Not for the faint of heart

[49er]

Since there is another post about slightly bruised 280SL "The purest 280SL anywhere", I thought I would post some pictures of my 280SL's predecessor, a 1967 250SL. I had only had the car for about 6 weeks when in July 1967, another car made an illegal left turn in front of me. I hit the brakes but hit the other car broadside. No injuries to either party but my poor SL was in bad shape. It was in the body shop for nearly 2 months but was never the same so I traded it in on my current 280SL the following year. The Tow truck driver got the grill's star but I still have the hood's medallion. To this day, I am always extremely wary when approaching a car making a left turn across my right of way.

John

[badali]

It appears the other cars came across the same driver...

[49er]

 I had to believe the the tow yard had a macabre sense of humor (at my expense). A Corvair, Mustang and Mercedes all in a row! BTW, it was not raining the day of the accident even though the wipers are parked on the windshield. Must have hit the wiper stalk with my left hand upon impact. I still get chills thinking about it. Be careful one and all!

John

[J. Huber]

Well, having met you, your lovely wife and your fantastic 280, all I can say is I'm glad you could share the story with us 40 years later!

I do like the look of the creme soft-top on white though...

[Nate]

Cool whitewalls!

[49er]

Thanks James. My 280 has the same ST color.  I always liked the color combination.  I had my wife drive our car yesterday while I stood by the road with a video camera. She took off down the driveway and around the corner she went. She was out of sight for about 15 min before she came back down the road with a smile from ear to ear. She had a ball driving the car by herself. Looks like I am going to have to hide the keys:-)

John

[49er]

Cool whitewalls!

Only about 1500 miles on those Firestones. Had to have them replaced because of the flat spots from laying down about 30 feet of rubber. No antilock brakes.

John

[71Beige280SL]

My Dad had a black version of that Cadillac. That was a tank. My Brother had an almost identical Corvair (a real safety hazard!).

[waltklatt]

Wow John.
Glad no one got hurt.
The safety features of the SL worked, see crumple zone wrinkles.
My 1967 230SL(220SL) had the same type of damage, but the speed was higher. 
Hood was ripped off from the hood catch and shoved through the windshield, ripping the cowl vent cover off.
Still see the damage at the base of the hood catch.
Did they replace the front frame horns?  Mine were cut off right at the center of the subframe mounts and new front end welded on.
Walter
1967 220SL-diesel

[49er]

Hello Walter,
 To the best of my recollection, the horns were unscathed. The body shop (a Mercedes shop) did a pretty good job putting it all back together but it just wasn't quite right. They painted the underside of the new hood black and the headlight/ fender camber wasn't right (looking at the car from the front the left was perfectly vertical and the right angled in at the bottom). Lots of other stuff, mostly mechanical, plagued that car and I Just couldn't live with it. Decision to trade it in on my current 280 SL was one of my better ones

John

[xcashewx]

i feel your pain. my sl suffered the same when a lady decided to slam her brakes to turn in the middle of the road with no signal
still dont have her back and painted yet... really makes you paranoid whenever you get to a signal driving