New member introductions

[sledge4.2]

Hello all - First post on this forum, looks like a great treasure-trove of resources.

I am helping a friend of mine place a value on his 280SL Pagoda, and was wondering if there is an expert or someone that does regular valuations of these cars.  I plan on searching the site extensively to learn more about these very special cars, but hoping someone can jump start my search. 

I am a decent shade-tree mechanic and have been working on and restoring 80-90's Italian cars, so this platform is brand new to me but cool cars are not!

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me, and I am happy to post as much details on the car as i can.

Thank you!!
Geno

[alabbasi]

All, my name is Al and I have a 1970 280SL California Coupe. My experience with car has been bitter sweet. I bought it about 15 years ago from an elderly gentleman who imported it from Germany before retiring sometime in the 80's. He was driving it home and rear ended a car smashing the front, then left it to sit for about 20 years. I took it to a restoration shop who turned out to be dishonest and after getting the car back, we found that a lot of the repairs he claimed and charged for, was actually just cover up with bondo so I ended up having to redo the work.

I had someone I trusted fix the structure and the body is now solid but for the last 8 years. It's sat as a bare shell in primer. I think that I'm ready to get back on it. I did not take the car apart and i'm 100% sure that I did not get all the parts back from the restoration shop that took the car in the first place. I'm going to need a lot of help putting it back together and i hope that you don't get fed up with all the questions I have. The car was originally silver with blue leather.

As this car will never be an original, i'd like to make a couple of changes including the following:

Change the car from a California coupe to a convertible. it's too hot in DFW to not have a soft top
Change the interior color from blue to red
Add a/c
Possibly convert to a manual gearbox

My plan is to bring the car to the house and work on it in the evening. Questions:

1)Where are the places people can get parts from and is there an online parts catalog available?
2) Is it possible to find the original leather for these era of cars. I've owned several Mercedes in the past W109's etc, and the leather kits available look vat dyed and not like original MB leather from the era. Are those kits available?
3) Who rebuilds injection pumps these days?
4) Is there a guide that can tell me what's right as far as paint, undercoating etc. The car is in primer right now but my plan is to get the shell painted in the next couple of weeks
5) If I need to eyeball a car, is there anyone in DFW who would be kind enough to let me?

Thanks in advance
Many thanks in advance

[kampala]

Al, welcome

You can search this site for converting a California coupe to a soft top version.  It’s a very big job if you want a conversion that looks factory- cutting and welding a donor section with a soft top compartment.   

There is another way to just add a soft top and not add a factory compartment and that’s supposed to be easier.  Do search this and you should find photos and more. 

Best of luck

[Pagodateil]

Hello all - Firt post on this forum, looks like a great treasure-trove of ressource and interrresting people.

I'm a young Pagoda's passionate and I would love to help other with my knowledge. I'm a VDO LS15 specialist for the moment ( I produce some parts to restore the OEM ) it would be a pleasure to show you my work.

[alabbasi]

Hello all - Firt post on this forum, looks like a great treasure-trove of ressource and interrresting people.

I'm a young Pagoda's passionate and I would love to help other with my knowledge. I'm a VDO LS15 specialist for the moment ( I produce some parts to restore the OEM ) it would be a pleasure to show you my work.

Thank you. I have a tub from a parts car but I recognize the effort.

[GreenCar]

I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello to the Forum.

I've visited this site and read some of the open sections for years.  I decided to register because my father has refreshed and brought out his 1969 280 SL 4-speed after a long hibernation, but there are still a few things to do on it and there seems to be no better resource than here.  He had bought it from the original owner for my mother in the 1970s, who used it during the good-weather months in the Northeast.  She would pick me and my friends up from school in it and used it for regular errands.  My mother also taught me to drive a manual transmission largely in this car.  It's a non-original green with a Cognac interior in MB-Tex. The original color was 834G Moss Green, but when the car needed painting, my mother preferred a darker green, which frankly does look better even if it's non-original.  It also has the Frigi-King air-conditioning. 

There are still some minor issues that need addressing.  The Blaupunkt radio turns on, lights up, and 'plays' static; but doesn't seem to be able to tune in any stations.  My guess is that the antenna lead was not re-attached when the fenders were replaced and repainted for rust remediation.  Just in recent drives the speedometer cable started failing and the needle jumps around and the little metal cap at the center fell off!  Otherwise, she drives well.  I have to admit that I don't remember the gearing being that short!  For years I've read the various threads on the ZF 5-speeds and changing the rear axle.  Longer term, I would like to verify what the final drive ratio is and maybe consider the rear-axle fix that many people talk about.  It feels like abuse to drive the car at 70-75, which is so odd given its heritage. 

I'm looking forward to talking about these cars and 'meeting' (virtually at least) many members.  Thanks. 

[rwmastel]

I'm looking forward to talking about these cars and 'meeting' (virtually at least) many members.

No need to stay virtual!  Members occasionally organize small local get togethers.  Organize one yourself!  We have an Events sub-forum just for that.  Build it and they will come.

