68 Mercedes

[D&W]

If I understand what you are saying, I think I have the same issue. The little piece that keeps the door from swinging open too far has come detached inside the b-pillar in my car. What was welded to fix this?

My odometer doesn't work either, I am way too scared to take it apart and fix it myself but I hear these guys do great work - http://www.paspeedo.com/

You can get a new door check for about $50 from mercedes that bolts right in, thats what I did and it was perfect HOWEVER then the metal on the actual door where the bolts attach to started to stress and crack, so I had that bit welded so the bolts could 'grip' onto solid metal again on the door

yea i heard there is a local guy also that will fix odo and gear selector indicator for about $200... trying to track down his contact details

[D&W]

Shot from yesterday taking it out for a roll

[D&W]

Finally decided to get cracking on replacing my caps. Mine are in OK condition, but are kinda beat up and not very shiny really and the paint is not super neat on them.

I have never refinished wheels or anything before, or polished metal for that matter

Step 1: Get used caps, bought for $40 and they are straight as can be, just the wrong color and still not quite as shiny as I want



Step 2: Clean them, used Meguires alloy wheel cleaner to eat away at the dirt. cleaned up nice. The one of the left is cleaned




Step 3: Tal-Strip Paint stripper sprayed on, left for 30 mins, scrape paint off, this was super easy




Step 4: Spend 2 hours HAND POLISHING with a cloth and Mothers aluminium polish just to do 1/3rd of a Wheel god damn it! No pic of the hand polishing i was too annoyed

Step 5: Get Mothers powercone and do that shit with a drill ahah. still need to mix in hand polishing as you just cant beat good elbow grease to really sort it out.

Halfway through the 1st cap now. Right hand side is done, left hand side is not done. where the paint was needs more work, i think ill do that by hand.



After all this I can work out the painting of the centers to match the body paint

[Fastphil]

Do it once, do it right.Nice job dude. Never even thought the wheel covers needed work, they look OK in the pics.

[D&W]

Do it once, do it right.Nice job dude. Never even thought the wheel covers needed work, they look OK in the pics.

true statement! I predict putting in a few hours a week in a month they will all be ready haha

Yea they look good from a couple feet, but if you get up super close you can tell they are not 100%

[foxtrot wagon]

Car still looks great man!

[D&W]

Literally 5 hours worth of polishing on this 1 damn cover, the results are worth it but 4 more to go (i'm gonna do a cap for the spare also)

I've just gone back to hand polishing for now as I can't hear the TV while i polish if I use the drill

bad iphone pic i know

[Fastphil]

Holy shit dude! Looks awesome. Gotta say, the stamping itself looks beautiful to begin with. Sure don't make them like that any more.

[SD202]

wow great job ! if you need some help on the weekends let me know. Are you going to use the color match and clear coat from automotive touchup ?

[D&W]

wow great job ! if you need some help on the weekends let me know. Are you going to use the color match and clear coat from automotive touchup ?

I would feel bad subjecting anyone to this haha. thanks though man im gonna spread em out so I dont get too sick of it.

I am actually waiting on a sample of Gloss Anthracite 1080 vinyl from 3M, if it is a close match to the paint I'm going to just use that otherwise I will paint/clear which apparently is quite hard to mask up neatly on these suckers.

hows your car?

[TeckniX]

You should watch pr0n while rubbin' them shinny. Gets you arm motivation. haha

[SD202]

I would feel bad subjecting anyone to this haha. thanks though man im gonna spread em out so I dont get too sick of it.

I am actually waiting on a sample of Gloss Anthracite 1080 vinyl from 3M, if it is a close match to the paint I'm going to just use that otherwise I will paint/clear which apparently is quite hard to mask up neatly on these suckers.

hows your car?

she's still holdin up. Hopefully will hold up long enough for me to piece together something real special for her. . I couldnt imagine the masking being easy at all considering you have to mask off the circle and the star in the middle.

[Fastphil]

I would feel bad subjecting anyone to this haha. thanks though man im gonna spread em out so I dont get too sick of it.

I am actually waiting on a sample of Gloss Anthracite 1080 vinyl from 3M, if it is a close match to the paint I'm going to just use that otherwise I will paint/clear which apparently is quite hard to mask up neatly on these suckers.

hows your car?

Look into a liquid masking product, scale modelers use it for certain things, so it must be able to do intricate masking.

[D&W]

Look into a liquid masking product, scale modelers use it for certain things, so it must be able to do intricate masking.

yes I was thinking if plastidip could be used, spray it on nice, then cut out what you want to paint with a sharp blade... might look into this

[Fastphil]

yes I was thinking if plastidip could be used, spray it on nice, then cut out what you want to paint with a sharp blade... might look into this

That could work. Because you're working with a metal surface, be sure to pick up a pack of fresh exacto-type blades. The edge dulls or chips quickly when working on metal surfaces and you end up with a jagged cut line. Not obvious on the spot, but it'd suck to have to re-do it all because it didn't turn out nice. Do one cap at a time also to see how it works out.