W114 sunroof and top repaint

[Deaneallinson]

I'm glad to find this forum. I wish that i had found it earlier. I struggled with getting my sunroof operational. It ended up being a broken nylon gear.
Anyway, I have the sunroof out and want to paint the top before I reinstall and replace seals and whiskers, etc. replacing cracked windshield and MB rubbers on ft. and back glass. Question... what happened to roof horrible crackles? body paint is OK. Heat? Also dug some stuffing out from between roof and headliner panel. Any problems with this paint/sunroof strategy?

[Mike D]

The reason for the roof paint's condition is because it is an after market paint job. To do a proper job you'll need to sand the entire repainted area (the two tone bit) down to a good solid base. Re-spray with a 2K Urethane primer/sealer and either a base/clear or a good quality single stage coat.

The crumpled debris is from the original insulation/thermal barrier. There are several products to replace it. Dynamat etc.

Although it is not "original" I dig the two-tone. The wife has been at me to two-tone her '72 250C. Going to use a cement gray as the topper.

Color example.



The biggest PITA part of the job, especially doing a partial re-paint, is getting the roof layer to blend into the wing/fender smoothly. Good luck and I'd appreciate any info/tips you come up with.

[Deaneallinson]

Thanks Mike, for the dynamat tip. The top may have been a cheap re-spray and didn't hold up like the factory body paint.
I think that the colors are original. My tag lists 181 light beige under 423 tobacco brown. I've only had the car for a couple of months but my first impression is holy cow, great engineering. It's in very good shape with only a few issues.