Is this 230SL worth it`s money?

[SLOpagoda]

 Hello I really want to find a Pagoda for me and one my friend knows for this Pagoda.
So I would like to hear your opinions about this car and if you think this car is worth 17000$?
It`s in good condition, with almoust no rust. Dash chrome is not in very good condition and the car doesn`t have nice soft top, other things are OK. It has also two stratches on the nose, but nothing serious.
Please help me with your opinions and tell me how much would this car be worth, thanks.

[Douglas]

You can't tell all that much from these pix. Ask the seller for a photo of the trunk floor with the spare tire removed. That should be very revealing.

(Also, I can't help but wonder why on Earth someone would put an MB star on their rear window upside down. Is it in protest?)

Douglas Kim
New York
USA

[glennard]

Passes the 30 ft test.   1 picture is worth a 1000 lies- whoops- words.   Got to lift the carpets, look under (with a ice pick), hear it run, do a compression test, drive it, check soft top, etc, etc----.  The 1 foot test is better---.

[Mark280SL]

Parts of the front grill appear to be damaged in the photos, so depending on the extent of the damage and how particular you are that could get very pricy because the original grill parts and or good repair and rechroming is expensive.

Don't know if you saw the car in person to check the true contition of the body, when I was looking for my car I saw photos of a pagoda and in the photos and even from 10 feet away when I went to see it in person the body and paint looked really good but when I looked at the car closely for 5 minutes I saw evidence of massive body work and that is scary, Photos alone can be very misleading.

Mark
1970 280 SL Ivory/Cognac

[rwmastel]

Looking at the pics, I see that NONE of the cars have license plates.  Note the SUV and pickup truck don't have them on the rear!  This may be a reseller taking pictures at home.  If you tell us where the car is, maybe someone in the Group lives near by and could examine it for you.  You say you have a friend who knows this car?  Does that mean they simply saw it for sale, or they know the history and past owners?

My recommendation is to get it inspected by a mecahnic or restorer who knows 1960's Mercedes-Benz cars.

Rodd
Pagoda Technical Manual
please contibute: http://www.sl113.org/wiki/pmwiki.php
1966 230SL
2006 C230 Sport Sedan

[paulr]

quote:(Also, I can't help but wonder why on Earth someone would put an MB star on their rear window upside down. Is it in protest?)

Douglas Kim
New York
USA

Ha ha, Douglas, I love that .

paulr
1970 280 SL

[Robert_F]

When I was shopping for my car I saw a car that outwardly appeard like this one, it was a 230 SL also. The owner advertised it for $14,000 but dropped it to $11,000 when I went to see it. But I did not really want a 230 SL and later purchased a 280, I paid considerably more for my 280 but it was in much better shape then the other car and the 280's seem to have a much higher resale then the 230 or 250 models also. If you want this car you should go look at it, it is hard to get an idea of condition from a photo or even many photos.

[bsimaz]

I agree that you should let is know where it's at.   Someone could look at it and give a summary of condition.   I've done that for people before and it really changed their mind about buying a 'fixer-upper'.   But maybe that's what you're looking for.

Looks OK from the pictures though,  but you won't see any trouble spots from these pics.

Bill Simaz
'66 230sl
Back on the Road

[john.mancini]

With the hood open, I can see that all of the dimples (we look for) have been filled in, probably with bondo. These are the spot welds that are formed when the fender is welded to the inner fender wall. You can actually see the excess body filler along the line. Tells me it's probably a rust bucket. My advice, Walk, or run away from the car.
Pagoda69

[SLOpagoda]

Thanky ou boys for all those answers and help, you can`t believe how grateful I am, my friend take a look on that car, he took a lot of pictures for me and I also found one Mercedes enthusiast here in my country, Slovenia and he gave also his opinion. On the end I didn`t buy this car, because this car really have a lots of dings and bad places, also undercarriage of the car is not in good condition, it also has little damage in grille and few stratches on the hardtop, and nose of the car.

Anyway, thanks again for all you help and answers and now I`m back on the adventure for huntning the right PAGODA for me, if anyone knows for some please let me know, I would be very grateful. Now I allready know for some more Pagodas and I hope that it`s not wrong if I`ll make some post about helping me with your opinions.

Thanks again to all of you Mercedes enthusiasts, I`m only 20 years old and allready very in love in those marvellous cars, so I hope that I soon find one suitable for me;)

A greetings from Slovenia,

jaka

[Bob G]

Has anyone have any service records and histroy on this car. Also insist on taking it to a good Mercedes-Benz mechanic fimular with these cars and check it while its on the rack and do a compression check of the cylinders.
Other than some body damage and faided carpet figure  may be  3500.00 for paint and body work prehaps a carpet kit from H&H and a good tune up and valve adjustment with belt replacements if that had not  been done earlier.
Bob Geco