[mbz180]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

Hi MBZ180,
What's the update on the Black beauty? Calling her that as Black is my favourite color for her

Hi SafeDrive,

Things are moving ahead with the roof transplant, after doing a lot of research on the best method that has been used by other owners who have done successful transplants. But it's still in the nascent stage, nothing concrete as yet. The roof is more complicated than we thought and was built with solid engineering.

The biggest worry for me is the inner wool headliner and the outer Covertex headliner. Both of these are non-existent in the metal frame and we don't have any pattern to go by. Unless we have the correct pockets and flaps already made and ready for installation, the finished roof as far as the fabric and canvas part goes will come out badly.

However, I have stumbled upon a German company which specializes in wool headliners for Mercedes sliding roofs of the 50s along with the required windlace around the headliner and the door frames, as well as the outer Covertex liner. Now days, Covertex has been replaced with more durable PVC of high quality. The problem with Covertex is an odd characteristic; when hot it contracts and when cold it expands, quite the opposite reaction to most other materials! They will supply the entire ready to install kit, which just has to be sewn on. Samples of everything are on their way from Germany, and I will order it when required and funds permit, since it's EXPENSIVE

Will put up pics and elaborate on the transplant in due course.

Best
mbz180

[mbz180]

Friends,

Here are some pics of the completed transplant of the sliding roof mainframe on my car. I took these pics on my visit last Saturday. What is left to do is to electro weld the reinforcing webs to the underside of the frame and door frames for additional stiffness.

Eagerly await views.


Sliding roof opening left side lateral view


Opening right side lateral view


Close up lateral view


Close up of weld lines


Rear rack lateral view-the main rear steel bow rests on this rack as does the canvas when pulled right back


View from the top


View from the front



Regards
mbz180

[wasif]

Looking very nice ! Cant wait to see teh car fully done with the roof open !

[the mole]

Originally Posted by mbz180

Friends,

Here are some pics of the completed transplant of the sliding roof mainframe on my car. I took these pics on my visit last Saturday. What is left to do is to electro weld the reinforcing webs to the underside of the frame and door frames for additional stiffness.

Eagerly await views.

Regards
mbz180

Dear prithvi

The going looks good, i guess your not planning to take her for this years statesman or are you?

[mbz180]

Originally Posted by the mole

Dear prithvi

The going looks good, i guess your not planning to take her for this years statesman or are you?

Hi Amol,

No, unfortunately the Statesman is out in 2012. It's solely due to the roof transplant otherwise we would have been ready. But in many ways I think it's just as well. From what I've seen in the past, restorers here are under great pressure until the last night before the judging day for the cars that they have worked on and in a few cases it leads to some compromise just to meet the deadlines. Then after the rally, these last moment 'fixes' are put straight.

Hopefully, since my car is not going to make it for the rally and should be ready and tested well in advance of the 2013 rally, it should be better prepared with no last minute pressure for the rally deadline

Regards
Prithvi

[kasli]

Agree on that totally . its best to do it once and do it right

Cheers

Originally Posted by mbz180

Hi Amol,

No, unfortunately the Statesman is out in 2012. It's solely due to the roof transplant otherwise we would have been ready. But in many ways I think it's just as well. From what I've seen in the past, restorers here are under great pressure until the last night before the judging day for the cars that they have worked on and in a few cases it leads to some compromise just to meet the deadlines. Then after the rally, these last moment 'fixes' are put straight.

Hopefully, since my car is not going to make it for the rally and should be ready and tested well in advance of the 2013 rally, it should be better prepared with no last minute pressure for the rally deadline

Regards
Prithvi

[motomaverick]

wow went through this thread from 2010 till now, really really nicely done restoration. so what is the current update on the progress?

[mbz180]

Originally Posted by motomaverick

wow went through this thread from 2010 till now, really really nicely done restoration. so what is the current update on the progress?

Thanks man. I haven't made any updates because there has been no further work done since then But this is only because the restorer has been busy for over a month with some very important non-car related work and will be free after the 1st. week of Feb, so things will move ahead then.

In the meantime, I couldn't resist buying some other small stuff, few I've received and few I haven't which is getting me worried because it's been more than a month since I bought them from E-bay and they haven't arrived Will put up pics of the things which are with me.

Regards
mbz180

[SafeDrive]

Originally Posted by mbz180

In the meantime, I couldn't resist buying some other small stuff, few I've received and few I haven't which is getting me worried because it's been more than a month since I bought them from E-bay and they haven't arrived Will put up pics of the things which are with me.

State the names of the sellers if you do not receive them. At least the rest of us can stay away

[mbz180]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

State the names of the sellers if you do not receive them. At least the rest of us can stay away

Hi SafeDrive. chrome-shop24de & biggilusso are the 2 E-Bay motor's sellers. The latter does not have any other items for sale since I bought the item, but the former has a lot of stuff but mainly non-car parts stuff.

I ordered a new bakelite fusebox cover for my car from chromeshop around 2 months back and nothing as yet. In the case of biggi, it's been 4 months!

