Thoughts sought on auction bought 230

[Essjays]

Hi everyone. Thank you for allowing me to register with your wonderful forum.
I’m in a unique situation, where I bidded on a 230 down here in Australia at a reputable auction house and subsequently was outbid- but they retracted their bid and I’m the underbidder.

The car presents well, drives reasonably, and as far as I know has been driven around for some time prior to auction and is fully registered… and I got it at a great AUD price. It’s also got a factory ZF box.
But I’m concerned about a few things that I wanted to run by some folks who are familiar with these vehicles. Mostly the rust which is mentioned to be present in chassis rail and floor. It’s also a LHD to RHD conversion.. but I’m not sure it’s been done all that well. Some interior panels don’t line up that well.

I’m attaching a report on the vehicle - all of looks pretty okay for a car of age. I don’t want to dump an enormous amount of coin into the car. My interest is to get it in good working order to enjoy.

Have you any thoughts to offer on this report? I will add some underbody photos a bit later 

[teahead]

Hope you got it for a good price.

Pictures would be better to see the extent of the rust and other items that are well used.

Rust perforation is kinda scary IMHO.

[JamesL]

I’m sure a couple of Sydney members would love to come and look over your car.
Being a 5spd, makes it more valuable/rare

[Essjays]

thanks all.. appreciate it. here some photos.

[Benz Dr.]

Steering shock is not mounted properly. Better sort that out before any further driving.

 It doesn't look like a complete pile to me.  Some rust present but not too bad.

[Cees Klumper]

I'm with Dan, the rust doesn't look that bad. Much has already been done and, from the looks of it although done a bit crude, it seems effective. Find someone who can fabricate and weld and doesn't charge an arm and a leg, and enjoy the car.



Here's what I made today for my '61 Alfa Romeo, that had scary-scary rust (as in, whole sections of the undercarriage just gone missing):

[Essjays]

Update: bought it. Guess I’m part of the family now 🙂

[Garry]

Congratulations,


I have only ever seen one other left to right conversion here in Victoria.  I would suggest that you get your data card from MB Classic Centre in Irvine CA USA to see exactly what the vehicle was post production. 


Garry

[Essjays]

Thank you .
I managed to verify that already. There’s an authentic verified report of the card with the car. It was an important part of eventually going ahead with it.
There’s a few interesting codes there & some of which I am unsure of the significance. E.g
- German delivery
- 492- heat exchanger
- 230- 5 speed
- 232- rear axle ratio 1:4,08
Amongst other things

[Garry]

As a Full Member you would be able to access the full forum with the Technical Manual that would then allow you to read all the codes on the various different types of Data Cards that were used over the life of the production.


It is well worth the $30 per year to be a Full Member and in addition access to the Pagoda Notes and the biannual Pagoda World.


It would be an interesting exercise on value as a LHD genuine five speed Vs the RHD converted vehicle as the five speed brings a big premium.  Conversions on the other hand are extremely hard to sell with a subsequent lower value.

[Essjays]

Thanks Garry. I will absolutely do that. Re: the value, I’m not too fussed- I bought to enjoy. Some purists I spoke to did suggest that i should convert it back.. Maybe some day

[Garry]

Being in Oz, keeping it RHD is a given but when finally selling it the LHD vs RHD would be a worthwhile exercise.  The five speed premium may well make it a worthwhile exercise to return to original configuration.


Meanwhile i am sure you will enjoy it..My first Pagoda was a five speed and i enjoyed it but my wife didn’t drive a manual But enjoys driving the automatic I kept.

[Essjays]

Thank you, and agree. Full member now. Will look forward to sharing my journey. Cheers 🙂

[stickandrudderman]

Conerting these cars from LHD to RHD is no simple task!

[MikeSimon]

Conerting these cars from LHD to RHD is no simple task!

Almost an understatement...

[AdelaidePagoda]

Just out of curiosity, assuming you could get all the parts to convert LHD to RHD or vice versa, what would it cost in parts and labour?

[Garry]

Here is an interesting auction that took place not long ago that gives an indication of the US price for a five speed.
https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=36216.0;topicseen



Having had a good look at a well done Left to Right hand conversion previously, I would imagine to have it reversed by a commercial shop would not leave much change from $50k+ but that is a WAG guess only and it could be a whole lot more.  Maybe Stick can give a better indication.

[franjo_66]

Almost an understatement...

I remember looking at a LHD to RHD converted 280SL many years ago here down under, it was absolutely tragic. Used a chain driven conversion. Horrible

[rwmastel]

WAG guess

Is that like ATM machine?   

[Garry]

Rodd,


Exactly. 


Garry

[Essjays]

The conversion is certainly not too quality, but it’s fixable I think. Few things to do with it