It seems that in certain environments, the idea of a “weekend car” or “summer car” is embedded in the local culture to such a degree that it’s hardly a surprise when a particular model appears as a barn find. In the case of a place like suburban San Francisco, seeing an R107-chassis Mercedes-Benz appear as an embalmed garage find that hasn’t been registered since 2011 is hardly a surprise. This particular car is a 1984 380SL, listed here on Craigslist with minimal information and an asking price of $2,500.
That’s actually a reasonably fair asking price for one of these. In most circumstances, when someone stumbles upon a drop-top Mercedes who knows very little about cars, they tend to think they have struck gold; little do they know the factory produced these little roadsters by the proverbial truck-load and that many of them have slid down the long, brutal slope of deferred maintenance and careless owners before they discovered it covered with a tarp. Truth be told, this 380SL doesn’t look that rough, all things considered, and the European-spec headlights are an excellent upgrade; however, I suspect this is a standard U.S. production model and not a gray market example.
And that, truthfully, is a bit of a shame, as a 380SL built for the U.S. market was perhaps the most underpowered model you could buy, stricken with things like lambda control, which is French for horsepower reduction. As a country, we were throwing everything we could at the side of the barn to bring reckless consumption under control, and this included messing with the air/fuel mixture to eke out a few MPGs. Did I mention this was also the same time that the U.S. mandated the God-awful 5-mile-per-hour safety bumpers? Oh yes, we were cranking out the hits back then.
Despite this seller’s lack of concern for a little thing we like to call details, the photos provided are pretty helpful for ascertaining the condition. I like that the thick Mercedes rugs have been removed to show that the floors remain solid. The crack-free dash tells me that this SL hasn’t spent much time baking in the sun despite being a California car, even before its prolonged garage stay. And the condition of the bucket seats is also encouraging. As a bonus, it has a removable factory hard top, too. Overall, for the price, this is the way to buy one of these R107s if you’ve got a hankering, and I suspect you could even bargain down a bit. Thanks to Barn Finds reader T.J. for the find.
Car looks really decent and $2500 is a no brainer in the condition that it is in. If I’m not mistaken the early 380 engines suffered from a single row timing chain which fails prematurely. A lot of them were retrofitted to a dual row again. Could this be the reason the car sat dormant for so many years?
The single-row chain was changed to a dual-row chain for 1983, so that shouldn’t be an issue here. It probably needs a good cleaning of the fuel system, and I wouldn’t try starting it without an oil change and cranking without spark for several seconds, but there’s no other reason it shouldn’t run. For $2500, and probably another $1000 or so in freshening up, it should be a good driver-grade car for many years of top-down enjoyment.
I guess my wife is a lucky gal, as she bought her ’83 380SL from a Mercedes tech friend and he converted the (Achilles Heel) single row timing setup to a double, and popped some other goodies in it, and this thing is FAST, and will, and has, embarrassed a lot of unsuspecting blokes.
If you look at the odometer, it only reads 7584 miles..so it’s either been turned back (likely) or this could be a diamond in the rough.
Take a look at what these are going for on BAT! This is way too low.
What a platform to build on. Yank out that weak unknown 3.8 motor and insert an LS motor. Yes I said it! To doll it up add velocity stack injection for that old school look. I had a same year SEL 420 years ago, great car. If memory serves the 380 had issues and getting this running again could be a lot of $. LS motors are cheap and the add on possibilities are endless. Don’t want stacks then add a turbo or super charger, or go cheap and leave it stock, you can’t lose either way.
Unless you get a stated value insurance policy and pay the hefty premiums they bring, you’ll instantly lose a good $25k when it gets wrecked and they give you a payout on the car’s market value, which will still be around $8k even after the 5 figures in modding receipts. Even dropping an LS3 into a C5 Corvette isn’t just as simple as dropping the engine in and turning the key.
Ad says “found in barn”. I wonder if they found the title too. Overall, the car looks good, but I do have to agree that those 5 mph bumpers don’t help the looks. Some friends that I worked with said these are expensive to maintain, but already having had a couple of German vehicles that wasn’t new news to me. If you can do the work this one needs this could be a good deal. I hope it goes to someone who will enjoy it.
Apparently the seller knows how much it’ll take to get this Benz running again, hence the cut-rate price. This looks to be in superb physical condition, but since it’s been sitting for a while it’ll cost at least $12k to get this one roadworthy.
Drop a Viper v10 and tranny in it and make a real car out of it.