OHMSSDBS Re-Restoration Update
Gebruder Gumbold
San FranciscoPosts: 549MI6 Agent
Cheers All,
Thought I would post an update to say hello, and fill you in on the re-restoration of the DBS.
She is now on a rotisserie, and going to bare aluminum, which is a very arduous task indeed. Chemical strippers are used, followed by a special low speed dual action sander, wet sanded with 120g wet/dry paper, using ordinary liquid dish soap as a lubricant. In smaller areas, though, a brass brush and scuffpads with solvent must be used.
Currently I have also been very lucky to have found an early ZF steering box, used on very few of the cars, and am in the process of disassembly, and then will send the unit out for internal repairs, after renovating the outer pieces.
Did quite a bit of research on the correct finishes for the unit. Damn hard to restore, as the parts are very scarce now, and German "Kamax" fasteners were used- so I had to comb through a few MBZ specialists who had coffee cans filled with original, and rather greasy, hardware. Managed to score the 3 that I needed!
Still forming the wooden buck for the new front nose/spoiler. The chassis is now stripped of all parts, glass, headliner, etc. I have completed all of the welding for the early handbrake mounts, and am ready to repaint the underside, and add the correct undercoating, using a special adjustable gun. Did quite a bit of research on textures and finishes of the underside as well, to be 100% correct.
Next, the louvers, used on the early DBS models, will be added to the inside wheel wells. I was fortunate to be able to do a tracing of these from a donor car, rather like Sir Hillary Bray and his brass rubbings in Brittany!
We are sourcing a set of louver dies for this part of the project, and may have to fabricate a die of the correct one cannot be found. Huge expense and headache here....
Other fun projects include changing over the entire heater system, rebuild of the bottom end of the engine to fix a leaky rear main seal- crankshaft comes out for that- and welding of the door skins to fill the gaps as the earlier door handles were used.
I reckon Nov 2017 she will be unveiled at the San Francisco Auto Show. Meanwhile, you can keep up with all the photos on my site: OHMSSDBS.com
Wishing all of you the happiest of Holidays,
Tom
Thought I would post an update to say hello, and fill you in on the re-restoration of the DBS.
She is now on a rotisserie, and going to bare aluminum, which is a very arduous task indeed. Chemical strippers are used, followed by a special low speed dual action sander, wet sanded with 120g wet/dry paper, using ordinary liquid dish soap as a lubricant. In smaller areas, though, a brass brush and scuffpads with solvent must be used.
Currently I have also been very lucky to have found an early ZF steering box, used on very few of the cars, and am in the process of disassembly, and then will send the unit out for internal repairs, after renovating the outer pieces.
Did quite a bit of research on the correct finishes for the unit. Damn hard to restore, as the parts are very scarce now, and German "Kamax" fasteners were used- so I had to comb through a few MBZ specialists who had coffee cans filled with original, and rather greasy, hardware. Managed to score the 3 that I needed!
Still forming the wooden buck for the new front nose/spoiler. The chassis is now stripped of all parts, glass, headliner, etc. I have completed all of the welding for the early handbrake mounts, and am ready to repaint the underside, and add the correct undercoating, using a special adjustable gun. Did quite a bit of research on textures and finishes of the underside as well, to be 100% correct.
Next, the louvers, used on the early DBS models, will be added to the inside wheel wells. I was fortunate to be able to do a tracing of these from a donor car, rather like Sir Hillary Bray and his brass rubbings in Brittany!
We are sourcing a set of louver dies for this part of the project, and may have to fabricate a die of the correct one cannot be found. Huge expense and headache here....
Other fun projects include changing over the entire heater system, rebuild of the bottom end of the engine to fix a leaky rear main seal- crankshaft comes out for that- and welding of the door skins to fill the gaps as the earlier door handles were used.
I reckon Nov 2017 she will be unveiled at the San Francisco Auto Show. Meanwhile, you can keep up with all the photos on my site: OHMSSDBS.com
Wishing all of you the happiest of Holidays,
Tom
Comments
Should you be showing the DBS at the SF Car Show next year I will definitely try to attend.
Just today, I received word that we have located the correct louver die set, following a 300 mile trip to Nevada City to an expert metal former's shop. A friend of mine, who knows him well, made the voyage, so I could stay on the project. There were hand formed P-51 Mustang and Spitfire aluminum pieces! The dies are critical to making the louvers, and this is a huge step forward, as a Pullmax set would cost around $4000 to purchase.
In other news, today was a jackpot day, as I visited a MBZ specialist shop, looking for the Kamax bolts, and there in the shop were TWO (!) OSCA sports road cars, and a Series II DB4 Drophead in Sage Green, which was a Villa d' Este entrant. Only worth about $1.2M!
They had a Gullwing under a cover, and were working on a lovely 230SL.
They also had the bolts that I was looking for, and I helped them with some products that they needed, so now I have a new customer. NEVER would have guessed that these cars would be in a small, innocuous shop such as this...
...you never know! Something about judging a book by its cover.
Still wanting to do the DAF DBS scene with the rockets....more on that later.
Cheer, Tom