The pleasure of ten years work! With dark blue paint & black hide Perfection at last...

Here's the story on Roy's 1969 W109 6.3.
Demonstration vehicle from Mercedes Benz dealership Hamburg. Then two previous owners.

I purchased car in 1980. After owning the car ten years and having an engine & rear axel rebuild and a respray by classic car specialists the car looked fantastic and pulled looks every where it appeared. Although it just did´nt give me the satisfaction I was looking for! It´s the same the world over when you have gone this far you start to look a lot closer at the object and become very critical about every detail you see. Constantly whimping into retreat at the dream thought of a total restoration on a car of this complexity… Repeatedly edging myself on...I decided to take the plunge in summer 1992.

First thing was to find an untouched model of the same car to stand in the garage to refer to when rebuilding, because its a slow job and you would always be making a compromise as to what goes where, I wanted every detail original and back in its correct place! So I found one that was structurally beyond financial repair, but untouched and to be broken for spares later.

The Plunge. Everything stripped sills off and searched all joints holms looking for rust. Replace suspect panels, this is the last place you try to save any time or money on in an undertaking like this. Four new doors & wings. Most important check all water draining holes are there and in the correct position, sometime due to earlier repair they are often over seen and water can collect to create rust spots again. And as I have witnessed in another car the sound of water rushing back & forwards when braking hard or pulling away fast.
Then my longed for dark blue paint compared to the original light blue metallic which I didn't like really from day one.

The rebuild of all mechanical components.
001 Part of the front Axel rebuilt with Air chamber in place.
002 The rear Axel and brake support completed.
003 The front Axel completes with disc and brake calliper.
004 The finished Engine with all the components and awaiting fitting.
005 Rear Air chambers Valve and pipes.
006 Fuel tank in and things are beginning to shape up...
007 New wood veneer, dials all present and correct, note the fuel gauge it always seems to look the same when I take a glance at it...
008 This is really where the driver should also be seated but there is just no space...

The pleasure of ten years work! With dark blue paint & black hide Perfection at last...
Total cost of new parts came to 55000€. The professional craftsmanship hours in labour for rebuilding the monocoque & mechanics have totalled 2500hrs which for a car of this dimension and standard is normal and appropriate for this condition. I started this project bearing in mind there will be no compromises made, it has to be the best on the planet when I am finished and I have achieved my dream.
The sale price now if anybody is interested this astonishing example 145000€.
I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Best regards Roy.