As you will have seen if you have read the earlier posts in this blog Bertha hadn't exactly been looked after before we got her and it's time
to start putting some of her bodywork right...
We had purchased the wings in December and had them sprayed ready for fitting.
Having removed the grotty old wings (one of which was not an original Mercedes wing) it was time to see what was underneath...
Looks pretty rotten... But finally she is stripped ready for work to begin.
The front left wing goes on fairly easily after a little repair to and clean out of the space behind.
However, there is rather more work to do behind the right wing as there is a fairly substantial hole which is going to require some welding!
Having sorted out the hole it was just a case of bolting the wing on, putting the lights back in and bolting the bumper back on...
... and she's all fixed and ready to go!
Resplendent in her new wings, a month later we had a opportunity to take her to Mercedes Benz World at Weybridge, where she met one of her relatives.
Original wings for the W123 were ~£300 each when we bought them in December 2016. I remember an episode of some car 'restoration' programme or other on which a W123 saloon was being bodged. The paid £25 for a new wing from the shelf of an autofactor
or similar - and then spent two days cutting, bending and shaping it to fit! We much prefer to buy original parts where possible: apart from the obvious quality issues (what was that £25 wing made of? Silver paper?)
with after-market parts it is just so nice to work with decent materials and to know that we can put our hands on our hearts and say that we have used original parts wherever possible. The wings fitted perfectly,
all the bolt holes lined up perfectly and the saving in time not having to make them fit was probably considerable... And we do not expect to have to have them replaced again!
Bertha Goes To Prescott