Well after 1.5 years, and lots of reading here, watching all kinds of sales and asking lots of questions, I am now (for about 2 hours now) a pagoda owner. I have had vintage VWs for the last 20+ years, and still have 3 of them, but started looking for a 113 a while ago. I have always loved these cars and life is short....!
A '69 280SL was advertised in Craigslist and was about 30 minutes away from me. I looked once, test drove, and went and looked again after reading the "buying" stuff in the tech section here. The car drives wonderfully, only issue is I went to check the heater controls and I literally only touched it and it fell off in my hand. Common problem, cheap part, but all day job, I can handle it.
This car has its original engine with 110k miles, number on top matches the body #, new tires, new black soft top, seems to run and drive great. The PO had it for 10 years and drove it about 1000 miles a year. Claims interior is all original, it looks it. Only other issue I found is that the bottom of one of the frame rails in the back, feels a little "soft" on the bottom. Other one like the side of a battleship.
Sadly, I may not register and this and be able to drive it until spring. It is technically a gift for my wife for our 20th next May. I will order a vanity plate "HER 280" and that takes 6-8 weeks. By time that gets in, winter will have a chokehold on us here in New England. But it will give me time to go over the car in my heated shop, fix the heater controls and anticipate the spring.
Anyway, here are some pics. I am hard core vintage guy, I run a part time hobby-business making some parts for very early VWs (zarwerks.com), and basically do all my own work. Please let me know what you think from the pics. I hca tell you the name and specs of the 4 companies that made fender bolts for split window VWs but I really don't know the "details" of the 113s.
Yet.