[sjwelna]

Intro time.  My name is Steve and I'm in the process of restoring my grandfather's 1965 230sl.  A little back story on the car, A friend of my dad's imported it direct from germany.  He drove it for a while and then sold it to my grand parents.  They drove it in the summers and then it sat in a garage for a long time, including my father's garage where it has sat not running for probably close to 20-25 years.  My father sent it to me to get it running again. 

The car was originally a dark navy blue color but my grandfather had it repainted a silver/gold color.  The car is in great shape but currently trying to get the motor unfrozen.  Looking like a rebuild will be needed.  Everything still works!  (besides the stuck motor that is.... :'( )

[RWELLS]

Hi, my name is Rick and have been a big fan of Pagota SL cars for many years. Part of my retirement plan was to buy a couple of older Mercedes (a 230sl being one of them) that could be worked on simply to save money on repairs and dealerships. My current cars run about 500 for a oil change so looking forward I thought I could just get an older car and do the work myself. Fast forward to today and unfortunaly that plan is out the window. What you might be able to save on labor is negated with high parts prices on older classics.

I currently have a few old Porsches that I'm begining to sell off. Last week while delivering a Porsche I had sold I noticed a 230SL in a fenced in yard and since I had a empty trailer I swung in and made a offer on the car that he accepted and loaded it up. I had no plans to keep it just to sell it off and work towards buying a nice driver.

The car was tenativly sold but the money never showed up  if I can scrape together the missing body parts I may attempt to rescue it, super longshot at this point but maybe!

[Cees Klumper]

Welcome RWELLS, although it sounds like you may not be 'here' for very long! As you are sort of advertising your car, please let us know what price you have in mind.

Also, I can recommend not getting an OLD car to save on repair bills and dealerships, but a 2000+ one with the modern technology and for which parts are still plentiful and cheap. I've had great luck with that approach with my early 2000's Volvo C70 and S80, having driven hundreds of thousands of miles on those doing all repairs and maintenance myself. Parts are easy to come by and not expensive, and the ECU will tell you 95% of the time what's wrong with the car (doesn't happen that often. So far I've easily diagnosed and fixed 3 ignition coil fails, a valve timing solenoid fail and one airbag fail using an inexpensive scan tool). I probably saved tens of thousands over the past 20 years I have been driving these Volvos, and they are still going strong. And, two years ago, I bought a 2013 Mercedes  250 GLK that still looks brand new and is our daily driver here in the US. Cost was $8K and so far no dealer has touched it, we're about 15K miles into that so far.

[RWELLS]

Cees,

Thanks for the input I can change the intro if needed, I struck the "still for" section at this point I am not sure what I should do I would love to find a car for 40 or 50K that is a driver after I sell a Porsche or two and let this be restored by someone else but I am afraid finding one at that price without rust will be very hard and being kind of resourceful  I think I could go pretty far with 50 on this car. The car seems to be "mostly" free of major rust but will need some rust repair.

[RWELLS]

Joined - Full Member

[Geofw113]

Hi to everybody.
A new full member from the UK with a USA imported 250sl

My father bought the car about 10 years ago from the beverly hill car club and have spent a long time collecting parts for it.

I owned a large bodyshop in the UK for many years and have restored hundreds of classic cars but no longer having the bodyshop we have a large home garage and paint booth and are part way through our restoration of the car.

We have also our own Zinc plating set up and are plating all parts.

So far we have had the engine fully rebuilt by a local specialist even though it ran fine, new bearings, pistons, hardened valves etc. injection pump full rebuilt. Auto box serviced, new brakes and susspension, almost a 100% rebuild of parts.

Interior has been fully re done in original red leather and correct carpet, all work done by a guy who does all the work for Mercedes and the SLshop.
The car was originally silver with black vinyl seats, when we bought it the car was red. Now back in correct silver and we changed the interior to red leather.

We have found lots of great info here and hope to add some updates of our car as we carry on.

I have lived in Portugal for 10 years now and have just spent a few months back here in the UK working on the car, i have to return to Portugal for a month and theni will return to get her finished.

Some pics of our car.

[Jonny B]

Very nice. Welcome to the club. Hope you will be sharing more stories and photos of your ongoing Pagoda journeys and travails.

[Sell682]

Hello All,

Name is Sam and I just inherited a 1970 280SL Automatic. Car was my uncle who passed and looking to learn and bring it back to life as it’s been garage kept for 30 yrs and not running for 3 yrs.

[Jonny B]

Sam,
Very sorry to hear about your uncle. My condolences there.

You have certainly found the right place to help with bringing your car back to the road. There is a LOT of information here on how to approach a project like this.

My first suggestion would be to become very familiar with the search functionality. I guarantee there will be answers to your question, as yours is a very common inquiry. Go the tech manual section and scroll to the Premium Content. There is a listing for Pagoda Notes issues.
The search functionality is reviewed:
Vol 1 No 2
Vol 9 No 2
Vol 11 no 1

Welcome to the group and enjoy the ride!

[Peter van Es]

To help you out: https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Restricted/PagodaNotes