It is strange how things happen. I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to cars.
I purchased a “new” Pagoda. Here are some pictures. If you want to read about the details, just see below.
I was starting to think about selling my Anthracite Grey (173G) Pagoda due to the price increases. We are all in different financial situations. In my position, I was starting to think that it didn't make sense to have such an expensive piece of metal spending most of its time sitting in my garage. When the value was down at US$15k or $20k, I was comfortable with that. Then, while thinking about the possibility of being Pagodaless, I was getting cold feet about selling and realized I didn’t want to be without one. So, the next idea was to buy a less expensive Pagoda to replace the 173G car, make some money selling the 173G car, and fix up the “new” one over time. I do love that process of improving the car. So, I started looking at a couple of cars and Benz Dr. and Tom Colitt were both helping me on the phone. The cars were in California and Canada, which explains why I wasn’t talking with other experts on this forum (ja17, stickandrudderman, and others). Both Dan and Tom are great guys and I appreciate their advice and the conversations we had. Then, while figuring out the logistics of the possible purchase of one of those cars, I went to a local gentleman's home to buy some used parts from him. He had a number of Mercedes, but only one Pagoda. He wanted to show it to me. Of course, I love looking at Pagodas. Then he told me it was for sale …. and I bought it. Based on what I’ve learned here in this community, it was an easy decision. Here is the part of the story that some of you might get frustrated with. This whole process, from inception of idea to having the car in my garage, took about 3 weeks. Now it’s been in my garage for 2 weeks. I’ve been hesitant to “announce” it on the Forum since I did not have the title. There were some title issues, but I’ve got that under control …. at least I’m 95% sure of that. Enjoy the pictures. The one of the headlight notch was from before I washed the car. It had been sitting for a long while. Most of the rest of the pictures are after an exterior wash and interior vacuum and wipe down. No wax. No scrubbing. No shampooing, actually a little chrome polishing
. The car was out of gas when I picked it up, but I had heard it run a week earlier when I saw it for the first time. We (my good friend with a trailer and I) put some gas in it on the way home and it started up when it was time to take it off the trailer. Cold start was not good. I know what to look for. This is one of several small items to fix and refresh. Lots of deferred maintenance too, to catch up on. Lots of cleaning and polishing needed. This is dream car for me (and many others). Original metal. Very nice re-paint (not original, but 15 or 20 years old). Mostly original interior. Tool kit only missing a couple of items (has the original red MB-Tex bag), top handles and pouch, jack, chock, spare, spare cover, date coded original steel wheels (plus the later bunts you see in the pix) are all present. It was a great deal for the seller as he didn’t have to do anything to sell it. There are very few records from before the seller bought it and only enough records after he bought it to see he put less than a thousand miles on it in 24 years. I know that is not ideal, but for me I have no issue with that. I will bring the mechanicals back to safe and reliable and both doors clunk the same, if you know what I mean. When it was painted, the painter was so thorough that he filled in the spot welds on the fenders to make it look pretty.
Thank goodness the PO told him not to fill in the notches! All in all, I feel like I won the lottery. A member of this forum introduced me to the PO. In an effort to keep the PO’s identity private, I will not publicly thank that member, but he (or she) knows who he/she is and has already been thanked. I hope some of you enjoyed reading about the details. I will say that without this entire contributing community, I would not be able to own, repair, maintain, and ultimately enjoy these cars. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED THEIR TIME, KNOWLEDGE, RESEARCH AND IDEAS OVER THE YEARS !!! (and yes, I am yelling as loud as I possibly can).
I’m way past the point where they would have started playing the music if I had won an OSCAR, so I will stop now.
By the way, the color is 906G Blue-Grey. It will take me a while to attach all the pictures that I want to attach.
