Our 1966 Mercedes-Benz 230s is a moderately rare example with 4-speed floor shift and factory air conditioning. It's a running, driving car in need of some TLC, so follow along as we get to know the "heckflosse" or "fintail" Benz.
Our project Mercedes-Benz 230 S gets a workout at the dyno. Check out the results.
We get some parts from Mercedes-Benz Classic Center.
Think you can’t autocross your vintage car? Think again.
Our front end needed to undergo a facelift—of the ball joint kind.
We should now be calling it a Mercedes 280 S.
Nate Landers of Mercedes-Benz Classic Center helped us improve our Heckflosse.
As the sun came up, we were on the lawn talking Mercedes.
We only had a couple minor fuel issues on the long tour.
We embark on the Orange Blossom Tour with our Mercedes Heckflosse.
Our Fintail Mercedes departs for the Orange Blossom Tour.
We adapt the accessories and install the new engine into our Mercedes fintail.
On the hunt for a more powerful engine.
Our tired old engine is burning and leaking oil.
A road trip calls for a good stereo.
With the old 230 S safely home, it was time to make a new list of things to fix and decide what event we wanted to run in next.
Driving home in our Mercedes-Benz 230 S after our family vacation was a ride to remember.
With our alternator repaired, our biggest problem was a vibration coming from the rear.
Our modern devices put the drain on our old alternator.
We try out some cooling fins.
We had to leave our tools and spares at home, but that didn’t stop us from taking our Project Benz on our 3400-mile family road-trip vacation.
Summary
A two-in-one upgrade: rear discs and limited slip.
It's getting cold in here.
We give this Benz the rally look.
Our visit to the Pinehurst Concours was memorable, though not fruitful.
We fire up the old Fintail's engine and go for a drive.
We literally cut our lens out with a Dremel tool.
Chrome doesn't get much better than this work by Graves Plating.
We disassemble the rear end of our Mercedes-Benz 230 S.
We took out the engine so we could properly paint the engine bay and refresh the driveline seals.
We cover the top and bottom inside our Mercedes Heckflosse.
Our Benz has fresh paint, so it's time to put it back together.
This Mercedes has lots of brightwork
Two tones for the tub
We looked at an original Mercedes sales presentation book to decide.
We were very pleased with how nice and straight our nearly 50 year-old Mercedes turned out to be.
They're a great source of parts for your old tri-star.
We don't have the time to do the body ourselves, so we called up the professionals.
The next ones to need attention on our Mercedes Fintail are the fronts, of course.
These problems weren't as minor as we thought.
Our hole-riddled trunk receives a much-needed replacement.
We begin an adventure into rust repair.
Rust repair is the first order of business.
We've done rallycross, soon it's time to bring the dirt to the show circuit.
We repair our fintail’s rusted front crossmember.
We continue restoring our fintail Benz's interior on the cheap.
We got our seats all awesome.
We're very happy with our parts car.
We looked for a parts car to source some much-needed interior pieces.
We were frightened by the $3000 repair bill, but we found the real problem with our transmission was an easy fix.
We took our Benz to another rallycross—and then swore we wouldn't do another until we get the gearbox fixed.
The loud exhaust on our fintail Benz was driving us nuts. Nuts, we tell you.
Fixing our Mercedes-Benz's shifter bushings.
We head out for a little off-road shakedown to make sure our Benz is ready to rallycross.
It's a good thing we checked the subframe bushings before our first rallycross.
We either need an accurate odometer or a working fuel gauge.
We make our Mercedes fully street-legal.
Let's check out the weight distribution on our 1966 Mercedes-Benz 230 S.
It's time to reinstall the factory headrests.
TIme for some good, dirty fun in our Mercedes. Let's go rallycrossing!
Refreshing the Zenith carburetors on our Mercedes-Benz 230 S.
We're getting ready to rally with our Mercedes 230S project.
The devil is in the details, and our Benz 230s has a lot of details.
Our fintail Mercedes gets some needed stopping power.
We prefer our Benz to have working windows and doors.
This '50s-looking car isn't fast, but it's fun to drive and handles like it's from the '80s.
Meet our new project. These fintail sedans are rugged as hell and have a great rally reputation.
