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446K views 742 replies 388 participants last post by  Billyfeet1 
#1 ·
I'm pinning this topic for all of our proud Vintage members to post photos of their beautiful works of automotive art. Have at it!
 
#56 ·
Wow. Some of you guys really have some nice chicks.

I really can't compete, but I too own a W108.

About 2 years ago I received a call from a guy with a 69 280 S. He wanted me to help him with a problem.
Working as a wrecker, that seemed perfectly normal.
When I arrived, he stood there with 2 keys, a complete set of records, and and his unregistered vehicle.

To my surprise he said, can you take care of her? A big lump in my throat appeared, and I chocked out a "yeah, uh sure." It turned out he had some debt, so the police had chopped his plates. And a new law had just made it illegal to park an unregistered vehicles in the city streets. His landlord had forced him to park away from his property. How could someone be so cruel?

So I got this.


She had been driven daily, and fired up one the first try, after one pump on the gas pedal only. I drove her up on the flatbed. (Of course, a 86 MB 1320)





Now she has spent 2 winters outside. This winter she will stay in a nice cold barn. Next spring I will commence fixing her up. The engine runs more and more only on five now, so something is happening inside there. Out on her last monthly 100 kilometer maintenance spin, I met an old BMW 520 that I could'nt hold. That's gotta to be bad.

Regards

Geir
 
#57 ·
Just joined the forum. My wife found this 1963 220SEb cabriolet and bought it for me as a retirement gift ten years ago for $18K. I cleaned it up and made a few modifications,i.e. moved battery to trunk, replaced bulky air cleaner with smaller and easier to service KN style, added radiator recovery tank, installed Nardi steering wheel, replaced convertible interior and exterior top and intermediate padding, recored the radiator with new high efficiency 3 row core, converted to an american one wire alternator, new bilstein shocks, engine mounts later model one puck front disk assembly, stainless flexible brakes lines,and boiled out and painted the gas tank. I was tempted to do an engine conversion but after pulling the head for a valve job discovered the bottom end was still perfect(no ring ridge) after 100K miles, so I just accept what I have and its slow acceleration. I love the classic lines of this model and the kudos I constantly receive.
 

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#60 ·
Hmm,I'm trying to see if I can attach a pic here.Ok I got it figured now,This is a 300SEL that i just sold before Christmas 2004.It has 69000 miles from new,I was the third owner and it was delivered new to Papua New Guinea.Dr Nelson Wu was the first owner.
The option list was extensive and included a becker mexico stereo AM FM short wave radio with four speakers and hirshman antenna.Full skid pans underneath and tan velour upholstery,thats a more expensive option than leather and seems to wear better.
The colour is Moss green metallic.The new owner is going to change the colour to silver and refit the airbags with quick change valves so he can go the low rider look.Oh well,each to his own.
 

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#63 ·
Yep,Brisbane!,land of hot summers and warm winters[8D]
The 600 is 10 minutes from the center of brisbane city!,in the background you can see some of the other relics (pontons)plus the falcon stretch limo reflected in the paint.
theres all sorts in this place,Rolls royces,126's both SEL and stretched.Jags and fiats and even some 3-0-0's .
It all belongs to a wedding hire company.Though i think the 600 may have lasted longer than some of the marriages[:D]
Sad though [:(]
 
#64 ·
Cool, I'm from Melbourne. Land of cold winters and.... yeah...

I love Pontons too, I've been getting so into Merc's lately. I've always wanted a 600 (grosser) and a black 280SE 4.5 ever since I saw the black one in the exorcist when I was a teenager.
Do you know if the 600 is for sale?
 
#65 ·
Cam,beleive me,win the lotto first,a 600 is a $200,000 car and if you were to buy this one,it will be priced around $10,000 ,it will cost an easy 190.000 to get on the road.
i have lots of mates with them,but the one in the pic is history,it's been there for nearly 20 years.
You can read all about them on our site;
www.m-100.cc
I have more old Mercs than I know what to do with,and this is after I've thinned the fleet down a bit.they're cheaper and better than usual Aussie "icon" holden or falcon,i should sat initial cost is cheaper.You soon get to be a regular on eBay to get cheaper parts.heres a pic of another one I've got,that will get the complete running gear from a 300 SEL 3.5.It looks a bit scruffy,but is actually a very good straight car.some clown stripped it and painted it satin black,then gave up before the flames were added
[xx(]
It was a black originally,so it may stay like this...[8D]
 

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#66 ·
Yeah, I know, they're worth a mint. I went to the Mercedes factory and Museum last year and bought every book and brochure I could find on the 600's which leaves me with quite a cool collection of paraphenalia [8D] Now, if I could only read German[:I]

Even if the car has been there for 20 years (cost aside) unless there is severe rust, mechanical or accident damage it should be salvageable I'd imagine?

That finnie is cool. If you're not after the satin black it is an easy enough fix. Particularly if it's already straight as a gun barrel. Some satin blacks if colour sanded back can come up gloss with a coat of 2pak clear. Failing that it wouldn't be too hard to hit it with a 2 pak black after minimal prep work.
Are the later model engine and transmissions easily transplanted into the finnies and pontons, like what you're doing with the 3.5?
 
