Any Pagoda owners here?

teahead

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Was looking at one (280SL) locally here and wondering what's all to look out for?

The usual? Rust, but where?

Front Fender notches? Spot welds?

Clunky automatics? Smoke from exhaust?
 

vince

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I had one before my coupe. A '71, bought it off a little old lady. It came with ton of documentation, even the original window sticker from Mercedes of Beverly Hills. To be honest, I kind of hated that car. Sure, it was beautiful but drove like a truck compared to a BMW of the same period.

Besides the spot welds and the fender notches; the hood, tonneau cover, and hard top should all be number stamped. Those numbers should all match.
 

HB Chris

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And I had a 67 230SL for eight years which I sold to buy my coupe. Nice car and it turned a lot of heads but I always wanted a true GT which is now my coupe. I think the 230SLs are more pure, more chrome vs. satin metal, no headrests or side marker lights, two piece hubcaps, fog lights in the headlight frames, no bumper guards which the 280s seem to have and more.
 

teahead

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Well...decided to get it. Too good a deal to pass up.

All original paint (although drive'rs door was repainted due to accident), 99.9% rust free!, and a new top! Runs great!

Wife is very happy.

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teahead

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Ya, think did pretty good. Got him down to $34k.

Has all the documentation too, books, manuals, toolkit, etc.
 

teahead

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Did some more cleanup and polish and waxing (heavily oxidized on the hood/bonnet and trunk/boot.

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Sven

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Rob, you may want to check the condition of the two whitish bushings that are at each end of the transmission shifter linkage. They are prone to fail. The are inexpensive and a bit tricky to change. When they break while driving and you stop to figure out what happened then you can't restart the engine. I just did this job to the SL in my garage.
 
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