Gear shift knob

[i_ralley]

My car is very very original

The restoration shop in our area which is high level for historical data suggests that my car with the white steering wheel should have a white shift knob.

I bought my car last month on bringatrailer
some of you will remember and commented on it for its originality.

Most recently 2 same year 230sl’s claim to have the back shift knob and back ash tray cover.

The plan will be to meet up with the original owner next month and I will ask but wondered if anyone knows for sure.

The centre tray has an original little vinyl Matt not carpet of later cars. A neat original feature that’s still intact.

Just don’t want to change anything in the wrong way but the few little things primary some light corrosion is getting fixed to preserve the car.

Your comments are appreciated

[mbpaul]

I have owned my USA model 1966 230SL since new.  It was manufactured in August or September, 1965.  It has a white steering wheel, a black shifter knob, the vinyl mat in the center tray and a black ash tray cover.  All original parts.  None of those parts have been changes since I took delivery of the car.

[i_ralley]

Ok that was my thought as well

Thanks so much for the info.

Dave

[MikeSimon]

So, how did some cars get a white knob? I am not aware of an option code for this.

[Pawel66]

What I can see in the EPC is this:

Ivory coloured knob is PN A1112680742

It is not on any W113 part list.

It is for W110 and W111 and it is only for manual transmission. I guess in w110 and W111 if it were automatic, it would be the steering wheel gear shift, so perhaps the ivory one did not exist for automatic version of floor gear shift. For shifter at the steering wheel in these cars there is an ivory option with a not (001) ON SPECIAL REQUEST

For the manual transmission the only note I found was for 110.116, saying: (053) ON SPECIAL REQUEST.

The only special knob I found for W113 is the one for ZF gear box.

If this option was not on the price list for W113, I would have thought it is likely that if a customer was ordering ivory steering wheel, the dealer would suggest ivory knob for manual transmission too. Logical trade up.

But all this may be wrong. Maybe at the factory they were fitting ivory knob based on some internal instructions. It would be good to look at the paper parts lists or price lists where options were listed - perhaps they mention it in the code for ivory steering wheel description.