107.043 makes it a 350SL. Not a US 350SL because US 350SLs had the 4.5l M117 and were correctly VIN'd 107.044 like all 450SLs. So that makes it a Euro as if the 4-speed wasn't enough. And the US EPC doesn't recognize the VIN. As for year, I believe the M116 followed the fuel injection and changes of the M117. That means D-Jet (EFI) means 71-75 and K-Jet (MFI with the octopus under the air cleaner) means 76-80.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

The car is a real orphan looking for a home. The story on it is that some guy had it in storage for a while and took it to a shop to get it started after sitting so long. The shop got it started - the shop also has a consignment lot out front, and the owner told them to put it out there after he got it running. Apparently he is very hard to get a hold of. I've left one message for the owner about a month ago. The shop guy says the dude pays his consignment fee and then he never hears from him, and he is getting pissed off because a tire is down and it is making his lot look bad. I'm thinking the car may be enough of a headache for everybody that I can pick it up cheap. What's the general consenus on the 70's 350 SLs? Are parts readily available?

sixto, you say "as if the 4 speed wasn't enough" like that is a negative. I would of thought that would be something that would make the car more, not less desirable.

I meant as if a 4-speed wasn't enough to confirm that it's a Euro. As ctaylor738 points out, it's an option of limited but dedicated interest in the US. But that wasn't my point

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

oh, I get it, this just confirms for you that it is a Euro. I figured it was anyway by the headlights, etc. I also thought that if the first three digits were 107, then it was a Euro. Is that not correct?

107 refers to the entire chassis line, roadster and coupe, from 71-80.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Hello,
Seems you have a gray market 350SL, bad news is that the 4 speed box is a can of worms, unique to the M116 and not reliable unlike the G76 behind the 4 and 6 cylinder engines. Internal parts are difficult and expensive to come by, there are plenty of 350/4speed combos lying around in junkyards and shops around here!!

__________________
Nachi11744

It isn't bad news yet, I haven't bought it. I'm probably going to end up passing on this one - it looks like a heck of a nice car for cheap but it turns out it is not what I thought it was. It has a 500 SL badge on it but its actually a 350 SL. I own an 83 280 SL and I would like to find a nice Euro 500 SL to go with it, sort of a his and hers thing. At this point the only reason I would buy this guy is to try to make money but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest or encouragement on this particular model.

Or take the purchase money to Vegas, or go to the track. You have a much better chance of making money than buying that car.

On the other hand, you could re-orient your collecting goals to "stick shift roadsters," making it a nice addition to your collection. I think a un-emissioned 107 with a V8 a 4 speed would be the dog's bollocks as the Brits say.

__________________
Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

Well, if it had actually been a 500 with a 4 spd, which is what I was really excited about, then it would have been worth the money because something like that would just have to be a blast a drive. But I've heard a lot of negative things about the 350 over the years and I really don't know if it would be worth that kind of a financial adventure. This re-badge thing really took me by surprise, and early today I was talking to a car salesman friend of mine, and he said I would be amazed at how many "560SLs" you see tooling down the freeway are re-badged junkyard refugees. At least I learned a lot thru the experience, mostly thanks to you guys.

Kirk
83 280 SL 4spd auto Astral Silver
84 Porsche 944 5spd Silver Metallic

[/QUOTE..... it is not what I thought it was. It has a 500 SL badge on it but its actually a 350 SL. I own an 83 280 SL and I would like to find a nice Euro 500 SL to go with it, sort of a his and hers thing. At this point the only reason I would buy this guy is to try to make money but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest or encouragement on this particular model.[/QUOTE]

Help me get this right, you are now driving a 4.5 litre automatic 280SL.... and you want to impress the wife with buying her a 500SL..... but you are passing on a 107 body style 4spd stickshift 350SL V-8 which is extremely rare in the USA and probably has more power than your 280SL.

I've never seen a V-8 hooked up to the stickshift tranny which Nachi says is junk, but my 1977 280SEL (6cyl/4spd) gave me no tranny problems at all. Um, maybe if somebody beats on em - then the trannies get wasted, as the V-8 rips gears and splines from the tranny case under high engine speed, power shifting conditions.

Otherwise I'm thinkin this 350SL is probably a better car than the one you are now driving, existing conditions of both cars being nearly equal.

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Last edited by 300SDog; 08-28-2004 at 04:06 PM.

