I am not an expert, but I restored one car, so may say a few words.
I think the extent of the restoration depends vastly on car condition, how do you want it afterwards and your budget. You can go for partial or full restoration. I would have thought a careful examining of the condition of chassis and body will determine a lot. Similar for the drive train, but the chassis and body work is the most expensive and time consuming part.
I think you made the first right step - coming here.
The two main sources of information are Technical Manual and Forum itself - through the search function. For starters you can type in in the search field "Pagoda restoration" (with parenthesis) - you will have a lot to study.
As for the parts, as stated below - you need to determine shipping and duties for US vs. Europe. There is a list of suppliers in the Technical Manual. But in essence - there are plenty of them with two most important ones mentioned below. In the UAE I guess you will have no problem with Mercedes dealers being helpful. My personal advise: always check availability and prices at Mercedes dealers. Parts are not always more expensive than from the internet and they are usually best quality and they fit. If something is there for a very high price - well, need to decide. I would have thought: try to buy all rubber parts from Mercedes.
You also have "Wanted to Buy" topic cluster here (as mentioned below) on the Forum and there is ebay as well.
When I want to buy a part (Europe), in essence the order of checking is:
Mercedes,
SLS,
Niemoeller,
mbclassic.de
oldtimer ersatzteile24.de
then other retailers or ebay.
Leather or MB Tex, soft top, carpets: KHM, cabrio.de, Hans Reinke in Europe (the latter have representatives in the US), GAHH in the US.
Paints: any good paint shop will mix, they have the codes. If you want original manufacturer, Glazurit is there.
Post here your questions (good to do some search first). I am sure experts here will help.
