1964 230 SL Pagoda

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smillion

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I spent an hour at a classic car dealer this afternoon looking at a 3 owner Ivory 230Sl with hardtop. Just beautiful. No rust in sight. Lovely bodywork. 92,000m, 10,000 in last 22 years according to annual MOTs

Going back Monday to see her out of the showroom/barn (!) for a test etc.

Any tips what to look for on these?

Thank you.
 
Any tips what to look for on these?

Thank you.

No idea at all on the pagoda, apart from a big dent in your wallet;) :D ;) :D

Beautiful car though, I am very jealous, good luck with your quest.

Sorry I can't be more help.
 
Just check that any re spray work is not covering any rust, if the bulkhead is alll clean then this is a good indication.

The 230 is the smallest, the was a 250 and a 280SL in the range,,the car is not that heavy so the performance is not bad,, all of the parts are off the shelf with many specialist in Germany.

Is it an auto, the engine is good and there is a special SL owners club called" Our SL"that just caters for these cars.

I did quite a lot of work on one years ago and they are simple to service,, one of the best cars ever
 
Selectively edited and cross posted from a Pagoda/107 thread on the 190 forum



The W113 series (Pagoda) are much more stylish than the R107 , but also much more costly to maintain and find a good one . The R107 is more of a 'Poseurs' car as opposed to the W113 being a driver's car , at least the 230SL , which handles better : I had a 1964 230SL many years ago and it was superb - the 280 had a big , heavy lump of an engine up front and soft , spongy suspension which just did not handle the same :( The 280SL is not any faster a car than the 230SL and is less rewarding to drive , personally I'd forget the 280 in favour of a 230 (the 230 engine is sweeter too) . Likewise , the R107 series handles just like a W123 - kind of wallows & rolls about the place - OK for posing but not really 'sports car' handling : the R129 is much better if you are a keen driver .



The W113 models are thirsty too : a 280SL won't see any better than 20MPG ; a manual , carefully driven and in good tune 230SL might see around 25MPG on a good day : mine did around 20 MPG but it had a tired , smoky engine , even 20 years ago :( The W113 models , being based on the W110/111/112 Fintail chassis ( it is basically a shortened Fintail ) is VERY prone to rust underneath ; most will have had extensive surgery by now - sills , floorpan , crossmembers , boot floor , everywhere really ( I expect mine to have long passed into oblivion by now ) ; R107 models fare a little better but can also harbour rust even on externally good-looking examples : the favourite place is the plenium chamber underneath the chrome vents in front of the windscreen which can fill up with water and rot out , being a particularly awkward place to get into , wet carpets in the footwell are a sign of this expensive to correct fault .

As someone else said , the R129 series are very good cars to drive too : much better than any R107 , although personally I would choose another W113 230SL over either of them if it were not for the fact that prices have now skyrocketed beyond my reach - 25 years ago you could acquire and run one on a budget but alas no longer . You can acquire cheap R107 and R129 models but , as always , you get what you pay for and these cars will have problems .

There are plenty of specialists both for sales and service of all these models (not the same people though - those who sell and those who service are NOT the same) , all of them advertise in the 'Mercedes-Benz Club Gazette' , if you join the club you will get it monthly .

Good luck with your choice .

If going for either of these models , it is a MUST to join the Mercedes-Benz owners' club : the expertise is all there and well worth the £25 a year .

Edit - reading earlier comments in this thread - if you need more than two seats , the sideways facing rear seat in the W113 series is OK but back seats in the R107 models are for infants only .
 

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