Mercedes W114 250 Coupe - help!

[Charles Morgan]

Relying on photos is horrendous - what I have called Byzanz could equally well be Sandbeige from other pictures, ditto the Sandbeige above could well be Tunis.

So I will be relying on genuine paint done on genuine metal.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Here's another one. Gold star for those guessing the colour!

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Gold star for those guessing the colour!

Red.

 

[Charles Morgan]

of the car paint, grrrrr....

 

[WDB124066]

Put it up against some green shades Charles....

 

[d w124]

Red.

+1 I'm not expecting any stars since Lee guessed first

 

[Charles Morgan]

I think you may be right Dash.

I have numerous photos of the colour choice since going up to look at the boot lid that has been painted (but not top coated) in the final two colour choices before deciding.

I am off to Germany tomorrow so will be busy this evening, so unless someone guesses (sensibly children!) the paint colour above it may be some time before this thread moves on...

 

[Charles Morgan]

Put it up against some green shades Charles....

I saw an absurdly beautiful Rover 3500S P6 in rich dark green on the way up to look at the boot lid today and it was flat out gorgeous. If I were braver and had a darker shade of red interior I'd choose that, but I can hereby announce it won't be a green.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

The brown W123 230CE I had was complemented well by the sand coloured interior.

I think your W114 would look stunning in the green you mentioned earlier, but you've ruled that out sadly imo.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Too dark. It would make the car too hot without air-con, and that is a no no to me. I don't really think of it as a German car colour anyway - dark green is so quintessentially British.

As no-one has hazarded a guess at the car colour, it's Citroen Sable Gold on my 1972 SM. Got it out of store today, battery fully charged after 5 minutes, cranked a bit more than normal and then sprang into vigorous life some 5 months after putting it away. Topped up the LHM a tiny amount. Nothing beats a seriously potent tuned Maserati V6 with MS injection in a modern S class beating rider with ferociously effective air-con. Oh, haven't had a chance to process my photos of the boot lid and need to be off to collect my niece from Heathrow now.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Just back from a rather long 24 hours picking up my coupe seats near Hannover and delivering them to KHM in Esslingen, just outside Stuttgart. They will need a bit of a restoration before re-covering in period correct leather (the car is just on the cusp of both the pattern of the leather and the pattern of the carpets changing so Mr Mayer will do some research. The hair used for stuffing the rear seats is so dry it is more hoarse than horse (no neigh sayers please). His carpets will be an exact match and the leather tone was almost spot on with the MB tex so it should look great. Price, well, squeaks loudly, it may be dear but it's still a lot less than D class.

Car is to go up to start engine stripping out next Friday. I have just one side to strip, which is two days work next week.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Oh, and even if given the go-ahead tomorrow the seats won't be finished for three months. Herr Mayer mentioned how tough it was finding W114 bits and pieces, even in Germany the vast majority have been scrapped.

 

[a111r]

Relying on photos is horrendous - what I have called Byzanz could equally well be Sandbeige from other pictures, ditto the Sandbeige above could well be Tunis.

So I will be relying on genuine paint done on genuine metal.

Here's mine in Sand Beige.
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/engine/143715-my-w123-240td-project.html

 

[Charles Morgan]

Decision time. It is three months for the seat refurbishment (basically a rebuild - at 43 years old the horse hair pads are in need of a primp or replacement as do the headrests) and re-covering. The colour match of the interior vinyl throws up two slightly different shades of red, one slightly lighter and one slightly darker. As leather lightens with age I'm going to go for the slightly darker shade (43 rather than 42 on the chart at the bottom of the page).

KHM do two grades of leather, one of which is the older style that will get shiny with decades of age. While I'm tempted, it will add 20% to the cost, and at this point the budget is already pretty stretched. As the car is going to get little use, I doubt the effect of years of bottoms polishing the seats is going to be noticeable for such a long time the car will probably be long dead by then!

Having seen far too many restored cars where the seats are badly padded or leather is not taut or of high quality, I am going to bite the bullet and pay a lot of money to do a good job.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Carpet. The original red carpet (from one piece in the car) is two tone tufted loop. Needless to say it is impossible to find that style of tufting anymore as the machines to make it no longer exist. So the new, while perfect in colour, will be slightly more orderly lines.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Final colour choice. Just base coat, no clear coat. A choice of two, both match the interior. Name those paint colours (not the vinyl or the bit in the middle) and guess my choice!

 

[John Jones Jr]

Difficult choice both look good with the red. If I was pushed I'd opt for the darker of the two. Haven't a clue what the names are. Either way you're on a winner.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Here's another

It is difficult without the top coat.

The darker is Anthracite Grey and the lighter is Beige Grey (both metallics). The latter was in use from 1968 to 1972, so a short period ending in the same year as my coupe was made. It has numerous tones within the grey, so can appear beige - gold - green as well as grey. Anthracite was available from 1963 to 1994. I think both are lovely, but in the end I have decided to plump for the more elusive colour of Beige Grey. A straw poll at the body shop showed 7 to 1 in favour of my choice as it is just a really interesting colour. So Graeme, I've gone for a beige, but having one gold car is quite enough!

 

[Charles Morgan]

There are very few pics of the colour but here is one of a recently restored car

 

[Bellow]

There are very few pics of the colour but here is one of a recently restored car

That to my eyes is tonally close to this...

.....which really suits the W114 I think.