hi all,
i went and checked out this car today on Chattanooga CL:
Mercedes Benz 500 Se
car is too rusted to be restored IMO, car has been sitting for about 4 years; there is structural rust, bottom of trunk is almost falling out, typical rear window leakage, hole in frame in trunk, rust holes on front frame horn, torsion bar, etc. Has Zender Body kit (complete except front bumper skirt, but front bumper is a euro). even has SEC hood (with Zender sticker on it) but with sedan euro bosch headlights (the hood does close so i'm thinking the fenders are probably SEC, not sure about the front part; maybe someone put the sedan euro headlights in after something happened to the SEC ones. steering wheel is not a stock MB; i'm assuming it's Zender also. wheels look like BBS(?) but are all one color; tires are 265's R16's. Owner is a really nice guy; said the car belonged to this brother who bought it in Germany and drove it there for a while then had it shipped over. forgot to look at the door jamb for importer or carb sticker, but i'm thinking "someone knew someone" to get it into the country without any major DOT modifications (owner said the only thing that was done was the door braces). one of the front turn signals and one of the tailights are euro specs. owner also stated that a "bigger" differential was installed (by Zender? not sure). fire extinguisher was missing but bracket is there, triangle is still there but metal part has surface rust.
Engine: does not run but i took the oil cap off and the lobes i could see looked shiny with no rust. not sure if this engine is tuned by Zender (i don't really know anything about them), but i would strongly assume it's a euro 500 engine since most of the other euro bits are still there. owner said it was parked because the starter went out on it (maybe just a cable?) also, mileage shows 85,000 (owner said he's pretty sure it's correct) he is asking $1000 for it (i think that's a very fair price since it's euro and all). i just don't have a way to get it home right now; otherwise i would have bought it and parted it out. so if anyone is interested i have the owner's direct ph# (the one on CL is for his nephew) and his email if anyone is interested in the car. also if anyone has anymore question let me know (i probably left out some things)
P.S. the car is located in Lookout Mountain, GA (one the very top of the Mtn)