How to Spot a W198/300SL Worth Buying

Our shop has restored several hundred cars and we’ve seen Mercedes-Benz 300SLs in every condition imaginable: burned out, barn finds (complete with a family of rats), preserved original, maintained driver, crashed and smashed, and now, more often, the older restorations. I am writing from the perspective of a buyer, as I do not personally work on the cars or restore them, though I do pay attention. Read on for a very detailed guide to spotting a W198 worth buying, or simply to learn more about these beautiful cars.

Caveat Emptor – do your research, due diligence pays off. We have, over the years, come to notice some very obvious signs of poor or inaccurate restorations, and many cars heralded as “original” when they are quite clearly not. For anyone in the market for a 300SL Gullwing or Roadster, do your research carefully! The 300SL community, including collectors, restorers, repairers, brokers and dealers, is very small. So ask around, ask for references, and ask more than one person – the 300SL has made a lot of unscrupulous sellers and brokers a lot of money over the years. Do not let yourself fall victim to what appears to be “a really good deal.” It is often too good to be true, and in my experience you do get what you pay for with the 300SL.

Do not buy a car and hope to restore it yourself and hope to turn a profit. It is easy to be tempted to spend $400.000 USD or less for a car that has not been restored and to want to do the work yourself. The value of these cars depends on accuracy and quality. It would be like buying a damaged painting and trying to restore it yourself. Even if you yourself are an artist, you are likely not an expert in conservation or restoration. Even an older restoration of say 10-20 years, might set you back tens of thousands in minor repairs if you are lucky, and in some cases require a full restoration. If the car you are buying was restored, find out who by and look at other examples of their work. Go and see the car if possible, drive it, maybe bring along someone who knows the mechanical and cosmetic details of the 300SL inside and out. Ask questions about the restoration, get all the details you can, but first spend some time learning about the car so you know what to ask and what you are looking at. How long has the car sat since restoration? What did the previous owner do with the car? Did the car ever have a major accident? Is it a matching numbers car? What was rebuilt during the restoration? Was it a full mechanical and cosmetic restoration? Did they replace the wiring harness? When painted, was the car stripped to bare metal, picked and filed, was the body repaired or simply patched?

One of the best references is “Gullwing: The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé” by Anthony Pritchard, unfortunately it was a limited run of 1000 copies (roughly how many Gullwings are presumed to exist today). If you can get your hands on a copy or have already, then consider yourself lucky. I agree with much of what is said in their section on restorations and they are very thorough in describing the production Gullwing, piece by piece.

Numbers

These are according to factory build records, which may not be precise.

Gullwing: (1,400 total production cars, including 29 lightweight alloy body models)

1952: 10 (Chassis: 194.010 000001 to 000010)
1953: 1 (Chassis: 194.010 000011)
1954: 146 (Chassis: 198.040 4500010 to 4500167)
1955: 867 (Chassis: 198.040 5500022 to 5500877, including 25 alloy models and 1 fibre-glass prototype)
1956: 311 (Chassis: 198.040 6500010 to 6500317, including 4 alloy models)
1957: 76 (Chassis: 198.040 7500007 to 00079)

Roadster: (1,858 total production cars)

1956: 1 (one of a rumoured five prototype Roadsters; the only one made in 1956)
1957: 618
1958: 267
1959: 200
1960: 241
1961: 256
1962: 182
1963: 91
1964: 3

A note on alloy body Gullwings

Mercedes-Benz produced a total of 29 lightweight alloy body Gullwings during the production years 1955 and 1956. The standard steel body Gullwings had alloy doors, hood, trunk lid, and rocker panels. In addition to an all alloy body, the lightweight models had racing wheels with Rudge-Whitworth centre-lock hubs and spinners (commonly known as “Rudge wheels”), high-life camshaft, and plastic rear and side windows. They cost quite a bit more than the standard Gullwing when sold by the factory and today are worth over twice as much as a steel body car, going for $1.1M to $1.5M USD). A prototype 300SL will sell for similar sums or much more. We have restored several alloy body cars over the years and many people believe that all 29 are still on the road (so check your chassis plate for a 198.043).

Identification Plates

The paint, motor and chassis plates, found under the hood, are the best place to start your research. The main chassis/model/typ plate is on the left side of the engine firewall. A second chassis plate and often a stamping is found on the left side front chassis leg close to the tubular transverse member. The paint number plate is located on the right side of the engine firewall with the prefix “DB” for Daimler-Benz. Below this is a common place to find the stamped chassis number (but not on some early cars). The motor number is stamped into the right hand side of the cylinder block, and repeated on the alloy plate attached below.

