Anyone Seen A 300cd Convertible? Can You Do It?
 

Just Bought A 1984 White 300cd And I Really Like It. Just Wondering Can You Turn It Into A Convertible? Wanted To See If Anyone Has Seen One Or Know Anything About Converting It To A Convertible. Thought It Would Really Be A Cool Convertible!!

I know they did a lot of it with 126 coupes, back in their hay-day. In fact when I purchased mine, it came with brochures from some company in California who was doing the conversions. The p/o was originally considering ruining, I mean doing it to the car when he bought it new. He, at some point, backed out of it.

I would not do it, the car was not constructed to be a convertible, and will never handle properly or be structurally safe, especially in a collision. Cars made to be convertibles have different floorpans with much more reinforcement in them as well as heavier construction along the body so they wont fold up like a clamshell when hit or wander going down the road from excessive body flex. All that aside, you would also completely annihilate any value the car had.

You would need a full frame if you are considering butchering a unibody car. The roof acts as supports also, and as stated earlier, the car needs to be designed to be a rag top.

They do exist. A friend in OH captured a foto of one within the past year.

Have seen a CE convertible ad.

Don't do it. Get a convertible gasser and drop a diesel in it.

There was a guy advertising on Los Angeles Craigslist a few months back, He was swapping Diesel engines into the SL and SEL body style. I emailed him about getting a 450sl and he said something like 10K, if he obtained the car. He was in the process of doing an SEL but i never heard back from him, not that I would spend that kind of money on that car...

Rollcage time?

Drop a 60x into a 124 300CE...that would be cool. But I think the wafting diesel fumes wouldn't be too pleasant to your passengers :P

Flexible Flyer

B100 will fix that. Just don't use WVO made from grease used to fry chickens, or else you'll be requested to stop at various KFCs along your route by passengers.:scream:

i drove a 280c coupe which had been cut about ten years ago. it was at night so i cannot say if the floor pan had been reinforced or not. the coversion seemed ok quality wise. i did not drive the car with a lot of vigor so i cannot say if it had a lot of flex or not. i don't remember feeling anything too unusual. i am sensitive to chassis flex.

the condition of the car was not great and he wanted a great price for the car so i passed on it.

they tended to add a bulkier rocker panel over the standard one on the convertibles of that era, such as the bmws. this would be a very tricky thing to to properly. i would not want to try to do it on my own because the places that the reinforcing would need to be attached with welding would not be flat and would have undercoating on it on both sides, i suspect, and cleaning it and welding it would be very tricky.

as noted by other posters i would not do it unless the floor pan had been reinforced correctly. even then i suspect you would have a good bit of cowel shake, etc.

tom w

There was a company in Florida (Fort Lauderdale, I think) that converted the W123 coupe into a convertable as well as many other makes and models. I believe if done right it can be OK, but doing it right is not easy. Even some cars that are built as convertibles from the ground up still flex and bend more than I like so you really need the proper reinforcement to reduce that and make the car safe. From time to time a W123 convertible will show up on ebay...I have even seen a 4 door! I would not buy one unless it was done by one of the pros who specialized in doing it, and even then I would want to drive it first. In my opinion, if you want a convertible Benz, buy a SL.

Do you still have a link or email address?

Thanks,