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My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

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cal_w460
Posts: 2205

My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#1 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:11 am

First a quick presentation of me. I'm 35 years old living in Sweden. Since I was 16-17 years old I have had an interest for vintage cars. I pulled off my first renovation of a low mileage Volvo 121 that had stood for years, when I was 18 and owned the car for over ten years. Right after the renovation it won some prices, but after that the car was stored in a heated garage and barely used.

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After 12 years I decided to sell the car because life had changed and I wanted something more rugged that could take me to places where I like to spend most of my free time. Mainly to the mountains.

I'm an architect and the asthetics of the old G-wagens has always impressed me. Such a simple design yet so functional and rugged compared to modern cars.

I ended up buying a 300GD that only had two previous owners and seemed to be in very good condition. The car had been repainted with the windows out and the body didn't seem to need any work at all.

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I realised that the previous owner had been struggling with water leaking into both the drivers and passenger side through the washer arms. It didn't seem too bad though and I reckon I could patch it up and repaint the whole floor to original condition.

After taking out the whole interior except the steering wheel and instrument panel I realised that the rear floor pan was pretty badly rusted. I started carefully patching it up but the sheet metal left was really thin. Since these floor pans can't be bought new anymore and scrap G:s with rust free floor pans aren't growing on trees over here I didn't know what to do.

Patching up the original floor pan
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Finally I had to give up the idea of keeping every part of the car in original condition. I decided to carefully level out the beams below the floor and replace the floor pan with a flat piece of sheet metal welded edge to edge and spot welded to the beams. It all turned out really good.

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Before welding in the new flat floor pan I painted it with 2k epoxy to get paint on the inside of all beams. Except the contact areas with the beams that got weld primer ofcourse. Also cleaned out all the existing structure painted it with 2k epoxy inside. There was no rust at all in the beams.

More pictures will follow of the welded floor pan, removed body coating and painting of the whole floor with 2k epoxy. Today I'm gonna spray epoxy inside all beams to get good rust protection after the welding.

At the same time I'm renovating the front calipers and have replaced all of the brake lines and fuel lines, fuel hoses, filters and most of the fluids etc. I have also removed the front axle to give it some new paint and inspect it. New plastic tank is waiting to be installed and the old one has been removed. New shocks and red/white springs are also waiting together with some more parts.

Right now I'm searching for a drivers seat for w460 because the one in the car had been replaced with a recaro seat. I have some offers on military ones but I will see if I can find one with the correct cover instead of sewing a new cover.

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w460.333 1982 Colorado Beige 300 GD OM617.931

blueg
Posts: 2318

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#2 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:26 am

Recaro seats were an upgraded option in the 460.

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cal_w460
Posts: 2205

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#3 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:29 am

I know. I wish the previous owner would have bought recaro upgrade seats for the G. But this one is an ugly after market recaro with electric controlled adjustments. :|
w460.333 1982 Colorado Beige 300 GD OM617.931

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TechMOGogy
Posts: 3239

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#4 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:37 am

Welcome to the forum and please post more pics of your G!
Dan
PUCH IT: 72 Haflinger Pathfinder - 75 Pinzgauer 710M 2.7i - 96 Puch 350GDT Worker

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superapan
Posts: 159

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#5 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 8:47 am

Nice G! I should pop by and see it in person!
W460 LWB -85, om606.910 turbo w/ 722.634. Project thread:
https://clubgwagen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9900

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cal_w460
Posts: 2205

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#6 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:50 pm

Yeah you should! Even though the G is pretty much in pieces now.

Some more pictures from a 1000k km trip in the end of the summer before this small renovation started.

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w460.333 1982 Colorado Beige 300 GD OM617.931

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cal_w460
Posts: 2205

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#7 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:55 pm

I'm planning to replace the aftermarket alloy rims with 6J 16" MB steel rims painted in the color of the car. Will also carefully sand blast the grill plus the part below and repaint it. Can't decide if it should be the original black-grey MB color or the cars color. Its Colorado Beige btw.

I really like the look of this Kastenwagen. What do you guys think?

image.jpeg
w460.333 1982 Colorado Beige 300 GD OM617.931

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TechMOGogy
Posts: 3239

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#8 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:56 pm

That picture by the river looks like it could have been taken in 1982 when the truck was new!
Great shot
PUCH IT: 72 Haflinger Pathfinder - 75 Pinzgauer 710M 2.7i - 96 Puch 350GDT Worker

jtrein
Posts: 496

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#9 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 2:46 pm

[quote="cal_w460"]Yeah you should! Even though the G is pretty much in pieces now.

Haha glad I'm not the only one with their G in pieces, keep the posts coming it helps to keep me motivated seeing other restoration projects and when its another G even better.
1981 280GE Ambulance - full restoration in progress
1985 280GE

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Beater_Bimmer
Posts: 275

Re: My LWB w460 300GD 1982 renovation

Post#10 » Mon Nov 27, 2017 11:13 pm

I vote to keep the grill all black, looks nice that way. Beautiful barn door G!

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