Body number 100 (230SL Pagoda RHD)

[Pete Franklin]

Hello all,

Over a year ago, I purchased a RHD 230SL, which lay unused in a small insulated garage for 32 years. The car is now undergoing a full restoration.

For convenience, I have attached a photo of the paint and options plate. I am familiar with decoding these, but don't understand the very last set of digits - being 'body number'.

As you will see, this car has an interesting body number 00100. It also seems to have an early internal production number of 00410.
I can see the 100 stamped on bonnet and hood - and delighted to see they are original with the car.

My understanding is that the first cars products were left hand drives. Could this possibly be a very (very) early RHD?? Or are these numbers chosen in a non sequenced manner??

Any insight greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for reading.
Pete

[BobH]

Hello Pete, i don't think there is much significance to these numbers as regards the date of production, the production number, from what i know was simply the number of cars produced during a particular shift, so this number would crop up time and time again.  The body number, i'm not sure what this number represents, as you say a "matching numbers" car would see this number stamped into various body panels, so was there to aid production

For instance my car is UK supplied RHD car built January 1965 and has the body number 00072, so not a particularly early car

The actual date of production can be found by looking at the VIN or chassis number, if you can post a picture of this we can decipher the date it was built.  I assume you don't have a data card, as this will tell you everything you need to know about the car

if you click Technical Manual, above left and then search, body/paint code and VIN, it will explain everything in more detail

I'm sure everyone on here would love to see pictures of your car and follow the restoration process

[Pete Franklin]

Thank you Bob,
Makes absolute sense. I don't have the data card just yet, but I'll get a photo of the VIN etc and post tomorrow.
I'll definitely post photos of the car once restored - although it will probably will take much of 2023 to complete!
It's a bare metal rotisserie job - but expecting the shell to be completed by February (considering I am a number of months into the job at this stage).
I purchased my car in the UK and I understand it was ordered new in the UK.
Thanks again!
Pete