I Found A Nice W116 Roof Rack

[Squiggle Dog]

Here are teaser shots of the wood refinishing. The slats are made of pine and looked like this:


Now they are looking more like zebrano and match the interior wood more closely. They are high gloss and I am hoping to be able to polish off the imperfections, though I hear the spar urethane is soft. I will certainly give it a good week or so to harden and am making a test piece to experiment on.

[littlefin]

That Fintail does more for me than the roof rack. Very nice.

Sorry Squiggle   

[Squiggle Dog]

That Fintail does more for me than the roof rack. Very nice.

Sorry Squiggle   

Yeah, that's my housemate's car that I am currently working on. I just installed a new headliner and will be putting in green tinted glass with new seals.


I used to have a 1968 W110 200D fintail as a daily driver. I loved that car and took it on long multi-state trips, but it was too rusty to keep using. I've still got a 1967 W110 Universal wagon that is rusty beyond saving, but I will re-body it with a sunroof sedan some day.


P. S. Don't tell anyone, but fintails are actually my favorite Mercedes.

[Squiggle Dog]

Speaking of fintails, a few days ago I helped rescue a couple of fintails by picking them up and delivering them to a shipping facility, off to their new owner in Taiwan.

[littlefin]

How come there are so many fintails in your neighborhood?

I remember seeing one once when I was driving up to Vancouver in the 1980's

To have one fintail wagon is great, to have two is beginning to sound greedy...

and what's that cream one behind the rusty wagon?

I'm surprised the bodywork survives in your climate (which I believe is much the same as ours)

[Squiggle Dog]

Fintails are everywhere here. You can buy them here for $200-$600 all day. If someone gave me $2,000 I could probably come up with ten of them.

I once bought a 1960 220SE with sunroof for $300 and it came with another 1960 parts car with rebuilt engine for another $100. Then I got a 1967 230S for free, got a 1966 200 for $400 that I drove here from 100 miles away, my roommate bought a 1962 220S for $200 that had nice original paint, came with a rebuilt engine and new dashboard, had the right side mirror and tow hitch, he got his 1965 220S for $500 and it came with a complete new MB exhaust, new Weber carburetors, etc.

A friend of mine just bought a 200D with headrests and fog lights for $200 that was in daily driver condition, bought a Euro 230S with sunroof for a few hundred dollars, there is a 1963 220S that has been setting at the local car lot for 15 years at $300 and never sold. I think it is because Phil Smart Mercedes started in the 1960s and they were lots of foreigners in the area.

The cream one behind the wagon is the 200D that I used to drive before the driver's seat fell through the floor and there was nowhere for the taillights to hold to.

The roads never used to be salted here (because we didn't used to get snow like we do now), and it tends to be cold year round, so the outer bodies tend to last, however, the floors and trunk pans are usually gone.

[littlefin]

Damn, I think I might have to move to WA.

If fintails were that cheap here I think I would buy sh*t loads & just keep them to look at!

I guess there was a time when you could pick them up cheap in the UK too, but that time is long gone.

If you find a RHD car in A1 condition can you let me know? 

I will have owned my 230 saloon 27 years this year. I'm beginning to think maybe I should get me another.

Best*Car*Ever

(Don't tell the others)

[floyd111]

I bet I can find those Fintails that were shipped off to Taiwan.
Were both of them sedans?

You speak of fintails being readily available.. That white Wagon, are those also as common?
Whatever happened to your Wagon?

[Squiggle Dog]

The person in Taiwan who purchased the fintails has a nice collection of them and some W123s. Both were sedans. Fintails were all over the place in Washington, as were old Mercedes in general. I think that Washington is the Mercedes Mecca of the United States. People were giving them away left and right. I heard that W123 coupes are supposed to be rare, but it was not uncommon to see 20 of them for sale at a time in the local craigslist ads.

The station wagons are nearly impossible to find. I still have that one and plan to restore it into a daily driver when I have the money. There is almost nothing left of the body from the middle downward--it's all sheet metal screwed into other pieces of sheet metal and covered with body filler. The body is unrestorable. But, I will find a rust-free sedan and will transplant the station-wagon-specific sheet metal onto the sedan. A gentleman in California named Bob Gunthorp did the same thing.

[floyd111]

I hope you manage. I gladly offer my services for free to help you get there!. The fintail wagons are a proper dream car to me.
If only I could license an imported one..

I know the guy you speak of.
If I am not mistaken, one of these cars is now middle green fluorescent metallic.

Here's his FB:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=883504585005676&set=ms.c.eJw90wuKQzEIBdAdDf41~_9~%3BYpN7cB4Vy0Kgx7YynhGuKZIv~%3BDWzjfsSTbq02r3gO2bg13b~%3BzNZ~%3BP5qc9p8JC~_55X1suEv~%3BzZel3PhX7C~_hUw5y3M56xX6O~_s13rz55yt125243Gy7dkFVvrma90L07HxajrjjN2Cz6Gw0775OXRtfOi0ra8Ju8zPmq~_eV69FnnvnEc5~%3BP3DQDTN~%3B9j5hSu98nU7vfKFDF8x55my9ZvygX7Pf6c2Xzzu~%3B1Js~%3BRLafB435q2iDkw7kC12IK302bsxX1EvWs32PFvY3zO9v~%3Bvt7RtzoRPwz9vf1d5w3nr~_bvPd1vk8E5uN~_I2WtTW~_~%3BGtbP3e~%3B9prGvb97afRX3u7~%3BvX3zfa~%3Bz313Kpe~_3n26ruI8RnheUfb5HHJQ~-~-.bps.a.883401785015956.1073741827.100000384294795&type=1&theater

[Squiggle Dog]

That's him! I am not sure about any of his cars being green fluorescent metallic, but I did sell a sunroof 220SE to a person in Dubai, which did end up that color (and with a black roof and red and cream interior).