Mercedes-Benz’s elegant Mercedes-Benz 540K Roadster communicates power and elegance, combining vehicle and art in a timeless design that forever illuminates the manufacturer’s storied name. Challenge today’s top designers and equip them with the latest 3D computer tools, and the results would more than likely be second-rate by comparison. Furthermore, the skills needed to build a 540K body from scratch today have nearly vanished from the earth. Or have they? Indeed, a single craftsman built this magnificent 1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K Roadster body in Marshall, Texas, in this century, over two years and “according to the original design, dimensions and lines,” and it can be yours here on eBay for the Buy It Now price of $42,222.22.
With bidding above $34,000, this magnificent hand-built body will probably sell. Of course, ground-up custom cars emerge from metal-crafters such as Moal Coachbuilders in California, but making a single fender for this Mercedes could be considered the pinnacle of a life’s work by many fabricators. Consider you then have to make a second one, in mirror image, matching the first exactly, and you understand how $42,000 may amount to small potatoes for this metal-shop project.
Genuine Mercedes-Bens 540 roadsters sell in excess of $10 million, and this body may represent a current or potential 540K owner the opportunity to create an amazingly accurate replica that can be driven and not merely moved every 10 years from one secure bunker to another under the supervision normally reserved for relocating bomb-grade nuclear material. Certainly, someone should know what it’s like to drive such a magnificent vehicle without getting a nervous tick every time some tailgating text-savvy twenty-something encroaches into your personal space.
Say, don’t you have a supercharged 5.4L straight-eight cylinder 540K engine in your barn? No? Well, perhaps you can troll eBay in case the seller’s neighbor decides to hand-craft one from a metal ingot. For decades the standard way to fill any hole like this would have been with a 350 cid “small block” Chevy motor. Let’s agree that anyone attempting that transplant should be struck by lightning, or a proximate blunt object. However, building a supercharged straight-eight of some sort may approach the authentic sound of the original, described as “the keening of banshees.” Consider this day-dream; you’ve already got a genuine 540K in the garage, and this one will take you The Great Race, or to the local Galleria. Cost is no object. What colors, engine, suspension, and technology do you include?
Damn,that’s impressive.
Impressive yes, but it has many issues in the body alone pertaining to panel fit, not perfect lines and shape flow. Right off the doors are fat. I see things that people who don’t shape metal won’t. It is worth the money but not a dime more and should cost over 100k to finish in someone’s garage. That is not farming out the job. I would rather build my own out of aluminum.
I’m pretty sure the original was steel Marty, not that “yours” has to be an exact copy.
We’ll all wait for you to build your own so we can see how it stacks up. Then we can all sit around and critique it.
My thoughts exactly!!
What a beautiful piece of workmanship.
Bob
I want to see it when it’s finished.
Gorgeous.
Not sure what you do about finding a Benz straight 8 for it.
Gloss Deep Navy Blue…with White leather interior…a/c…led lighting…modern suspension…all disc brakes…white top.
Maybe graft a pair of MB I-4 together with custom crank. Or use an I-6 to make a mold with two more cylinders?
It would be fun to try!
I love this. It is a true expression of skill.
Colors. Well, hmm.
Something subdued for the exterior. A nice slate blue. Black leather interior with piping in a complimentary (not contrasting) color to the body.
The rest? Just as MB would’ve. A few modern upgrades to brakes and drive line but use the tech to keep the air of vintage alive.
At the very least, an early 70s Mercedes 6.3 V8 should be sourced for this…
It might take wiring and computers equal to the weight of the motor, but if we were going all-out, how about the luscious modern M275? 510 hp and 612 ft-lb of torque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_M275_engine
Almost a shame to paint and finish it. If I had a big enough living room and enough money to buy it, I would simply mount it as it is as a piece of art.
Marty, what city are you located ??
Dave
Fascinating, just fascinating. Small correction, it hasn’t been bid on at all, yet.
Here’s a link telling of other recreations similar, and appears this seller did mostly a cut and paste from the article in his description; https://newatlas.com/1938-mercedes-benz-540k-special-roadster-nawrocki-auction/38375/
I wonder who the market is for this body?
