Photos from Hauser

[Cees Klumper]

This is my 1969 280sl 5 speed.  The color is DB728H grey-beige met. The interior features dark brown leather, striped rosewood, A/C, inertia seatbelts and coco mats:
engine:
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Hauser

[n/a]

This car didn't by any chance come from Alex Dearborn in Massachusetts, did it...

[Bob G]

Hauser:
You have a very nice 280SL. Thank you for the lead on the snow flake decal. I am going to call and see if I can personally photograph this decal. I apprecaite your research talents and I will send you a decal for your windshield when we get them done.
Thank You
Bob Geco
P.S. Good Work!

[hauser]

Bob it just shows how well the W113 Pagoda community can help eveyone in need of answers!
1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[hauser]

You've got a keen eye there Jim. You are absolutely correct. I purchased this car from Alex about two years ago.
1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[Peter van Es]

Now I'm going to ask a weird question. Said Mr Dearborn wouldn't perchance have lived in the Bedford/Burlington area, would he?
Peter
Check out http://bali.esweb.nl for photographs of classic car events and my 1970 280 SL

[Douglas]

Nice car, Hauser. I remember seeing pix of it & even have a friend who spoke with the former owner of that car last year. He spoke of it fondly.
(Peter: Alex Dearborn is up in Topsfield, MA on the East Coast.)
Douglas Kim
New York, NY
280 SL #016220

[hauser]

Thank you Douglas. It's turned out to be a wonderful car. As you may know Dearborn restored this car back in the early eighties. This car is featured on the www.dearbornauto.com site under cars sold. It is also on www.oursl.com site under the 280sl galleries.
Alot of attention and details went into this car to be what it is. The striped Brazilian rosewood dash, console, speaker cover and even the hardtop window frame. To reduce unsprung weight the wheels are aluminum, from an eighties 300 series. Adding to its stability the suspension was lowered 1/2" and adjustable Konis installed. The stainless steel exhaust from timevalve adds a nice note to this euro version SL.
According to Alex the 5 speed Getrag transmission was acquired from then independant AMG Mercedes-Benz tuner. Which by the way works flawlessly. Paul Kaminski the chief mechanic on this project,basically built this car from the ground up. Award winning Warren Gilks the painter on this project (now with Sports Leicht restoations)did an awesome job. And I believe that the uphostery work was done by Paul Russel. Their services have stood the test of time. Keep in mind this is a 20 year old restoration,the documentation file is about 2" thick
Before taking delivery Paul Kaminski performed the necessay updates.  Gernold Nisius installed the inertia seatbels, all red tail lights and also gave it his expert once over.
I am happy to have brought this to all and to be a part of this great organization.
1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[n/a]

I thought I recognized it. That car is an absolute peach...good for you. Great color, great interior (if I am not mistaken it was handmade, not a kit) and a lot of neat updates. What is it like to drive?   The Getrag gearbox is, I think, better than the MB or ZF boxes- it is a more recent design and from what I recall shifts better. You lucky dog    

[hauser]

Thanks Jim. The Getrag is great!  If you've ever driven a ZF stick it's sort of like rowing a boat, in my opinion too long of a throw. With this Getrag it's a much shorter and crisper engagement of gears, similar to some of todays more modern short shift transmissions.  Who ever came up with this setup knew what they were doing.
1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[hauser]

Richard thanks for your help and the compliments!
1969 Dash
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Interior shot.
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1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[114015]

Congratulations, Hauser,
This is a real beauty.
However, [:0] there is one thing to improve.
The front licence plate clearly indicates that you want to register your car in Germany   , in Miesbach (= MB) to be correct which is south of Munich.
But the numbers are too long. German number plates can have up to two letters behind the regional abbreviation (here: MB) and up to four numbers but not five.    
So, you could have for instance: "MB SL 1969" or "MB SL 280" or "MB SL 113" or "MB SL 1257" or so.
I am unhappy to say: you need to get a new front licence plate .
All the best,
Achim
(Magdeburg, Germany)

[hauser]

Achim. Thank you very much for the compliments. Of course this would not pass as an authentic German plate, but I was looking for somethig a little different. I did do some research on the German license plates.  We know that MB would would be "Meisbach" and the SL would be "Schleswig-Flensburg (Schleswig)" with the numeral part being the serial number.  
I wanted to do something a little different though. It is typical to see "1969 280sl" or "280SL" and so on. This is the website I researched www.shgraphics.com
A great source for license plates is www.licenseplates.tv  This is owned and operated by a German aka "THE PLATE MEISTER" who really knows his stuff and puts out an awesome product.  On this webesite you can have authentic looking antique/vintage U.S.license plates, sort of like the topping on the cake when one wants to adress all details!
1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[Ben]

I would be interested to hear more about this "5 Speed". Do you know which car the Getrag came from ?
Specifically what alloys are used, I like the idea of alloys with original hubcaps, which in this case look great unpainted !!
Regards,
Ben in Ireland.
'64 230SL 4sp.
'03 CLK Kompressor

[hauser]

Greetings Ben.
Let's start with the wheels. I pulled the wheel cover and between each bolt (clockwise) it reads as follows.
6J x 14H2
48 80
star logo 1234001502
1465-3 Lemmes
2A
The tires Michelin Rainforce 195/75/14
My wheelcovers are not painted because the originals were scuffed and did not show well. I will probably be calling upon the painter some time soon. We know that these wheels need to be painted to be correct but I too like the look of unpainted.
1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[German Dude]

Hauser,
this car is what I would call "Rock'n'Roll on Wheels". Breathtaking.
Further to the German license plate remark: My aunt lives not far from the Miesbach area and she keeps telling me that the best thing to do is stay away from cars with an MB license plate as their drivers are considered the worst in Germany...
While she might be right regarding the drivers, staying away from this beauty seems impossible to me!
Juergen
64 230SL #2933, 4sp, signal red, white hard top
93 Citroen XM station wagon

[n/a]

Just checked out the Hausser machine.  I might be temped to put some more money into such a nice car.  We all know we will never get all that dough back--but what the heck.
Garth

[hauser]

Here's a few other shots of my '69 5spd Euro version.
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1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.

[Ed Cave]

Hauser:
Your car looks great! Thanks for offering some new shots of it we have not seen before.
Have to ask...are both of your outside rearview mirrors located in exactly the same place (they appear to be) and, if so, is the rh mirror in what you would consider the correct spot, as far as visibility and usefulness is concerned?
Ed Cave
Atlanta, GA
1964 356C
1971 280SL

[hauser]

Thank you for the compliments!  I wanted to show the car from different angles and also do a couple bird's eye views.  I wish lighting conditions had been more favorable.
As for the mirrors they are each placed in the same location on its respective door.  As for visibility it works fine especially whith the top down as there are no obstructions.  I don't think I'd be happy if both mirrors were not symetrical.  That's just my personal preference.  It's a thing I ahve about keeping things balanced but in this case works fine.
1969 280sl 5 spd        1999 ML320          Gainesville,Fl.