Overriding Fun
Overriding Fun
Overriding Fun
Again, the middle of the week brings little time and small accomplishments. With family and other obligations last weekend was major downtime. However, in each little pocket of time I can get I’ve been sanding and varnishing dash and door wood pieces. The door pieces are done and test fit, and they’re beautiful if I dare say so. The lower windshield/dash pieces were finished today, and the dash wood itself is nearing completion. Depending on how well the last few coats of varnish sand out I should have all of the wood pieces finished by this weekend. Then I have to wait for several more weeks for the headliner to be done before I can start reassembling everything. I can’t wait!!
One of the items I recently purchased from Alex at MBClassics.de was a replated left rear upper bumper overrider. He had a number of these replated and this was one of the last ones available. I wish he had both, but at this point I’ll take what I can get.
I was really living right as I was able to unbolt the part from the main bumper without removing the bumper. I didn’t expect to be successful, but upon inspection after it was removed it appeared that someone had secured the bolt heads using some sort of putty. This worked to my advantage, as I was able to remove all three bolts without difficulty.
You can see where the chrome finish has faded over the years due to the application of some parking stickers that masked the original finish. The piece is in very good condition with no dings or rust, but the finish is really tired. I would have the part replated, but Alex’s part was less than it would have cost me to do so and required minimal waiting time - my plating guy has a 5-6 month backlog!
Lots of crud under and behind the part. Time to get busy.
After a fair amount of elbow grease and chrome polish, a far better looking bumper and painted area.
Like new again! And yes, there’s some sort of crease or seam in the bumper. The car has evidence of being struck in this corner, so I’m guess there was probably a repair to it of some sorts. I’ll have the bumper off another day and be able to determine exactly what’s going on here then.
Old part and replated part from Alex.
After fumbling with the bolts and engaging in all sorts of gyrations with my fingers to hold the bolts in place, the new overrider is in position.
Mmmmm, sure looks nice. Now if I could only find another for the right side....
I’ll have time to tear into something this weekend, but I haven’t decided what just yet. Maybe I’ll POR-15 the trunk floor, or install the new compensating spring and pads I’ve got. We’ll see.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019