Restoring 1966 230sl

I have a 1966 230sl that has been sitting in the garage since 1980 and it needs restoration. I would greatly appreciate any information as to what I should expect to pay a qualified technician to bring it back to original condition. I'm certain that the injection system is all gummed up, because my uncle left this car to me with a full tank of twenty year old gasoline. He would not let anyone touch this car until he passed it on to me last week. I looked it over and after removing the headlights, found rust holes the size of a softball. There also is some rust on the inner fenders, but amazingly none underneath the car, with the exception of the left rear wheelwell. This car has mechanical fuel injection and I'm certain that it will have to be rebuilt. I did not attempt to start the car, as I did not want to damage the engine, but I did put a wrench on the crankshaft pulley and turn it over manually to make certain that it wasn't locked up. I've done some work on other engines, but wouldn't even attempt to try and rebuild the injection system. The paint is original and all faded, and has a lot of surface rust. The chrome is in excellent condition considering it's age. The interior is still immaculate and doesn't need anything but a good cleaning. Thanks for any advice!

[bstreep]

Bob,

Try posting in the Vintage section. Might also have some luck over at the 190SL Group website, one of the webmasters and several others over there have these cars as well. www.190slgroup.com

Bob,

I'm sure you could find thousands of words on this site about reviving long-dormant engines. I just want to say that you may want to avoid even hand-cranking this engine until you pull the plugs, squirt a small quantity of good engine oil into the cylinders,let it sit for a day or two, then WITH THE PLUGS STILL OUT hand-crank it. I'm just concerned that a ring or two may have bonded to the cylinder walls. Hand cranking a dry engine under those circumstances might break those rings.

In this particular case, I may be advising you to close the barn door after the horse ran out.

[300EE320]

Sounds like you have a project that could be a big one, depending on your goals.

What are your goals for this car, Bob?

What is your budget, roughly speaking? If you want to get it going for a grand or so, the advice will be very different than if you want to put it as close to original as possible and have $20-$30K to work with...

[cth350]

Since you can hand crank it, might as well try and start it.

- Drain the gas tank and the oil.
- Change the filters and use fresh stuff fluids (5 gallons of the best gas you can buy should do). Add a bottle of Techtron fuel injection cleaner.
- Give all the moving linkages under the hood a good shot of WD40 to wake them a bit.
- Give each cylinder a shot of marvel mystery oil. The budget auto parts stores have a really simple clear plastic bottle cap with a hose on it that's great for this.
- Remove the rocker cover and lube the cam and moving parts with spray white grease. Put a bit of oil into the cap of the can of Marvel mystery oil and dribble it into the lube holes on each cam tower. To do the front one, remove the piss tube (then put it back).
- Check the transmission fuild (if it's an automatic). Make sure the clutch is free if it's a standard.

NOW, you can hand crank it a few turns, then use the starter until the oil pressure comes up. Inspect the cam lobes. At that amount of pressure, each cam lobe should have gotten a shot of oil. Also, the gas pump should have circulated the old fuel out.

Put the plugs back in, the rocker cover back on, and give it a shot of starting fluid. I bet it will run on the third try.

It would be a good thing to hook up a tach/dwell to check the ignition basics while you do this. Don't forget to check the starting voltage. It should be over 9v. (even if you just got a new battery).

-CTH

PS. The correct paint is something like 400$. To correctly apply it after fixing the metal may have the restoration hit 10k before you know it.

[bstreep]

Just a word... Was the car running well when it was stored? At least half the time I see these, the car wasn't running well when the owner put it into storage - just got tired of dealing with it. If that's the case here, you'll have that to deal with. So, you might want to include a full tuneup in your plans - including points, cap, wires, plugs, timing adjustment, dwell (as mentioned above), etc.

[ymsin]

Fuel injectors since 1966? Great stuff

Why not ask any members here to take on the restoration project? If restoring cars were my hobby, I'd gladly do it for you for a very nomical fee + parts. Surely someone like m would gladly take the offer?