Finally Ready For Paint - Mercedes W123 Restoration

in this episode of restore it i come to terms with the fact that doing full car restorations for customers whilst trying to run a youtube channel at the same time is stressful af and so i'm pleased to announce that this will be the last customer car i do on the channel once this mercedes is done and it's nearly done as you're about to see in this episode i'm going to focus on the 325i sport until it's finished and instead of full cars restore it will go back to being a fully functioning car park restoration business for those who want their parts restored to a very high level i've done parts with people in the past through the channel and i find those projects run as smoothly as any other project even if i film it and make an episode i think the difference between a customer's car and my own car is that the 3g 5i sport for example can be done in my own time and in my own way which will be the way that's best for content and not necessarily for getting the car done as soon as possible and back to a customer whilst trying to get content at the same time another reason why customer cars don't really work for me is that not everybody wants or can afford a nut and bolt restoration and in some ways i feel as if this causes more issues than just going back down to the bare chassis and starting from there as expensive as that can be with that said i still have the job of finishing what i've started and in this episode i've done my best to document the tying of many loose ends on this w123 to have it ready for painting starting with the bits i removed from the engine bay the control arms look about 40 years old so they're getting replaced but as for everything else i'm going to do them in-house starting with a good old blast to remove the rust and old coatings [Music] like most of the times i blast i quickly get bored of using the built-in system and turn to the sealy pop blaster which yes gets the job done a lot quicker but makes it almost impossible to see what's going on especially on camera i think what i'm going to do is invest in a bigger and better extraction system to make blasting a pleasure again [Music] because i want the zinc coating to appear as shiny as possible i'm going to buff the now rust free and matte surface on the wire wheel for those bits i can't reach with the bench grinder i'm going to use the rotary tool and some steel wire bits with all of these bits shiny enough i'm going to let them soak in the alkaline cleaner for about half an hour before rinsing them off and pickling them in a dry acid solution one final rinse and i can now add some fresh sink using gatoros's 10 litre kit depending on the size and number of parts in the electrolyte this usually takes anywhere from 20 minutes to about an hour to apply a good coating of zinc whilst that's doing its thing i'm going to begin the painting process for these covers that came from the engine bay for whatever reason i didn't manage to film the rest of this process but you'll see them later down the line once the car is painted with those on their way i can now passivate the newly plated parts i make it seem as if all of this runs smoothly as one continuous stream of progress but i'm sure some of you know it's not like that at all zinc plating a lot of parts can take eons it doesn't always go right and even if it does it's a slow process but that's because it's not the cheapest endeavor to go alone i've had some advice to outsource ink plating recently and it's something i'm considering simply because of the time it takes me to do it and the results aren't always that consistent some of you might be able to tell that these parts aren't as shiny as they should be and the finish isn't as deep as one would like it putting that aside for now there are a lot of other things to be thinking about like finally finishing off all of the welding work underneath and inside the car what's needed is some new sprayable ms sealer some kind of black wax oil to match what's already there some seam sealer and sound proofing for the inside i'm going to start with the one i'm most excited about because i've never done it before and that's the sprayable ms sealer it took a bit of faffing to find the right nozzle and about a quarter of a tube to get the hang of it and dial in the settings but once it was right i had a whale over time cue the undercoating montage [Music] [Music] i've made it look as if i have the easy life and it all went to plan but actually i ran out about halfway and had to wait a few days for a second tube to arrive but for your viewing pleasure i didn't run out and everything went completely to plan after a bit of practice i feel as if i got quite close to the factory thickness and look i was going for [Music] i'm going to let this dry for a few days before i cover it in tetracyl wax oil so whilst that's drying i want to quickly tell you about the sponsor of this episode camus camas are an interesting company based in shenzhen when they started in 2008 they specialized in aftermarket gauges for things like boost pressure oil pressure water temp or pretty much anything you wanted but since then they've moved on to building and selling a fully electric sports car a range of electric go cars and most recently sim racing rigs and they are starting off strong with this esports 50 newton meter direct drive base that comes with a universal buskit attachment meaning you can add any steering wheel you like with or without a quick release and as cool as that is cameras do offer a range of their own that come with their very nice magnetic carbon shifter paddles i'm really getting into sim racing recently and after testing one of these out i was quite impressed with the amount of adjustments that can be made either on the computer or wirelessly via a smartphone canvas also offer all of the other bits you'd expect from a sim racing company full rigs pedals e-brakes shifters and so on so if you're interested in sim racing or want to get into direct drive for a little bit less than your average brand check out cameras at the links below and use code restore it for five percent of your order and finally for historic viewers only cameras are giving away a free wheel and base combo to one lucky winner who likes their facebook page before the 31st of july 2022 the links are down in the description and liking the page will automatically enter you into a draw for a chance to win so good luck to everyone who enters and thanks to canvas for sponsoring the episode let's get back to the mercedes i'm using brush on tetraseal wax oil to cover the fresh ms sealer and make it look as if no one's ever been there i think we need another montage to get us through this painfully slow process and yes i know there's a sprayable version i'm just using up what i've got to keep the cost down for everyone involved [Music] [Music] [Music] this went on for so long my camera refused to capture any more of it so moving on the zinc parts are now dry and ready to fit along with the new upper control arms it was at this point that the sway bar brackets were reinstalled as well as the steering box and the steering column one thing i haven't really shown you is all of the cleaning and re-blacking of the underside of the car it's really hard to film and it takes absolutely ages but with it pretty much finished i can now reinstall the differential and get the car properly back on its wheels for the first time in a long time the output shafts were