Recent Posts

1

Progress / Re: W111 1965 220SEb "Restoration" Project

« Last post by LWB250 on September 17, 2019, 06:13:52 PM »

The finnie began it's journey back to the Fatherland today.

The transporter came to pick it up this afternoon to take it to the Port of Ft. Lauderdale to be prepared for ocean shipment. It was fun while it lasted and I'm sure it will be happy going back to Germany.

On to the next project after a short breather...

2

Parts / Re: For Sale: 13" Wheel Trim Rings

« Last post by Squiggle Dog on September 17, 2019, 02:23:40 PM »

Only set #3 is still available.

3

Fintails / Re: Unsafe tail lights in modern traffic

« Last post by Bidart39 on September 16, 2019, 10:23:38 AM »

The way my paint is now, I figure it can't be worse so might as well try haha.

4

Fintails / Re: Unsafe tail lights in modern traffic

« Last post by Bob on September 13, 2019, 04:25:36 PM »

Thanks for the kind words.
I already stopped by a body and they quoted me 6k$. They also said that another finny owner was hit and the insurance paid up to 9k$ so it I'm hopeful that they won't total the car. The body shop also said it would only be around 700$ extra to paint the rest of the car while it's there, so I may go that route.
I guess this is one of the dangers of driving these cars daily...

Honestly I have fixed a lot worse and I just don't see 6k IF the tail lights are not broken . Most of that will straighten and might not even break the paint. 700 dollar paint job would not pay for the primer I use ....just sayin

Good Luck with putting her back in condition.

5

Fintails / Re: Unsafe tail lights in modern traffic

« Last post by Bidart39 on September 12, 2019, 12:30:29 PM »

Yes it's a shame, it was original paint and had never been hit before. Helas, nothing to be done about it now..
I use Geico but in this case it was the other person's fault so their insurance will take care of it. Once the bodywork has been done, I'm going to convert all the tail lights to LED and try to gut the internals of a LED flasher relay and solder them into the original flasher relay housing. It may be that the flasher relay can't be opened. The pagoda forum has an interesting write up about this: https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Electrical/FlasherRelay. If I can't open it up, I'll just solder some wire from the connector to the relay.

6

Fintails / Re: Unsafe tail lights in modern traffic

« Last post by Squiggle Dog on September 12, 2019, 01:47:04 AM »

I have found that the bulb holders on fintails NEVER seem to work! No matter how much I've cleaned them and squished them with pliers so the bulbs fit snug, the bulbs only work intermittently. And this is on several different ones. Modifying the bulb holders so LEDs will fit (with glue, I think?) might be a really good thing--not only for brightness, but reliability as well.

Using aluminum tape on the bulb holder housing to increase reflectivity might work even better than paint. I've known people to do this on headlight reflectors, and even polish the tape to make it brighter.

7

Fintails / Re: Unsafe tail lights in modern traffic

« Last post by fitts07 on September 11, 2019, 08:29:21 PM »

Bidart39,
I hate that you got re-ended  Hopefully you can get the car put back right and painted at the same time. What insurance do you use? I use USAA and carry full coverage; I’ve shied away from classic car insurance because of the limits on annual mileage but worry about not having enough coverage to fix it if something were to happen.
I daily drive my 1968 230 and getting hit is always in the back of my mind. I've had to do some quick thinking / footwork and backup away from people in parking lots that don’t look before they start to back up.

So my plan when i get home and get some time is to remove the tail lights, disassemble the bulb holder and sand blast it. Then ill take some chrome spray paint and paint the inside to give it a bit more reflectiveness and clear coat the trunk side. I’m not a fan on using LED bulbs in these old cars so i did some research on brighter bulbs.
So I’m thinking for the brake/signal bulbs using 3497, the reverse light using 796, and the running lights using 6w ba9s bulbs.
Not sure what bulbs are called for in the manual, I don’t have access to mine.

8

Fintails / Re: Unsafe tail lights in modern traffic

« Last post by Bidart39 on September 11, 2019, 12:05:44 PM »

Thanks for the kind words.
I already stopped by a body and they quoted me 6k$. They also said that another finny owner was hit and the insurance paid up to 9k$ so it I'm hopeful that they won't total the car. The body shop also said it would only be around 700$ extra to paint the rest of the car while it's there, so I may go that route.
I guess this is one of the dangers of driving these cars daily...

9

Fintails / Re: Unsafe tail lights in modern traffic

« Last post by Bob on September 11, 2019, 07:23:48 AM »

Ugh! This shows the results of a moment of carelessness by an inattentive driver. Such a shame. I hope it gets repaired.

IF the tail lights survived the impact it is not that bad of a repair .It is hard to tell in the pix if they made it though.
Make SURE the insurance checks the latest sales prices before they try and tell you it is toast !!!!
Sorry for the loss Bidart 39 and glad you were not hurt .

10

Fintails / Re: Unsafe tail lights in modern traffic

« Last post by Squiggle Dog on September 09, 2019, 04:09:17 PM »

Ugh! This shows the results of a moment of carelessness by an inattentive driver. Such a shame. I hope it gets repaired.