Urgent Advice Needed in Purchasing a Body Shell

[Aditya Naik]

Hey All,

I was trawling around the internet looking for pricing on body shells and I came upon this forum. The reason why I was looking for prices was because I've been offered an incredible opportunity to buy a shell for what I think is an extremely low price but the kicker is that I have to buy it sight unseen and only have the pictures to go on, and within the next two days.

My family owns a workshop so restoring the chassis to just sell as-is or doing a complete build is not out of the question. I am obviously out of my depth in these matters so I'd like your advice on how much you would buy the shell in the pictures I've posted. It was a scrap yard find and some work seems to have done to it and the rust is only surface rust, there is no rot. It was stored in a dry area (desert). I'd love your help on setting a price to it, basically what you would spend on it if you were in my shoes.

Cheers!

[JamesL]

I think is an extremely low price but the kicker is that I have to buy it sight unseen and only have the pictures to go on, and within the next two days.

My gut reaction is RUN

The pics look alright, dusty and dry. But surely it’ would have been quite tough (back when) to import a left hand drive car to India - might be easier today, I don’t know -  but it would have cost a fortune to import so to end up in this state seems odd to me.
IF it exists and yiu can get to see it, or have them photograph it alongside a picture of today’s newspaper or have someone local actually verify it exists, go for it.
But sight unseen, generally, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is

[Aditya Naik]

Ah I forgot to mention the fact that the car is in the UAE, and the seller is legit because its a government auction. I'm stuck in India for a while because of Covid but they don't allow inspections anyways and our contact gave a cursory look over it and hasn't spotted any rotting panels or anything.
To be honest the price is very tempting at around 3k USD, but that's before it goes to auction.

[JamesL]

Why are they offering it to you rather than going to auction? If you’re ok with that reason, great.
Sorry to sound suspicious but.... I am.

If it’s legitimate, go for it. 3k is a steal. It’ll cost a load in parts etc but at 3k...

[Cees Klumper]

It looks a bit as if someone restored this car , up to a point. Anyway, it's cheap and if indeed legit, a good buy.

[Aditya Naik]

We know someone who organizes the lots personally and the government peeps don't really care about it. They have thousands of scrap, abandoned cars, and repos every week on sale. Last week an LFA went for 250k USD, and Rolls-Royces are pretty common so this is just chump change for them.

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll pull the trigger on it. I'll be sure to post on the forums if I do decide to restore it.

[Bonnyboy]

Good luck - make sure you get a good title that can be registered elsewhere (other countries) before you start spending gobs of money on the car. 

maybe you will get lucky and find a cryptic message under the seat with directions to all of the parts its missing.....

good luck and let us know how you do. 

[TheEngineer]

There is an old saying: If you pay little and it turns out unusable, you have lost all your money. If you pay too much and it turns out to be good but you find that you could have bought it for less, you just lost a little bit of money.

[Aditya Naik]

So super interesting update on this, the shell was stolen from a classic restoration shop. And it's run by Bear Garcia ex-fabricator for West Coast Customs. The shell was stolen from outside his previous garage four months ago when they were shifting to a place that was close to where our garage in the Dubai is, in fact our landowner is the same guy. So my dad meets the guy to talk about business and this topic pops up and he mentions the shell is his, he even has the hardtop for it.

Now they're sending the police down to get whoever put the thing up for auction in the first place, but it was a government repo so the original thief is probably long gone. Well quite the interesting ride and I'll be able to see the restoration first-hand maybe even work on it.

[PeterPortugal]

Hi Adi,

I am an ex resident of Dubai and am watching this out of interest on the auction site. It's currently at about 2.5k USD with 2 hours to go.

It seems very cheap of course but all the bits missing from it would cost a small fortune unless you had a donor vehicle too.

Let's hope it does get returned to someone with the rest of it !!

Regards

Peter

[Aditya Naik]

Yeah sadly the police is refusing to do anything. Our contact at the auction was trying to pull it but no joy. I think they're doing a private deal for 3-4k USD which is what they were expecting to get.

The original owner has the trimmings and missing interior bits. Not sure about the engine and tranny but they transplanted a z4 drivetrain in a 190sl in one of their previous projects.

[PeterPortugal]

Welll the 3-4k is long gone....11k USD as the auction enters the final minutes.

[PeterPortugal]

11k USD hammer price for a rolling chassis plus engine and box with no papers that is reportedly stolen.

I am not sure it's a bargain !

[Benz280]

When in doubt, do without .
Until a thorough review can be made, its an open wallet. 
I learned my lesson twice.

[Aditya Naik]

Yeap, and it's most probably someone with the ruling family. Definitely fishy stuff.

Welp 11k for that is super not worth it. Dodged a bullet and got an interesting story out of it. I scored a pretty nice 2002 rolling chassis with Campgnolo Ragno's for 400$ and Classic mini for 450$ 

[Bonnyboy]

I know a 2002 isn't a Pagoda but pictures would be nice -  Love the 2002s.   I think I need a 14 car garage for all my wants...

[Aditya Naik]

Here's as she lies. The cars are undergoing approval so this is all I have. It looks like another halfway restored project.

[teahead]

Would be an awesome resto-mode project.

I.e. find an AMG M104 C36 AMG motor for it and 5-speed manual.

However, pointless if it has sketchy documentation.  Can never get it registered or worse, may get impounded/seized.

[PeterPortugal]

Did you find out through your contacts who picked up the W113 ?