Pagoda SL Group
W113 Pagoda SL Group => W11x chassis cars => Topic started by: FRITZ68 on February 06, 2013, 03:32:03
-
I was admiring this car for a couple of years and finally purchased at the 2013 Glenmoor auction in Canton, Ohio. It is very nice but needed major front disk brake work. While at it, changed the brake hoses and master cylinder. The mirror stem and door handles needed replated which we had done - other chrome perfect, as is the interior and body. It starts right up and runs like new and has new whitewall tires. Soon to be my weekend driver when the weather breaks in NE Ohio.
Fritz
-
More pictures....
Fritz
-
Nice!
-
Verrrry nice, Fritz, indeed!
Love that German number plate (... especially on US version cars... :D) and the wonderful early style steering wheel with the round horn ring.
Enjoy!!
Best,
Achim
-
This color combination on this car looks very sharp with the added wide white walls, makes you want a go for a long ride somewhere!
-
Now for the best part.
This car was for sale for over 2 years at Motorcar Portfolio in Akron, Ohio (a vintage car dealer with over 50 cars for sale most of the time). I loved it the first time I saw it, but my wife does not drive stick shift and is too old to learn now, so we tried to forget about it. (Her newly painted 280SL is automatic, and she is happy with that car). The asking price for this 220 SEb was $29.9K firm, and for some reason it never sold. When the dealer does not sell a car, he later runs it through his auctions (one auction in the spring and one in the fall). In the spring 2012 auction in Akron, Ohio, it made it close to $25,000, but did not meet the reserve. The next auction was the Glenmoor Gathering auction in September of 2012. We didn't buy anything, but stayed late, and this car was put up very late in the sale. Looking around, most everyone else had gone home - either running out of time, money or storage space. We like to stay at these auctions to the very end (Golden opportunity time I call it).
We were just ready to leave, when the car was put up on the auction block. It looked so great and since we already had some interest in the car, we took notice of course. There was only one other bidder and the bidding was stuck at $9,500. Then unexpectadly they removed the reserve. "The reserve is off - the reserve is off! " the auctioneer shouted. Usually when this happens, the bidding starts up again and often increases substantially. My son had the bidder's pass and was seated behind me. I looked at him and he looked at me and instantly raised his hand to bid $10,000. More pleading and more time trying to get another bid (it seemed like forever), then.....SOLD. (Add 8% buyer's premium comes to $10,800)! I know the market has been soft, but I consider this one of our better buys. The interior is perfect, there is absolutly no rust, perfect paint, perfect chrome (except door handles and mirror stem which we had plated). The car already had new whitewall tires and it runs perfectly. Later we discovered that the front disk brakes needed a LOT of work, which we had professionally done. A really nice clean low mileage car. I later bought an original jack, but adding up everything, have under $15,000 total in the car, which is ready to drive anywhere if the snow ever melts.
The day after the auction, I talked to the owner of Motorcar Portfolio, who is a very good friend of mine, and he admitted to having over $25,000 in the car, but said that he can only keep them so long, thus removed the reserve. He was really glad that I was the buyer, as he knows that my son and I take very good care of our cars and we have purchased many other cars at his auctions over the years. I plan to drive this car on weekends this spring and summer, as the air conditioning even works (very cold). I really like this car and am so happy that we stayed to the very end of the auction in September. Sometimes you get lucky. (Car is not for sale. We have a car museum in Canfield, Ohio and we buy and never sell). See www.tipcars.us Neither of our Mercedes are listed as yet, but will be once we get them outside for some pictures.
Fritz
-
What a lovely car. And a great auction story - good lessons there. You & your son must have been beaming that afternoon!
-
A geat story, and a really nice car for a bargain price ;D
-
Congratulations ! Nice car, great story !
-
I looked at the car over a year ago just before one of the auctions. I couldn't stay to see the bidding. That is a neat old car. You did really well for the price. Bring it to the Pittsburgh vintage Grand Prix in July. There aren't many old Coupes in the area.
-
My expirience with dropping the reserve is you're about to give your car away. It never works like you expect it will.
Most auction cars sell at wholesale or below that. You buy '' as is '' so all of the things you don't know about or didn't see, are some of the things that keep prices down. I agree though that you can pick up a buy once in a while.
You will see cars that go gthrough the B - J auctions that seem to be sold at well below market price. These cars ( at least 30% of all cars sold ) are often bought by the sellers to avoid giving them away. The seller still has to pay the 10% sales commission plus the city and State taxes unless he has it shipped out of State. The seller could easily pay 10K just to get his car back. Of course, if it was a 100K car selling for 30K it's still a lot less painful.
What you don't see on TV is all of the long faces walking out the door.
-
Fritz
You did better than a barn find everyone dreams of. Good for you.