Chassis number prefix

300SL / 194 010: Racing/Works SL
300SL / 198 040: Production Gullwing
300SL / 198 042: Production Roadster
300SL / 198 043: Alloy Body Gullwing

With the Gullwings and a few of the early Roadsters you can tell the year by inverting the first two numbers. In the following example 4500038 is 1954 (also stamped below) and body number 38 produced in that year. With the later Roadsters it becomes more complicated and they lose the date in their number. The engine in a very early car may have the same number as the chassis, however I have not seen this. Most of the time they are a many engines ahead of the chassis. In this case the engine is number 39 produced in 1954.

Main Chassis Plate

Chassis Plate #2

Paint Plate

Motor Plate & Stamp

If the number plates match the stamped numbers then you should have a matching car. The only way to cross-reference this is to look at the factory build sheets, which are available to the owner of the car in question. You can order them from the factory if you do not already have the sheet. Notice the type of screws used in the alloy plates on the firewall, these are often incorrect and should be Slotted (flat) screws, not Phillips (cross) or Robertson (square) headed screws. Cars with incorrect screws have, evidently, been restored, or worked on, by a shop that is not obsessed with minor, correct details. For example on this paint plate:

Exterior and Interior

The Gullwing came standard in Metallic silver gray (paint code DB 180), with LI: Blue-checked (plaid) gaberdine combined with blue Tex-leather, lined with gray cloth, and with blue bouclé carpet.

*Tex-leather is the MB version of vinyl. You could have real leather with the checked gabardine at an extra cost.
*Bouclé describes the looped yarn threads in the carpet.

MB had three standard upholstery options including LI described above. LII: red-checked gabardine, cream Tex-leather, light-beige cloth lining, and beige bouclé carpet. LIII: green-checked gaberdine, green Tex-leather, green-grey cloth lining, and green bouclé carpet.

The official leather options, at a cost, were: Red (1079), Black (953), Green (1073), Blue (333), Cream (1060), White (1097), Steel blue (979), and Light grey (955).

The optional exterior paint colours, at a cost, were: Graphite gray (DB 190), Blue gray (DB 166), White gray (DB 158), Ivory (DB 608), Fire engine red (DB 534), Metallic strawberry red (DB 543), Black (DB 40), White (DB 50), and Medium blue (DB 334).

Pritchard notes that “many cars were sold in colours and trims outside of the official list” (p. 136). For example, Mercedes-Benz sold approximately 64 Gullwings with Light (silver) blue metallic paint (DB 353), which was not an official 300SL paint option (p. 138). Those who bought a Gullwing or Roadster from the factory had access to the whole range of paint colours available in a given year.

These are some additional colours that I have seen, though many more certainly exist:

Interior: Burgundy leather.
Exterior: Light silver metallic (DB 274), Sea green (DB 824) or Moss green (DB 834), Dark gray (DB 164), Dark blue, and Light yellow.

Mirrors

The wing mirror was an option on the Gullwing. They never had two mirrors and many owners today have incorrectly installed one Roadster mirror or worse, a pair of Roadster mirrors because they cost less and are easier to find. This is often overlooked at concours, but in my opinion, ruins the aesthetic of the Gullwing.

Gullwing Mirror

Roadster Mirror

Gullwing with Roadster Mirror

Headlights & Bumpers

Roadster with European headlights and with the optional Bumper Overriders:

Gullwing with the UK Lucas round fog lights and with no Overriders

Roadster with US headlights and with Overriders

Roadster with European headlights, UK fog lights, and no bumpers

Gullwing with original rare Marschall headlight lenses

Early Gullwing with original rare concave star grill

A 300SL Gullwing with no bumpers or rally lights looks like the 300SL Gullwing prototype and similar to the 1952 Carrera Panamerica racing version.

1952 Carrera Panamerica

(photos from www.eMercedesBenz.com)

Gullwing with bumper delete

I prefer a Gullwing or European Roadster without bumpers or fog lights. Many people find that unappealing or prefer the US headlights on a Roadster. It is a matter of personal taste. Neither is incorrect or less desirable on a car. On a lesser note, the grill of a 300SL Gullwing changed over the years. Early models had a very desirable concave one-piece grill, while later models had two and finally three-piece grills.

