More Mercedes parts to sort…

A few more Mercedes SL500 parts to sort, restore or replace.

Mercedes SL500 R107 – Torque Setting

Having now found the torque settings for our 1987 Mercedes SL500, thought it was best to share as they are very hard to come by.

Tightening Torques – Cylinder Head Instructions

Cylinder head bolts, tighten in the following stages:

1. 30 Nm
2. 60 Nm
3. Wait 10 minutes
4. 60 Nm

Other engine tightening torques:

• Main bearings – Stage 1: 25 Nm
• Main bearings – Stage 2: 50 Nm
• Big end bearings – Stage 1: 45 Nm
• Big end bearings – Stage 2: 90′
• Flywheel/driveplate – 35 Nm+90′
• Crankshaft pulley/damper centre bolt – 400 Nm
• Spark plugs – 30 Nm

Chassi tightening torques:

• Road wheels – 100 Nm

1987 Mercedes SL500 – Repairing the bodywork

Correcting the bodywork of our 1987 Mercedes SL500 was not on the immediate agenda, however, with the engine out and being rebuilt it made perfect sense to look at addressing the rotten areas and get the car ready for paint. One very noticeable and bizarre finding is the pool of water that was sitting within the engine bay. Upon closer inspection it looks as though someone, in the car’s previous life, has welded up one of the main sink holes where any water built up whilst driving would have been able to drain away. This build up of water has not help preserve the surround areas so this will certainly need looking at.

The corroded areas will be cut out and new metalwork will be introduced.

There is a fair amount of work required and once completed the car will be put away once again until we can free up some space in the paint shop for the preparation and paint work to commence.

Hopefully, in time for late summer! We are aiming to have the car ready for our Classic & Sports Car & Bike Show on 28th July 2019.

Refurbishing our SL500 gearbox

Our 1987 Mercedes SL500 engine is almost ready to be reinstated into the car. The gearbox is now being refurbished ready to be married up.

Cleaning up the Mercedes 500SL ready for rebuild

As previous pictures show, our 1987 Mercedes 500SL engine bay was not looking too pretty when it arrived at our workshops. Due to a recent timing chain issue which resulted in the engine having to be removed we can now tidy up the engine bay and engine before refit.

We have fitted up the new timing chain guide rail.

our 500SL engine is now out and ready for rebuild

Ady, with a little help from Pete has successfully removed our 1987 Mercedes SL500 engine ready for the rebuild to commence. This restoration project has begun a little prematurely but with the engine not running and feeling right it was better to address the issue sooner rather than later.

Removing our 500SL’s V8 engine

The engine is now out of our 1987 Mercedes 500SL. Upon closer inspection, the timing chain is very loose and left in its current state would have further damaged the engine. We are lucky to have caught the problem when we did.

The engine will now be stripped of it’s components, cleaned up, repaired and rebuilt. Whilst Ady is busy working on the engine we can look to tidy up the engine bay so the nicely refubished engine can be homed back into a nicely refurbished engine bay.

Mercedes 500SL – The very first clean

So before arriving to us here at Bridge Classic Cars our 1987 Mercedes 500SL had been stored for some time under a tree.

With her now up and running and all levels checked our first trip was to drop her off with Mike down at Shine Supply UK to give her a good clean and find out to what extent the restoration may or may not be.

1987 Mercedes 500SL

Our newest addition is our fantastic 1987 Mercedes 500SL, this one is ours and this one is a keeper.

She has been sitting locally for some time and after a gentle poke we managed to get her fired up and able to drive her back to our new Woodbridge workshops.

First stop is with Mike at Shine Supply UK to have a full and thorough detail. After that we can look at the options on this one and see what work she will require.