Meet The Players

This 1961 Mercedes Benz 220SE Cabriolet has been owned by the same man for at least the last 30 years. He used it as a regular driver with only routine servicing until about 7 years ago when he took it to a local shop for restoration. Six years (and a lot of drama) later, he got the car back. It was mostly done but still had quite a few rough edges. This car is very valuable even today where prices have corrected in a big way, and the overall condition while decent was not up to the standard of a $150K car.

The client contacted me to have all the little bits done correctly, and this type of job can be very difficult since the parts that were done right were done very well, so to fix what needs fixing without going backwards on the rest of the car can be very challenging. Here's a few photos of the car when it came in.

This Mercedes is a very rare and desireable Ponton body and a cabriolet as well. The paint came out well but the panel fit is not good, with the driver's door sticking badly, the front bumper misaligned and the grill shell hitting the bumper when the hood is opened.

It is a very pretty body style and with the nice paint it looks good from this distance. But when you're talking about $150K it has to be perfect up close as well.

The interior was redone using premium leather hides from a matched dye lot and the wood trim has been beautifully refinished as well.

Here's another example of lazy work, this signal light bezel was overtightened during final assembly and it broke. Fixing this potmetal part will be a big challenge and finding a new one will be an even bigger one.

Here's some more rushed work, the steering column was never repainted nor where the pedals. The pedal pads are also worn originals. Also note the sloppy fit of the leather wrapping on the lower dash an around the column. The whole dashboard needs to come apart to fix this stuff correctly.

Here's more abused trim, this looks to have been over polished or perhaps broken and hastily repaired. All the trim will have to be removed and inspected, then the bad pieces will have to be stripped of chrome plating and repaired if possible. The trim on the quarter panels is especially notorious for difficult repairs, it is formed from brass sheet and very thin. Replacing these pieces is not an option, I was quoted approx $7500 for a complete set that could be saved.