SL65MONSTA

I have not been able to locate a full detailed thread of how to, or what is exactly involved in the facelift to the sl from r230 to "facelift". I have seen a few people in this forum with facelift conversions done, but I have been told I will need to cut into the rear quarter panels to fit the wide body rear fenders, meaning cutting up my car to replace mercedes genuine metal with fibreglass! to me this sounds crazy and if that rear fender were to crack or someone leaned on it, goodbye car for god knows how long as I am over in Australia.

It took nearly two months for the kit to just get to my door! I couldn't see my car go off the road for three months until it arrived, or I could not drive around with one rear quarter panel.

-Is there a way to install the rear wide body fenders without cutting into the car, and maybe just moulding it on ?

- is there a special harness for the updated lights to plug into the old harness? if so a part number ? cost ? where do you get it ?

- how did people find doing this conversion turn out to be? was it hard? not worth doing ?

-was the car compromised in terms of stability, on road noises, pot holes etc? with having fibreglass parts instead of original ?

any other information into this topic much appreciated.

mcguirja

https://mbworld.org/forums/sl55-amg-...ld-thread.html

I'm not completely certain but I believe he used an adhesive to adhere the wide body panels the rear fenders. It is long read but a good one.

James

mcguirja

Just checked and post 224 is where he adhered the rear of the wide body to the fender. I can't tell if he cut the fenders or not, there is one reference a bit earlier on that suggests he did but not certain.

dRockSL55

The fenders have to be cut back some or there won't be enough/any tire clearance, as you will be spacing the rear wheels out past the existing fender line with the wide body arches. If you hit a bump / the suspension compresses the tire would hit the existing fender.


I have another vehicle that has a one-off fiberglass body kit. Some of the panels were adhered using a production 3m two part automotive body epoxy. The parts were then blended into the stock aluminum and steel sheet metal with fillers.
It looked great, with hide-no-sins gloss black paint. It took nearly 15 years before issues developed with this installation - the parts bonded to sheet steel developed rust behind which bubbled and pushed out the pieces slightly, cracking the paint.
This vehicle was driven often, saw rain, accumulated 100k miles, and was stored outside the entire time (although covered) so I still think it was well done and a great method of permanent attachment

SL65MONSTA

"great write up thank for this perfect find!" it seems he used glue, however does not show if the rear original fenders were ever cut

SL65MONSTA

This is exactly what I want to do, did they ever post pics up or a thread about it ?

spartan7669

Rear panels need to be cut.

We cut mine, welded both inner and outer fender panels together for stability, then used panelbond and rivets to hold the fiberglass fenders to metal fender. Filled using a metal/fiberglass filler. Then used seamsealer over the welds on both inner and outer oem fender well

For facelift you would need 09+ brackets, and headlight plugs and rewire the pins to make it a plug and play affair

SL65MONSTA

Thanks Spartan, I dont know if I wanna start chopping and hacking into a "65" for the whole new update look hows the conversion been for you so far ? also were your fenders fibreglass ?

spartan7669

conversion was relatively simple. costly, but straightforward. fenders are fiberglass on the prior design kit i have.

SL65MONSTA

is it worth doing this whole conversion?

Tommyboy928

hi, what body kit are you doing ?

look at mine.. my treads and pics, is worth it yes,, is like circus in town ,, videos and pictures taken like its an Aventador when show up ,anywhere . if like hich fives and positive attension all over the place. is all way fun . most fun is when they guess the car cost 300 000 usd. in average between 200 and 400 000 ,sounds crazy but its true..

go for nice special sets of wheel , not something everyone has.. and get away from grey
or black on the paint job..

And you need have people that do the job, that know what they doing. drying time of all chemicals that use and so on.

SL65MONSTA

WOW! thats one nice conversion ! Hows the bodykit holding up ? why do you not suggest the dark colours or greys? Also do know the part number for the front updated headlights brackets? and the the harness ? Im a little bit hesitant to go about this conversion only because Ill have to cut into the rear quarter panels

SL65MONSTA

scrapped the whole idea of doing conversion , staying original

Prior Design North America

We have an amazing kit for the conversion! Contact us directly at info@priordeisgnnorthamerica.com.