Mercedes Gullwing 300 SL, with a difference. Cat. 712

[TonyW]

 

It had crossed my mind that this GB, although ticking so many good boxes for me, was missing a personal angle. Heller didn’t appear on my radar much over the years like Airfix, FROG or Monogram did. I can link times and places with them, not so, up to now, with Heller.

 

I’ve found a link that fits the nostalgia side of my building and collecting!! It’s come right out of left field and will take a bit of explaining.

 

Are you sitting comfortably?   Then I’ll begin…

 

Way back in 1973 or so I discovered the world of American automobiles. Muscle Cars were only just dying out, Hot Rods and Street rods were coming in and coming back. I have no idea why I was drawn, but I was, in a big way. Military stuff got dumped almost overnight and car stuff took over with a vengeance.

I was a Telecom Apprentice in the West End of London then and Motor Books off Leicester Square became a mecca for me. Hot Rod, Car Craft, Street Rodder, Motor Trend, Road and Track, I bought them all. It dented my apprentice wages badly as the new issues came out, but I devoured them and still have them now. My tastes soon developed and I found myself chasing down the early years of Hot Rodding, from the thirties up. The Muscle Car thing was right up my street as well. Chasing was all well and good. Finding was another thing.

One book I bought and very nearly wore right out was a Peterson Publication, The Complete Book of Ford, in 1973. Here is that very copy! It's bruised and battered, but it's my old copy.

 

 

The book had a ton of early year stuff and I couldn’t get enough of it. One article in particular really gripped me, the one about a guy called Earl Bruce and his 1940 Ford Coupe. He bought the car brand new in late ’39 and had it until the day he died, in 2009 I think. The custom work done on it was done when it was brand new.

 

Here’s the car and Earl outside the LA Bar he owned. You have no idea how much I envied that bloke in my teens.

 

 

Earl was a bit of a lad it seems and he had a string of very expensive other cars over the years.

 

Here comes the Heller connection…

 

In 1955 he bought a Mercedes 300SL, one of several he owned over the years. These things were not cheap! He proceeded to customise his first one which didn’t go down too well with the sporty crowd.

He had the SL painted in Bronze with a red toner over that. Early Candy Apple if you like. Apparently the paint reacted or faded and needed work. Howard Von Dutch (look him up, it’s worth it) helped out by flaming the whole car! Not something you would expect on a Gullwing by a long shot.

 

 

 

The good people at Heller issued the Mercedes as kit number 712 And that’s my in. I’m going to have a stab at the Earl Bruce Mercedes. Here’s how it appeared in the Heller catalogue…

 

 

Here’s my kit. Revell bought the mold in the eighties but it’s the Heller original in the box .80712 was sold to Revell in 1986.
For the next issue (80725 in 1992) polybags were procured from Italeri.

 

 

 

It will be a bit of a task for me, the paintjob is somewhat involved. My preference was to get the Revell 1.12 scale kit and have a go from that end but the price has always held me back.

 

Never mind Jim Dandy, it's Heller to the rescue for me.

 

Tony.

[Ottopv]

Oh yes

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Wow ... What a car ! And I do mean both of them. 

[TimJ]

I'mm looking forward to seeing this one. 

[JOCKNEY]

This car holds a special place for me.

 

When i was 10 i was lucky enough to win £1000 on the Premium Bonds, (think old fashioned lottery). A lot of money in those days.

 

My mums best friend worked in Reliance Garage in Chingford a Mercedes Benz dealership.  In the showroom was a Silver 300 SL with the gullwing doors open and while my mum and her friend put to world to rights gossiping i sat in the car pretending to drive with that big white steering wheel and red interior.

 

When i was about to be evicted by an anxious sales rep, my mums friend casually told him to not upset potential customers (as it was £995) so yes i could indeed afford it !

 

Oh how i wish i could turn the clock back.

 

Good luck with the build Tony, the big 10 year old here is right behind you. 

 

cheers Pat 

[alt-92]

No pressure then

 

But seriously: this could be a very spectacular one indeed. Have you considered getting someone do vinyl masks with a CriCut ?

[TonyW]

5 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

No pressure then

 

But seriously: this could be a very spectacular one indeed. Have you considered getting someone do vinyl masks with a CriCut ?

I didn't know they existed! I'll look into it a bit more over the weekend.

 

I'm not sure how I'll be doing the flames really. It's going to take a bit of thought and experimentation. 

The hood will be glued shut as this ones about the paintjob, not the mechanical side of things. If the door gaps are sharp enough I'll keep them opening but will be putting overall finish above opening features.

Looking at the pictures I have here it seems the car had a tuck and roll interior as well as the flamejob. Another job to think about.

[JeroenS]

Very cool, I'll be on this one! 

 

I painted a ukelele for my daughter a couple of months ago... I would definitely suggest using some pre-cut masks! This ukelele was a bit larger than the Gullwing and it was difficult enough as it was 🙂 

 

[TonyW]

It must be a sign of the times, my first bit of work on the GB is virtual!

 

I've used photoshop to manipulate the boot area of the car. I used the distort tool mainly and it looks like ,with a bit more familiarity with the image editing tools, I will be able to take patterns from photo's and flatten them out. A bit of scaling should get me workable mask material. Below is a first try to see if the idea is a goer. It looks promising.

Next attempt will be with a grid superimposed over the picture. The curved boot lid area can then be dragged to the grid to see how that looks. I'm quite looking forward to this, it's yet another new method of doing things.

 

Cammo patterns on wings could be done this way as well. A decent 3/4 top view of a plane could have the wing contours dragged to a plan outline for instance. Heady stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

I can't believe after all that posh paintwork he left the bumper irons on ?

