I have a rather rare colour combination:
1965 230SL - 66,000 miles
717 Papyrus white
217 1011 turquoise interior
040 black hardtop, soft top, and wheel caps
The paint is in outstanding condition and there is no rust. This is likely due to undercoating when new, and no winter driving. However the former owner, my neighbour for the past 25 years, did have a cottage at a lake. The roads were gravel and the car did sustain stone chips on the rocker panels and behind the rear wheels. Rather than attempt to match paint or do a complete repaint, in 1993 he had the Lexus dealer walnut shell blast these areas. They painted them silver and also applied stone guard on the rocker panels. It looks "factory" to the average person but unfortunately is not 100% original, like everything else on the car. I have been touching up the odd stone chip with enamel that I obtained from an auotbody supply house. Fortunately the paint is a dead match.
The car runs great and loves to rev. It sat idle for 9 years until I bought it last year from their estate. Once I got it all fluids and filters were changed, fuel tank removed, cleaned and lined, fuel transfer pump dismantled and reassembled, CSV removed and cleaned, new points, cap, rotor and condenser installed. The plugs had been changed at 60,000 miles and they were fine. I also installed new Bilstein shocks and Boge steering damper. I got these parts from Miller Benz in California. They did a good job for me. Engine work and the intial services as outlined above were done by Tony Rocha of Continental Car here in Winnipeg. He services all of the exotics including Ferrari and is fully trained on the Bosch mechanical injection system.
This spring he installed for me a complete new MB exhaust from the exhaust manifolds back. He had to use a lot of heat to unseize the pipes from the manifold but got them apart with no damage. He welded the system up as per factory and painted it with flat black heat paint. This has made a world of difference in sound and performance. I had a custom system put on when I got the car but hated it from day 1. It did not sound like a sports car and the car seemd to gasp around the 4,700 rpm mark. With the new system it runs up to 6000+ rpm with no hesitation. I purchased the system off of EBay.
The only major items previously done were a set of valve guides at about 60,00 miles and the top end of the tranny was rebuilt at about 57,00 miles. The car has all bills for the past 25 years including the original dleivery paperwork from the dealer. I suspect that the bills for the first 15 years were misplaced when he moved to our street.
As a sidepoint I met the fellow who was the service manager at the Benz dealer, Mark Motors, when the car was ordered. He recoginized the car on the street and came to talk to me about it. It seems that the interior colour delayed delivery for at least 6 months!
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have such a machine that runs so well. The interior may be a bit unique but I like to think of it as retro.
I will supply more pictures once I detail the engine bay.
Download Attachment: 
Interior.jpg83.44 KB
Download Attachment: Side view.jpg66.16 KB
