Grant V
Member
- Messages
- 242
I sent all the glass side windows to a guy in near Pretoria to make me windows from Perspex. He matched the tint colour and then bent them to the correct profile using the glass windows as moulds. The result is very good and these were then fitted.
I made and plated brackets to secure the windows in place to that they don’t drop down out of the channels, which are shorter than normal and purely in place for aesthetics.
I’d been putting off cleaning the grill for ages – I had done this job previously on my 6.3 road car and it was a relentless chore. Do you know how many holes a 6.3 grill has?? (As some wit said: “more than the Women’s Soccer World Cup.”) Nevertheless, almost two days of slogging away with a tooth brush (several!) and a few tubes of Autosol Metal Polish gave results and the difference was marked.
The grill surround had been re-chromed and when it came to assembling the whole thing, I found that the horizontal beadings I ordered from Niemoeller were wrong – they were too thin, like those used on a Fintail. So the assembly of the grill was all left aside while I ordered new beadings…only to find that they have again supplied Fintail beadings. Someone is going to have to tell Fritz that the 110 part number does not work on W108/109 grills. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but the reason I never got genuine parts from the US is that the beadings are farkin expensive – would have worked out at about $600
The dashboard wood finally arrived back last week – third time lucky. I spent Saturday fitting the dash wood, adjusting the cubby lid and then fitting the dashboard top and bottom. Everything went together quite nicely and relatively easily. The original dashboard was cracked, so it was upholstered in leather, but the reverse side to give a suede look, like on period racing cars. The suede solution was not only good looking, but practical as well because there was no reflection off the dashboard onto the inside of the windscreen.
Because the key ignition switch is no longer going to be used, I made a blanking plate out of aluminium, which was polished and glued onto the trim surround and then fitted in place.
The windscreen got fitted as well. I asked some advice about the chrome beading insert and was told that this needed to be fitted first into the seal and then the seal mounted onto the windscreen after which the whole shebang gets installed. The windscreen is bent Perspex which is a bit floppy, so there was no way that any of this would stay together. I fitted the windscreen which went in really easily – no more than a ten minute job. Fitting the chrome beading was an absolute ball ache and probably took about two hours of much cursing and spanner throwing, but it finally came together.
I made and plated brackets to secure the windows in place to that they don’t drop down out of the channels, which are shorter than normal and purely in place for aesthetics.
I’d been putting off cleaning the grill for ages – I had done this job previously on my 6.3 road car and it was a relentless chore. Do you know how many holes a 6.3 grill has?? (As some wit said: “more than the Women’s Soccer World Cup.”) Nevertheless, almost two days of slogging away with a tooth brush (several!) and a few tubes of Autosol Metal Polish gave results and the difference was marked.
The grill surround had been re-chromed and when it came to assembling the whole thing, I found that the horizontal beadings I ordered from Niemoeller were wrong – they were too thin, like those used on a Fintail. So the assembly of the grill was all left aside while I ordered new beadings…only to find that they have again supplied Fintail beadings. Someone is going to have to tell Fritz that the 110 part number does not work on W108/109 grills. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but the reason I never got genuine parts from the US is that the beadings are farkin expensive – would have worked out at about $600
The dashboard wood finally arrived back last week – third time lucky. I spent Saturday fitting the dash wood, adjusting the cubby lid and then fitting the dashboard top and bottom. Everything went together quite nicely and relatively easily. The original dashboard was cracked, so it was upholstered in leather, but the reverse side to give a suede look, like on period racing cars. The suede solution was not only good looking, but practical as well because there was no reflection off the dashboard onto the inside of the windscreen.
Because the key ignition switch is no longer going to be used, I made a blanking plate out of aluminium, which was polished and glued onto the trim surround and then fitted in place.
The windscreen got fitted as well. I asked some advice about the chrome beading insert and was told that this needed to be fitted first into the seal and then the seal mounted onto the windscreen after which the whole shebang gets installed. The windscreen is bent Perspex which is a bit floppy, so there was no way that any of this would stay together. I fitted the windscreen which went in really easily – no more than a ten minute job. Fitting the chrome beading was an absolute ball ache and probably took about two hours of much cursing and spanner throwing, but it finally came together.