The customer reported a few issues with our 1985 Mercedes 500SL, and Pete confirmed most of them during a test drive:
Rattle & Knocking Sounds: A noticeable rattle occurs at very low speeds or from a standstill. Additionally, there’s a knocking noise from the passenger side, especially over uneven roads. This could hint at suspension or steering issues.
Cruise Control: As reported by the customer, the cruise control wasn’t working.
Brakes & Steering: The brakes functioned well, including the handbrake, which holds firmly and keeps the car straight. Steering felt fine overall, though the knock might still be related.
Gearbox: The gear changes were slow at times and selecting “Park” resulted in a noisy shift.
Lighting Issues
While the external lights are fully operational, there were a few concerns with internal and auxiliary lighting:
Courtesy Lights: Only work when the doors are opened, not via the dashboard switch.
Dashboard Dimming: The instrument cluster doesn’t dim when adjusted.
Park Brake Bulb: Fails to illuminate when the parking brake is applied.
Heated Seats
The heated seat switches are non-functional. They’ve completely collapsed in their housing, rendering them unusable and unlit.
Engine Bay
A peek into the engine bay revealed a mix of positives and areas needing attention:
Oil & Fluids:
Oil level is fine, but the oil itself is slightly dirty.
Brake fluid is clean and at a high level.
Coolant is brown, although the level is okay.
The washer fluid reservoir is full of mould and gunk, which could block the pump.
Filters & Belts:
Air filter is a bit dirty but still serviceable.
Auxiliary belts are worn and cracking—replacement is strongly recommended.
Battery: The terminals are corroded and need cleaning.
Tyres
A close inspection of the tyres uncovered some concerning details:
Spare Tyre: A 34-year-old Continental tyre that’s heavily cracked and perished.
Driver’s Front Tyre: Dunlop, 5mm tread, with minor cracking. No DOT code was visible.
Driver’s Rear & Passenger’s Rear Tyres: Both are Runway Enduro, 6mm tread, 15 years old.
Passenger’s Front Tyre: Forcum brand, 5mm tread, also 15 years old.
Recommendation: All tyres should be replaced due to their advanced age and cracking.
Suspension & Steering
Several issues were noted beneath the car:
Suspension:
Front lower arms have play, and the bushes are perished.
Rear exhaust rubber is beginning to split.
Steering:
Minimal play in the driver’s track end.
Play in steering tie joints and the damper arm.
Exhaust:
The heat shield is loose on the exhaust link pipe.
The exhaust has been repaired and painted, but the paint is now flaking, and rust is returning.
Underside Condition
There were signs of wear and tear under the car:
Corrosion:
Slight underbody rust, with the driver and passenger sills showing small crusty holes. Pete wasn’t sure if these were factory imperfections or rust-through spots.
Oil Leaks: Minor oil residue was observed on the sump and power steering pump, but no drips were evident overnight.
Additional Notes
The steering wheel’s centre bolt is heavily damaged.
Hardtop functionality couldn’t be tested as the soft top is currently fitted.
Steve has fitted a new kingpin to the assembly on our 1964 Mercedes 230SL. He also fitted new top and bottom joints, and new bushes too.
He also made some welding repairs before noticing that the driver’s footwell carpet had been fitted over the top of the kickdown switch. The carpet was removed and holes were cut for the switch mount before the carpet was refitted.
Our 1964 Mercedes 230SL has been in the experienced hands of classic car technician Steve. He cleaned up the loose sealer and surface rust around the rear arches and the rear chassis rails before applying a new coat of under seal.
New rear wheel cylinders have now been fitted as the old ones were corroded and seized. The front brake callipers have both been stripped down, cleaned, and new pistons and seals fitted as the old ones were corroded and very stiff in operation.
John has made and fitted new down pipes to our 1964 Mercedes 230SL. This is because the old ones had to be cut off as they had seized. New baulk head sound deadening was fitted before John investigated the non-starting issue. He went through the wiring and traced the fault to the timer relay on the inner wing. He adjusted the gear linkage and inhibitor switch so the car starts in the correct lever position.
The fuel pump in our 1967 Mercedes SL250 has been dripping consistently since the workshop team got the car up and running. Peter removed the pump and stripped it. He found that it had previously been sealed using normal silicone sealant.
After everything was cleaned off, fuel safe liquid sealant was used as a replacement.
The John’s have been working mainly on the doors recently. They’ve cut counter sunk bolts to length, fitted and secured both door locks. The door seals have now been fitted into the channels around the door before securing the front piece with clips.
They they’ve moved on to the boot area where they’ve fitted hose clips to the fuel pipes.
