Almost a year ago we featured a 1958 Mercedes Benz 220S that reader and Barn Finder Doug M found at a yard sale. Doug cleaned the car up, fixed a few things, and has enjoyed it over the past year, but he has decided to let it go to a new home. He is always on the hunt for something new and it sounds like he has a new project to take on. The car is located in Silverton, Oregon and can be found here on eBay.
When Doug found his 220S, it was parked in a carport with a layer of dust on it. It was in surprisingly good condition, but needed some work. Doug made a deal with the owner, bought the car, and got it running. He did some work to get it drivable and even went as far as to have 220S fitted luggage made for it.
The interior was showing wear when he found the car, but he has fixed the major issues and it now looks great. This was a well optioned car and even came with the very rare headrest option. Doug had the front seats professionally recovered and new carpets installed, but left the rest of the interior original. It’s impressive how well it cleaned up, but it’s a testament to the build quality of this era of Mercedes.
Doug was able to get the engine running without having to rebuild it, but it had been rebuilt previously. This car is powered by the 2.2 liter straight six, which is rated at 106 hp. This engine is known for its durability and will likely cover many more miles. The original four speed transmission is still working, but he does admit that it occasionally pops out of fourth gear, so it maybe in need of some work.
It’s great to see that Doug has gotten this car back on the road and that he been able to take it to a few car shows and get some enjoyment out of it. It’s inspiring to see what a little elbow grease can do. It might not look perfect, but it would still be a blast to have and it definitely has more character then if it were perfectly restored. We would like to thank Doug for updating us on his find and we wish him luck! We also look forward to seeing his next great barn find.
It’s great that it’s back on the road.
However it did not look like it needed more than a wash and detailing and besides, he is rewarding himself heavily for that.
And the car still needs attention to detail on the dashboard (for a potentially $15k car ?).
My admiration goes more to people, who actually restore these from the ground up, welding huge panels or repairing whole drive trains etc.
Those are the real heroes.
Looks good to me, nice to see the old cars not overly restored & with a little patina.
These pontons are beautifully made, elegant vehicles that might look older then they actually are but are very classy, especially inside. I’m not often attracted to older sedans but the interior of this one is a place I could see myself. It even has a real fabric sunroof made the way Euro carmakers used to make them—no tiny moonroof for this Benz.
If you want a useable vintage sedan that won’t cost a lot to buy and will always have parts available and be serviceable by the dealer, this is one to consider.
@ Horse Radish I am the owner of this Mercedes…….I can appreciate what you are saying. However, what may not be evident, is that I have put almost 100 hours of my time into getting the car into this condition, plus paying for shop time for upholstery work, carpeting, swapping out the windshield, new rubber, adding the whitewalls, and new custom made German cloth covering for the Webasto. I have spent many hours detailing the engine compartment, rebuilt all the brakes and brake lines, tune up, swapped out a transmission that had a bad first gear (should have spent more time with the replacement one, though), installed a new clutch, and cleaned, steel wooled, buffed, oiled and tenderly adjusted just about everything on this car. Additionally, I spent many hours researching, designing, contacting cabinet makers and upholsterers and ordering hardware and assembling materials and hardware to recreate a set of custom fitted trunk luggage patterned after the original German made ones you could order back in the day (see Ebay ad for pics). I do this not so that I will be admired, but rather because as a CPA I work in an office all day and when I get home, I really enjoy being creative and putting nice classics like this back on the road. I have put over $5k into this plus my purchase price plus all my time -so I am still making way less than shop rates for doing the same work. …I hope I don’t sound too defensive here, just defending what I enjoy doing. I do about one car a year -all makes. Last year was a Triumph TR-250. Year before that a ’73 Volvo 1800 ES barn find. My next project is a 72 FJ55 Toyota Land Cruiser I recently found in the dry part of Oregon -this is the 4 door model in blue and white. I’ll submit pictures of that as soon as I get it home. I do enjoy your comments, -Regards, -Doug
Doug has what looks to me to be a real nice vintage Mercedes. Who cares what it was like or what it cost before he got it. It’s probably had many owners and you can’t worry—or even know—who most of them were or what they paid for the car.
The bottom line is you are buying what you see.
A 220S Coupe is valued at $32K at the high end of the range in the 2011 SCM Price Guide, and no doubt more now. This isn’t a coupe, but arguably it’s more useable, so for maybe half the price of a coupe—or if you perfer to call it good-used Camry money—someone will get a classy, useable Mercedes.
I have no connection to this car or owner…don’t know him, never been in Silverton, Oregon…just another take on what I see as a reasonable price for a very nice vintage car.
Very nice CLASSY ride. Hats off to Doug. In todays over-priced world of collectable cars this one brings back affordability to the die-hard budget minded enthusiast. Nice one Doug ;)
That’s a BEAUTIFUL car. Great job, Doug.
It’s a beautiful car…
My first real car after the Borgward TS was a 1958 MB 22OS Pontoon sedan. Great car with the optional leather interior. I swapped out the cream steering wheel and knobs for the European black fittings, much classier a look that matched the Brazilian nut brown paint. Previous owners had neglected oil changes so total engine rebuild. Rods were rifle bored,but plugged, so tearing engine apart revealed many more problems. Honeymoon car, should have kept it. Good luck to the next owne.
What a beautiful car. I can see driving this as much as possible just for the sheer pleasure of it. A great summer driver up here in Minnesota.
The comment by Dolphin as to the build quality is spot on. The late 50’s may have been the pinnacle of Mercedes build quality (a car built like a Leica camera) that short of custom restoration work cannot be matched. My 220S had a junk engine rebuild that had to be done over, but once redone, including balancing the rods and pistons with proper timing of the camshaft, it was a smooth, though underpowered road car. An aluminum, Skylark Buick V8 along with the 4 speed would have been a great combination. With the big steering wheel, it didn’t need power assist, even my 5’3″ girlfriend, then wife, liked driving it and had no trouble parking it. I sold the 220S to my Dad who then found someone who was serious about a full restoration. Certain features were ahead of the times, one being that driver and passenger had separate control of their heating and ventilation. My 220S had an option I’ve never seen again on pontons, namely it had two heater boxes on each side. Winter heat was never a problem, nor were very hot summer days, I just turned on the heat and cranked open the the little vent windows that are now long gone from cars. At least I still have the parts and owners manuals along with a Olyslager repair manual. I had an early 220SE that wasn’t close to a ponton in either comfort or build quality. As for the present car, kudos to Doug who brought it back this far. I’m still getting used to the silver, as I’d rather see it in a darker color. MB had a nice maroon at that time.
Checking the e-bay auction seems to indicate that the reserve price was not met and the 220S remains available for purchase. North of $15K
HI, this is Doug M, the owner of the car, reporting in again: My reserve was set at $14,995, but was not met. I was contacted by a nice guy in California that is in the middle of several Ponton projects and particularly liked this one. We worked out a deal right in that range, plus he picked up the F.I. and my parts car. Since then I have been contacted by several bidders, each targeting an offer in the $15k range, so that must have been the magic target. This was my first Ponton. I joined the MB Club of America, and am now looking for another one. Chris and others above are right on with the build quality, and now I am hooked on them.
Thanks, Barn Finds, for helping me show off this really fun car! Now on to other adventures! Thanks, BF for the forum to share all these comments! -Doug
Very nice car. I worked in Germany and would find these cheap around $200 and would just drive them recklessly. Terrific engines with very beautiful valve train that was dropped on the later models to go to cheaper ball pivot rockers that had endless problems. On a good engine you could hear the pistons swooshing in the cylinders.