Originally Posted by POS

Nice! Body is everything. The unibody is hard to get correct if it was whacked in the past 50 years and fixed improperly. Rust is God-awful expensive too. You know it won't be running, but it'd be nice to know why it was parked. Papers and a history is always interesting to me. Check for repaint; check for bondo. The front headlight buckets came with a little crease on the inside near the grill; if they're gone, you know the front was hit.

Information on 230 / 250 / 280 SL 1963-1971
Pagoda SL Group Technical Manual :: Buying / PrepurchaseEvaluation
Mercedes Benz W113 280SL buyer's guide for originality

The rock bottom Pagodas are now $10,000. You can find cheaper, but they'll be in sections and be incomplete. If the car will clean up nice, I'd want to get it for $10,000 (PLEASE take pics, Tom - I'd love to see a 'barn find' Pagoda - how exciting!). Figure you'll spend $3k-5k pretty quick to get it running and driving faily well. The parts for the w113 are expensive.

But the 280SL is the one to have. The 1971 is the year to have. It sounds definitely worthy of an inspection. Cleaned up very well and running with few issues, and the car would be worth $20k-$30k depending on body/interior condition. Dad had a 1971 that I learned to drive on when I was 16 - I've always wanted another one for myself. I almost bought this one - it's the last Pagoda ever made and it was for sale in Houston about two years ago. I was first on the spot, but the price was high, the engine was non-original, and it had ostrich-leather seats (yuck). I passed on it, but called the Classic Center - who promptly bought it and are currently restoring it. Kinda wish I had bought it still.