Wolfgang gets new floors and partial interior! - Lots of photos! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Baxterdown · #1 10-08-2016, 02:02 PM

Hi guys!

I spent the first two years of owning my ’72 W108 focusing on mechanics. As you guys originally recommended, “first make sure the car is safe to drive.” So among many-many other things, I replaced brakes, all rubber mounts (engine, rear trailing arms, etc.), timing chain, lots of lightbulbs, and all fuses. The car also got a full A/C rebuild, valve job, full new set of filters, flex disc (Lord, the flex disc!), kingpins, dash lights, tire balance and alignment, new hood pad, and a Retrosound radio (yep, in my book the radio is a safety item. If I don’t have good music, I get cranky; which can be dangerous. LOL!).

Now that I have a mechanically-sound car I can start working on the fun stuff. And, first up is the floor pans which were in really bad shape. But, since the interior had to come out, I decided to also do the seat covers, which were falling apart.

Here’s the story and some pics of planning and executing the project.
Plotting the job was a challenge as I was going to have three shops involved: the upholstery shop, the body shop, and my mechanic. It all came down to making sure we timed everything right, left room for unforeseen delays, and got everyone to be on the same page about their part and my expectations. In the end, everything worked out flawlessly.

The car first went to the upholstery shop to have the interior removed. From there, I drove it to the body shop--sitting on a plastic basket!
Once the new floors were done, it went on a flatbed to my mechanic where he installed a new fuel pump and new fuel lines all the way from the tank to the engine compartment. Then, back to the body shop on a flatbed (no way I was driving that thing on a box again!) for installing insulation and welding the seat brackets (using the seats as guides so everything would fit perfectly).

After the floor insulation and seat brackets were done, the body shop touched-up paint wherever needed and the shop owner drove the car himself to the upholstery shop for re-installing the interior.

Finally, after the interior was done, the car went back to the body shop one last time for an overnight undercarriage grease spray protective coating.

Here’s how it all went down in pictures!

BEFORE

As you guys can see below, the floor pans were shot. The passenger rear area was so bad that I was always afraid someone was gonna go right through the floor when they got in/out of the car.

The seats were also in bad shape. While the front seats had cracks and rips typical of the car’s age, the top of the rear seat had disintegrated and, by the time I bought the car, was starting to come off in chunks. This pic if from two years ago. I wish I had a recent photo showing the entire back-top gone.

I looked at two sources for the floor pans (thanks for your suggestions!). In the end, I decided to go with MBCC as the pans came in full lengths—as opposed to the pans from the other place which came in two pieces each side.

DURING

Let the fun begin! First-up, removing the interior.

Here’s what the car looked like after the interior was removed. I was very surprised the carpet came out pretty much intact. Only one piece (passenger side door trim) ripped a little bit. But the rest was in such good shape that I decided to save some money and not replace it. These photos show how bad the floor pans really were. As you can see, both pans either had huge gouges or had completely separated.

After the seats were out, the upholstery shop removed the seat covers to inspect the horse hair pads. Amazingly enough everything was in really good shape (this car continues to amaze and surprise me with little things like that, all the time!). Here are two interesting pics. The first one shows the seat manufacture date: August 1971. My car’s production date is September, 1971. So now I know the seats were manufactured just a few weeks before the car.

The second photo shows a handwritten number and a stamp on masking tape. I don’t know what either mean but I thought it was pretty cool. I don’t doubt one of you guys knows exactly what that is and will chime in with an answer :-)

I took this pic right before I got in the car and drove it to the body shop sitting on that plastic crate thingy-thing. Man that was an experience to say the least! Luckily the body shop is about 10 blocks from the upholstery place so I didn’t have to go far.

When I first met with the body shop owner (amazing guy by the way!) and we put the car on the lift for estimating the job, we agreed on additional welding to fix rust issues that went beyond the floor pans. What we didn’t realize until he had the floor pans in hand is that they don’t cover the entire width of the undercarriage. The tunnel flairs out about six inches. So as he measured the width of the pans against the rust, he concluded that we were going to have to either replace the tunnel or weld additional pieces to extend the pans.

