More money than sense?

[JamesL]

I was in Chelsea Cars today - famous for supplying the car that Clarkson drove in the Top Gear piece on Pagodas from last December.

Anyway, in their window is a silver 280Sl, with red trim

Allegedly, a private restoration, at a cost of (sit down) £61,000. That's over $100,000. Car is for sale at about £12k less than that. Keep an eye out, let's see when it sells!

(in the link it's mislabelled a 1980-280SL, and as an amateur, I think the wrong leather was used)

http://www.chelseacars.com/cars%20mercedes.htm

FYI, our friends at www.Silverarrows.co.uk have an azurite blue 280SL - also fully restored - for £37,500.

(oh, and I happened to be passing the garage, on my Vespa, no ulterior motive involved although my wife did fall in love with an MGA, a blue pagoda, a 356, a 911 (993) carrera cabriolet and a Nissan Figaro :oops: )

[Bob G ✝︎]

Tosh:
The leather should be ruff grain perferated the red leather they used is not Mercedes-Benz much smoother. By the way didn't you listen to Clarkson you simply cannot travle around that circle with out seeing Chesea Motor cars. For a car guy like me thats candy waiting to be served.
Bob Geco

[Douglas]

If that's indicative of the quality at the upper end of the Pagoda market in the UK, I think $40K - $60K will go a lot further in the US. With the money you save, you can convert the car to RHD.

Douglas Kim
New York, NY
280 SL #016220

[JamesL]

Bob

I have driven around Wandsworth for many years, indeed, I bought my 280 from Silverarrows which is about a mile from there

But as it's effectively in the middle of a traffic island, I had never stopped in until today.  

[hauser]

The fire wall covering on the silver car is unlike anything I have seen.  It almost has the look of cloth with ridges. Strange!

1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[Benz Dr.]

I not sure why anyone would believe that changing from LHD to RHD should be an easy or cost effective change over. Frankly, it's not worth the effort and I wouldn't buy one after it was done.

 The whole dash has to be removed by drilling out spot welds and then replaced with one from a doner car. That means you have to cut out 2 different dash units and not destroy the one you want to keep. Then there's all the other '' little '' things to change over......

If it came from the factory as RHD it will be fitted with all the right parts and will be designed properly and should work right. Restoring a car without any radical changes is more than difficult enough without going to that waste of time.
 
Then again people build street rods, so who knows.....


Daniel G Caron

[Douglas]

Hey, I've changed LHD cars to RHD many times. All you need is Photoshop

Okay, okay. It was a foolish suggestion.  :oops:

Douglas Kim
New York, NY
280 SL #016220

[Ed Cave]

Speaking of spot welds (or lack thereof) it looks as though the RH front fender has been replaced on that car.



Ed Cave
Atlanta, GA

1964 356C
1971 280SL

[Jonny B]

I would agree with the comment about the RH front fender being replaced, the rubber grommets along the inner well are usually an indicator of a replacement.

Also, this car has the covers over the sub frame mounts (just in front of the brake booster) that was stopped during the 250 run.

Jonny B
1967 250SL Auto

[mdsalemi]

Hello Gents,

The top gear thing was funny, but I wouldn't trust their cars.  I don't know about you, but when I "stomp on it" and activate the kick down on my US Spec automatic 280SL, I indeed accelerate--and noticably so.  Of course I can achieve the same result by dropping the selector from 4 to 3.  I found it rather amusing that the Chelsea Cars model just seemed to make noise.  Perhaps something is wrong with the car they tested, but what they found is certainly not the norm for a well tuned or restored 113.

Everyone seems to have their eyes wide open on some of the costs of restoration.  Some facts here--it is extremely rare that you'll ever recover the cost of restoration on any vehicle.  Some are better then others of course, and we hope for appreciation--but it can't and should not be done for any financial reasons.  I've never added up the bills on mine (and hope to never do so) but I do know I have over 1,000 hours of professional restoration over a 3 year period, NOT including any sublet work or any parts.  What's the sublet work?  All the chrome plating, the engine rebuild, the fuel injection system, the leather interior.  Parts?  Darn near everything!  It's very easy to rack up the bills.  The cost differs not so much by marque but by level of work.  If I had a 1964 Ford Falcon in the same condition as my car was, it might have cost darn close in time to restore...and might be worth about $15,000 now!

Those that attended Starfest know that there were a couple of very professional restorations by Paul Russel & Company, and by Hatch & Sons.  The rumor was that there was $500,000 in restoration on at least one of these late 1950's cabriolets.  Clearly not done for financial reasons--we are looking for a 113 to hit that $100K mark but a cab?  Not in our lifetime, I'm afraid.

Why did I do it?  Sentimental reasons.  My car has been in the family since 1969.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[Malc]

Being Chelsea I am surprised there wasn't a Discovery for sale, aka Chelsea Tractor!

Speaking of Top Gear, I watched it last night and it was the usual fun none PC program Interesting that MB had 6 cars in the bottom of a survey they did, note, not because the cars were bad but mainly due to bad dealships....
Malc

[Ben]

quote:I found it rather amusing that the Chelsea Cars model just seemed to make noise. Perhaps something is wrong with the car they tested, but what they found is certainly not the norm for a well tuned or restored 113.

.......we extensively discussed this on the Mercedes Benz Club forum and I believe a former owner of that vehicle admitted there was a problem with the car !!

Tell me why the rubber grommets indicate wing replacement and why they are there ??


Regards,
Ben in Ireland.
'64 230SL 4sp.
'03 CLK Kompressor

[rwmastel]

quote:Originally posted by Ben

Tell me why the rubber grommets indicate wing replacement and why they are there ??

I believe rubber grommets along the inner fendor were standard factory fare for the 280 SL.  I'm not sure when that started to be the case, but 230 SL cars don't have them.

Rodd
Powell, Ohio, USA
1966 230SL, Euro, Auto, Leather, both  tops
1994 E420

[graphic66]

Maybee if the hose was hooked up to supply the idle air this car may even run good, with this attention to detail we can see why some of their cars may run a little slowly.