Mom's New Car! gray market 1980 280E converted to an OM617 turbo diesel - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

SirNik84 · #31 03-11-2014, 12:42 PM

Yeah, Anders did an excellent job on the car. I was really surprised with everything he took apart to paint it. He was installing the rear tangle shaped windows when I got there. Last time I saw a 123 painted (by another painter) there was a lot more masking and a lot less trim removal. But thats why I had Anders do the car. His shop is not much to look at from the street. Its in the back of an industrial part of Sacramento near Rio Linda (Rush Limbaugh has made Rio Linda famous) Its not some shops I see around town where there is a nice marble tiled waiting area. Just a shop. He does a lot of work with dealers, so I guess he doesn't need the retail space. I met him through iwrock, and I've taken quite a few cars to him over the years. Never been disappointed. Its hard to find a good body shop.

ROLLGUY · #32 03-11-2014, 07:38 PM

So how about under the hood and core support? Also, how did he get the drip rail moulding off and on without ruining it?

gatorblue92 · #33 03-12-2014, 07:06 AM

Did you remove the windshield or just tape around it? The car looks great!

mike-81-240d · #34 03-12-2014, 02:00 PM

How do I get in contact with him? Are his prices reasonable? I paid over $900 to have the rear tailgate repainted on my wagon and they managed to make the whole backhalf and roof a different color then the front of the car.

SirNik84 · #35 03-13-2014, 01:40 AM

Mike, I'll PM you his contact info.

Rich, I'm not sure how he got the drip rail trim off, but I did help him reinstall it. He had a hard rubber block and a dead blow hammer. With a little fineness he got it back on. On the passengers side it was a little stubborn so he used a wooden block and the dead blow. It snapped back into place. He had me hold the trim that was in place while he tapped the places what wouldn't snap it. After a few taps it went back on.

He did paint the new radiator core support. It looks good! the underside of the hood did get painted aswell. He didn't paint the middle, where the hood pad goes, but thats a good thing because its all ready for the new pad to go on. I'll be getting to that soon.

Gator, he didn't pull the windshield or the back glass, he just masked those.

Tonight I got the new fan installed. I forgot to get a fan shroud when I got the fan a few months back. So I get to go to pick n pull this weekend. I found that the brackets that go behind the front bumper were tweaked in the accident. So I spent some time with pliers getting them 90% straight, then painting them. Tomorrow I'm going to install those brackets and get the rest of the front end put together. Well, all but the radiator, I need the dang shroud first.

ROLLGUY · #36 03-13-2014, 11:49 AM

Sounds like you have the best guy for the job. Doing a quality paint job is not easy, and very time consuming. Removing everything possible is the best way, but unfortunately, most painters do not go through the trouble. As far as masking vs. removing the windshield and back glass, I saw a guy put electrical wire under the outer lip of the rubber, holding the rubber off of the old paint. The rubber was masked and painted as usual. The end result was that the new paint ended up being under the rubber by about 1/8 of an inch when the wire was pulled out. For all intents and purposes, you could not tell that the rubber/glass was not removed. Glad to hear that the core support and under hood were painted. I am jealous now of your mom's car!....Rich

SirNik84 · #37 03-13-2014, 11:33 PM

Here are a couple more pictures. Got the front bumper on. Its got a few dings in it, but it looks ok for now. This is the one that came on the car. The bumpers RLGDiesel sent me are still under the bus, somewhere in Tennessee last I checked. I may be chaning it out later, but I'm itching to see this thing complete.