240DieselDog, I drive a 2.8 liter 83 280SL auto. Actually, the idea was to give that one to her after I got the 500 SL stick on the road. But the car turns out to not be a 500SL, it is actually a 350 SL, so it throws a monkey wrench in. The one I am passing on is a 107 body style 74 350 SL. The car has less 100,000 miles, is in pretty good shape looks wise, I have talked to the mechanic who got it running after it came out of storage, it was apparently stored properly, and the mechanic said he thought the car was mechanically sound. The interior looks great, althought the carpets are a little faded, the body has only parking dings, and rust around the badge on the rear trunk. This is where the guy removed the 350SL badge and put a 500 SL badge in place, probably pulling up the paint enough to cause the rust. It has the hardtop on it now, and it has air. I haven't driven the car yet, so I don't know what works. Otherwise it is a typical Euro with roll up windows, square lights, short bumpers, etc. It has been repainted at some point, and the paint job is presentable but not what I would call an MB quality paint job.

The owner looks like he has lost interest in the car, and I really think I could buy the car for under 2 grand. Given the corrected facts, am I out of mind if I pass on this car or would it be worth the effort if my goal is to get a higher performance stick SL on the road as a hobby? Another consideration is that if I was to pick it up for under 2 grand, whether the car is something that is marketable to those interested in these cars to the point I could turn the car around and make some money, one of the reasons I am asking the question on this forum as I have abolutely no clue on the vintage community's typical opinion is on a 350 SL and have no familiarity with the model myself.

It would be nice to hear the experience from anyone who bought a car like that that had been in storage for a while to get an idea of what is going to be affected by age and will need to be replaced. 107 SLs are down in price right now, so I don't know if it is financially sound to take on a car like this vs just going for a good deal on a driver. One thing I have noted, 350 SLs don't show up a lot on ebay, neither do 500s. They seem to be fairly rare on the open market. Which opens the question as to how available parts are as well.

You will probably never see another 350SL 4-spd in the USA ever again... or any other 107 body style 4-spd at all in this country, for that matter.

I'm no expert on MB V-8's, yet i understand that primitive V-8 versions (from the 1960's when they first appeared) suffered problems with steel sleeves loosening up in aluminum blocks for awhile but I cannot pin down the exact years.

It's hard for me to believe that MB stuck with the short-lived disasterous aluminum block v-8 experiment into 1974.... Thus the 350SL probably has the highly desirable iron block engine, a faster and more efficient version of the 4.5 litre which was laden down with smog controls and electronic fuel sensors.

Other differences between the 3.5 and 4.5 engines include steeper camshafts for better performance on the Euro model. Overall it's my understanding the 350SL was sportier with tighter power band and greater horsepower than the 450SL. And the difference between driving an automatic and standard shift should speak for itself.

Hell yes, I say surrender your practically brand new 280SL to your wife and bag the Vintage 1974 for yourself..... LOL, and she will never guess that your "old-car jallopy" 350SL will run circles around the car she drives and in itself it's probably one of the least common of the SL variations that ever snuck into the USA.

Naturally, since the seller lied about the nameplate - you probably want the car professionally checked over completely because the mileage is probably bogus too. Have you thought about spending $75 or whatever the minimum amount the MB dealership charges for them to look it over and test drive the vehicle??

I would not worry too much about parts. This is the same engine that went in the US 280SE 3.5 coupes, and I believe that some of them came with 4 speeds. So at least it is a drive train that Mercedes offered in the US, albeit not in the 107. There are lots of D-Jets around in six and eight cylinder form.

BTW - I think that engine is rated at 230 HP. I just looked in Dennis Adler's book "Silver Star Century" - and he describes it as an "engineering marvel," or its day, talking about the low-grille coupes.

I am not making this up.

My advice. Go drive the car. If it starts easily, holds oil pressure, runs with some power, clutch and trans OK, no noise from the rear end, and brakes stop it, you can't go too wrong for a couple of grand. Do look at the soft top, though. As you know it's about $8-900 P/L for a new one and the mechanical pieces are REALLY expensive.

__________________
Chuck Taylor
Falls Church VA
'66 200, '66 230SL, '96 SL500. Sold: '81 380SL, '86 300E, '72 250C, '95 C220, 3 '84 280SL's '90 420SEL, '72 280SE, '73 280C, '78 280SE, '70 280SL, '77 450SL, '85 380SL, '87 560SL, '85 380SL, '72 350SL, '96 S500 Coupe

Yeah, I know about the top. Some *******s knifed mine on the 280SL. 1500$ worth of uninsured damage. Must have been a two man team - a slash right above the door windows on each side. They muist have got scared off or couldn't figue the window locks as they didn't steal anything.

I patched the two slices using sail canvas and silicon. I smeared a layer of RV silicon in a square around the damage and laid the canvas patches over it, tucking in the edges where the orginal stiching and piping exist. It came out great, one of my better self-invented fixes. I found out if you glue canvas-to-canvas using silicon the stuff bonds like an iron weld. Make sure you get silicon on every square inch of the patch and be careful not to get any on the side that shows.