New member in Newport News, VA

[n/a]

Folks,

I just signed aboard this morning and want to take a moment of your time to introduce myself and my SL. I'm currently an impecunious elementary school librarian in southeastern Virginia. I've had the same SL and the same wife for a bit over 20 years. We bought our SL while spending four glorious years in Germany with the American Red Cross, so this is sort of our honeymoon car. We had hunted all over the continent for a nice example we could afford and found this one by running an ad in Auto Motor und Sport. It was originally a US-spec version, delivered to a German engineer in southern California. He hit it pretty hard and shipped it back to his brother in the Fatherland and had MB rebuild it. I got it with 58K on the clock and, I'm sad to say, have only put another 5K on it since. It's gotten a bit creaky with all the sitting in the garage, but I'm now working on sorting it out so my wife can put it to more frequent use. I just finished replacing the last brake caliper am about to do the shifter bushings, am staring hard at the new heater levers (I hear 8 to 10 hours of tedious work for those), have an Becker Europa on my bench almost ready to go, and have unboxed the 3.27 rear end I hope to swap in soon. Of course, it’s past time to work through the suspension, the top’s shot, the French Dunlops on it are 20 years old, and it needs new carpeting. We’ve moved around a lot and it’s picked up a number of dings during the transfers, so at some point a body shop is going to get involved. I still turns heads, though.

I'm going to have a bunch of questions for you folks.

Did I mention all this is going to have to be done on the cheap?

I’ll attach a shot of the car from way back when we bought it.

John

PS Anyone remember Bobby Baker, Lyndon Johnson’s protégé? I first became enamored of the W113 when Bobby’s not unattractive daughter showed up in one at a party of my uncle’s in Bethany Beach, DE. This was probably about 1967. I think her SL was silver, but I can’t swear to it.

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John Livingston
Newport News, VA
1968 280SL 4 speed

[113gray]

Hi John- I'm just a bit north on the Rappahannock during the summer. Yours is a nice looking 113. Good luck w/ your restoration. Let us know if we can help.    -JP- '66 230SL Euro 5 Spd ZF

[jeffc280sl]

Welcome John,

I live just outside D.C. and own a 1970 280SL 4 speed manual.  Have done the shifter bushings.  You may already know there is a hatch under the carpet in the drivers side transmission tunnel.  You need to remove it to replace the front bushings.  I've also done the heater levers.  It has been a while but I don't remember it being too bad a job.  I've been working on timing, idle adjustments, CO adjustments and cold start issues.  If you need any help in this or other areas let the group know.



Jeff C.
1970 280SL 4-speed

[hands_aus]

Hey John,
Welcome aboard!
You will never be bored now that you have decided to change your life.
Once you start to get it back in good working order maybe you will have to buy your wife a different car because you will want to drive the 280sl yourself... just for testing of course!

Why do you need new heater levers? Was the lower left lever broken because of a jammed heater valve? If yes, it is important to do that job at the same time. Again it is a tedious job but able to be done by the home mechanic.

When they are working properly and with the little lights illuminated at night, it is a sheer delight to be out driving around.
These jobs have been discussed in detail. If you read through the Technical Articles you will find lots of relevant information for almost every job to be done on these cars.

Keep us involved with your projects because we all learn from each other.

Bob (Brisbane,Australia)
early 250 SL, RHD