1970 280SL

[Bearcat]

This is my pagoda, which i have shown photos before of.
In the last year, I have fitted a new hood, discreet sound system, crane electronic ignition, subframe mounts, new fuel tank, ultra sounded injectors, rebuilt fuel pump. The car for me is now perfect but there are 2 flaws that irritate me.
When I was getting her repainted i failed to instruct the paint shop guys to paint the panel behind the grill black. I fear now by taking out the grill I will damage the paint work on the bonnet. Any hints to resolve this apart from removing the front grill?
Also the undersills should be painted black. I have been chastised by other members over this.
The engine bay is'nt as shiny as my american cousins would have it, but it's a working engine and is perfect. I'd hate to have shiny bits and it going like a dog. Since I also did the fuel system and elec ignition the car is transformed. Previously I had terrible trouble keeping correct dwell angles etc. Ignition probs are history. My sub frame mounts were shot which is a dangerous thing if you go over a sharp ridge as the rad fan can contact the rad. Had them replaced. I also replace the cable that attaches to the gear box for to get the reverse white lights working correctly.
The amount of money I have poured into this car is sinful but it gives me endless pleasure. This baby is a keeper! It is the same colour as per her factory build as is the interior.
Regards
David
ps I also attached a pic of my glove box where I have my cd player. The unsightly grey wire on top leads to an infra red receiver discreetly located under the dash so I can use my remote control. An amplifier is tucked away under the pax seat and the multi cd changer is hidden away in the boot (trunk). why i did'nt get an ipod adapter i'll never know.
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[Cees Klumper]

Looks great David.
One note on the undersills - at the Essen Techno Classica, the Classic Center had two Pagodas up for sale (one for, if I recall correctly, around EUR 135,000 and one for around EUR 150,000 (!!!!)) and neither of these two cars had these sills painted flat black; both were body color. So that should mean that the factory is now of the opinion that this is the correct finish ... Another thing that struck us about these two cars is that they were both sitting quite low.
Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic

[Douglas]

I'm not at all surprised that the Classic Center would paint a Pagoda's rocker panels the wrong color.The factory cannot be considered the gospel for what constitutes what is "correct" on a Pagoda. I have no doubt their cars are nicely restored, but they have traditionally been inaccurate with lots of cosmetic details like 280 SL turn signals on a 230 SL, gooseneck mirrors on the doors of a 280 SL, late-model Becker radios in early cars, etc.
Douglas Kim
New York
USA

[joelj]

Hi David,
Nice car. I've got the same color 280sl but mine has the navy top. Congratulations on getting the car to where you want it to be.
Cheers,
Joel

[Bob G ✝︎]

Referring to early 1964 230SL rocker panels. I have many books and brochures that cannot all be wrong. I do not know when the change occured to black but I firmly beleive early lower rocker panels were body color.
Unless I can see data saying other wise , I suspect it was an up date late in the 230SL production that was carrier over to give what is called the belt line a lower look.
If you also pay attention can anyone tell me when the rocker panels on the R-107 were paint from black to grey?
Bob Geco

[Douglas]

Bob,
I believe I've seen at least some of those same photos and I've wondered the same thing. I'm guessing there are a couple of reasons we see anomalies like that in older literature today. One is that the earliest cars, particularly the ones used by the press, were probably inconsistently finished for any number of reasons. Also, I'm guessing some of these pix were re-touched at some point and certain details lost in the process.
Douglas Kim
New York
USA

[114015]

Hello all,
I fully agree to Doug's concerns about early press pics and especially those regarding the 230 SL. On many of these pics pre-production cars were shown and on some even the plaster/filler models which looked absolutely like real cars but were actually non-running (final) wooden design artefacts absolutely free of any mechanical components. However, several of these pics are nowadays presented in a lot of SL literature.
As to the (top) restorations presented by the DC Classic Center ... I saw these both SLs on the TechnoClassica in Essen. They are nice cars indeed but heavily overpriced and (at least the 230 SL) had lots of incorrect little details.
Just my humble 2 cents....
Achim
(Magdeburg, Germany)