Paul Gannicliffe’s
1968 Mercedes Benz Saloon Undergoing restoration
Paul’s words on his car
I’ve had My 1968 114 Mercedes for about yrs, when I bought the car it was good condition other than the inner front sills near the foot wells which needed new metal letting in, stress cracks around the steering box which were cut out reinforced and new metal let in and the inner wing was replaced with a good second hand one from a car bought for spares (Many thanks to Ray Woodwood the demon welder).
The car was turned on its side to remove the rubber under seal which when new protects the underbody but when it splits holds water in just as well, the underneath was taken down to shiny bare metal followed by 1 coat zinc etching primer two coats of Finnegan’s no1 undercoat, 2 coats of black smoothrite, then 2 layers of stone chip then finished off with black waxoyl. The car was now ready for a respray the original colour was white but after seeing loads of white ones in films as taxis we decided on Mercedes dark metallic blue which really shows the chrome off.
The build quality of these old Mercedes is quite amazing well ahead of their time as it has discs all round and panel gaps equal to the cars of today even with no inner trims on the doors still close with a thud.
The car has only done 55,000 miles but has a recon engine & g/box due to seizing up while being stored and a recon radiator to keep things cool.
As you can see the car by the photo’s it’s getting close to being finished but having to pull the car out of the garage to work on it (weather permitting that is) things have been