my house and cleaned up
At the paint shop, some areas listed where the body work is required.
The ribbed section under the rear window is a common rust spot. Repair sections can be found and cost very little. It is not worth attempting to repair this area without the repair section.
Repair sections in place and bodywork complete
Sitting alongside the 6.9. All of the trim is not on. More pictures to come.
