Update by Tim Suddard to the
Mercedes-Benz 230 S project car
Jul 18, 2012
Work began in earnest to tear our parts car apart. After cleaning up the car a bit and looking it over, we found some interesting tidbits. First, despite this parts car being from New Hampshire and rusted to the ground (the state inspection sticker gave its origin away) the trunk floor that we desperately need is perfect on this parts car.
We also confirmed that the car is equipped with Kuhlmeister factory air. As it turns out, ours has Behr aftermarket air. Between the two systems, we feel we can get the air working well and cheaply. Our parts car also has factory-tinted glass, which we did not get on our project car. Since we need new front and rear widow seals, we will attempt to change this glass as well.
The seats are in very good shape. We want to keep our deep red interior color and have had good luck cleaning and painting seats in the past with vinyl paint. We are discussing trying this on these seats, but will test its durability and color on the lower seat back, a part we don’t need.
The dash is nearly out, and we’ve decided to save the carpet as well. We have pulled out the ignition, light switch and other switches. These parts should make maintenance of this car a lot cheaper, as we will have a lot of hopefully good used parts on hand.
We are very happy with our purchase. Despite a pretty high purchase price for a parts car—$1400—we feel this will make the restoration much more economical and provide us with a good spares pouch for when we go on trips.
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