 

They must have been a swine to get off even in those days when stuff wasn't as rusty !

[TonyW]

There's a series of shots taken in that car park. The front bumpers are off as well.

I think it must have been around the time the flames were added as all the other pictures I can find, before and after the flames, show bumpers fitted along with a chrome nerf bar up front.

 

There's quite a bit on the internet about Earl and his Ford and SL. and I'm currently wading through it all. I've also found an article on the bloke in a ninties car magazine that is now on its way here.

[TonyW]

Here's the raw material.

Nicely molded, with a bit of flash here and there but nothing to get het up about. The chrome parts are slightly dull, more polished ally than full chrome. Molotow ink will sort that out if necessary.

 

 

The body parts are nice. The fit of the hood and doors is very tight although there's a bit of warp going on. Hardly noticeable, but I like car models to fit properly. If that means closing it all up, so be it. I don't want to make things fit and open now only to see things warp back later. I suspect I'll be closing this one up.

 

 

One worry is the tires. Not tyres, this ones a US build.

They are a bit sticky and were slightly stuck to each other in their bag. Revell had a bit of a reputation for their rubber tires melting back in the day. It looks like these ones are going that way. I'll be going through my spares although the tires look a bit tall for what I have here. If needed, I'll do a set in resin. I like a really tight  wheel to tire fit so this might be a good excuse to do both items as one bit in resin and have done with it.

 

 

I'm still gathering info on the car and I need to sort out those flames and tiny pinstripes somehow. Construction can start once everything's to hand.

 

Tony.

[CliffB]

What a project!  Good luck Tony 

[stevej60]

Great choice Tony and helluva scheme,for some reason probably to do with being toy car mad around 75/76 I started buying Hot Car magazine(couldn't reach

the top shelf in those day's) I then got an interest in American hot rod's started a lifelong love of the Beach Boy's music and lived for a few bliss full year's

in a Walter Mitty world believing South Shield's was really Venice Beach and Durham's fog was really L.A smog if only I could get a surfboard on the bus the

dream would have been complete,anyway good luck with the build,I'm of to find a surfboard on e-bay!

[Mike Dean]

Looking forward to this one, Tony. I've got the AMT version in the stash, which might rocket to the top of the "to do" list if you suitably inspire me.

 

No pressure then! 😓

Edited October 4, 2020 by Mike Dean

[TonyW]

Go to it Mike, you know you want to.

 

At some point I'll do a 300 SLR, finished as the Moss/Jenks one. Reading their accounts of winning the MM never fail to amaze me. If only Heller had got their act together I could be starting one here!

[wimbledon99]

This looks like a cracking project. I'm definitely along for the ride!

[TonyW]

It's about time I got back into this one, nearly two months since first posting the thread. Working on the principal that time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted, I've been taking a closer look at the project.

 

 

Possible paints have been dug out. S 'n J bronze undercoat and Tamiya clear red in this case. I'll be trying one over the other on a spare car body to see how they behave.

 

 

The Revell/Heller tires are not that good. Badly moulded and getting a bit sticky, I'll be using home moulded wheels and tires taken from a Revell early Oldsmobile as they look a whole lot better than the originals. The Heller wheels will get cast with the tires as I want a tight fit.

 

 

The Heller glass bits fit very well indeed. Snap fit and pretty much flush fitting. Lovely stuff.

 

 

The interior tub will need a bit of fettling to get it fitting better. The door openings are spot on but the well behind the seats needs work where it touches the body.

 

 

 

There's a full belly pan on the car, which goes some way to explaining the cars high top speed. Very advanced stuff!

 

 

 

 

It will need modification though. I'll be building this one curbside as I want the paintjob to dominate, not the mechanical bits. Hood and doors will be closed up to get really tight shut lines. This leads to problems with assembly. The belly pan, body, doors and hood need to be as one to get the paintwork done. I want to fit the interior tub after painting the car and that won't be possible once the body is all together. I could fit it and mask the glass areas but I want to fit the glass after paint as well. Less chance that way of pinging any paint off and it keeps the rubber seals moulded on the glass parts nice and sharp. The paint is going to be multi layered and I want to give myself the best chance of success with it. That means cutting away enough of the bellypan to allow me to fit everything in the order I want. The pan can be refitted afterwards and as it's out of sight underneath, the seams or edges shouldn't show.

The car has four separate wheel wells to fit. I'll probably drill them for a solid bar axle at each end rather than use the kit suspension. None of that would be seen once built, so why bother complicating things? The paintjob is going to be hard enough on its own!

 

More as it happens.

 

Tony.

[JeroenS]

I think you're right taking the time to think this one through. I would also agree that the paint job is the most important. 

[Mike Dean]

On your prompting, I'm halfway through building the AMT 300SL Gullwing, and I'm enjoying so much, I bought a second one! Looking forward to seeing how the Heller kit behaves.

 

On first looks, the parts look remarkably similar (hardly surprising), except the AMT kit has an opening boot (trunk/Kofferraum/tronc). The Heller tires look really bad, same with the AMT. I'm looking around from suitable replacements too.

 

Looking forward to see how you tackle the funky paint job. I suspect "funky" will be replaced with a seperate "f" word before this build is over.

 

 

[TonyW]

I'll cast you up a set of wheels and tires Mike, assuming my moulding rubber is still good. It's getting on a bit

[Bengalensis]

Good to see this one getting worked on! I'm all with you in your thoughts. Make it curbside with solid axles for the wheels. It's also better to spend time having the wheels perfectly aligned and fitting correctly under the wings, than bothering with the suspension details, even more so in this special case. Cut the parts you need from the belly pan and fit them to the body to make the painting correct. Looking forward to more progress.