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Another project is to get the convertible top put together. The frame was corroded and stiff and had the tatters of the old top hanging from it. I pulled most of it off and then started polishing the aluminum. With cleaning, polish, and lubrication it all works smoothly now. Some of the wood in the frame needs to be glued back together and I need to get some fabric to wrap some of the frame parts. I am not sure what to get, though. It looks like it had two layers - a thin black material first and a thicker caramel colored fabric on top of that. The straps that hold the stays in position also should be replaced.

Back in the early 80’s, when the car was being worked on, a new canvas top was purchased. When we got the car out of our mom’s garage in 2013, there was a stained cardboard box in the trunk. In this box was a new convertible top. It is still new, although it’s 30 years old. The fabric is fine so I will put this on the car once the frame is fully prepared.

I wanted to get the driver's seat in as soon as possible so I have something to sit on when pulling the car in or out of the barn. Before I did that, I wanted to patch all the holes in the floor and get it cleaned and sealed. There are several rust-through holes in the floor of the car. I started with the driver’s side first. Once I scraped a bunch of tar-like stuff off the floor, I discovered that it had been patched before. Two steel sheet metal panels were screwed onto what remained of the original floor and the tar was spread over it all to seal it.

It took me a couple of days but I managed to get it patched pretty well. On the smallest holes I used epoxy putty. On the larger holes I made sheet metal patches. The worst damage was right in front of the driver’s seat where the steel floor was about to fall through. I welded this back together and then used the epoxy putty to fill the remaining holes.

I cleaned it all with a wire brush and then sanded the whole floor with 100 grit sandpaper. The final step was to put two coats of POR-15 on the floor. It now looks pretty good, if I do say so myself, and it is sealed up, too. The passenger side is next to receive this treatment, then the trunk floor.

The seat rails were a little bent so the seats would not slide on them. I had to spend a couple of hours straightening the metal before I put the driver's seat in. Now the seat slides pretty smoothly. I need to put some sound-deadening insulation on the floor under the seat. The car originally came with jute insulation which explains why the floor rusts out on these cars. The jute absorbs water like a sponge and keeps the floor metal damp. I plan to get some synthetic insulation that will not hold water. I have a roll of jute that came with the car and I will use some of that in places where water won't settle.

When taking a long look at every part of the car, it is apparent that there is still a long way to go to get it drivable and even longer to get it looking good. Several of the knobs and dashboard bits are just hanging below by wires and cables. The windows are out of it and it looks like there may be missing bits from the window mechanism. No keys work in the locks. The ignition is the only place where the one key I have works. None of the lights work. Upholstery was started but is nowhere near finished. One seat is partly done and the inside door panels are mostly done. There are many more little things, too. Lots to do but I will get there and she will ride again!

No Stopping Now!

I was pretty sure that the brakes were not going to work. Even though the car had its brakes worked on before all work stopped on it thirty years ago, hydraulic brakes don’t hold up if left to sit. Brake fluid is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs water. That could mean that there was more water than fluid in the brake lines which would cause serious rust in the master and wheel cylinders. Still, there was no harm in adding fluid and seeing what happens.

The brake booster

I opened the brake fluid reservoir and loaded it up. My wife, Nita, was my brake pedal pusher as I worked my way through all the bleeder ports. There were two on the brake booster and, as Nita pushed on the pedal, clean brake fluid squirted out. Awesome! This meant the master cylinder wasn’t totally shot. It also meant that the brake booster might be in better shape than I feared.

My next task was to bleed the wheel cylinders. There are two cylinders on each of the front wheel and one cylinder on each of the back wheels. When I opened the bleeder port on the front wheels water poured out. Not good! Once the water was out, no amount of brake pumping produced fluid. Either the master cylinder was more screwed up than I originally thought or the soft brake lines were swollen shut. I suspect it’s the clogged brake lines.

I tried bleeding the rear brakes. Nothing happened. No water or fluid. For sure the front wheel cylinders will be pitted with rust, maybe too pitted to hone. The rear wheel cylinders are likely to be bad, too. The car will need a complete re-do of the brakes. The car will go, but it won’t stop, and stopping is kind of important! I went online and checked the cost of getting all new wheel cylinders, master cylinder, and soft brake lines and the cost totals up to about $1000 not including rebuilding the brake booster. That’s really not too terrible and it would be great to have all that stuff be brand new. I don’t want to be worrying about the brakes once I get it on the road. I have to save up for the brake parts so this part of the project will have to wait awhile. I can drive it without the brake booster so I can wait even longer to rebuild that.

In the meantime I discovered that the emergency brake works just fine. It’s a mechanical cable brake, as most e-brakes are, and it was in really good shape. So I can stop after all! I just have to remember to keep my hand on the e-brake handle at all times so I don't panic and try to use the brake pedal. I am only going to use this when I am pulling it out of the barn or putting it back. No driving on the road like this!

Up until this moment the 190SL was being kept in a friend’s garage. One of the conditions for bringing it home was that I could pull it in and out of the barn easily when the space was needed for other uses. With the e-brake working I figured that was good enough. I hitched up my trailer and brought the car home. It is much more convenient to work on it here. I can go out any time and put in an hour or two on it and since I got it home I really have been able to put more time into it. The other day I went out and polished the two hubcaps I already have and the trim rings. They aren't in perfect shape but they look a lot better than they did when I picked up the car. I need to keep an eye out for two more hubcaps.

First Start

The finish cleaned up pretty well

My wife and I got the 190SL back to Prescott with no problems. Instead of bringing it home we took it to a friend’s house where it could be stored in a garage while I made room for it at our place.

