I haven't been around the forum very much because I've been slaving away on Ol' Norm. I've had him a little over a week now and couldn't stand looking at the body rust, so.... away it went.

Please bear in mind that I paid $900.00 for this car and probably didn't do everything perfect, and some mistakes were probably made. If it will make you feel better to pick Norm apart, go ahead, but he looks great to me.

I have lots and lots of pictures, so please forgive me if your computer gets overwhelmed.

The first thing I did with Norm is got him some new shoes. They're the real deal 16" AMG Pentas that have been refinished at some point. I got them for $200.00 off a tragically wrecked euro 500SEC with 70,000 original miles. I'm waiting on some AMG center caps from eBay, but otherwise they look great.



You can probably see the ugly brown spot on the door. I couldn't stand looking at it any longer, so here's what I did.

1. Sanded, removed what was dead, and treated the rust to hopefully kill it.
2. Body filler (where possible) and sanding.
3. Priming then more sanding
4. Paint then clear coat.

I got most of my supplies at Sherwin Williams and did the entire project in my garage. I'd like to take this moment to apologize to my 500SL for sitting outside in the rain overnight for the first time I can remember during my ownership.



I put the pictures in groups of 3's of before, during, and after.

Passenger Door:







Driver's Side Fender






Front End, Below headlights




No the paint is not running in this picture, just rain.


and my nice little surprise under the bumper



Quite a hole! The other side's even bigger










I really wasn't sure what to do with these two gaping holes, so I sanded, treated, and primed both sides. Hopefully it will slow it down, especially since I won't drive it in winters.

Here are some full length after photos. The passenger side paint doesn't look like it matches in one picture, but in reality its just not reflecting the concrete as well. Any polishing suggestions to make it shine up like the rest of the car?






Not bad, eh?

__________________
1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!