#67 ·
You should visit our club sitehttp://www.m-100.cc and look at Karl Middlehuaves work with the 600's.He's the world expert but is considering retirement now.As you will see he has coupes ,hearses ,station wagons and a farm loaded with 600's.
Any body work on a 600 is wildly different to a regular benz,the average cost to restore all that wood veneer,installing it your self is around $10,000.and theres alot of leather in there to repair,$50,000 average cost.
Did you know they have total hydraulic control of the seats,boot lid and doors,it all runs off one circuit and on each seat there are dozens of little steel pipes.I think Karl requests $15,000 up front to rework the hydraulics on a 600.
The air suspension is the same as the 109 and W112, with the addition of a high pressure regulator.The parts such as the rear airbags all interchange with the 109.You will never see 600 parts on eBay..[:D]Although the occaisional restoration project pops up,and the average on those is around US $10,000.
The finny [8D],Putting a V8 into it is what the Germans call a "leggo" job,you just clip it all together.You can't do it with a PONTON though,totally different front crossmember and the engine bay is a bit narrow.the best bet is a twin cam 280.One from a 116 is the best bet,high compression and different cams to the 114 engine and miles more power than the US spec engine in the W126 280SE.
Up grade the brakes to 108/109 discs and you'r laughin'.With the W111 finny,the floor pan is the same as the 3.5 ,as is the suspension etc.Various little things like sway bar sizes etc are easily sorted.
The real hot set up is the M-100 6.3 into the W112 (300SE) coupe,Have a look at Karls two ,A convertible built for him by AMG and a black coupe he did himself.[8D][8D][8D]
My favorite will always be my 6.3 [}:)]
 
#68 ·
You should visit our club sitehttp://www.m-100.cc and look at Karl Middlehuaves work with the 600's.He's the world expert but is considering retirement now.As you will see he has coupes ,hearses ,station wagons and a farm loaded with 600's.
Any body work on a 600 is wildly different to a regular benz,the average cost to restore all that wood veneer,installing it your self is around $10,000.and theres alot of leather in there to repair,$50,000 average cost.
Did you know they have total hydraulic control of the seats,boot lid and doors,it all runs off one circuit and on each seat there are dozens of little steel pipes.I think Karl requests $15,000 up front to rework the hydraulics on a 600.
The air suspension is the same as the 109 and W112, with the addition of a high pressure regulator.The parts such as the rear airbags all interchange with the 109.You will never see 600 parts on eBay..[:D]Although the occaisional restoration project pops up,and the average on those is around US $10,000.
The finny [8D],Putting a V8 into it is what the Germans call a "leggo" job,you just clip it all together.You can't do it with a PONTON though,totally different front crossmember and the engine bay is a bit narrow.the best bet is a twin cam 280.One from a 116 is the best bet,high compression and different cams to the 114 engine and miles more power than the US spec engine in the W126 280SE.
Up grade the brakes to 108/109 discs and you'r laughin'.With the W111 finny,the floor pan is the same as the 3.5 ,as is the suspension etc.Various little things like sway bar sizes etc are easily sorted.
The real hot set up is the M-100 6.3 into the W112 (300SE) coupe,Have a look at Karls two ,A convertible built for him by AMG and a black coupe he did himself.[8D][8D][8D]
My favorite will always be my 6.3 [}:)]
 

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#69 ·
Black mercs and tyre smoke. Doesn't get any cooler than that [}:)] I saw a photo of the 280 with the 6.3 in it, I'll have to check out the website in great detail.

So a 116 280 motor will fit in a Ponton then? Awesome, I think I've found my next project. Pontons don't have independent suspension tho, do they?[:I]
 
#74 ·
Mercedes was way ahead of the game in that their brilliant engineer Uhlenhaut figured that the VW pivot point(same as tatra and skoda) were too high,so Mercedes swing axles pivot below the actual center point.You back off any time,any speed in a merc and as long as conditions are reasonable you dont get that jacking effect that throws you around in a VW.been there done that[xx(][xx(]
BUT,gullwings don't have the low pivot point and will lift the inside rear wheel in a fast turn if you lift off,so the trick is to throw it through the turn,in a $1,000,000 car.[}:)]
Had the low 114 sitting on the front yard and had two serious buyers...in the 17-20 age group,[8D][8D]
 
#76 ·
The mercedes diff from 1956(?) on wards has the axle pivot point right underneath the diff,if you get under a ponton etc you can see the pin the right hand axle swings on.In a VW the axle pivots from a point in line with the diffs pinion.,which is way too high .I can remember fitting a spring under my VW to join the ends of the swing axles to prevent wheel jacking in fast corners,it worked too but played havoc with the axle housings and used to break the strap things on each end.
This was a copy of the center spring that Mercedes used .
Another car I can add to the list is the Triumph Herald,a lethal shitty car in the wet.Lift off in one of those and it's spin city,no matter how slow you were going.[xx(][xx(]
The only fault with the early diffs is the ratio,if you want to swap in a bigger engine,use a diff from a 280SE
108 chassis.that will give you a higher ratio and stronger crown wheel PLUS disc brakes.no big deal to swapping it in.[8D][8D][8D]Plus if you look around Melbourne there are lots of good merc candidates suitable for wrecking.
Or go to Chris Denyers place and buy a diff off him.http://mbparts.denyer.net/index.php
 
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