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1957 Mercedes 300SL front end restoration: Part 5 Eyebrow Trim Creation and Paint

This is Part 5 of a series of posts on the automotive restoration of this 1957 Mercedes 300SL. Part 2 showed all the pieces we made in Part 1 TIG welded together and metal finished to make one headlight housing piece to now offer up to the body as one unit.  Part 3 showed grafting the housing into the body, metal finishing, and final assembly of the light, trim ring, and bumper to round off the restoration of the front left-hand side.  Part 4 demonstrates the right-hand rebuild of the headlight housing and the inner and outer right hand fender rebuilds.

This post shows how we make the ‘eye brow’ since we cannot buy a replacement anywhere, largely due to the fact only 2,900 of these cars were ever built, including the 300SL Gullwing that carried the same trim feature.  Finding these cars is becoming harder and harder, and parts the same way, unfortunately.  We take you step by step through the development of the eye brow trim to completion and fitted to the 300SL.

The latter photos go from an assembled bare metal car to primer and finally paint.  The car was displayed at the Creme De La Chrome Rocky Mountain Auto Show here in Denver in November 2012 and took 1st in the ‘Best Foreign Sports‘ class and Best Overall Antique/Restored.

The car also took an award at the Amelia Island Concours in 2012 for the “Most Elegant Mercedes-Benz”.

The paint looked awesome after being applied by our painter Greg Johnson.  Knowing the skill and precision that went into creating and restoring the metal work of this 300SL gives confidence that the paint will last flawlessly for decades.

 

……’know what’s under your paint’…..

Completely restored Mercedes 300SL

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Restoration process photos

Here’s our original eye brow that had been patched and re-welded several times resulting in trim with a large amount of body filler to enable the fit to the Mercedes body.

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Wheeling new sheet metal to form our eye brow.

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A view of the lower anvil used to aid shaping the profile.

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This picture shows where we divided up the original eye brow into sections, and then repeated for the new sheet metal with the aid of profile templates taken from the original eye brow.

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Marking the perimeter of the eye brow with calipers, for the break line to form the flange.

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To aid forming our rolled edge we used round solid bar as a ‘knock over’ jig.

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Defining eye brow shape to the body of the fender.

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Completed trim restoration photos

Eye brow metal finished and fitted just like the original from the factory.

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Plan profile view of the Mercedes 300SL eye brow trim.

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The hood profile reshaped, gapped and metal finished.

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A complete front end aid by the help of his Mercedes brother (Gullwing)!

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Into primer…

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The 300SL on display at the Creme De La Chrome in Denver, Colorado over Thanksgiving weekend.

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Final restoration photos

Painted by our painter Greg Johnson.

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The Mercedes 300SL took best Antique/Restored and 1st place for Foreign Sports in Denver this year.

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This is Part 5 of a series of posts on the automotive restoration of this 1957 Mercedes 300SL. Part 2 showed all the pieces we made in Part 1 TIG welded together and metal finished to make one headlight housing piece to now offer up to the body as one unit.  Part 3 showed grafting the housing into the body, metal finishing, and final assembly of the light, trim ring, and bumper to round off the restoration of the front left-hand side.  Part 4 demonstrates the right-hand rebuild of the headlight housing and the inner and outer right hand fender rebuilds.

For more information check out the automotive restoration services we provide at our workshop in Denver.