New member introductions

[sledge4.2]

Hello all - First post on this forum, looks like a great treasure-trove of resources.

I am helping a friend of mine place a value on his 280SL Pagoda, and was wondering if there is an expert or someone that does regular valuations of these cars.  I plan on searching the site extensively to learn more about these very special cars, but hoping someone can jump start my search. 

I am a decent shade-tree mechanic and have been working on and restoring 80-90's Italian cars, so this platform is brand new to me but cool cars are not!

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me, and I am happy to post as much details on the car as i can.

Thank you!!
Geno

[alabbasi]

All, my name is Al and I have a 1970 280SL California Coupe. My experience with car has been bitter sweet. I bought it about 15 years ago from an elderly gentleman who imported it from Germany before retiring sometime in the 80's. He was driving it home and rear ended a car smashing the front, then left it to sit for about 20 years. I took it to a restoration shop who turned out to be dishonest and after getting the car back, we found that a lot of the repairs he claimed and charged for, was actually just cover up with bondo so I ended up having to redo the work.

I had someone I trusted fix the structure and the body is now solid but for the last 8 years. It's sat as a bare shell in primer. I think that I'm ready to get back on it. I did not take the car apart and i'm 100% sure that I did not get all the parts back from the restoration shop that took the car in the first place. I'm going to need a lot of help putting it back together and i hope that you don't get fed up with all the questions I have. The car was originally silver with blue leather.

As this car will never be an original, i'd like to make a couple of changes including the following:

Change the car from a California coupe to a convertible. it's too hot in DFW to not have a soft top
Change the interior color from blue to red
Add a/c
Possibly convert to a manual gearbox

My plan is to bring the car to the house and work on it in the evening. Questions:

1)Where are the places people can get parts from and is there an online parts catalog available?
2) Is it possible to find the original leather for these era of cars. I've owned several Mercedes in the past W109's etc, and the leather kits available look vat dyed and not like original MB leather from the era. Are those kits available?
3) Who rebuilds injection pumps these days?
4) Is there a guide that can tell me what's right as far as paint, undercoating etc. The car is in primer right now but my plan is to get the shell painted in the next couple of weeks
5) If I need to eyeball a car, is there anyone in DFW who would be kind enough to let me?

Thanks in advance
Many thanks in advance

[kampala]

Al, welcome

You can search this site for converting a California coupe to a soft top version.  It’s a very big job if you want a conversion that looks factory- cutting and welding a donor section with a soft top compartment.   

There is another way to just add a soft top and not add a factory compartment and that’s supposed to be easier.  Do search this and you should find photos and more. 

Best of luck