At the Frankfurt car show of 1951 the largest cars were typically the focus of attention. The audience primarily crowded around the new Mercedes 300. Many people thought that this German mass-produced car that was considered to be the largest and fastest at that time, would be the 1950s successor of the former ‘Great Mercedes’. The Type 300 in its day was greatly respected - more so than, for example, the later Mercedes 600. The entire German industry was justly proud of the car. Its popularity was significantly increased by the fact that Mr. Konrad Adenauer, federation chancellor at the time, always travelled in one. Adenauer (on top of his other virtues) entered history as the most famous Mercedes 300 owner. This is why the car - which was long ago considered a classic – became known as an ‘Adenauer’.
This model was produced in four versions: the Type 300, 300b, 300c and 300d. Here we will present you with the rebirth of the first version of this model, the 300 that can be seen in the photo. But first let us present some data: Period of production: 1951/12 – 1954/3 Piston displacement: 2996 ccm Performance: 115 HP 4600 rev/min Highest speed: 155 km/h Price: DM 19,900 Number of cars manufactured: 4 776 + 2 chassis
The team picked a Type 300 for their next project. It was 1st September 2006. No one thought that the restoration would take until 27th June 2008. Click on the images in the presentation to enlarge.
The year of production: 1953. The Type 300 was the pride of the german car industry with another 1,956 fellow cars being produced that same year.
We completely disassemble the car. The mechanics take photos and notes about every part and procedure. The parts are then placed into numbered boxes.
This is a rare moment: we lift the body off the chassis.
The first glance at the chassis. The mechanics are studying the electrically-controlled supplementary suspension, which was a revolutionary invention at the time.
We proceed by completely disassembling the chassis group.
Beyond argument: this structure was designed for eternity.
After we have fully cleaned the chassis by grain blasting, the body mechanics then do any required repairs.
The polisher applies another coat of a specialist anti-corrosion, multi-layered system to the chassis.
The body mechanics do the final checks with the guidance of the drawings and dimensions provided in the Mercedes-Benz book of tables (Tabellenbuch).
With the chassis accurately shaped and sized the polisher sets about providing proper protection to the inner surfaces and cavities.
We hope that this picture will make all vintage car lovers’ hearts throb.
After the replacement or restoration of each and every part (please take this literally!) we rebuild the chassis group.
The mechanics are showing how the central lubrication system works– another state-of-the-art technology of its time.
In the meantime, the mechanics have completely disassembled the body. The next step is the removal of the paint layers.
Unfortunately, sandblasting (due to its characteristics) would deform the large open surfaces of the body, so the visible (external) surfaces have to be cleaned using hand tools.
The body is polished down to its bare metal and immediately given a base coat. Then the work on the body starts. In this case the critical dimensions are being restored with the help of the Mercedes-Benz book of tables.
We are setting the gaps using the age-old technology of tinning - up to an accuracy of one tenth of a millimetre.
The restored body receives a base coating ready for it to be ‘tried onto’ the chassis. (As with the previous photos the body was in a more advanced state as the pictures are not presented in chronological, rather in logical order).
The three body mechanics are looking at the main ‘actor’ of the next ‘scene’, the polisher, with great expectation.
The polisher is also applying his skill. He will have to complete his job using the least possible putty.
We will only show a few photos for illustration. We protect the undercarriage of the car by applying six different types of materials.
Several special coats are applied to the passenger compartment, the engine bay and the boot.
We can see gap and weld sealing here. Wherever necessary we apply protection against the damage caused by corrosion and stones thrown up by the wheels.
Our polisher completes this phase of the job with the greatest of enthusiasm: the external surfaces of the body then receive their beautiful black colour.
Not so spectacular, perhaps, but a very important job is the cavity protection of the body.
It took about 1000 work hours on the project before the paintjob was finally completed. The ‘complete paintjob’ does not only include the body, the bonnet and the doors, but it also includes the coating of the engine, the gear system, the undercarriage, the electrical devices, some parts of the seats, and several other bits and pieces as well.
We do not want to take advantage of our visitors’ patience, so we will only present you with two more pictures of the upholstering.
The complete upholstering of the car is a task that requires about 1000 hours.
Many people do not know that the restoration of the electric and pneumatic equipment and instruments is at least as big a challenge as any other. The reproduction of the different types of labels and type boards is an equally difficult and time consuming task.
As a taster, we will show you just four photos. The area marked with the yellow ellipse is the above-mentioned supplementary suspension that was revolutionary at that time. This is what it looked like before its restoration.
And this is after the restoration of (literally) every one of its parts.
In order to achieve faultless operation the unit, which would be called a level regulator today, must be precisely adjusted.
On display in this photo are a few (only a few!) restored parts of the so called combo instrument. It is worth noting that the speedometer is already presented here as a ‘main part’. Naturally, this had previously been completely disassembled and all of its parts were restored or remade.
Finally, let’s take a look at the pictures of the ashtray, which consists of so many parts!
This is how it looks when put together.
It is unbelievable what this ashtray is capable of. When it is not in use, it can be hidden behind the dashboard. But that’s nothing. While the mechanism moves backwards, there is a cleaning blade that empties the ash that is in the ashtray into an ash container below; and the ashtray closes the ash container by rotating 180o. When one uses the ashtray again, that is, when the ashtray is pulled out from its hiding place, then the ashtray will be clean, and the old ash that is in the ash container below will be covered. The ash container can be removed and cleaned.
We do honestly hope that viewing the next photos will really please you.
