I see a lot of very rusty cars around - there is a 420 for sale locally with Swiss cheese front wings which is not unusual .
Sadly , I have found two sound cars in scrapyards recently - thanks to scrappage .
My 500 , when I bought it 2-1/2 years ago was in very good condition - it had been owned and well cared for by a funeral director most of it's life before the owner of 1 year who sold it to me . The funeral director had fitted two genuine front wings and had a quality respray in DB199 blue/black ( the original colour ) there is now some slight bubbling around the osr wheelarch where I think there may have been some accident damage in the past as no rust anywhere else . The parcel shelf was dry when I bought the car , but two years on is just starting to show a little water ingress - time to nip this problem in the bud this summer . Doors , jacking points etc are all good .
The 280SE , which I bought a year ago for only £100 , does have a rotten parcel shelf - I cut a sound one out of one of the breakers cars and will try welding this in when I feel brave enough . Sadly rear screen seals are no longer available . This car also needs the rear end covers of both sills doing but jacking points themselves are sound , beyond that a single brake pipe needed for MOT . The drivers door has rust along the bottom edge , but I have a spare one in the correct colour . There was a broken bonnet hinge (common problem) but I fixed that . I knew about the rusty bits before buying the car , but it was cheap enough , and I fancied an early pre-facelift car to go along with my later one . It is far too good to let it go to the breakers , which was its likely fate had I not bought it . Both my cars have excellent bumper chrome .
I'm actually collecting parts to retrofit hydropneumatic rear suspension to my 500 as I use it for towing - having had , and worked on , three MB estates with the same system I'm not scared of it and know it will make a huge difference .
I recently had a quality stainless steel exhaust system fitted to the 500 by PD Gough of Nottingham , who I cannot reccomend too highly - the system is a replica of the original and the car performs flawlessly - MB exhausts for these cars cost double what this system did and would need replacing again in a few years - I know someone in the MBOC who had a SS system fitted there over 20 years ago and still good as new .
The late 500 in one yard near me still has an excellent blue leather interior with heated , memory electric front seats and fixed , heated rear bench . The 420 in another has cloth but was a sound car before being broken . There is also a complete 500SEC in another yard , with Mushroom leather - car has a destruction order due to being 'proceeds of crime' but nothing had been removed when I last saw it a week or so past - it is a nice car in Diamond Blue with 8 hole alloys and good bumper chrome (in Renfrew Autobreakers yard , if anyone is interested I can pass on the phone number but I don't have time to start removing parts and posting them ) .
