Runs, Sloppy Welds & Bare Spots
More Pagoda Originality tips
Photography from Brian Peters
Ever been to a local car show and notice a beautiful car that is let down by a few runs in the paint? We think, “this proud owner spent so much money restoring his car but got cheap with the paint job.” Well maybe we should not be so quick to judge. If we examine a Pagoda hood on the bottom side that has never been repainted we find a large number of runs in the paint. I’m pretty sure at least one of the primer coats was done by dipping the hood (if not dipped they were hung vertically to cure after spraying a liberal coat). It simply was not considered important to sand these away before applying the color coats since most of the time the hood is closed. We also find similar runs in the satin black of the underside of the trunk lid. If you are doing a high point restoration I suggest that you not remove the runs if possible since this is another originality marker. Factory replacement hoods come with a nice, uniform, run-free coating of satin black all over. Below is a hood bottom that has been lightly sanded exposing the runs which exhibit as high spots.
Did Mercedes allow "Pagodas" to leave the factory with paint runs on the underside of the hood? You bet they did. The sympathetically restored 230/250/280SL will retain these runs.
In most cases during the assembly of the body structure when two pieces of sheet steel were joined together, spot welds were used creating the neat row of dots (see front fenders at the top of the page.) There are however exceptions such as the way the coolant expansion tank pedestal is affixed. It has a row of what appear to be hand made mig-welds on each leg; basically rough bumps in the metal. I recently had a technical manager from one of the top Mercedes tuning companies examining a customer’s car for possible purchase. Peering under the open hood he had said, “Oh this car has had some body work done.” I asked him to show me the evidence and he pointed to these very welds that we are discussing. I had to show him five other cars that all had the same welds before he would take my word that they were indeed factory. In an attempt at redemption he indicated that the welds were a bit rougher on this car than on some of the others. Finally we agreed that maybe the workman on this particular car had one extra beer at lunchtime before completing these welds and we had a good laugh.
Rough gas welds on the coolant expansion tank support bracket not necessarily indicative of body repairs. And bare metal circles on some underhood surfaces not just coincidental.
Another interesting feature is the lack of paint in perfect circles in some areas of the engine bay. These areas are where the various ground straps attach to the body. The contact must be “metal-to-metal” in order to conduct current and these paint-less circles is how the factory achieved this.
Brian Peters, MOTORINGINVESTMENTS.COM
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