280sl Value

[cody91]

Hello,

I am new to the forum and in the process of searching for a 280sl to buy.  I met with a seller this week and he has a clean 1971 with fresh paint / interior and car is believed to be low miles.  Everything looks great but I noticed there aren't any spot welds on the fenders.  Does this decrease the value?  Is it less desirable without spot welds if work was done professionally?  Asking price is $85,0000.  For that type of money should I continue to search for a more original car?  Any feedback would be great.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Hi Cody,

Without pictures it is very difficult to provide any help ... I recommend the following.

1) post some photos here if you can.

2) go to the Hagety.com site and then to 'Valuation" it allows you to enter the model, year etc then gives you today's values for different condition classes I.e. 1, 2, 3, 4 this will help you when evaluating the asking price. You need to enter the model, year and VIN to get results.

----> https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/search/auto/Mercedes~Benz

3) make a search on Google "280SL Pagoda for sale" see what is out there and available.

4) once you find something of interest go to see it or if you cannot see if there is a member here or garage near by that can see it for you.

Go thru our Prepurchase  Evaluation notes, it will tell you what to check for.

---> http://www.sl113.org/wiki/Buying/PrepurchaseEvaluation

If you click on "Members" above it will open up our members data base. You can sort this data base by clicking on the heading "Locations" once you done that go to pages after 21 it will list US members then find someone near your location an e-mail him to see if he can accompany you to inspect the car of interest. It's good to take someone along that knows the cars and knows what to look for. At the same time say you find a car 2000 miles away from you, this is a way you can find some one to help you out, be your eyes so to speak.

----> http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?action=mlist;sort=location;start=1050

5) do some searches here on our site your subject has been discussed mmsny times.

Finally, if there are no spot welds along the fender line then you can be sure new or used fenders were installed. As affecting the value, that depends on the eyes of the beholder, a knowlageable individual will bargain the price down, others might have no idea.

Good luck and good hunting.

Dieter

[Pagoda_84]

Buying a car is not what it used to be.

Plenty of information is available online now and people spending the best part of 100k are well informed.

To answer your question clinically, yes, it does reduce the value. If you had two identical cars, one with spot welds and one without, the one with factory spot welds is always worth more.

However - this question can never be answered clinically because no two cars are ever the same. It does not mean it's not worth 85k. If the car ticks all the other boxes, it has history, is generally tidy and original than it could still be well worth the asking price.

I am in Australia and recently bought a 1968 280sl. What I learned after looking at 10+ cars is that they all have their flaws, there is something not quite right about every single car I looked at, even the ones closer to 200k. Buying a 280sl is always going to be a compromise, there will always be something that you miss out on and thats different on every car. For example, on my car, it has the factory spot welds on one side but not the other. It is missing the 'fender notches' on both sides and has had a pretty average paint job in the last 20 years. But, it's a good car otherwise, it's manual, it's got a good list of options so overall I'm happy.

Check to see if the car you're looking at has the fender notches. Don't be too surprised if they are not there.

I suggest having the car inspected but a few other things to check:

1. Does the number stamped on the aluminium bonnet match the chassis?
2. Look on the inside of the bootlid, there should be matte black paint and it should have runs in the paint, this is how they are supposed to me
3. Check for the fender notches
4. There are 4 drain holes under the car where pooled water is supposed to drain. If they clog up the car will hold water. Get under the car, look at those drain holes, are they showing signs of rust?
5. Check the head on the motor.. is it stamped 280SE or just 280? What I found is some cars have the correct block and engine number but at some stage the head has been replaced with a lower compression 280SE head because they are cheaper and easier to find

Obviously history is another important one.. how many owners? Where has it been?

I'm no expert but this is what I learned when looking for a Pagoda.. I was initially distressed because no car was ever perfect but I soon learned none of them are!

[floatinghat]

If you are placing a value on the weld spots invest in an inspection.  My car had some work done in the mid 70's, when I had it repainted about 15 years ago, the painter asked if I wanted the spot welds "replicated".  He said it wasn't an irregular request and easy to do because the welds aren't uniform and some clients asked to have them "replaced". 

Now unless you are looking at a top 5% car that will no see the road, overall condition matters more than spot welds.

Re the comment about the 280SE vs 280 stamping on the head.  The information from 84 isn't correct as I understand it.  Late 280sl will have a head casting # 130.016.0801 with the cyl head designation casting 280 SE/A and have the 9.5 to 1 compression ratio.  There were also some other changes later in production as I understand.