Hello after an 11yr absence

[Todd Miller]

Just a hello after being gone for about 11yrs. Got involved our young daughter's sports and schooling, and of course work, and *poof* a decade just went by.

This past summer I built a metal 4 garage, so I finally have a nice place to park everything.

The coupe did not survive storage very well (all my fault), but is back to being shiny, and daily driveable. The paint is beyond destroyed, as is the wood, and the leather on the dash. The top of the passenger door upholstery is also destroyed.

I took advantage of the California DMV's allowance to put vintage plates back onto the same year of car, so finally have a correct black and gold plate, and period MBZ dealer plate frame.

I'm in the process of picking away at the short list of mechanical issues:
-Rebuild all 4 brake calipers (1 completed to date)
-Replace the radiator fan clutch (done)
-Sand and repaint the corroded radiator fan (done)
-Get the wiper motor working (done)
-Get the sunroof motor working (done)
-Get the sunroof working (done)
-Get the headlight switch working (done)
-Get the tail and brake lights working (done)
-Get the clutch hydraulics bled and working (done)
-Reseal the fuel pump (o-ring kit arrived today)
-Replace the shift bushings at the transmission lever (done)
-Remove the heater blower and fix or replace the seized blower motor
-Free the seized fresh air flap in the cowling below the windshield
-Redo the leather for the dash, door tops, and rear qtr interior panel tops (ordered half a hyde of "cognac" from World Upholstery last week)

And then it will be time to get more serious about the rest of the car (in no particular order):
-Wood
-Headliner
-Carpets
-Structural bodywork, etc.

[ScooterABC]

Someone here or on Benzworld is selling coupe door cards if you are interested.

[Todd Miller]

Thank you. I saw the ad here, for the white ones. Mine are actually okay, and so are the rear qtr interior panels and the kick panels under the dash. It's just the tops, which are a separate piece, that have sun rotted leather.

The plan for now is to re-upholster the tops.

[rumb]

Welcome back, sounds like a great project.

[Todd Miller]

Thank you. I'm very thankful that it runs and drives fine, and other than the slightly dragging brakes, there are no mechanical issues. I've had it out on the freeway for a couple of 10mi runs and it's just as smooth and fast as it ever was (I put a 4.5 V-8 rear end in it in 1992, and it's on a large diameter set of Goodyears).

[Mummers]

Funny how that time flies by, isn't it? I'm in a similar boat - I inherited my fathers 69 280SE Coupe when he passed away 13 years ago. It had had little use before that, so I brought it home, cleaned it up and assessed what some of the issues were that needed to be resolved. However I had a Porsche I was working on (was? still?) so didn't have time or space for the Benz, so tucked it away in a friend's workshop. And that was 13 years ago - kids, work, life just chews up the time. I extracted it last weekend and now it's up on my hoist, so I can figure out what ELSE went bad with it in the intervening time.

[oldsinner111]

welcome

[Todd Miller]

I'm glad you were able to hang on to the coupe and I hope it only requires minimal work to get it back on the road.

I've been driving mine regularly, including have it out for the Thursday night car cruise night that we started doing during the covid shutdown.

[t walgamuth]

Welcome back both of you.

[j-galap]

Welcome back. Let's get some photos of your ride

[Mummers]

Thanks for the welcome! If I didn't screw this up completely, this should be a picture of my Stuttgart stablemates.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPU_rLIAOL_6kWKmtZA5URx2Wn9trU2IO1ZV68MIHi89cefd2ndG9aaeZuFb0bjNw?key=OUdlX1cxRHc5QjZvdl9WZXdUa XBGMkFvRUtkV3Zn