With the exception of the sections where it met the floor pans, the tunnel was in perfect shape with only minor surface rust on the exterior.

Replacing the tunnel would have turned this into a job I wasn’t prepared to do. And because my car is a “driver” I was comfortable enough just welding on the extensions without fear of it not being a perfect restoration. Here are some pics of the floor pans, which as I mentioned, I bought at MBCC.

Let the fun begin! This reminds me of the Fred Flinstone-mobile! LOL! When I saw the floors cut out was when it hit me that all this was really happening and I got really excited. All I kept thinking was: here we go!!

We inspected the car after all pieces were cut out. One of the very few unforeseen things we found is that the passenger seat cross-member had rust on the bottom. I reached out to MBCC and found out that they no longer have that part available. The options were to find a used one or cut out the rust and rebuild mine. We went for the latter.

Here you can see the driver’s side cross-member is in great shape as opposed to the passenger side, which is not.

And here are the floor pans after they were cut out. The photo says it all; no need for an explanation.

Welding has now started! Here you can see what I mentioned earlier; that the floor pans don’t extend the full width of the undercarriage. The photo shows how they added the extensions.

Here’s a before and after pic of the passenger side foot-well. Look at how bad it was and what an amazing job the body shop did! You can also see where the cross-member bar was rebuilt and welded to the floor.

Once everything was welded and sanded, the entire undercarriage got painted. By the way, the tunnel got an acid wash and a coat of paint too.

Afterward, and before the first rubberized undercoat, they beaded a rubberized seam-sealer material on all the joints to make sure there would be no leaks.

I love this photo because it shows the full extent of the job and it highlights all the additional work that the body shop did in addition to the floor pans. You’ll notice the outer perimeter of the chassis also got some touch-up work to remove a few bad rust spots.

Here’s a (kinda blurry) quick photo of the side of the car all covered up. These guys were meticulous in their work!

AND, check this out! One of the parts no longer available is the fuel pump protective plate. Mine had some rusted out holes on it, so they build me a new one from scratch as a surprise!!! Here are the old plate and new part they built.

The undercarriage got two rubberized coats. Here’s a pic of a fresh second coat.

After the floors were done, it was off to my mechanic for all new fuel lines! I emailed my contact at MBCC to order the parts, only to find out that the metal lines are no longer manufactured and they aren’t available from anyone, including Peach Parts.

Our two options were to re-use the OEM lines or to build new ones. We decided to build new ones and re-route them to the bottom-out of the chassis.

As I mentioned before, my car is a driver so I’m not too worried about 100% accuracy. Especially on something like how the fuel lines run under the car.

Mike, my mechanic, did an AMAZING job with the lines. Everything got painted and protected against rust and I couldn’t be happier with the job he did. Take a look.

I must mention that I am still struggling to find a replacement for the gas tank relief valve. The OEM part doesn’t exist anymore and the closest I have gotten to a replacement is the part that was used on R107s, which looks very different to the part on my car. But, that’s another post for another day.

After the fuel lines were done, the car got towed back to the body shop for welding the front seat brackets and installing the insulation/sound barrier. By the way, some of the old brackets were in bad shape, so the body shop used one of the good ones as a template and built new ones.

The upholstery shop put the new seat covers on the seats and had them delivered to the body shop for a perfect fit (please note the seat covers had not been steamed yet so they are still loose and a little wrinkled).
Here are a couple of pics of the driver’s seat mounted on the new brackets and of the newly upholstered passenger seat waiting to be mounted.

You’ll notice the headrest on the passenger seat looks very different to the new upholstery. I’m considering ordering new headrest covers, but haven’t made a decision.

Here are a few photos of the insulation. As it was explained to me by the body shop owner, they use a rubber-like material that comes in sheets (he showed it to me). They cut the sheets to size and then hit them with a heat-gun so the sheet takes the exact shape of the floor. I don’t know if the material melts and adheres onto the floor or if they glue it down. I can ask if anyone is interested.

Almost there! Once they were done with the seat brackets it was back to the upholstery shop for reinstalling the interior.

