SL For Sale Sold!

Jill's 450 SL, 1976. $6400
e-mail: jimc@windwireless.net or telephone: (509) 926-7801

Why Selling?

The good part is that you get a car that we had been planning on keeping `forever', and treated accordingly.

The Good

• Needs nothing, everything works. (See repair list.) Not perfect, however, see below.
• 1976 model is exempt from smog testing in WA, yet has the reliable CIS fuel injection, hydraulic valve lifters, and manual HVAC control. (One of only two production years to have this desirable combination of features.)
• 450 engine uses regular gasoline, unlike later cars which require premium.
• 450 models have more passenger legroom than later 107's that put the engine computer and other items under a floorboard panel.
• Upgraded E-code (European pattern) headlights, using H1 & H4 bulbs. While perhaps not as 'pretty' as the true Euro headlights, these babies are significantly brighter yet have the same superior lighting pattern. With 100W high beams and relays, there are 400W of deer-finding high-beam power, twice normal, and four times what the Euro lights put out. (This is significant, at least where we live. We are going to miss the 'lasers'!) Of course, this headlight power requires responsible usage as such bright high beams are especially blinding to oncoming drivers. Proper aim is critical. Returning to stock wattage requires only replacing the bulbs, available at any auto parts store. And, of course, if you're truly in love with USDOT sealed beam lamps they'll just drop right back in.
• Upgraded (100W bulbs and relays) fog lights. They are now bright enough to drive by alone, if conditions call for that. (One of the modifications was to restore them to be able to be on alone.) With the brighter low beams, in heavy fog conditions backscatter can be even more of a problem. In which case you can switch off the lows and switch (leave) on the fogs for best visibility.
• Rear fog light. A disabled-for-US factory feature suitable for heavy fog conditions. Basically an extra brake lamp that's on all the time (when you turn it on), to make you more visible to the rear.
• Integrated exterior temperature display (from 190E), looks like it could be stock. It isn't, but I prefer it to losing the center vent as you do on a 560 SL which has an actual factory display.
• Added lights-on warning signal (using existing warning buzzer), like later MB's have. According to my wife, a must-have!
• Upgraded to automatic antenna from later SL.
• Dome light system from 560 SL.
• Alpine CD player, with hidden rear deck speakers.
• Cruise control is working. (Very unusual at this age!)
• Heated windshield washer nozzles from 560 SL.
• High-quality leather wrap for steering wheel. Actually feels superior to the 560 SL's, probably because it's new leather, and looks like it belongs there. I won't tell you what my wife said it felt like, let's just say she likes it a lot.
• Rear center seat belt, works great for tying down a crossbar-less baby seat in the back. This actually works pretty well, and so far we've had no problems going on family outings in any of our SL's (all of which have this feature courtesy of the junkyard). The belt normally hides under the rear deck, and is from a 500 SEL. It wouldn't be much good for a full-size (!) passenger, but that's more due to its center location and the nature of the rear deck than the belt itself.
• Leatherique'd interior looks very good, especially considering its age.
• R12 compatible refrigerant. Works better and lasts longer than R134a conversions. (Less corrosive, and lubricates the compressor better. I have heard too many disturbing reports of early failure of converted systems.) Other compatible replacements are available, if you don't want to continue with R12. (I recommend against a R134a conversion, primarily because of the oil problem. Also, R134a is less effective: it's inherently less efficient; designed-for-R134a systems are larger as a result.)

