New to me '85 SL Diesel-repair and renew thread
 

Some of you may know already, but for those that don't, I am the new caretaker of the SL Diesel that Paul Christiansen (mach4) built starting in late 2011. The build thread here:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/308791-380sl-diesel-conversion-project-27.html
I will be cleaning, detailing, repairing, and updating the car, so it will be show-car ready. I will be detailing the work here. To start off, I have removed the seats, and will be cleaning and dying the carpets in the cabin and trunk. An NOS set of leather seat skins were provided with the car, and I will be installing them. There is not much else needed for the interior, as the door panels, dash and center console are still very nice. Maybe a little cleaning, that's all. Photos of the interior with the seats removed:

I am jealous. Cool car!

Engine photo
 

For those of you that have not seen this in a while, here is a photo of the engine bay. I have a valve cover at the polisher, and I will install it when it is done. I will do a valve adjustment at that time as well. Since the A/C needs work, I plan to replace the condenser with a parallel flow unit, and go back to R12. Of course I will be cleaning the engine bay and fixing some leaks.......Rich

Whoa ~ this should be fun .

Carpet restoration
 

Today's chore was to remove as much of the carpet as I can for cleaning. There are some pieces I did not want to remove (sides of center console, inside sill etc.), so they will need to get cleaned in situ. My plan is to dye the carpets with SEM Color Coat. I have used it for carpets, and you would be surprised how nice they look after using this product. My local auto paint supply has the Palomino color in stock. Here is a photo of how the carpets look before cleaning. A comparison photo will be taken after cleaning........Rich

The carpets have been cleaned, and they look great! I may only have to dye a couple of them. The trunk carpets actually look pretty good the way they are. I will try the dye on the center console carpet.

What did you use to shampoo the carpets? They really look good.

Spray foam carpet cleaner. It comes in an aerosol can with a brush on top. I wet the carpet real good, spray the foam on, brush, add more water, and then vacuum with a strong wet-dry vac. I then add more water, and vac again. Sometimes I use a high pressure nozzle to rinse, and then vac. Then let the carpet sit in the sun for an hour, and it is nice and dry ready to install.

I used the SEM Colorcoat on the carpets in my w126. It amazed me. The original gray had sun bleached to yellow on one of the front carpet pieces. I followed the directions for cleaning including a tip I got from the senior SEM salesman at Finishmasters in Greenville, SC.

He told me the best thing to remove grease from interior and carpet is ammonia. I mixed a solution of 1/3rd ammonia to 2/3rds water and added a liberal amount of Ivory liquid dish detergent, not the dishwasher stuff.

After scrubbing the carpet with the solution using a stiff brush I rinsed it until the soap bubbles ceased to be present and the smell of ammonia was gone. After drying I brushed it and used compressed air to ensure me that it was dry and clean.

I sprayed the Colorcoat on with a harbor freight detail and touchup, HPLV paint gun, it's the chromed, 40 dollar gun with the .8mm tip and 4oz cup. I shot three coats on the carpet and brushed after each coat with an old medium soft hair brush.

The color is just a slight shade darker than the original but that's comparing it to the best original piece I've seen. I suspect all the carpet in every 33 yr old car has faded a bit.

I've used the same HPLV gun for every piece in the interior including the SEM surecoat on the seats. This was my first experience with a paint sprayer so no one should fear the process.

Read the instructions and shoot something which doesn't cost $111/qt to get familiar with the gun. Don't let the salesmen sell you anything extra to go with the paint. The ammonia and Ivory work great and I believe the money spent on prep products was wasted.

No additives to Colorcoat or Surecoat. Surecoat will hold up to most mild cleaning products which do not have ammonia in them. If you are intending to do your windows with anything containing ammonia you need to cover the leather. The overspray from Windex will leave spots.

If you're going to use an additive to the Surecoat it's $50+ for a bottle which will treat many, many gals of Surecoat.

Surecoat and colorcoat will settle worse than any paint I've seen. Prep your product before you purchase the paint or take it back to the store you bought it from and have them shake it good just before you shoot it. You'll still need to stir it when you get it home.

That's all I got. Best of luck and I have confidence in you.

Re the SEM, you may find that a light coat is necessary on the pieces that currently look pretty good to bring them up to matching the currently less good carpets once they are dyed. Light coats dried then brushed with a soft brush between coats will loosen the nap and make them look better. Having a case delivered was less expensive than buying cans one at a time locally.

There is a thread titled "the best cleaner ever" or something similar. I tried some on the a small area of paint in the engine compartment and it made huge difference with little effort. Sam's Club carries it. Of course, youtube university has vids of engine bay cleaning. I think Chris Fix has some good ones.

Question re: cleaning because the cloth seats in my Dodge Cummins are nasty. Will the same cleaner you mentioned above with small amounts of water with a vacuum cleaner help cloth seats?

The cleaner you speak of is Member's Mark Heavy Duty Purple Degreaser (used to be called Pro-Force). I am out of it now, so I had to use the foaming carpet cleaner.
I did a couple of the carpet pieces today. The rear area back after cleaning, and then after dying half, and then all of it.

I got the rear deck cleaned, and will be dying it. Here is a before photo. I wished I would have taken a photo before cleaning, it is amazing how clean I was able to get it.

That is a cool car. I have driven it, when mach brought it over to my neck of the woods... nice ride, congratulations!
I cant tell from the pic, does it still have the brass expansion tank?

It does not have the brass expansion tank, I think it needs to be repaired. I think Paul is planning to send it to me.

The deck after dying, and the rest of the floor edge carpets before cleaning. It is amazing how close the color is to the original. I was spraying the deck, and the parts that were not exposed to sunlight were the exact same color as I was spraying on.