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.