added to the diff on the workbench so all three bits can be installed in one go and this is done by resting it on a jack and removing the output shafts into place first followed by the diff and then it's mounting bracket i had a bit of help with this one because it's almost impossible doing it alone just like with most things it was much easier removing it than it was putting it back in but we got there in the end the next job on my list is to cover all of the new metal on the inside with the brushable seam sealer i'm doing this by first dabbing the sealer on to make sure there are no air bubbles and then the second coat was brushed on light paint [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] another thing i didn't film was the fitting and aligning of the front wings because one it wasn't absolute faff to say the least and two they'll be coming back off again for painting and the rebuild but now they're on that's one less thing to think about and i'm really starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel the only bits left that need tetrasil are the sides of the seals here it's much thinner than on the underside so i used a lot less and spread it as thin as i could i have no idea how i did this but i put the masking tape on in the wrong place to begin with and only realize now with all of that done i can now put all of the wheels back on so we can roll to and from the paint shop there are however a few things i need to do before it can go off for painting one of which is the final body work which i'll be getting help with and also replacing the sound proofing and vibration damping that was removed for the welding i'm using dynomat extreme which handles both soundproofing and vibration dampening all in one handy sheet i'm using some cardboard to make templates so i can cut the dynomat to the right size with as least faffery as possible with the driver's side going well i moved to the passenger side and realized i might need a bit more dynamite than i thought this old soundproofing is definitely at least 38 years old and is about as brittle as it could be i'm going to remove and replace a lot more of it when i get some more sheets in but for now this will do if you can remember back to a few episodes ago the front windscreen corners were the last bit of welding work i did this is the filler from that last episode it's been about three weeks so i think it might be dry now this is a great example of what happens when you take on too much at once things get left halfway through or forgotten about all together i've learned a lot taking this on and let's just say i'm really looking forward to getting it finished and fully focusing on the 325i sport like i've never done before with that done and staying on the theme of the front windscreen i've needed to remove the old sealant for a while now i just haven't found a product for the job annoyingly it's super thick seriously stuck on and there's loads of it thankfully i've just found this glue and tar remover from genolite that absolutely destroys it in seconds without damaging the paint underneath with one spray and a small brush it instantly turns the sealant into a liquid and makes what would have been an hour-long nightmare into a 5-minute easy job i was genuinely surprised at how well this worked the one thing it couldn't get rid of were these bits of actual rubber from the old windscreen seal that have bonded to the paint over the course of 38 years i couldn't even remove this easily with a blade it's so stuck on i can't get it off with anything as it's only happened along the top edge i think it must have been the sun on hot days over the course of nearly 40 years so to get rid of it i've opted for sandpaper and eventually filler to smooth it back out as i was cleaning the last of the sealant from the bottom lip of the windscreen i've noticed some surface rust right in the middle that needs grinding down and treating whilst i was getting the tarpon glue remover i was speaking with someone at genolite and discovered that the aerosol version of their rust converter has epoxy in it making it an ideal bare metal coating i cleaned the area down with silicon remover before applying a few coats of the converter and then primer for the final layer of filler i'm using some evercoat rage ultra i picked up from spray guns direct this stuff is actually what it says on the tin it's the easiest standing filler i've ever had the pleasure of using most of the bodywork was done by bobby from vehicle paintwork specialists who are going to be painting the car in about a week's time i started both the front windscreen repairs but even they were finished by bobby if i was painting it i'd also want to do the final prep as that's the thing that's going to show through the most while that filler is drying i'm going around the car finishing off little bits like this repair under the seat belt bracket after cleaning the area i'm using some manganese brown base coat and a black aerosol to cover the grey seam sealer as i was working there i noticed some more surface rust hiding on the top of the sill in the middle of the door so like before i'm going to grind it back to bare metal treat it and fill it so it can be painted over on the day of the fairy spray with those two ticked off i can now sand down the dream filler and have it ready for bobby's final touches the same went for the boot lid for some reason this area suffered quite a bit of surface rust most of which was dealt with off camera for one reason or another the whole car now needs de-ai-ing with 320 grit as well as a few final final touches and it will be ready to paint next episode once it's painted it's simply a case of putting it all back together again by a few little problems that we'll sort out once we get there and there we go pretty much ready for paint the front wings are sorted the seals are looking fresh 99 of the body work is done 99 of the undercoating is done the differential and prop shaft are back in all of the arches have been cleaned and protected all of the welding work has been finished off on the inside of the car and new soundproofing has been added the front suspension and steering have been installed the engine bay has been painted and let's not forget the 20 separate rush repairs are now all finished before i could head home on this particular day bobby arrived to do a bit of priming over the areas that have been filled there's nothing too exciting here but i'm looking forward to filming the full respray for next episode and having it back in the workshop with the main goal of putting everything back on and getting it back on the road so if you're as excited as i am to get this finished and get back to the e30s for good make sure you're subscribed to see the return of the 325i sport and some classic restorative episodes thanks for watching i'll see you next time you

Channel: Restore It

Views: 100,895

Keywords: restoration, restoreation, How to weld, remove rust, asmr restoration, restore it, how to butt weld, how to remove rust from metal, how to repair rust, Mercedes 123, BMW E30, Mercedes, how to polish metal, rusty to shiny, how to weld a car body, restore, mechanics, how to restore, amsr, sand blasting, remove rust steel, perfect restoration, how to, but weld, windscreen repair, car restoration, Merc, w123, how to weld, car respray, undercoating, full car restoration, rebuild car

Id: PxPcrm05mPM

Length: 21min 53sec (1313 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 26 2022