"AdverseMartyr" (ewilliamson)
05/29/2015 at 18:17 • Filed to: None
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"AdverseMartyr" (ewilliamson)
05/29/2015 at 18:17 • Filed to: None | 1
| 6 |
So I don’t know who has been following this, but it will probably make Tavarish proud. I’ve been thinking my way through this and unless someone else can point me to a good reason not to do it (other than you SOBs wanting them for yourselves), I’ll be buying two 1980 450Sl Mercs next week if my test drive of the one goes well.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
I realized I left out the fact that the dashboard is cracked on the brown one. Does anyone know about a hidden rust problem (like I noticed the carpet was up from the floorbehind/below the Driver’s seat, but he had plans to take the seat out for new springs because he thought they were too soft)?
So I think I will fix up the brown one for my parents to cruise in while they are here in July and then sell it, while I consider messing with the silver one for a few months to get it road worthy (assuming it takes the brake work and other minor things) so I can enjoy that Recaro seat and pretend I am an 80’s drug dealer. Maybe find a new passenger door, and get it repainted.
The market seems to be around $8k for these cars from the sites I have looked at. Does that seem about right to you guys?
Party-vi
> AdverseMartyr
05/29/2015 at 18:33 |
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Go back and check the panel gaps and paint. These had very consistent bodywork and the panel gaps should be uniform and similar on each car. Check the bolts and nuts used to mount the body panels as well - Mercedes painted the cars after all the panels were bolted on, so if you see the paint broken on say fender bolts then the fender was removed at some point. The HVAC systems in the 450SLs is very complicated and prone to just break. Usually it’s a clogged drain tube that can lean to water backing up and leaking into the carpet. Also rust is a huge issue; check all the fender wells, the spare tire well in the trunk, where the trunk meets the fenders, and the headlight buckets.
ETA: Check this out for tips and pointers on what to look for.
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AdverseMartyr
> Party-vi
05/29/2015 at 21:44 |
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Thank you, this is an excellent bit of advice and what I was hoping I might illicit from people. If I found major rust in those areas I guess I would need to think a bit more, but from what I saw it looks good over all.
Do you know how valid the prices in the guide are? It seems like the prices are a bit low and it looks like it says ‘09 in the link.(I’d guess this 1980 would be around $4000 as is compared to the example in the guide if prices are higher now, maybe?)
So I guess my question to you would be how bad of a buy could the brown one be at $2000 with a parts car?
Shiftknob
> AdverseMartyr
05/29/2015 at 21:57 |
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Checkout Mercedessource in YouTube. The guy gives some sound advise on what to look out for on Mercedes 20+ old and up.
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AdverseMartyr
> Shiftknob
05/30/2015 at 00:45 |
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Good info. Its a bit annoying how some of his interesting stuff is a video he will sell you, but I suppose people have to make a living.
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Shiftknob
> AdverseMartyr
05/30/2015 at 06:35 |
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Good luck with your purchase! Been eyeing a w108 but still do not have enough funds to buy it!
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Party-vi
> AdverseMartyr
05/30/2015 at 17:32 |
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sounds like a good buy if there aren’t any issues