Anyone know anything about 1971 Mercedes 280 SE 3.5 Convertibles?

Flibster

Flibster

Flibster

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Or where I could find some more information about them?

Other half's uncle died recently and he had one of these in the garage. It runs, but has no MOT or tax. He ordered it new at a motor show back in the day and he is the only owner.

As far as I have found out, they're worth some money. Most of the ones I've found for sale have been immaculate, and also LHD. This isn't immaculate, and is also a RHD. I've found records of LHD models selling at auction for $300'000+ :eek:

Looking at this - they think that only 22 RHD convertibles were made in 1971, and only 68 in total. So there's some rarity value there.

Information is unsurprisingly scarce, but I'm trying to find out how much it may be worth in it's current condition, and also how much it may cost to restore and anywhere worth trusting to do it.

They haven't decided if it's worth keeping, restoring and using/selling or just selling it now as a project car. If the condition is like his V12 E-type was when he sold it a few years ago, I'd suspect that it's easily £100k's worth of work to make it pristine again. The problem is it's right on the coast, so cars rust quickly.

So, any ideas?
 
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Wow! What a barn find!!

Invest £100k restoring it, sell pristine at auction for a big profit!!

If only it was that simple (never mind £100k as spare cash!!) - how about some pictures of it as it stands currently??

With some good advice, I would imagine you could do rather well from this.

Please keep us updated. :)
 
Cheers chaps. Looks like I will be doing some phoning around once I have some more information about it. I'm hoping to get copies of the documentation and quite a few photo's once it's out of the garage.

Sadly, I'm not getting my hands on it. It's still in the family's hands. I've just been tasked with finding out as much as possible. I would absolutely love it, but I don't have the time, space and more importantly, money to do it properly.

It's looking likely, unfortunately, that it's going to be sold as is. Even getting it an MOT and tax would put the value of it up, but it's how much it would cost to get it to that state. The E-type he sold a few years ago needed a a complete rebuild. It was pretty much made of rust.. It was seriously sad to see one that bad.
 
Ok. Spent quite a while on the phone to various people. They reckon it could be worth a minimum of £50k in it's current state.

If the weather holds off, I should be taking a look at the car next weekend. I do have some photo's at the moment, but they're poor scans from old film shots taken for insurers.

I do have a bit more history about the car.

He was technically the second owner, but the previous owner was Mercedes-Benz. It's believed that it was a car that was displayed in showrooms to draw people in. It's done just over 73k since 1971. Shortly after he bought it he had it resprayed as it was white, and he didn't want a white one. It's now a lovely gold colour... But it wasn't done on the cheap from what I gather so hopefully they did a good job. Shame, as white is a fashionable colour at the moment.

Interior is still original and a full red leather interior. Looks in ok condition, but the photo's are so poor that it's difficult to tell really.

It's had an engine rebuild several years ago due to a reasonably common issue with these engines that caused a small fire. :eek: O rings were used to seal the injectors, but they perished and leaked fuel. Luckilly, he was stopped outside a garage when it started so it was put out extremely quickly and was then trailered to the local Mercedes dealer and rebuilt there.

It won't pass an MOT without some work doing to it as the underside has some rust, but I'm pressing to get the rust sorted at a respected restorer, as well as a brake overhaul and a general service so it can be driven to places for them to take a better look at it.

I'll see if I can put some of the photo's online later, so you can see the gold hugeness of it.
 
Flibster said:
It won't pass an MOT without some work doing to it as the underside has some rust, but I'm pressing to get the rust sorted at a respected restorer, as well as a brake overhaul and a general service so it can be driven to places for them to take a better look at it.
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Yes it will be worth more in a decent condition. However you need to get some proper advice about weather it's sensible in this situation.

Is there enough money in the estate to pay for the work, and will the executor let you spend it?

How long will it take for the work to be completed?

Will the partially restored car take more time and effort to sell?

What will you do if the work takes longer or costs more then expected?

What happens if it becomes apparent that the work wasn't worth doing?

What happens when your relatives just want to get their inheritance quickly?

Unless everyone see's it the way you do I would sell it via an appropriate auctioneer in it's current condition.
 
Just a quick update.

Car was sold last week in it's current condition, running and moving, but nowhere near road legal, to a classic car trader. He's going to restore it and keep it. Which is nice to hear. He's promised to keep us updated on the process. Reckons it'll take about £75k and a year or two to do.

Oh, got £47k for it in the end. More than I was expecting tbh.

Now to try and sell his other cars. *sigh* At least they're modern ones and will be easier to get values on. Couple of 911's, Merc V8 something or other and a mid 90's XJ. Non have been MOT'd in years and are not in good shape. Tempted by one of the 911's for myself...
 
Probably the best outcome! As Wayne Carini would say, you have to find the right buyer!

as a side note. on a car worth this much is rhd that much of a bonus? when you think just how much of the world drive on the left you really do have a limited market.
 
my dad had one in 80s it was stolen :( then we got it back think he sold it the end .

one of the coolest looking cars around :cool:
 
LizardKing said:
Probably the best outcome! As Wayne Carini would say, you have to find the right buyer!

as a side note. on a car worth this much is rhd that much of a bonus? when you think just how much of the world drive on the left you really do have a limited market.
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New owner was happy, previous owner was happy - as far as she was concerned, she got a stack of money for a rust piece of trash.

It's difficult to say what the true value is. I've yet to find a genuine RHD car sold in a long time. 68 made in total over 2 years.

I did find one that was a conversion from LHD to RHD, done using all Merc parts that was sold a few years ago, that went for about 15% more than an all original LHD car did at the time.

~>Dg<~ said:
my dad had one in 80s it was stolen :( then we got it back think he sold it the end .

one of the coolest looking cars around :cool:
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I agree. Love the shape, love that it was hand built, love that even with the roof down you can fit a weeks luggage for 4 in the boot.

Just a shame that it was gold, rusty, manky inside and stored somewhere that when there was any sun, basically became a steam bath. I dread to think what the true state of the bodywork was, but the wood and leather was completely shot.

He had great taste in cars, but he just stored them very badly and just didn't look after them.
 
Rybo89 said:
What 911's are they?
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Don't have much info at the moment.

One is a late 993 Carrera convertible and the is a 2002 3.4 *iirc* Carrera convertible *with the optional hard top* Both with tiptronic gearboxes.

Sadly, neither have been driven for at least 5 years. Colour choices aren't the best either. I think the 2002 one is blue with a green interior... :eek:

Both were ordered as RHD models from a German dealer. he spent a lot of time in Germany with his business, so most of the paperwork that I've had a quick glimpse at was in German, and I know less German than I know Spanish, and all I can say in Spanish is 'The Llama is a quadruped'
 
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