The Bad

• Some minor (cosmetic) surface rust, primarily the 'bullet holes' in the trunk lid. These aren't holed yet, but they look perilously close. They've remained unchanged, however, for the entire time we've had the car. I have found no structural rust. (What little there was when I bought the car I had commercially repaired before my then-fiancee took posession of the car.)
• The paint still looks good from a few feet away, but the clear coat is starting to chip here and there, and there's the usual rash from the hardtop. Well treated the car should be good for some years yet.
• The rear window defroster barely works. Only a couple of vertical strips will clear. (This is also unchanged from when I got the car.) Usually not much of an issue on a convertible!
• Soft top side windows are cracking. Small damaged spots in the top itself have been repaired. The canvas is unfaded and looks nearly unused, and is very good looking overall, the damage was due to improper stowage. The window cracks are due to the vinyl's age. In the rain these cracks have not been any kind of a problem.
• Left side window is scratched. (Unchanged from when I got the car.) Like you want the windows up on an SL anyway! (The scratch is not horrible, btw, and resembles a bug smear.)
• The dash has been crack-repaired and repainted. (I prefer the idea of this solution to a dash cap, which I used in my 560 SL. Caps don't fit as well as you would hope, and the extra thickness causes interference fits with the A pillars and the instrument cluster, and some creaking. One also reduces clearance on top of the dash to the point where you can't wipe the window completely by hand over the instrument cluster.) Unfortunately the repaired cracks are still visible, but not too obtrusive. The degree of visibility is temperature-dependent. The 'repair' I consider to be a failure, but it was an experiment after all, and is in no way worse off than it was to begin with. You don't want to know what a new dash costs, so it's either this or a cap or a (hideous) mat!

The Ugly

• Many records from its prior ownership. Not all, of course, but I kept everything I got with it, and anything I added to the stack.
• Original non-dome-light-bearing top window moldings.
• Extra Leatherique dye (paint), in bamboo. More than a splash, but not much. Good for touch-up, for awhile at least.
• Touch-up paint. An old rattle-can of McParts paint that works very well for rocker-panel touch-up, and a semi-official mixed-to-code bottle (old) for the rest.
• Smog pump.
• Original ratty driver's seat cover. It actually makes a good pad for the baby seat, to protect the finish on the horse collar. At least the color matches. Mostly.
• Becker radio (in exchange for the Alpine CD that's in there now).
• For $100, a black plastic dash cap. The same as I put in my SL. That's what they cost, but you'd save shipping. (We bought it for this car, but I decided later to try the crack-filling instead. I've been thinking of putting it in the replacement SL, which also has a cracked dash, but that won't happen anytime soon. We can always get another one.)
• Bootleg copy of the factory manual on CD. Notably difficult to use by the novice mechanic, these were designed for use by experienced MB mechanics who only needed to know peculiar details about any given job. It is, of course, invaluable even so. Of the aftermarket manuals out there I've seen, I particularly like the Haynes.

Pictures:

• Color, w/hard top
• Color, w/soft top
• Front
• Rear
• Rear, Right
• Side, left front
• Side, left rear
• Side, right front
• Side, right rear
• Top (hard)
• Interior, left
• Interior, right
• Console
• Console tray
• Console switches (note dome switch & 5-way antenna switch)
• Dome light
• Instrument cluster (note exterior temperature display)
• Left 'bucket' (w/color insert on handle!)
• Right 'bucket'
• Back 'bucket'
• Door panel, left
• Door panel, right
• Left front, w/hard top
• Rocker, left front (black spot is tar, not hole)
• Rocker, left rear
• Rocker, right front
• Rocker, right rear
• Seat, left
• Seat back, left
• Seat, right
• Seat back, right
• Sill, left
• Sill, right
• Sill, right 2
• Sill plate
• Sun visor, left
• Sun visor, right
• Soft top, back
• Soft top, exterior patch (light spots are mostly lighting artifacts)
• Soft top, exterior patch 2
• Soft top, interior patch
• Soft top, left quarter
• Soft top, left quarter window
• Soft top, right quarter
• Soft top, right quarter window
• Soft top, right interior
• Soft top, left interior
• Trunk
• Trunk 2
• Baby seat belt
• Baby seat pad (opt.)
• Engine
• Engine, left
• Engine, right
• Trunk lid rust 'bulletholes' (not through)
• Window scratch
• Clear coat chip
• Dash crack (patched & painted)

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