My most intensive Resto to date: MB Widebody

[gregatron]

Alright, here it is. I thought I'd save it for my 1000th post,
Many pics to follow,
Tonight will be the night I reassemble this beast so I figured today would be a good day to start the thread.
I picked this cab Up from Gibbous. (Thanks Ed)
It was in very bad shape but there was still some potential shining through.

I started off, like I do most of my lady friends, I layed 'er down and started stripping 'er

It appeared to me at the time that a previous craftsman had done some handy work.

The damage and was pretty extensive and thorough which forced me to completely disassemble the entire cab

It was a lot easier to work with the side panels with them detached, this one was the best of the two

 

[gregatron]

Practically every square inch had to be prepped before paint then vinyl

A lot of wood work was also needed

The side panels came out pretty good considering I spent about 5 hours each on them
One is done in spray paint I found at Home depot the other is done in Kumquat (it was an experiment)

 

[gregatron]

Ah, the control panel
What a mess here is an breakdown of the process

The original CP and joys were there all I had to do was remove the junk and gunk

A faint glimmer of its former glory

Just after the wire wheel and sanding

Here she is all welded up and painted ready for the new CPO

And finally, with the new CPO applied

I have re assembled the CP and made a new harness but I will save that pic for the final assembled pic

 

[gregatron]

That's all for tonight as I will be assembling it later and should have more pics for tomorrow.
I can only hope it will come out as good as some of these other MB restos as of late.

 

[caddysrule]

That's all for tonight as I will be assembling it later and should have more pics for tomorrow.
I can only hope it will come out as good as some of these other MB restos as of late.

Great Job its going to look great when its done

 

[gregatron]

Great Job its going to look great when its done

Thanks you sir. We shall see, we shall see.

 

[timberterror]

Wow from hammered to looking great! How was applying the vinyl? - Barry

 

[gregatron]

Wow from hammered to looking great! How was applying the vinyl? - Barry

Actually I haven't applied it to the sides yet. I'm trying to avoid handling it after the vinyl is applied. I'm not really sure how resistant to scuffs and scratches it is just yet.
I had some trouble with it when applying it to the front, but only because I wasn't used to working with it. It is way stickier than I had anticipated. The second try was way better.

 

[bit_slicer]

Looks fantastic so far! Can't wait to see it all together.

 

[Phetishboy]

Mine was in real shitty shape too. I even had mildew causing the original orange paint to flake off in areas the size of your foot. My speaker panel looks about like yours too, dinged, edged fucked, delaminating, etc. I also had several deep impact gauges in the sides that took 5-6 bondoing's to finally cure. Looks like we'll get ours done about the same time. I am tackling my CP next.

 

[hatrick]

Great job so far. It looks like it's going to turn out to be a very nice looking MB.

 

[gregatron]

Thanks guys,
Yeah, this all took a little longer than I thought but it was/is definitely an all around good experience. My least favorite part about it though was trimming the vinyl from speaker slots on the front plate.
For some reason it stressed me out.

I also had several deep impact gouges in the sides that took 5-6 bondoing's to finally cure.

I hear ya bro, I also had several areas that were probably deeper than 1/8" that took several bondo sessions.

actually looking at them in the pics they don't look as bad as they really were.

And finally the partially assembled cab. It actually went together a lot smoother than I thought it would considering I had every piece detatched at one time or another.

Hopefully tonight I can vinyl it. I should be getting the side art in any day now
so hopefully I can get some fully assembled pics ("the money shot") by Saturday.

 

[FlavaDave]

Re:

Where did you get your black vinyl and how does it attach, with glue or iron on?

 

[gregatron]

You can get it from Rich at www.thisoldgame.com. It's pretty affordable, it is self adhesive a little thinner than say side art for instance. It's basically a big sticker that you trim after you apply.

 

[Deadly]

I just wanted to give you props on your project. You didn;t take the lazy mans way out and simply paint the sides, you went Hong Kong Fooey style and knocked it down and showed it who's boss lol. Seriously - when a person goes to this much trouble it also shows your dedication. Like you said to me - ANOTHER CLASSIC IS SAVED!!!!!
Keep goin man it looks great.

 

[gregatron]

Thanks Deadly!

And with that I will post some of my after shots.
I still need to install the monitor,PCB, cage, PS, and make a harness for her which should take place this week.
So with out further ado, here she is all cleaned up.

Some may say the vinyl is a little too dark but I like it.
I think if you start with a lighter shade of orange undercoat it will lighten the final shade a bit.

 

[Deadly]

Ya know - if I didn't know what an original looked like this thing could pass for brand new outta the box! lol
WOW dude friggin stellar!

 

[tai95]

You need to photoshop a side by side comparison of the two. The change is amazing, great job!

 

[gregatron]

Thanks guys here are a couple stitched images.

I'm happy with the results so far. It wasn't so bad after I figured out how to apply the vinyl.
I've got my own technique now.

 

[Area69]

Dude...that is killer, KILLER!!