280" Concourse; Diary of a layman

[TJ 450]

https://www.standox.com/content/dam/EMEA/Standox/HQ/Public/Documents/English/Classic%20Cars/STX_classic_guidelines_MB2.pdf

[UTn_boy]

Cellulose is a bit old school, it would've been 2K on the 116 originally surely?

Tim

No.  Originally, W116 cars would have had a single stage enamel (for solid colors).  The metallic colors after 1974 were a two part base/clear, but before 1974 the metallic colors were also a single stage, but in an acrylic lacquer. 

[TJ 450]

Interesting, yes my W109 has the acrylic lacquer, 180 Silbergrau.

Tim

[UTn_boy]

Mercedes used single stage enamel paints (for solid colors) up into the mid 1990's, too.  There is something to be said for the single stage enamels.  They'll always outshine/outgloss the two part base/clear.  However, they're a bit more upkeep. 

Funny story........about 4 years ago I restored a customer's W126 560sel.  This was a $50,000+ adventure, so I used the best of the best for everything. including paint.  The car was originally black on black, and always has been.  When it came time for paint, I specifically requested that the body shop (at my local Mercedes dealership) use Glasurit 22 line in Mercedes 040 black.  (Glasurit 22 Line is the most modern, up to date single stage paint)  After all, we were restoring the car back to original, and there was no way I was going to cheap out on paint by using a base/clear that would never look as good the original single stage.  Well, after paint I reassembled the car and sent it back to the body shop for repairs of a few dings/chips from reassembly.  They had it done on only a few days.  They called to tell me the car was ready, and I said I'd just have to owner pick it up since it was done.  However, the owner was out of town for 3 more days, but I was unaware of this.  Well, three days later the dealership's body shop calls me and asks me to please take delivery of the 560sel, that it was causing problems.  Naturally, I inquired!  Apparently, the 560sel had been parked next to a customer's brand new S550, also painted black.  The owner of this new S550 was LIVID that this 30+ year old 560sel shined/looked sooooo much better than his brand new $90,000+ S550 with base/clear paint on it. haha  It seems that even Mercedes has cheaped out on paint. 

So, use that story as you will when choosing paints.  Just be aware that single stage is a little more upkeep.  It likes to be fed Carnuba about 3 times a year, and you cannot use regular car waxes on single stage enamel due to the petroleum distillates in modern waxes attacking the enamel. 

[floyd111]

So, use that story as you will when choosing paints.  Just be aware that single stage is a little more upkeep.  It likes to be fed Carnuba about 3 times a year, and you cannot use regular car waxes on single stage enamel due to the petroleum distillates in modern waxes attacking the enamel.


That's good to know!

[TJ 450]

It's still 2K though right? I used a Dupont single stage 2K on my 6.9 which is 903. Shouldn't be any issue using typical waxes / polishes on these.

[UTn_boy]

The Glasurit 22 Line is a 2K paint.  However, 2K (2 Komponent) only means that the paint needs an activator, sometimes referred to as a hardener, to stimulate the chemical reaction that causes the components of the paint to cross-link and bond to the surface of the car.  2K has no bearing on whether or not a petroleum distillate based wax is safe or not.  Each manufacturer of 2K paint uses different chemical make ups.  Glasurit does not recommend using any petroleum distillate product on the 22 Line paints. 

[floyd111]

Seems there was a heap of miscommunication for some time, and apparently the clearcoat was done months ago. I squeezed out multiple confirmations from the workshop, so somebody did not know left from right there..
Means that we now have an actual ticking clock, with either Tony and his tools arriving here in a container in a month or 2 to finish the wheel arches, or the old workshop would have done it by then, with their new rotisserie also in a container already on it's way to Taiwan.
I offered to take back the car now, get a refund, and finish at my own workshop, but they were adamant wanting to finish it themselves. That's a first..
So, we have a 2-month ultimatum going now, with an actual alternative if it fails on one side.Interesting..

In the meantime, our house renovation and the creation of our "MB Germany 1975" workshop downstairs is moving along nicely. I have some preliminary pics from several of the 20 stages house restoration that are already finished. So much has been 95% done, and we will  see the 100% marker being reached for several stages each day now.
It's a lot of house pics, and this thread should be about the cars, so I'll post an FB link each time a section has reached "100% done" Naturally, the downstairs garage is most interesting to some, but even though the infrastructure has been done, we are still gathering 70's furniture, tools and and machinery. Few weeks, maybe a month.. In the meantime, here's section 1 completed, the outside of the house, in 2012 (blue), 2019 (orange) and (2020 white/brown), and section 2 completed, the 1st out of 5 bedrooms done from beginning to end.
Section 3, the 2nd out of 5 bedrooms, the master.

S1: https://www.facebook.com/stan.deegs/media_set?set=a.10163492961535001&type=3

S2: https://www.facebook.com/stan.deegs/media_set?set=a.10163493644080001&type=3

S3: https://www.facebook.com/stan.deegs/media_set?set=a.10163498055060001&type=3

S4: https://www.facebook.com/stan.deegs/media_set?set=a.10163499132025001&type=3

S5: https://www.facebook.com/stan.deegs/media_set?set=a.10163499504465001&type=3

S6: https://www.facebook.com/stan.deegs/media_set?set=a.10163499504465001&type=3&uploaded=19

[floyd111]

Here's a preview of the garage.. far from decorated, but it should give you an idea..

