Pagoda SL Group
W113 Pagoda SL Group => Body, interior, paint, chrome, and cosmetic items => Topic started by: stickandrudderman on July 17, 2024, 07:23:04
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How many lives has your car had?
I count 9 different colours, each one separated by a layer of primer!
Luckily this is an old door from my store and not a customer’s car.
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In 60 years a lot happens. :D
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Interesting that most of them are white. I guess that's how most people think of early 1960's Mercedes.
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Mine had 12 layers.
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Incidentally, did you know that 230 and early 250 doors are different from late 250 and 280 doors?
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We never stop learning !
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Incidentally, did you know that 230 and early 250 doors are different from late 250 and 280 doors?
Yes indeed! This was the bane of my ownership for many years, as the driver door had been replaced with an earlier door. Was never “right”. With the great assistance of our member StevenF and after two years of searching I found one, and this was installed in 2020-21.
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Any tips on how to spot differences?
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Any tips on how to spot differences?
Easy. The 230 has the chrome lever for internal lock/unlock whereas the later version has the black plastic lever. The two are not interchangeable because the doors are different.
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Easy. The 230 has the chrome lever for internal lock/unlock whereas the later version has the black plastic lever. The two are not interchangeable because the doors are different.
Mine had been made to look identical, from the outside, as the later style, even though the driver's door was the old style. I always knew something was wrong and the biggest clue was that the locking was different! On one door it was locked when the lock tab was OUT and on the other door when the lock tab was IN.
[For those so inclined as to how this is achieved, on the earlier doors I believe, there is a very long rod used for the locking mechanism. Long rods subject to bending, so I guess they changed it to two smaller rods with a pivot point.]
After going to many events from 2000-2017, nobody told me what the problem was. Finally at the Charlottesville event in 2017, Gernold Nisius of SL Tech (who had seen my car several times before!) noted that I had a "230SL door" on the driver's side. When I returned home I started searching for a 280SL door but had no luck in finding one anywhere, but kept looking. Finally one day StevenF from NY calls me and had a line on one nearby from Craigslist, bundled with a bunch of 190SL stuff. His "NY persuasion techniques" ;) allowed him to free the part from the lot, and we bought it. StevenF was exceedingly helpful in the procurement and shipping. The door sat at Motorwerks in Commerce Michigan for a while, and from 2019-2021 they restored my hard top, swapped the door, and refinished. I offered old 230SL door here in the For Sale section for months with not even an inquiry. It went on eBay and was sold in days to a guy in Las Vegas...
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[For those so inclined as to how this is achieved, on the earlier doors I believe, there is a very long rod used for the locking mechanism. Long rods subject to bending, so I guess they changed it to two smaller rods with a pivot point.]
Indeed, the later lock rods are two-piece with a bell-crank between.
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My car had been 3 colours when I bought it, it was only 11 years old with one owner.
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That must be some kind of record, a colour change every 4 years or there about.