Much has been debated on this forum about the quality of different suppliers’ seat covers and the fact that the existing Cognac pattern doesn’t match the original. I have posted on this by starting a thread (with a question) and by commenting on existing threads. So I’m not gonna get into that debate here.

But what I will mention here, which is relevant, is that I decided to go with GAHH. After researching suppliers and getting samples from a few of them, there is no point of comparison. Yes you pay a premium, but GAHH’s product is superior; it smells like the real thing (some samples I got smelled like bonded leather), it feels thicker and of better quality, and the pattern is the one that best resembles the original.

Here are two interesting photos. One showing the old back seat next to the wraparound new front and armrest cover. You can see there is a difference in the pattern. The second photo is a close-up of the new covers showing the front seats and armrests. When you see it by itself, it looks very much like the original.

As I mentioned in the beginning, with the exception of one little piece the carpeting came out pretty much intact. So I had it steam-cleaned and re-installed. One day, when I redo the wood, I’ll replace the carpet, including the piece where the speakers go behind the back seat. I’ll also use that opportunity to reverse-engineer re-installing the original speaker grills and keeping the new speakers that are mounted in the trunk. But, that’s another project for another day.

AFTER

And, here it is… the finished project!

The last stop in the process was to take the car back to the body shop for greasing. The body shop owner wanted to make sure this was the last thing done so the grease would have less chance of getting contaminated.

CREDITS

I must give recognition to the three shops that made it all happen. If there is anyone in or near Fort Lauderdale, FL that needs help, these guys are the best at what they do.

Upholstery Shop
American Auto Trim
960 West Prospect Road
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
954-771-0715
Steve Gillis, Owner

Body Shop
Superior Craftsmen, S&B Auto Care
4441 NE 6th Terrace
Oakland Park, FL 33334
954-993-5786
Renato Silva, Owner

Mercedes-Benz Mechanic
Hellenic Foreign Car Repair
41 SW 5th Court
Pompano Beach, FL 33060
954-941-3737
Michael Petrakis, Owner

CONCLUSION

I can’t tell you guys how pleased, and happy, I am with the way the project turned out. This was a huge undertaking for me but with good planning and a little patience it all worked out great. The new interior looks amazing and it smells soooooo good! Also, I always thought the engine on this car was very loud; not realizing that all the noise was coming from the holes on the floor! LOL! My car is sooooo quiet now :-)

I hope this post will help other forum members doing similar work on their vintage MBs. Or that it inspires others considering a big job to “go for it.” You guys have been an inspiration to me for the past two years. Big thank you to everyone who has answered the ton of questions I have posted or has chimed in with suggestions when I get stuck. I’m thrilled to be part of this forum community.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

Jose

muleears · #2 10-08-2016, 04:15 PM

Wow! Looks great. I hope I can get Huckleberry looking that good. Like you, I'm working on the mechanics first. Good Job.

Graham · #3 10-08-2016, 09:20 PM

Looks great!

Some of those pictures looked so familiar, having gone through similar process with my 85 300D (documented in another section)

meltedpanda · #4 10-09-2016, 11:55 AM

wow

801mbz · #5 10-11-2016, 02:39 PM

WOW AGAIN

CTD · #6 10-11-2016, 02:46 PM

So I guess there is hope for those of us with rusted floor pans!

Coolvibes · #7 10-11-2016, 07:24 PM

Hi Jose. The car looks great. Thanks for sharing the workshop referrals.

Randy - down south in Miami

joshhol · #8 10-22-2016, 04:13 PM

Awesome job! Thanks for posting, very inspirational.

I also went with GAHH when I reupholstered the 300D. I went to vinyl from original leather as I was not interested in worrying about leather anymore. The vinyl looks and feels great too.

Do you mind sharing a ballpark cost of the sheet metal work? My fin probably doesn't need entire floor pans put in, but it has spots here and there that need work. I would appreciate it so I can figure out how much to budget.

Thanks.

Baxterdown · #9 10-22-2016, 06:02 PM

Thanks guys! -- Josh, I sent you a PM.