New Member - '71 2800cs Refurbish/Restoration

Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith

New Member
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Location
Palo Alto, California
I bought my 1971 2800cs (vin2205743) in 1999. It was my daily driver. Got lots of honks and thumbs up. Did general maintenance as needed, water pump, alternator, ignition switch, etc. A few years ago, while parked in my driveway, rats decided to move in to the engine compartment. They made a huge mess, including chewing some wires. I recently decided to just pull the engine to clean it out, clean up the engine compartment, repair rat damage and paint the car (some rust showing through). I'm 7 weeks into the project and I'm getting sucked into a full blown restoration. I've enjoyed reading through many of the threads so far and look forward to joining the group. I'll start a Project thread shortly.
 
Welcome - most of know about scope creep and "whilst I am in there" - generally any project you do on this car tends to grow arms and leg :-) having this forum and showing patience and stamina is most helpful.
 
i guess you need a 'garage' cat to kill the mice / rats. the good news is that you aren't too far away from one of the best resources and best coupe shops in the USA. our friend @sfdon.
 
I responded to your other post asking for help, but I see here that you have been at this for a while.

I have seen two different approaches to the "full blown restoration". One is to tackle the different areas one by one. Restore the mechanicals, then clean and repaint the engine bay, then do the exterior, and then the interior, or some variation on that sequence. There are several threads by folks who have done this to greater or lesser extents. @rsporsche is nearing the end of his journey along this path, and he has the same car as you, so I'd definitely check out his thread. The other is to dive in and disassemble the car, and do all of it at once. That choice depends a lot on the work needed, your budget, your work space, and how confident you are in taking that scale of project to completion.

IMO if you have any doubts about any of these factors, then do it step by step as much as practical. Otherwise you can get stalled and end up with an incomplete basket case.

In my case, I have had my car for 20 years, mostly in storage as life and other exploits got in the way.. I have been collecting parts for years, and that has eased the financial strain a bit, but I am now deep in the throes of a full-scale empty-shell restoration. I'm pretty sure that when I am done the car will be basically brand new...Not concours, by any means but clean and reliable, and customized somewhat to my likes and dislikes.

Good Luck!!
Scott
 
Welcome neighbor. My '71 2800CS is pretty much restored, new paint, new interior and lots of little things. I am very close by if you ever need to share notes.
 
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