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KH, don't you worry about the pace of this for a second! You share more than most of us have earned and more than some deserve.
The fact that you tore it down to the body in your garage is testament enough to how detailed this resto will be. The last time the truck was this naked was 15 years ago in Graz.
Thank you for inspiring me to put the AMG seats in Gwen and then for helping me get it right. Oh, and btw...I had mine in first...
If I'm right, this thread will be viewed for years while people visit and revisit your process and numerous modifications. No small mod is too strange to share, either! You never know what you do that may help another Gowner with their truck. I wish I had taken pictures of the repairs to my lighted door sills when I got them working for $5 instead of $500 or what have you. Let me know if you want help with that.
Anywho, keep up the great work and be honest about the sunroof...tell us if it leaks! That's a wicked mod!
Thank you Tedcorp.
It doesn't bother me what people say, I know what I need to do, when I need to do it and thats how I do it.
Yes, you did got your seats installed first, I give you props )
I will definitely do water test on the sunroof once its all assembles, before I install the headliner. Ill dump whole bunch or water for a long time to see if there is any seepage.
I figured...I'm glad you're considering the Brabus route over the Mansory avenue. This is the exact truck I had in mind when I referred to the interior upholstery! Great minds, someone once said. It will look shtuhnning against a 'warm' silver like Palladium. Great taste.
Hi Kobzar, you are doing some amazing work. I really appreciate you sharing your restoration process. I have a 2008 G500 and I'm looking to swap out the entire interior with a 2013+ interior. I looked everywhere to find any information on this being done for w463 but I couldn't find anything. Many said the wiring ECU being different, it simply couldn't be done. But I came across a video on YouTube where it seems out in Russia or the Ukraine a auto shop has successfully done so, without and CPU faults. I've posted the link below for you if it all could help with anything. Only thing is the entire YouTube page is in Russian, if you are not fluent in the language like myself..lol
Cosmetically installing 2013 interior is not going to cause many issues, the big hurdle will be integrating new electronics in to old wiring and ECU. Most likely they integrated new ECS with old ECU. Sometimes they run both at the same time so there are no faults. It takes allot of computer programing and wire soldering. Total cost of what he did is $25,000 (in Russia). Keep in mind, labor is cheaper there then here.
For example... I will be purchasing 2014 S500 Coupe steering wheel from Russia and installing it on to my 2002 G500. They will reprogram the buttons to work with my original wring and functions. How they will do it? I do not know... but I know it take allot of re-soldering and programing.
Also I will be installing 2014 G550 door panels and window switches on to my 2002 G500. I will ship them new window switches and my original window switches, they will integrate the guts of old switches in to the housing of the new switches. They will have to re-solder some connections in order for new switches to be able to control 2002 internals.
I dont see anyone taking on 2002-2013 interior swap here in the states. It will be to costly (unless you do the work yourself and you are savvy in electronics and computer programing).
Re-taping wiring harness for each door. Original friction tape was drying up and not looking so sharp. Removing old friction tape, cleaning the wires and re-taping everything with new tape.
Nice work. You're really investing in making sure this thing is a show car, aren't you?
You're fortunate to live in a climate that is conducive to this kind of work. My poor truck has a skin condition that is only going to get worse. I'm not sure when to tear it down and start over but I'd sure love to get another 250,000km out of it.
I don't want to make it a show car I just want to make it fresh looking, feeling, restored vehicle/ as close to factory condition an I am able to. I will drive it almost every day.
If you live in a harsh winter environment, it's not uncommon to respray these cars.
Last edited by Kobzarhomes; Mar 24, 2017 at 12:50 AM.
When you send the parts to the upholstery shop, can you ask them to make templates for all future G's? I say that because I've called a ton of shops that either don't want to do it because they don't have templates, or want an obscene amount of money to do it, 10K+ just for seats.
Obviously if I were in a major city the pricing would be different, but it's expensive down here!
I'm actually making templates my self from scratch for door panels, B, C-pillars and dash. It's very labor intensive and I don't want to pay the shop to do it. I sent pictures of what I have done so far to the upholstery guy and he told me it's perfect ))
They will then transfer the template on to leather and stitch it all together.
As for seats, there's no need for templates since they will take the current seats apart and transfer the shapes on to leather and stitch it back together.
I was thinking of duplicating and selling templates once I'm done with them. If anyone is interested, direct msg me and we can chat about it.
Geez KH, you're really taking a lot on yourself! Panel looks good. I'm a little confused on the seams though and I've decided to ask another dumb question (kinda my thing, it appears).
Will the upholsterer be removing them again to stitch them together or was this just kind of a trial run?
Yeh, you have to glue the vinyl exactly how the leather will lay so that way the final templates are perfect shape. It's a lot of work, but apparently that's how quality leather templates from scratch are made....
lol
This is a second box of parts that I got. First box I purchased few months ago.
I use mymbgenuineparts.com
They very good wholesale prices and very reasonable shipping.
Daniel Vega works at the parts department there and was very helpful.
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