If you can do house calls on 300SLs, well why would you do axle rebuilds on a pedestrian Pagoda? Last I heard he was specializing in diesels. Guess he's graduated on to the holy grail: 300SL. There's only so much time in a day...
As I said, very specialized knowledge doesn't come inexpensively. There's a small number of highly specialized vendors out there--people like Pierre, places like Hjeltness or Paul Russel or others (such as Palo Alto Speedometer) that are just too busy to deal with anything other than that which will bring in a good solid job from folks not wont to complain about price. It's as I mentioned for the few body shops in the triangle area skilled enough to do AlexD's Pagoda. They just want a blank check, and don't bother them about time or estimates. When I had my Pagoda restored oh so many years ago, Paul Russel still did do things like Pagodas, and Palo Alto did all my instrumentation for an even then reasonable price in two weeks. Of course grill stars were $300 back then and available, definitely putting it into a "different time and place."
There's a lot of people here, and in other walks of life, who do have an expectation of price that doesn't mesh with reality. People here wailed at the outrageousness of a $300 grill star in 2001. They were shocked at the cost of chrome plating then, and it's only gotten more costly. I could go on, but hopefully the idea has been communicated. Nothing on a Pagoda is inexpensive. Nothing. It's also not a fast car, nor does it handle very well compared to other or modern "sports cars". You can--we can--often see the results of prior owners who didn't agree with the state of the art on parts prices or echancial service or labor rates: we have highly modified (in a bad way) kluges, which then become a project to "undo" and bring back to something akin to original. Conversion to carbs because they were shocked at the cost of a FI refurb. Engine transplants including the laughable Ford V8 because they didn't want to spend the money to do it correctly with one of the three properMB engines...installing any brake caliper that one could fit rather than the one that belongs...bad body work with bondo instead of sheet metal...the list goes on.
If you want a fast car or one that handles better, get a Porsche. They are more plentiful anyway. Want a fun car that won't break the bank, that's period vintage? Get an MG. Parts are inexpensive, plentiful and the mechanical bits on them are of ox-cart simplicity. Want something more modern that's all that? Get a Miata.
Good luck on your Carrera Panamericana ambitions. Worthy of a Pagoda World article if you can pull it off.
