1967 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class

250-280SL Convertible

6 - Cyl.

Manual

11304310003458

Gasoline

Late 1967 280SL 4 SPEED, power steering, factory rear jump seat ("Kindersitz") NO air conditioning or A/C modifications This is a very clean and straight rust-free California car. Technically this is a model year 1968 vehicle but was registered as '67 when it arrived in California in early '68. All the electrical components work flawlessly including the original Kienzle clock and Becker Europa radio. Original jack, tool kit, manuals and all service records since 1996 are included. Unfortunately a box of service records since new was lost in a Malibu Canyon fire in 2007. I have owned this car for 12 wonderful years. It has been a rare pleasure and an exceptional vehicle to drive. This SL has been properly maintained by one of the most qualified Mercedes-Benz shops here in the Los Angeles area. This car started life as one of the last of the 250SLs. It belonged to an American cinematographer who took delivery of the car in Italy in December of 1967. He was quite perturbed to find that the Pagoda cars with the new 2.8 liter engines were already available in Europe as he picked up this car. He ordered a crate 2.8 liter engine directly from Mercedes-Benz. The engine in this car is not a 2.8 liter sedan engine but a proper SL motor. Subsequently the car was rarely ever driven and ultimately was sold to the original owner's assistant some time in the mid-1980's. It had been painted Glasurit Silver Grey Metallic (code #180) in lieu of the original White (code #050) when I bought the car in 2000. The paint work is of excellent quality and has required a repaint of only the left front fender. The interior remains the original Blue (MB tex code 135.) The two front seats had been reupholstered in matching German leather. I added factory headrests and 3 point (shoulder) seat belts for safety reasons. The original factory undercoating is in excellent condition as are the four jack point receivers in the car's rocker panels. What little rust I can find is the result of a lifetime spent in close proximity to the beach. There is zero rust in the floor pans but some minor rust has been repaired in the floor of the trunk. It has spent the majority of its life garaged in Malibu. The body is exceptional and I am including two new rear bumperettes in this auction. The left rear bumperette was damaged at a car wash just last month. They failed to set the parking brake and left the car in neutral. It rolled a couple of feet into a chain link fence. The right rear bumperette has always had a nasty little scrape at it's lower outside corner. This was my chance to fix them both. This minor damage can clearly been seen in at least two of my photos. The few problems I have had with the car were a direct result of the car only having been driven 40,000 miles when I took title. There was sediment in the tank and a few odd problems associated with years of non-operation. Still this was a great car. It had not always been garaged but was free of body rot and had nice straight sides with almost no door dings. At roughly 80,000 miles on the clock I had the top end of the engine rebuilt and replaced the entire exhaust system. At 95,000 miles the transmission was rebuilt including new synchros and bearings. New clutch, throw-out bearing and pressure plate as well of course. This Mercedes 4-speed gearbox shifts beautifully. The Uniroyals have about 90% tread left. There is about 90% life left in new brakes all around. The suspension has been greatly enhanced with new Bilstein shocks and equipped with John Olsen's progressive rate springs front and rear which have made a HUGE difference in how the car drives going into curves at higher speeds or under heavy braking. This pagoda is an absolute pleasure to drive through the Santa Monica Mountains. This is a post #2980 (August 1967) car. Therefore it shares all the same characteristics as the 1968 280SL including the rounded nosing on the dash, new armrest and door trim coverings, new ashtray, new brake fluid level warning light, safety steering column, wiper blades with satin finish, new window winders and interior knobs. This car came off the assembly line in mid-September 1967. The rim size on this car has been updated to the 6.5 X 14 from a 1971 300SEL 6.3. In 2007 our garage burned to the ground in the Malibu Canyon fire that October. I had come to discover mold in the rarely used soft top in the rear storage compartment. Unfortunately both tops were in our garage when it burned. With the fire approaching and not much hope of saving our house I loaded up artwork and as many valuables as possible in this two seater and headed down to PCH without the tops. Following the fire I acquired a particularly clean 1971 hardtop with heated rear glass and aluminum beauty rails that I had painted to match the code #180 silver-grey metallic paint. The original white headliner and wood are in exceptional condition. I have the console switch for the heated rear glass and that is included in this sale. The top fits perfectly and is much nicer than the original lost in the fire. The soft top was destroyed as well. No soft top is included in this auction but the factory storage compartment is complete and in pristine condition as are the chrome frame escutcheons at the back of either