Lego Mercedes 220S repairs

One of my grey Mercedes sedans came in looking like a low rider, belly hugging the ground.

These cars are constructed like the drawings in the first Lego patent (see earlier post). The body has slots at each side below door level that clamp to the chassis edges (better visible in white version below). Inserting a thumbnail in a wheel well can pull the lower edges of the body off the chassis.

The lowrider turned out to have a completely loose front axle, and also a broken axle mount at the rear where a previous owner had taped a piece of paper as a makeshift repair.

The axle mounts were quickly repaired with my standard method (also explained in an earlier post).

After a bit of a struggle to get the chassis sides back into their slots, the reassembled car stands proud once again. Still could use a bit of a polish though, judging by this photo.

The first 220S I got was this white one, which was rather playworn with two small cracks and both axles loose from their moorings. These were repaired the same way as shown above. The detail pic shows one of the slots that hold the chassis edges on each side.

My single red 220S is in lovely condition except for a broken axle mount. When open it turned out the front mount on the same side had also cracked but was still hanging on at one end. That one was stuck back in place with acetone and seems to hold well; the other got the standard treatment.

The dark blue Mercedes looks very nice overall but did arrive with three broken axle mounts. The two at the front received the standard repair. The one at right-rear still had the broken part attached so that was stuck back in place with acetone and seems to hold well. The body's had a polish and now has a brilliant shine.

This black 220S came from a seller in Bavaria, who had bought it new with his pocket money. The front axle was fastened back in place and the body polished. A few scratches on the nose were left as-is because sanding them out would be visible on the rounded bonnet.

The body of this black Mercedes was made from plastic with not enough pigment in the mix; it's almost transparent in places.

While on the subject of the Mercedes sedan, I read somewhere there are two versions to the casting which differ in the placement of the details on the boot lid. And indeed, the one in the middle has a star and lock that sit quite a bit higher-up than those on the other two cars.