It has been a good number of years now since the engine was fully rebuilt on the SL but as it is such a complex engine that requires everything to very just so, we have decided to send the engine back off to Coltec Engineering to be checked over and tested ready for refit.
2 responses to “Behind the scenes of our 1985 Mercedes 380 SL”
Stephen
Definitely be entering , Remember even as a kid having quite a few sl matchbox cars . My favourite since then and still is , Turned 50 this month and this could be the time 😎⭐️🙏. So I will be in it and might just win it 🫰
Just to say absolutely stunning colour and best interior bridge team .
To help with the fitting up of our Mercedes 500SL Jon has used the Mercedes 380SL that we currently have in The Classic Lounge as a good reference point.
As with all of our restorations the technicians and marketing teams here at Bridge Classic Cars work very well together to ensure that plenty of images are taken throughout the entire process
This makes the fitting up process much easier if any questions are asked. Here we have images of the bonnet furniture being fitted back up.
September 30, 2024 10:35 amPublished by Craig Ranson
With the new parts starting to arrive, it is almost time to begin the rebuild of the engine of our 1964 Mercedes 230SL.
The fuel injection pump and injectors have been rebuilt and are ready to be refitted. The camshaft is currently at Kent Cams where the camshaft is being reprofiled to the original Mercedes specification. This is because automatic gearboxes don’t respond well to uprating.
The camshaft and new cam fingers should be ready next week when more progress can be made.
The investigation and rebuild of the engine of our 1964 Mercedes 230SL has now begun.
Cam wear was noticed and the cam chain was stretched. The tensioner for the cam chain was also worn, as were the bores. The injection pump and injectors will be serviced while the engine is out of the car.
The crank will need grinding and the cleaning process has begun.
It was also noted that one of the pistons was facing the wrong direction and was cracked. As you can see from the videos below, the bearing in the rod has failed and is the cause of most of the noise when the car is running; and the bearing has moved which has blocked the oil feed hole and then started to break up.
Firstly, we have road tested the vehicle to experience what the customer is experiencing. Found the noise to be coming from the nearside rear wheel so we have stripped out wheel hub and replace wheel bearing.
Whilst the car is in with us, we have fitted a DAB radio with DAB aerial and microphone.
We’ve also had reported to us a smell of fuel so we have looked into this also. Having stripped out the boot linings to check all fuel pipes we have not found there to be any leaks.
We have remove the dash cluster in order to replace the left hand bulb assembly.
Our 1985 Mercedes SL280 has been undergoing a pre-MOT check with technician Jonn.
After sucking out the coolant from the header tank and replenishing the anti-freeze, a new rear exhaust mount was fitted to the rear silencer before all of the tyres were inflated to the correct pressure.
Our Mercedes-Benz 300SL was originally delivered by Mercedes-Benz main dealer Callanders of Glasgow to Cheshire Products Ltd on March 18, 1988. Initially serving as a director’s vehicle for six years before moving on to its second owner on March 25, 1994. After looking after the car for 24 years, it was eventually passed on to the third owner on May 25, 2018. Following a brief ownership, our 300SL found its way to its most recent owner on April 18, 2020.
Nautical Blue Metallic with a contrasting Cream leather interior
85,000 miles
Original factory hardtop
Four owners from new
Recent expenditure of over £15,000
History file of service stamps, past MOTs, and invoices
Jonn has continued his work on our 1987 Mercedes 500SL. He cleaned and repaired the heater box assembly.
He bonded the broken fan mating surface and sanded it back flat. He then stuck foam to the directional and air blend flaps inside the box and refitted.
Recently, Jon and John have been working on our 1987 Mercedes 500SL.
Jon stripped the heater box and removed the blend flap and directional air flap from one side. He left the other side as it was so he could use this as a guide for reassembly.
John trial-fitted the power steering pipes and servo before moving on to fit the indicators and side trim. The throttle linkage was also cleaned.
John has been cleaning the overspray and grease and oil off the wiring loom of our 1987 Mercedes 500 SL. He then started routing wiring into the correct positions.
The other Jonn then continued to sort/route the wiring before mounting the heater valve to the bulkhead. The ABS pump was mounted and Jonn repaired and rebuilt the heater fan and mount in place.
Jonn then drilled the hole in the nearside bulkhead and routed the bonnet release cable through.
Our 1987 Mercedes 500SL has been the focus of classic car technician Monty recently. He has had the car in the fabrication bay and has been making the ABS bracket.
Our 2000 Mercedes CLK 230 has been under the care of classic car technician Jonn who has been looking into why it is currently not starting.
Jonn stripped and removed the old fuel pump and filter assembly. He then fitted a new pump, wired it up and tested it. The pump was running fine but was not pumping fuel.
Jonn has advised that further investigation is needed.
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