I've owned my 68 280 SL since 2005. I had the motor rebuilt at Metric not long after and other work done by Scott Melnick at the time. Scott told me that the one improvement that I should make to the car is to install a rear axle with a 3.27 gear ratio. I've wanted to have that done ever since.
Several years ago I saw Dan Caron's ad for a rear axle with a 3.27 limited slip differential for sale. I contacted him and we discussed a deal. At the time Dan said that he hadn't had a chance to fully check out the condition of the axle but that he would do so and get back to me. He contacted me to say that he did not think the axle was sale worthy and that, I thought, was that. Well maybe a year later I saw that he was now advertising a completely rebuilt limited slip 3.27 axle. I asked him if it was the same axle and he confirmed that it was. Again I told him I wanted the axle and talked to him about installing it for me.
I live in Spokane, Washington. Dan's shop is in Port Lambton, Ontario. So that was an obstacle to overcome, but I was determined to figure out a way and Dan was kind enough to say that I had first rights to the axle and to let him know when we could get the details worked out. My thought was to take a leisurely few weeks, make the drive to Canada, leave the car with Dan for the work to be done, rent a car to tour that part of the world, then pick it up and drive it home. Then COVID struck.
Canada was closed to us southerners and the plan seemed more like a pipe dream. To make things worse, in June of last year I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Spent the Summer and early Fall getting treated and have been in remission since October. That is the kind of thing that really makes you recognize the brevity of our lives and the importance of not putting off the things that you've been meaning to do. So the wheels started turning again.
Even if I wanted to drive the car to Dan that was impossible with the borders closed. So I arranged to have the car transported in a closed carrier (I wrote in another post about the delays at the border and won't go into that again). Dan received the car in January. I had a small checklist of other items I wanted him to investigate. After a thorough inspection and a brief Canadian winter test drive Dan let me know that my checklist was growing. In addition to the install of the axle, he replaced the clutch, some incorrect bearings in the transmission, new subframe and motor mounts, shocks all around, replaced parts in and fine tuned the throttle linkage, found and fixed a leaking seal in the power steering pump, replaced other seals and gaskets and addressed some issues with the windows. Dan forgive me if I've missed anything, but suffice it to say that getting the car to the SL Barn was a very good idea.
So the work was done weeks ago and now the issue was how to get the car home. Not to digress too far, but I have a very old friend (met in the 7th grade) who owns a 69 280 SL and I thought he might like to be part of this story. As it happens, over the years he has collected a shot glass from each state he has visited in the US and his collection stood at 49 with only North Dakota unrepresented. So I suggested that he fly from his home in Venice, CA to Fargo North Dakota where he could buy a shot glass and I would pick him up there and we'd drive back together the rest of the way to Spokane. He loved the idea and it was agreed.
So now I just had to get the car into the US from Port Lambton. The only way that can happen is if the car is transported across the border commercially so I hired a company to flatbed the car down from Dan's shop across the Ambassador Bridge where I'd be waiting on the Detroit side. As it turned out Dan was again kind enough to let me pay him to drive the car the 75 miles down to the tow yard. He had some business in the Windsor area to take care of and it worked well for both of us. So the plan was all in place I made my reservation to fly one way to Detroit last Thursday, April 1st. Well, on Tuesday of last week Dan let me know that he had taken the car for a longer drive and wasn't sure he liked a sound he was hearing from the axle. We talked it over and agreed that he'd drop the axle and try tightening something up and see if that cured the concern. But remember, this is Tuesday and I'm leaving on Thursday, the same day he was scheduled to drive the car to Windsor.
Magically, on Wednesday evening he let me know that he had gotten the job done and the axle was back in the car and sounding much more to his liking. AMAZING!
So Thursday morning arrives and I leave Spokane for Detroit via Seattle (you can't fly direct to too many places from Spokane). As I'm boarding the connecting flight I get a call from the woman I've been dealing with at the tow company. She tells me that she had forgotten that Friday is a National Holiday in Canada (Good Friday) and she isn't sure she can find a driver to work. Would it be okay if they bring the car over on Monday. I let her know in no uncertain terms that this was most definitely not ok as my flight was about to depart for Detroit and I needed to get in the car Friday so i could be back in Spokane Monday night to work Tuesday morning.
Not to mention my friend who I was to pick up Saturday morning in Fargo. As it turned out he had a bad reaction to his second COVID vaccine and couldn't make the trip but I didn't know that when I was talking to her. Well, she found a driver and everything finally seemed to be falling into place.
The last hitch (or so I thought) though was getting the car through both Canadian and US customs on Friday morning. It took hours. I had hoped to be on the road by 8:00. Ended up being 12:30, but I was IN THE CAR and on US 94 headed west. And what an amazing transformation. Dan had left some tape markings on the tach so I'd know when I was going 50, 60, and 70 MPH since the speedo hadn't yet been calibrated. I was cruising well past the 70 mark and the car wasn't even breathing hard. So great to drive.
Because of the shortened day I only made it to Moline/Rock Island Illinois before stopping. I was no longer having to go as far north as Fargo though so the next day I drove to Chamberlain, South Dakota on the beautiful Missouri River. The third day was the longest drive, all the way to Bozeman, Montana. I wanted to get as far as I could on Sunday though because there were reports of Winter weather in the Northwest. I woke early Monday and it was still dry in Bozeman so I got right in the car.
As I pulled into Butte, the snow storm started. I wasn't about to brave that so went into a Starbucks to explain that I wanted to wait out the snow there. Sorry, the restaurant is only open to drive through or grab and go. So I decided to get a room in Butte as it was really coming down. By about 1:00 Mountain time the snow had all but stopped so I left the room and got back on the road. Everything was good until about 30 miles east of Missoula when the skies opened up and it started raining very hard. Nothing to do but slow it down, try to stay away from the semis, and keep pressing on.
By the time I got about 15 miles past Missoula the rain let up which allowed me to get back up to speed and make it to Spokane just in time for the opening tip off of the Gonzaga/Baylor NCAA championship game. For those who might not follow the game, Gonzaga is a small Jesuit university with an incredible basketball program that happens to be located in Spokane. I'm not that much of a basketball fan (hockey and baseball) but the Zags are like a religion here. The game didn't end well, but I was home and the car performed flawlessly.
All kudos to Benz Dr. Dan Caron, his wife Shelley and the SL Barn. If anyone is looking for help with their car, that's the place to go, but wait until the borders reopen.