-
A friend of mine just told me the story of the barn find car that got away sort of.
My friend knew of a certain 50's sports car that belonged to an old guy he knew through a service organization. Several years after the old guy passed he accidentally found himself at the homestead and saw the front of the car sitting in the barn. He tried to purchase the car from the widow and he thinks he offered too much money as she instantly took a liking to the car that had otherwise sat neglected for several years. My friend was instead hired to get the car back into shape in memory of her late husband. She drove it for a couple months in the summer and let it sit in the heated garage for several years with my friend going over to start the car, wipe it down and change fluids ocassionally.
She just passed away and left him the car - now how cool is that.
-
Very nice, I am considering going with the wider white walls on my car and after seeing this I thank I made up my mind.
-
What a beautiful car!!!!! I love the color combination. Great to have another coupe on the road.
-
Beautiful colour combination, just like my first 1962 220SE coupe that I bought in 1969. Well done
Doug Dees
-
You stole that car... Highway robbery...
Well done.
Enjoy!!
-
Here are some recent pictures taken early this summer. I have been driving the car for awhile, as the air conditioning works so well. On occasion I have a hard time getting it out of reverse, but it was worse before installing new bushings on the shifting linkage, which I did not do (was done by a shop). I may not be describing this exactly, but prior to that repair, it was almost impossible to get out of reverse. Other than that, it shifts nicely.
The car starts right up, looks, steers and rides like a new car and has no rattles - one of the nicest older cars in my collection.
Fritz
-
Hi, terrific car, story and price! I have your car's sister, a '62 in white over "rust" red interior but mine is a column shift. I am curious about a couple of things on this car and maybe you can clarify? The early cars should have clear bullet signal lenses on the front, but they are hard to find so maybe that's why these were changed to amber. Also, this car has the added rectangular reflectors on the fender sides, which did not come about for some time I believe and my car has the outside mirror affixed to the fender, not the door like yours. Do you think this car was perhaps "updated" in period to reflect the later versions or is it possible your car is a later model than a '62? It does seem you have the other early components like round horn ring rather than the bent style, etc., but I'd love to hear any info you have.
-
Fritz,
I noticed in your pictures that the rear bumper is slanted downwards as it points toward the front. You may have already noticed it, but it should be parallel with the front bumper and lower chrome molding. Not being critical here but hopefully helpful. Those wide WW look fantastic with the color combo. What a knockout!
Its on my PC desktop as we speak.
-
Fritz,
I noticed in your pictures that the rear bumper is slanted downwards as it points toward the front. You may have already noticed it, but it should be parallel with the front bumper and lower chrome molding. Not being critical here but hopefully helpful. Those wide WW look fantastic with the color combo. What a knockout!
Its on my PC desktop as we speak.
I never noticed the bumper slant, but for the price that I paid for the car, this is not an issue. We have the car back in our car museum for the winter already, but I will check it out later - hoping it is a simple loose bracket. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, as I like everything to be as close to original as possible. Fritz
-
Hi, terrific car, story and price! I have your car's sister, a '62 in white over "rust" red interior but mine is a column shift. I am curious about a couple of things on this car and maybe you can clarify? The early cars should have clear bullet signal lenses on the front, but they are hard to find so maybe that's why these were changed to amber. Also, this car has the added rectangular reflectors on the fender sides, which did not come about for some time I believe and my car has the outside mirror affixed to the fender, not the door like yours. Do you think this car was perhaps "updated" in period to reflect the later versions or is it possible your car is a later model than a '62? It does seem you have the other early components like round horn ring rather than the bent style, etc., but I'd love to hear any info you have.
I can't help on this. I bought the car at auction and no information is available, but I am almost certain that the car was from an estate. Interesting observations which I will be trying to research. Thanks for your comments. Fritz
-
It is funny how different the parts of the US are and how it affects our cars.
Fritz says he is readying the W111 for the winter. My W111 w/ no a/c in Texas has been somewhat dormant for the summer! We just had a fantastic rain and now the temp is below 90*F! So now it is time for me to start driving the car and enjoying it. Fall is coming!
Vive le difference!
-
In NE Ohio, October to March is usually cold. April lots of rain. So that leaves May - September. We have a car museum (private collection of 35-40 cars owned by my son and I) in two buildings in Canfield, Ohio and we try to "rotate" the cars as much as possible during the May-Sept season. Our car collection can be seen at www.tipcars.us To see our two Mercedes (this 1962 220 SEb and my wife's 1968 280SL), click on "Latest Additions" at top right hand side of Home Page. In addition to the car museum, we operate a full-time restoration shop for restoring and maintaining our own cars. We have our hands full so cannot do work for others - sorry.
Fritz