Years ago I owned a 250C which was stolen at the shop that was doing my body off restoration!!!! Boy did that hurt. Now here I am 15 years later with a 87' 560SL, but this time I want to do the work myself and thanks to the Net, I think it's possible. Here's where I'm at:

I purchased this car at an auction. I was aware I needed to do some work, but I couldn't resist owning my own 560SL. The car sat in storage for years, but was started on a regular basis. The engine is strong and doesn't burn or consume oil. The tranny had all kinds of leaks. I pulled the tranny and replaced all the seals and now I have a tranny that no longer leaks! Over the last few months I saved some money cause I knew I needed to rebuild the entire suspension. Ball joints are shot, lower control arm bushings are shot, brakes, bearing, tie rods, discs and everything else you can think of will be replaced and/or rebuilt. All this stuff is rotted or worn out. After receiving the new parts this week, I started with the front suspension.

Working on driver's side first, I remove the calipers, rotors and tie rods. I supported the lower control arm and removed the ball joint from the spindle. I lowered the lower control arm and removed the spring and have successfully removed the lower control arm. The control arm and ball joint as well as the wheel hub are at the shop having the bearings and ball joints pressed out/in.

Now here's where I'm a little lost. I'm no machanic and all I could find to help was a Mitchell CD manual that doesn't give a lot of detail. I can see the front subframe bushings are rotted so badly that you can barely tell there is rubber left. I have a new set, but not sure how to go about replacing these. I can see they need to be replaced while I have the lower control arm out of the car, but how would I do this and safely? Safety is my #1 concern. Do I need to remove the ENTIRE front frame to remove and replace these? If so, do I have to also remove the right lower control arm first? Or can I do one side at a time? What procedure would you pro's use to replace these? Everything seems so heavy and I don't want to kill myself just because I want to have a perfect riding 560SL.

I would like to keep this thread open as I attempt to completely rebuild the entire suspension as I'm sure I'll have more questions along the way. I also have all the rear stuff to replace, but want to first tackle this front end. The newly pressed ball joint, control arm and wheel hubs will be ready for Monday pickup. If I can continue working on the car this weekend and replace these worn out subframe bolts and bushings, it will keep me busy and out of trouble (maybe).

I'll post any pics you want and will promptly reply to any questions. I just would like a little help along the way and to help my 5 year old daughter keep her daddy in the process.

Thanks for any help,
Tony