I think a BMW v12 would do nicely in there. There are people out there that are capable of this kind of work. I know of one or two that comment on here and shall remain nameless and I’m not talking about myself either. It’s good to know that the skills are still out there and I think we’d be surprised at how many people are capable of this. This may sound crazy but I think that it should be painted black with burnt orange interior, wheels and pin stripes, and a tan top. The thing is I don’t even like orange that much, but I also think that it depends on the application. My vintage goldwing with custom sidecar is black with orange and gold pinstripes and it looks great together. I just wish I could figure out how to format the pic’s to put them in this post.
BMW in that engine bay?? …..sacrilege!
What is not realized by most is that with the right software you can take a series of photos with a standard measurement that is known and complete a total set of lofting drawings of the exterior shape of almost anything. (this might explain how some countries can nearly copy some of our jet fighters and tanks). With additional CNC machining and similar software and the right knowledge making the engines, transmissions and other parts are within practical reach. Jay Leno has used just such technology to make parts that he could not source for his cars.
I know that many parts for aircraft that were in the past made from individual parts are now machined from a solid piece of aluminum making a wing that is far stronger and more aerodynamic than before. I know someone that took a block of plastic and machined a reverse copy of a tail light lens for an exotic that he could not find at a reasonable price. The cost was shockingly lower but then he has access to this kind of technology.
There are far more metal workers out there then most realize. Generating these people is sources of desire that range the Hot Rod community to the Society For Creative Anachronism’s (RENFEST People) who build plate armor for the fun of it. I know I have been a part of both groups. I have seen people make entire car bodies of aluminum and then not paint them but polish them to a mirror finish. The aircraft world has similar people. With laser 3-D scanning technology, 3-D Printers that can create the basis for lost wax castings with perfect detail from an original almost all of the past can be made again if you have the desire and pocket book. Nice to see these people get the recognition that they deserve.
This gorgeous body deserves at least the same respect in the engine compartment. In my opinion, one could adapt a Buick straight 8 to look the part. Since the original came with a rootes-style supercharger, several castings and machinings could be done, which would replicate the original (using -say- GMC 4-71 internals and gears).
It would be a lot of work, but certainly nothing at all compared to the effort expended on this stunning body. The result (after a little sheet metal work as well), would be a reasonable replica of a Mercedes W29 engine.
http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Aug08/19_001343_eMercedesBenz_Feature_The_Supercharged_Cars_Of_Mercedes_Benz_In_The_1920s_And_1930s.html
No thoughts on replicating that original transmission… but I’ve no doubt it could be done.
I know the one guy who could finish this vehicle, the problem is that he is burn’t out of the craft. Over the past 30+yrs he has built some real masterpiece cars but the public just never paid for his work. Now he is thinking of getting out of the business, crossroads in his career. Some talented folks here in the U.S.A for sure, if anyone needs a top notch builder in Southern CA look up the man who built this yellow ferrari: https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1107169_ferrari-456m-with-lexus-engine-swap-sells-for-45k-on-ebay
Beautiful design and amazing craftsmanship, even if it isn’t perfect (yet).
Paint it silver & find a drivetrain from a rolled or rusted beyond repair 300SL.
yes it is nice, but accurate it is not. A quality reproduction of a 500k/540k Special Roadster is over 7 figures. To take this body and make it close to one of those would take…guess how much? Yes, 7 figures. That doesn’t mean you can cobble this on to a chassis and have some sort of neat rod, but it won’t look anything like the original.
Summer of 1968—an ad in the Chicago tribune for a 1937 Pontiac Hearse–in Marengo, Ill N.W. of the city 50+ miles. Drove the hour or so out to Marengo to a meeting place on the West side of town. It was an old barn that has been gone for 40 years now. In the barn the man who owned the hearse was building a Mercedes Benz cowl out of a thick gauge of sheet metal and he was “chasing” the metal over a “wooden buck” he had built—just amazing to this, at the time, college kid who was an Industrial Arts major. I looked at and drove the 37 hearse, but the reality of being a college kid with limited funds as well as limited storage just left me with the experience of seeing that Benz being “born” around a wooden buck—50 years ago—a memory that is etched into my mind to this day.
Make it electric with multiple motors. EV WEST could do it.
It can be done, trust me.
One could follow Chrysler’s lead and create a 4 liter straight 8 from 2 2.0 liter
Neon engines ( which they did for the 1995 Atlantic concept car) , and supercharge it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XIEUWsXlEo
Make it a spectacular car
Custom frame
Everything possible from a 2002-2011 SL600
Suspension, v12 drivetrain, full electronics