Hi everyone. This is my first post to this particular forum, but I was a long-time member to the Porsche forums until I sold my '72 914 when the kids came. Five years have passed, and I'm looking for a new project, and have the full support of my wife.

The other day, it came to my attention that a nearby neighbor had an "old Benz" in her garage, and she was moving. I got in touch, and checked it out; it's a '78 280ce. It was last driven in 2015, passed smog at that time, and I returned today with some jumper cables to see if it would fire up.

Cranked it four times, and the engine came to life. Here's what I know of the car:

It needs a center muffler, it misses on one cylinder when increasing in RPMS, but smoothes out. The automatic goes in to each gear (I was limited to a 30' long driveway), all lights work, the sunroof opens and closes, even the antenna works. A/C blows cold, and there's heat, too. The climate control buttons all seem to do as they are intended. Passenger side windows don't function, but that might be a fuse or some switch/wiring related issue. The trunk won't open.

The car has its original gray paint, a bit faded on the roof and trunk lid, but otherwise looks good. There are three small dings that I could find, and a comprehensive magnet test of the wheel wells, jack points, and rocker panels passed with flying colors. Pulling up the floor mats, everything is clean. There is an oil leak, but considering the car hadn't been moved in nearly two years, I wasn't particularly concerned. It didn't smoke upon start-up or revving.

Now, for the bad: it needs a lot of interior attention. Seats are going to need a full restoration, carpets are iffy in places, wood panels and trim are a bit war-torn (this is a Southern California car and it shows 170k on the clock). The dash cap looks like Iggy Pop's cheeks, and the switchgear is functional but worn.

I'm thinking the car will need some vacuum gremlins worked out, given how brittle the hoses are. It probably needs either an alternator or voltage regulator (the reason it was parked in the first place, I guess).

I've never owned a Mercedes, but have owned many air-cooled VW's and a few Porsches, too. I'm very comfortable under the hood of anything mechanized, so there's nothing overtly frightening about this to me, but... what am I actually getting in to?

I think I can get the car for about $1500.00. My plan would be to tidy it up, get it running smoothly, and enjoy it for a bit, until the next air-cooled opportunity comes along. If I bought for 1500, and redid the interior, addressed the vacuum system and/or F.I. gremlins, tires, etc., would I be underwater upon resale? The car is genuinely solid. I could probably drive it a few miles home, to be honest.

I've attached several photos, if you care to look.

Thanks in advance!

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