This stunning 1957 Mercedes Benz 300SL Roadster is a wonderfully restored example. The production for 300SL’s lasted 9 years and a total of 3,258 cars were built with 1,858 of them being the roadster. The 300SL is well known as the world’s first road going supercar with its straight 6 motor producing 212 horsepower, a 4 speed manual gearbox and a tubular chassis. It was the fastest production car of its time and could even do 160 miles an hour! It also has plenty of fluids on board with the necessary amount of oil at 2.6 gallons and a 26 gallon gas tank!
This particular car was purchased by our customer several years ago. It was restored in Mexico City in the early 1990’s for its owner who lived in Mexico. The paint had a fair amount of shrinkage and bubbling. Our customer decided to have us perform a bare metal repaint. Once the paint was removed, we found large amounts of poorly applied lead and body work that had been hiding under its shiny red paint. Rust was under the lead & creeping outward, lifting the paint in places. We cut out all bad metal and body work areas. New metal sections were made up on our English Wheel. A color change to black was performed. A complete interior restoration was also performed as well as engine compartment and chassis detailing. The car was completed the fall of 2012.
For its first showing, we displayed the car in The Ameila Island Concours in March of 2013. We were awarded with The Ameila Island Mercedes-Benz Award of Excellence.