The first thing I did to it was wash all the dust off the car so I could get a good idea of the paint condition. It was painted just before it was put in storage so that was a long time ago. The paint is in pretty good shape. There are a few spots where something scraped it and one spot where the fender got dented, probably by something falling on it while it sat in mom’s garage. I thought it cleaned up pretty well, considering it was stored for 30 years. It’s not perfect, though, so eventually I will have to get it painted. For now it is good enough for me.

The next part of the project was to get all the parts out of the cabin and the trunk and see what was there and what was missing. I am so pleased that most of the parts are still here. Replacement stuff, particularly the chrome parts, are quite expensive to replace. For example, a new chrome grill costs about $5000 now. Yikes! Fortunately I don’t need one of these.

Shiny!

Missing are the following major parts – two hubcaps, one headlight trim ring, two front turn signal light assemblies, all of the chrome eyebrow trim, and the rocker panel trim. Most important to having the car look good are replacing the headlight trim ring and the hubcaps. I don’t remember this car ever having the eyebrow trim (which goes on the body ridge above each wheel). I can also do without the rocker panel trim. It may not have had that either when my dad bought it in 1975. I will continue to have to go to town to get nuts, bolt, washers, etc. as I discover what I need.

The next part of the project was to get the engine started. I bought a new battery and new spark plugs, put a few drops of Marvel Mystery Oil in each cylinder and let it set for a few days. I cranked the engine over by hand to make sure it moved freely.  Fortunately everything was good. I installed the new plugs and sprayed starting fluid into the air intake plenum and, lucky me, it started up.

The first start-up was on starting fluid only. No gas yet. To get it started on gasoline required more fussing. I inspected the gas tank by removing the sending unit and it was clean inside. Fortunately the car had been stored empty of gas. Otherwise it would have been a mess to clean the goo left over from 30 year old gasoline. I suspected that the diaphragm fuel pump would be in bad shape so I didn’t even mess with it. I bought a low-pressure electric fuel pump and replaced all the rubber fuel lines. I mounted the electric pump to the inside fender. Now I was ready to try to run the car on gasoline instead of for just a few seconds on starting fluid only. Success!

I am surprised that the carburetors work pretty well. I am sure they will need some work but the engine idled OK and accelerated just fine. There is one fuel leak at one of the carbs that I have to fix. I don’t have the right wrench to get down in there and tighten the fuel line fitting. I will get to it, though. The important thing is that the engine runs. The car will go. The next step is to see if the car will stop.

NOTE: The actual dates of the progress described here are between April and July 2013. I am just starting the blog now so this and the next few posts are not of current progress but the work I did on the car last year.

Out of Storage After 30 Years

A long time ago (1975) in a galaxy far away (California) my father bought a 1958 Mercedes 190SL roadster. It was white. And cute. My dad didn't drive it much. He had a Porsche for his daily driver. I drove it a lot. So did my brother, Rick. We took it up to the mountains to go rock climbing several times. We'd put our ropes and gear behind the seats and cruise up to Idyllwild or maybe Joshua Tree. I don't think either of us fully realized how cool it was to be able to drive this classic. I moved out of my parents house in 1978 so my younger brother Rick became the car's main driver at that time. On one trip, probably around 1979, the oil pump failed and the engine seized. Oops! The car was dead.

Dad managed to find a new short block still in the Mercedes Benz crate. He took the car to a mechanic in Brea to put the new engine in and it sat outside at that shop for most of a year. The mechanic took forever. Because it was stored outside in the hot Southern California sun the convertible top deteriorated. Eventually the engine was installed, started, tuned up, and turned off. The car was brought home and put in the garage.

Randy and friends working on the car.

Around 1982 or so, my youngest brother, Randy, and his friends started work on getting it going again. A new clutch, new brakes, and new exhaust system was installed. The gas tank was cleaned and coated and several of the chrome parts were re-chromed. The body was repainted fire engine red, which was the original color from the manufacturer. A few of the chrome bits were re-installed and some upholstery work was started but all work stopped in 1983. The car was stuffed into the garage, filled with uninstalled parts, and there it sat. For thirty years!

My father had died in the mid-eighties with a fine collection of classic cars. Over the years they were sold off, one by one, until only three cars remained - a 1932 Packard, a 1963 Porsche, and the 190SL. At the start of 2013 the Packard and the Mercedes were still in mom's garage. We three brothers decided to try to get the cars going.

In March 2013 was the big car extraction adventure. We filmed the whole thing. It was fun! Randy took the Packard to Moser Restorations in L.A. to get the engine going and I took the Mercedes home with me to Arizona to start its resurrection.

The car is now at my house and I have been messing with it a little over the past ten months. I managed to get it started, cleaned it up a little, and put some of the chrome back on. That will be the subject of a future post. At some point it will be drivable. I don't know when, but I will post the progress for your enjoyment and amusement. Below are some photos of the extraction process.

The Carlson brothers open the garage where the car has been stored for 30 years

a cool car hiding under a stack of car covers

Randy reveals the front of the car.

The Mercedes Benz emblem on the hood

Dusty!

The interior was full of car parts

More dust on the truck lid

Randy's friend, Paul Hansen, brings the jack so Royce can take the wheels off.

All four tires were really flat

The wheels are off while Royce takes the rims to get new tires put on them.

Randy hooks up a tow strap while Paul and Royce look on.

Paul pushes and Royce steers while Randy pulls the tow strap with his truck

It's on the trailer and ready to tie down.

Rick puts on finishing touch.

The truck is loaded and ready to roll to Arizona.