[floyd111]

New glass facade where there was but a hole and steel shutters.

[rumb]

Quite a transformation. Your hillside erosion control looks like a massive project. How many yards of gravel? Interesting In a habitat where nature quickly reclaims everything.  Shop is looking nice.

[floyd111]

So you see, except for infrastructure having been restored with a lick of suitable MB "blue" and some 70's browns, we're but at the beginning of turning this space into a era-correct garage.
I found 12 bright orange velours 70's showroom chairs and hexagon tables in good nick, that would require but a light re-spray of their slim frames in black to achieve a perfect match. Hard to remember how popular orange was in 1975, haha! Between 25 and 35% of all furniture was orange, back then. So, with some small, added blue back pillows and some original blue plastic MB ashtrays on the tables, that's a wrap.
Got 6 antique drawer cabinets that will all end up in blue blue with unpainted wooden drawers. (1 visible in the pic)
Found a full height car lift from the 80's that will be resprayed in it's original orange.
Found a large Siemens workshop wall clock (train station clock) from 1970
Got 9 unpainted wood+chrome standing lamps to make the whole lean more towards showroom than workshop.
That's about it. Got the MB gift and w116 accessory collection, but nothing to put them in yet.
The accessories are quite large, some of them heavy,  and they are supposed to be in plexiglass or glass cabinets with 70's MB stickering.
The MB gifts deserve a series of custom made glass showcases, but the volume of glass required may be beyond my budget. Still checking 2nd hand sellers.
Unconventional and nonpretentious, they could also end up in 1-drawer-each in the wooden cabinets. They'd be safer from UV there, and free of dust, but completely invisible unless you open a drawer. Not sure that's a good plan.
If anyone has ideas or suggestions, pics of easy-to achieve 70's workshop detail-tricks, I'd love to hear it.

[floyd111]

Quite a transformation. Your hillside erosion control looks like a massive project. How many yards of gravel? Interesting In a habitat where nature quickly reclaims everything.  Shop is looking nice.

Yeah, that gravel project is on the other side of the country, some jungle-mountain land we have been developing for 6 years now. It's 6000m2, and I think we covered over 4000m2 with geotextile, geocell and white recycled concrete gravel. In a few weeks we'll -finally- get a license for 2 small buildings there, so that's coming soon. Would be nice to finish this workshop thing first, before returning to that old land project. I'm getting old, and this stuff starts weighing quite a bit.
We moved 5000 tons of soil in 6 years in 4 week-long digging sessions. Turned an overgrown 300m2 piece of overgrown flattish land into a footballfield sized piece of flatland in 2 levels, by digging down and pushing soil sideways. The gravel, 250 tons of it, had to be shipped from the city, all the way to the foot of my mountain, loaded onto 3-wheeled ships-engine home-made trucks in small batches, and driven up a 400meter high mountaintop. The road is on a  20-25 degree inclination, and it's narrow. Diggers and bobcats both at the foot and on the top of the hill, and a small army of Vietnamese boys to move all of it downhill into the thousands of cells.
That bloody mountain is now visible from space, haha The only bright white mountain in an otherwise uninterrupted green jungle. And it's all legal and green. It stops the jungle from reclaiming my property to a degree that 1-day-per-month is all that's needed to keep the bad weeds -and the snakes- out

[floyd111]

Brief, we are now building a 1978 Mercedes dealership. Not a copy of Stuttgart HQ, but a version you would have found in a smaller German city, more rural, those without the funds to transform their home into a full spec Bavaria dealership. There were quite a few of those back then. I am building workshop, waiting room and sales desk, with the historical "MB Customer Gift Museum" as a red thread, glass showcase all around with some 300 official MB-germany-issued gift articles issued between 1916 and 1986. So, the waiting room and the sales desk would have been specced to sell w123, R107 and W116. Can't afford 3 0-mile cars in the showroom, but just 1. That still means I need to have the other cars stuff as well, in the cupboards..and on the walls.

We're decorating the downstairs now.. hunting stuff down, gathering all of those hundreds of little items that used to be in a german MB dealership in 1979. it all has to come from germany-proper.
The brochure cabinet needs work still, a thing that Rumb just reminded me of;

I pretty much have all of the special informative brochures, but I still need to get the most common W123, R107, 350/450, 6.9 brochures. Always been focused on the hard-to-get ones, and everything M110. Was first planning to do a 1975 showroom, before the 6.9 was introduced. a thousand little reasons have moved that line to a much more realizable 1979. So yes, it may be time to ask the forum for help, someone that might have most of those needed here. It would be great to have a booklet for each type.. 200, 200d, 240D, etc. But, i would start with a booklet with all the R107's, a booklet with all the W123's and one that covers 350SE to 6.9. Everything else would be a big bonus. I can't be paying 25 usd on ebay for each specific model.. would end up costing 1000 bucks..

[floyd111]

Tiny update.. I am building an FB site for the museum, with the first 4-5 posts already done.
If you're bored or interested, have a look, and get an idea of where I am taking this..
https://www.facebook.com/stan.deegs