58 dash

Hi all; I need some sage advice here. I found a 1958 Mercedes in a junkyard that, after researching, I believe to be a W105 (although it's possibly a 190d). I'm interested in the dash for resale; the wood along the top is pretty dry but the rest is in pretty good shape--the instrument gauges and the radio appear to be in great shape. If I bought this dash for $150.00, would you consider that a good deal for resale?

Take a digital picture, reduce it to less than 50K and post it here so we can see what giving advice on.

[Tomguy]

The radio, if origina, will probably go for over $150 on ebay. That would cover your cost

Well, here is a link to the page I put the pics on so we can identify this girl and so y'all can see the dash; forgive me, I was running out of daylight when I took these.

http://www.geocities.com/teasinit2002/mercedesmystery.html

[Mark DiSilvestro]

It's a model 219, built from 1956 to 1959.
Basically, it's the 190 sedan body with a 220 front end, housing a detuned 220 6 cylinder engine.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[240 Ed]

Wow, that looks cold and miserable, where are you located?

Sunny, balmy upstate NY here; over a hundred inches of snow this year and as I write this, it's snowing for all it's worth. Sure will be glad when I move to Florida.

Now, I guess the next logical questions would be these...what other models besides the one mentioned above would this dash fit in? And, I'm assuming from reading other posts that this radio is an original Becker; how can I test the radio to see if it works? I'm also thinking about reconditioning the top piece of the dash before I sell it; is sanding a nono? I also got that idea from another post. Thanks so much for bearing with me; I only started posting because of this dash but I'm starting to feel a real interest blossoming which is always a good thing~

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Other than the 219 model, only the 190 Pontons used the same wood strip over top of the dash. The rest of the 190 dash was bakelite plastic, like the piece that surrounds the radio in your photo. The 180 Pontons had no wood, only the bakelite. The Ponton 220/S/SE had a horizontal speedometer, with out the little 'hump' in the wood strip.
I'm not sure if the rest of the wood dash is original to the 219 or if the P O tried to dress it up with some 220 pieces. It looks like the wood in the 220 Pontons. It may also fit the 180/190s but wouldn't be correct.

The original Becker Europa AM/FM tube radios
used a separate power/amp box connected via a multi-pin plug and cable. You need both parts and the cable needs to be intact. The antenna cable plugs into to the radio head. The speaker and 12 volts connect to the power/amp box through a strip of setscrew sockets. I hope the paper label is still on the box to tell which connection to use. When the radio is switched on, there's a vibrator unit inside the power/amp box that will hum or buzz if it's working. The vibrators often fail (it did on mine). Hope the salvage yard doesn't want too much for just the radio.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[240 Ed]

re; the wood stip

DON'T TOUCH IT!
Someone who is restoring their dash will want to do all the wood in the same color/finish. And don't try to sand these things either, the lacquer finish comes off easily with Jasco paint remover.

Ok, Ed, I promise I won't touch it; I'm glad I asked that question. I really appreciate everyone's input; it's been a great help.