Another E-Bay seller who sold me something outside of E-Bay 2 months back is also pending arrival. But in this seller's case, he gave the DHL tracking no., it was received by DHL Germany of 13/12/11 and the last update was when it was still in Germany on 15/12/11 and no update thereafter!

These 3 are the first time that items have failed to show up and they are all either DHL Germany or Deutsche Post.

mbz180

[the mole]

Originally Posted by mbz180

Hi SafeDrive. chrome-shop24de & biggilusso are the 2 E-Bay motor's sellers. The latter does not have any other items for sale since I bought the item, but the former has a lot of stuff but mainly non-car parts stuff.

I ordered a new bakelite fusebox cover for my car from chromeshop around 2 months back and nothing as yet. In the case of the item biggi, it's been 4 months!

Another E-Bay seller who sold me something outside of E-Bay 2 months back is also pending arrival. But in this seller's case, he gave the DHL tracking no., it was received by DHL Germany of 13/12/11 and the last update was when it was still in Germany on 15/12/11 and no update thereafter!

These 3 are the first time that items have failed to show up and they are all either DHL Germany or Deutsche Post.

mbz180

Dear prithvi, DHL in germany literaly means that The item has been sent by german post, most of the times the reason for delay is the customs in india. Of late many of my items have been delayed for more than a month. And many times it is not the sellers fault nor is it the postal department. The customs in India is most inefficient. But there are some rogue sellers out there especially out of germany. The onlyntime i was swindled on ebay was from germany and once from great britan

[SafeDrive]

Hi mbz180, it's been a long time since we had an update. What's going on?

[IndrojitSircar]

Originally Posted by mbz180

Hi SafeDrive. chrome-shop24de & biggilusso are the 2 E-Bay motor's sellers. The latter does not have any other items for sale since I bought the item, but the former has a lot of stuff but mainly non-car parts stuff.

I ordered a new bakelite fusebox cover for my car from chromeshop around 2 months back and nothing as yet. In the case of biggi, it's been 4 months!

Another E-Bay seller who sold me something outside of E-Bay 2 months back is also pending arrival. But in this seller's case, he gave the DHL tracking no., it was received by DHL Germany of 13/12/11 and the last update was when it was still in Germany on 15/12/11 and no update thereafter!

These 3 are the first time that items have failed to show up and they are all either DHL Germany or Deutsche Post.

mbz180

Have you received these items ? If not email me the tracking numbers i could help you out.

Regards

Indrojit

[mbz180]

Originally Posted by IndrojitSircar

Have you received these items ? If not email me the tracking numbers i could help you out.

Regards

Indrojit

Hi Sparky,

It's been quite a comedy regarding these items and I've not commented on them since 2 have just arrived.

The guy through whom I bought an ivory dash handle (like in Amol's car) was as worried as me about it not reaching in over a month. So I gave up and another identical piece but in much better shape came up on EBay Germany and I bought that, which arrived in a week. A week after this the first one which I thought got lost also arrived!

The new bakelite fusebox through EBay didn't arrive for over 2 months so I wrote to the seller who kindly sent me a replacement free of cost which arrived in a week. The first piece, which I ordered in December, miraculously was delivered to me last week

So as unreliable and unpredictable as normal Germany to India post is, the 2 parts did finally manage to get here, albeit way after they were supposed to arrive. End result was that I landed up with 2 of each item and I don't regret this because the 2nd. handle's ivory is virtually flawless and I paid the same amount as I did for the 1st piece. The fusebox was 2 for the price of 1 so that turned out good too

However, there is still one item that I do not expect to get anymore and wrote to the seller (biggilusso) who couldn't help because he simply didn't have another piece. So that's a write off.

What really has got me worried are 4 parts I bought from a regular Merc parts supplier whom I deal with in the US. His stuff through USPS has always arrived in 3-5 days flat but till now nothing. There's a tracking no. too but apparently just after it was posted USPS stopped tracking international priority flat rate boxes. It's not the loss of the items vis a vis the price that has me worried, it's the extreme rarity of the items, being NOS. I will not get an NOS replacement if these are lost.

If you can help, here is the tracking no. for the US shipment: (no tracking no. for the German part, it was just a letter post).

USPS.com: LJ501563752US Note it's last update was on March 19, 2 days after being posted, after which they stopped tracking overseas shipments. The seller messed up a bit on the address though; instead of Kolkata he wrote Kokata, but atleast he got the zip code right as well as the street add and he wrote West Bengal. In case the postal dept. is confused, doesn't it normally go back to the sender?

Thanks for the help.

Prithvi

[jagadeesh.b]

USPS.com: LJ501563752US Note it's last update was on March 19, 2 days after being posted, after which they stopped tracking overseas shipments. The seller messed up a bit on the address though; instead of Kolkata he wrote Kokata, but atleast he got the zip code right as well as the street add and he wrote West Bengal. In case the postal dept. is confused, doesn't it normally go back to the sender?

Thanks for the help.

Prithvi[/quote]

Hi Prithvi,

PM me your phone number I will be able to help you track it. There is a delay in clearing the item at Mumbai Postal Customs.

Thanks & Regards,
Sandesh.