Look at me now
I was reading the sunday paper and this car ad caught my attention. Having
been a foreign car mechanic for years I thought it would be fun to restore a old
Mercedes Benz, besides that my wife really liked this car. That is I got the OK to buy it.
When I bought this car
the motor was out and apart it had a broken cam shaft and front
cam tower, the dash was also apart and the headliner was gone. There was chrome missing from the outside,
broken and missing lenses ,
smashed bumper guards and missing fog lite lenses, the hood star was gone as was the trunk star and the
trunk emblem. The only sensible thing to do was find another
car for parts,
while looking through Junk Town USA " French Lake Auto" I found another 59 220s that was fairly complete,
when I asked what they wanted for the motor they said 200. or 300. for the entire car, I bought the car.
After I removed and disassembled the motor I was shocked to find that it had been rebuilt not more than a couple
thousand miles ago, with new pistons, rod and main bearings valve job and timing chain. I cleaned it and
reassembled it with new gaskets and seals. The parts car had the hydrak clutch and the car that I am restoring
has a manual clutch, the alignment pins between the engine and the transmission were two different sizes so I had
to have new ones made, at that time I was working at a company that makes heart valves and the machinist there made
them for me on a machine that makes heart valves, pretty cool huh?! I test ran the
motor on my garage floor. It ran grrrreat,
I then rebuilt all the wheel cylinders, the master cylinder, and the power brake cylinder. I also replaced all the brake lines.
I then started on the body work, it had some surface rust and a rust hole
inside the left front fender and in front of the fuel door. I stripped the paint off and sandblasted the rust spots, then welded in new metal
where needed. I then decided to change the top of the car
with the top from the parts car because it had the factory sun roof. I cut them both off in the same place
and welded the sunroof
top back on. That was the easy part, replacing the headliner
and the sunroof top proved to be more work than changing the top. To be continued.
I'd like to thank Noel for his help obtaining parts.
Proud Mercedes and Their Owners
Past restorations of mine and others
The Kotrba Family!
Jack Kotrba (me)
My wife, Mary
My youngest son, John.
My oldest son, Peter.
My daughter, Emily.
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If you like my car page let me know
Email: kotrba@lkdllink.net
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