door opening. I have hunted down an excellent late model 280SL soft top frame with all hardware and old black canvas. I will purchase and provide said frame and a brand new German blue canvas for an additional $3,000 to the winning bidder if they would like. Such frames are readily available on the marketplace. Do keep in mind that a good number of the Pagoda SLs came only with the removable hardtop. I have not missed the soft top these past 5 years and never felt the need to spend that money. Now finances dictate that I sell my beloved pagoda. Having lined up a suitable replacement soft top I decided to leave this up to the winning bidder. The left front fender was repainted on account of wind damage rather than a traffic collision. With the Pagoda parked outside overnight winds picked up my daughter's plastic play house and slammed it into the left front fender. The damage was not severe and thankfully limited to that fender. The silver-grey paint almost matches perfectly. Most of the rubber gasketing on the car is in excellent shape. There is minor but acceptable pitting of some of the chrome trim. The interior is clean and perfectly acceptable. A new owner might wish to completely redo this part of the car in factory blue leather. The front seats have good horse hair stuffing but the leather is a bit dry but solid. There is minor wear at the left edge piping on the driver's seat due to the seat belt. The seams are all in good shape. There are minor cracks in the dash section over the instrument cluster. The main dash section is excellent. Some of the interior pieces have been re-dyed. The dash wood was redone before I purchased the car and is not of the highest order. The piece in the hard top looks spectacular. The factory carpet kit is good and fairly new. My wife and I recently inherited a number of cars from my late father-in-law. We have sold off a couple of his amazing track and sports cars and will be parting from a couple of ours as well. I am NOT a used car trader and do not make my living in the automotive business. This is my own personal weekend driver that I have cared for meticulously these past 12 years. The engine compartment is in reasonably nice condition but was blacked out by the previous owner when he made the color change. Please keep in mind that despite it's low mileage this car is now 44 years old. It has never been restored. It is not a show car but a very practical and most dependable daily driver. I would feel most comfortable jumping in this roadster and driving it across the United States no matter what time of year. That is also why I chose this car to drive through our burning canyon at 5AM to get away from our endangered home. Please feel free to email with any questions. If you are seriously interested, please do read the entire copy in this listing. I have tried to include as much relevant information as possible. I will gladly provide additional photographs as you might direct. If you are local you are of course welcome to stop by for a test drive or have a local mechanic inspect the car. I had searched long for the right Pagoda. Numerous references recommended the 1966 230Sl as the very best of the 113 body cars. The word is that with each model year the Pagoda became less of a sports car and ultimately morphed into a heavier luxury cruiser, particularly after the unfortunate changes in introduced on the assembly line in July of 1969. While the larger engine displacement is not much of a plus, many of the early cars came with this very nice manual transmission. All cars with automatic are most unpleasant to drive as they start in second gear unless one shifts by hand. Both the automatic transmission and cheesy factory air were out of the question in the car I was looking for. The factory power steering if a plus. I have been very pleased with the performance and handling characteristics of this car. We were significantly less enamored with the drivability of my wife's 1970 280SL concourse show car which we only hung onto for a brief period. I am not interested in any trades. I need to sell this vehicle for cash. A $500 deposit via PayPal is required within 24 hours of the auction close. If you have an eBay rating of less than 10 or have received any recent negative feedback within the past year, please contact me before placing a bid on this item. I hold clear title to this car. It is currently registered and insured here in California. I have the original pink slip. I will gladly help coordinate pick-up for out of town shipping. Hiring a car carrier would be the responsibility of the winning bidder. THIS IS A NO RESERVE AUCTION.On Oct-06-11 at 12:48:52 PDT, seller added the following information: Thank you for all the inquiries. I have not been posting my responses as most of the messages contain contact information and names. I have been asked by a number of eBay members for photos of the car's undercarriage. Please see this link for 45 photos taken this morning: http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc480/VMAssociates/280SL/?previewTheme=42&track=interstitial&previewCancelUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fs1213.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fcc480%2FVMAssociates%2F280SL%2F On Oct-06-11 at 12:57:01 PDT, seller added the following information: My apologies - here is that link to the undercarriage photos: