Alright guys. I just got back from the owners house. I have with me 55 pictures of the mercedes. Its still stored away back in the ol' barn, so I wasn't able to get all the pictures that I wanted to. It still looks rather dirty, but it's also been stored back there for god knows how many years. With a good wash, shine and wax, and a full detail by a detail shop, it would look much better than it does. I've been shining and waxing my vehicles since I was 15 years old, and I can tell that a lot of the little marks on the paint will easily come out with some work.
As far as I can tell, there really ISN'T any rust. I haven't had a chance to check every tiny little crevice that has been suggested that I check, but the areas that I looked, there wasn't any rust. Once it's pulled out, and taken care of, i'm intending on re-inspecting every dirty little crack.
The mileage is also higher than I was told. The spedo reads 7xxxx, all I looked at was the first digit.
I was also told a little more about the vehicle history. The owner doesn't have documentation of the mileage, but we're suspecting some of it can be found by tracing the VIN number. (it should have one, correct?) At very MOST, he is the third owner, but is pretty sure he is second. He purchased it from an individual in Florida who had it stuffed away in (I believe he said) a show room.
I've uploaded every hi-res picture I took to an album on photobucket. The link:
http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o185/joegibs_mercedes/Any questions about any picture or particular, or anything else, feel free to post, i'll check back regularly.