Wheels and Tires (or Tyres)

1. Painted Rudge wheel in Gullwing trunk

2. Painted standard steel wheels on a Roadster (with polished rims)

3. Painted standard steel wheels on a Gullwing (without polished rims)

4. Painted Rudge knock-off wheels on a Gullwing (with polished rims)

5. Painted Rudge knock-off wheels on a Roadster (with polished rims)

6. Chromed Rudge wheel on Gullwing

7. Other examples of wheels, painted and/or in polished chrome

As you can see from the photos above, there are two basic types of wheels for the 300SL. You have the standard wheel and the Rudge-Whitworth knock-off wheel. The factory never sold all-chrome polished standard or Rudge wheels. They did use polished chrome Rudge wheels on the US, and perhaps other show cars in 1954, but it was not a factory option (too flashy; even today you will not often see chrome wheels in Germany).

The standard wheel came in alloy or steel, both had steel centers which are in most cases painted, although I have seen all chrome standard wheels. This was not how they came from the factory. Mercedes-Benz sold all the standard wheel cars with painted centers and rims, see examples above in images 2 and 3. Factory correct examples of Rudge wheels are in images 1,4, and 5; examples of polished chrome Rudge wheels are in images 6 and 7.

Mercedes-Benz fitted the 300SL with 6.5/6.7 x 15 Continental cross-ply tires; a few had Dunlop racing tires, but it was not an option. You can show your car with old tires, especially if you have some Continentals that still hold air, however you should not drive on tires older than 10 years, especially if you drive at high speeds. Today, most people recommend and use the Michelin XWX 185 x 15 tires (195 x 15 with 5 inch rims). However, we recommend and use the Pirelli P4000 VR rated SuperTour tires, which look very much like the classic Continental when on, give a comfortable ride, and are rated to over 145 mph.

Under the Hood

Four photographs of a correct Roadster engine bay

In the above set of photos notice the placement of decal, the number of decals, the type of paint used in the engine bay and on the motor, the types of hose clamps and cables, the texture of the intake manifold and general orientation of parts. The decals are not really a concern because you can get them today. However, they are often positioned in the wrong spot. The two most common mistakes with restorations are the type of paint used and the texture of the intake manifold. In the photos above, you will see a matte black paint on the engine bay and the same on the motor itself, and a textured, un-polished intake manifold; those are correct to factory specifications. Compare the above photographs to the set below. Also notice in the set below, which is also of a Roadster, that Gullwing hand-fasteners are used on the case instead of tool-fastened ones (see above for an example of the Roadster case, and the third set of photographs of Gullwing motors to see the difference).

Four photographs of an incorrect Roadster engine bay

Three photographs of three different Gullwings: first correct, second not, third correct

The above photographs are of three restored Gullwing engine bays illustrate the two commonly made restoration mistakes discussed above with the Roadster examples. Note the middle photograph shows both a glossy paint on the motor and the engine bay (which also means the undercarriage) and a highly polished intake manifold. Both of these errors are not easily correctable. You would have to take the car apart, strip it, and repaint it with a matte finish to correct the paint; once an intake manifold is polished, you can never bring back the former texture.

Steering Wheels

The standard collapsible ivory white wheel

The standard wheel fitted with the optional horn, (does not collapse)

The wooden Nardi wheel, was a factory option, but more often it was an aftermarket addition

The MB Grand Prix wheel, not a factory option, but an authentic and expensive period addition

The Nardi wheel, although nice to look at, is a nuisance when driving because it hides many of the gages. I find the standard wheel with the horn very attractive in the Roadster, while the Grand Prix wheel looks very good in a Gullwing, especially this early model with goose-neck shifter (like the prototype and race cars).

Fitted Luggage

Fitted luggage in two Roadsters

Fitted luggage in two Gullwings

Stitching, head-liner, seats, and radios

It is often hard to tell a good interior from photographs, especially low resolution ones.

Tools & Books

Recent Prices (confirmed by recent sales in North America)

300SL Roadster (Excellent): 675,000-725,000 USD
300SL Roadster (Original-Rare):725,000-1,000,000 USD
300SL Roadster (Older Restoration-Very Good and Sorted Driver): 550,000,000-650,000 USD
300SL Roadster (Daily Driver): 500,000-550,000 USD
300SL Roadster (Project: 425,000-500,000 USD
300SL Gullwing (Excellent): 700,000-800,000 USD
300SL Gullwing (Alloy Body):1,800,000-2,000,000 USD
300SL Gullwing (Older Restoration-Very Good): 600,000-700,000 USD
300SL Gullwing (Daily Driver): 500,000-600,000 USD
300SL Gullwing (Project: 450,000-500,000 USD

Works Cited

Pritchard, Anthony. Gullwing: The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé. Standard Edition. London: Palawan Press Ltd., 2008.