Great advice from Michael. Become a full member. This is an incredibly helpful forum. Having owned many, many W113’s, I will say that you are absolutely right about finding a Pagoda that has been both accident and rust free. They are very tough to find in that condition. That being said, if you find one in that condition, put color choice and model on the back burner. A stick shift 230SL, in my experience, is as good as a 250SL or 280SL. Just my opinion. Also, body integrity is much more important to me than “matching numbers” engines. I’d rather have matching number body panels. Again, that’s just my opinion. Others may disagree. I bought a 230SL a few years back. Somewhat rare 519 Red with Caviar interior. It needed an engine rebuild. The body was perfect. Western car. Never rusted. Never hit. I had Pierre Hedary look at it before we had Metric Motors rebuild the engine. Pierre told me that finding old MB’s with untouched bodies was getting harder, if not nearly impossible. He said this was a special SL. After the engine rebuild, Pierre put the engine back into the car for me. The fact that it was still completely all original sheet metal, chrome, all exterior lights, glass, makes this a special SL, to me. Be very careful with auction sites. There have been some nightmare SL’s that sold on the major auction sites. Finally, many members of this forum have done incredible restorations on SL’s that did have rust and accident history. They are far more knowledgeable than me regarding restoring these great cars. Today, restorations can be totally cost prohibitive. Be patient. Be careful. Good luck with your search.
