05x01 & 05x02 - Mercedes Benz 280SL (Part 1 & 2)

[bunniefuu]

Hello and welcome to
Wheeler Dealers, our

challenge is to search
for a mine across Europe,

tracking down automotive
icons to buy, restore

and sell on for a
profit. I buy the cars

and I turn those rusty wrecks into classy
classics. So what have you got in mind for

us this time, Mike? Well, I'm thinking
sports car, German, two-seater, Mercedes,


talking Mercedes SL, but

they're still really big
money, aren't they? Well,

we've got £5,000 to buy and restore a car
with, so it might be tight, but have I ever

failed to deliver it?
I'm not going to answer

that. If you're a big
noise in the 80s and

wanted to show the
world you've made it, then

you've bought a Mercedes
SL. The king of the

two-seater GT Cruisers,
this car had drop-top

good looks, power to
spare from either a straight

six or V8 engines and
great handling. Prices

started at £17,000,
that's about £45,000.

in today's money. So finding one for £5,000
now is going to be a big arse because this

car remains a must-have
on the shopping list

of many classic car
fans. I'm on the trail and

amazingly, straight
away, I've got lucky. An old

car trader contact of
mine has rung me to tell

me about a nice silver V8 SL he's got lying
about in his yard. Whoa, right. So, well,

it's sort of mid-70s
Mercedes. He said it was

a 350 SL and it is,
so it's got the big three

and a half litre engine.
The first thing that

strikes me straight
away is this roof. It's got

a hard top roof, which does come off and
that's good news, but the bad news is it's

obviously come off a
different car because it's

a different colour and
that means that would

have to be painted. And then there's the
rest of it. Wow, look at that. Look at the

rust coming through here. I mean, that's
terrible. On the front wing it's all shot.

The front bumper's gone. Oh, and the door
sills. Oh, no. Oh, it's a mess. There's

going to be a lot of paint to do on this
car. Inside, oh, it's all full of mildew.

Oh, it's all gone rotten. Oh, it's going to
take more than air freshener to get this

smelling nice. He wants about five grand
for this. Five grand. I mean, I would have

given him two for it. I think you'd punch
me in the face, don't you? So, um, no.

No luck there then, but a morning spent
on the web and with the classified papers

should find me something,
shouldn't it? Well,

none of this is going
according to plan.

I really thought I'd have a Mercedes SL
in the bag buy now, but it appears that if

you want to buy one here, you're going to
have to spend tens of thousands of pounds.

Now, most people at this point would
just give up, but not me. I'm a Wheeler

dealer. No, I'm going to roll my shirt
sleeves up and I'm going to get on a

mission because where do I
go and find a German car in

good Nick for not a lot of
money? Germany, that's where.

Well, I really hope it's worth the
effort to come all this way with an

empty trailer behind me because there'd
be nothing worse than going home with

that trailer bouncing around behind
me with nothing on it. What I want is the

pretty face of a Mercedes
SL bearing down at me at

behind as I'm towing it
all the way back to Blighty.

I'm starting my SL search in Augsburg,


place to find old Mercs for sale at a good
price. By law, all cars now need to have a

catalytic converter to pass their
German MOT. It's an expensive conversion

if you own an old car, but without it
you can't drive on the autobahns and

your car is worth a lot less.
So brilliant news for us Brits, it now

means that we can pick up a bargain
SL over here for much less than you can

in the UK. Thank you very much.
Right, got me coffee, check, apple strudel,

check, got me pretzel,
check, phone, check,

magazines and pen,
check. Let's get to work.

Good and hard.

Tell me about the car.

Er, it's back in the English.
How do I say, erm, condition?

About the car.

Sold.

OK, thank you very much then.
Cheers, bye bye.

You live in Bergen, so
you're Jurgen from Bergen.

Right, OK, well that sounds great.
I'll phone you when I'm near.

Bye bye, al vida sein.

Bye bye then.

Well, I could have struck possibly
gold, but it sounds like brown gold.

It's a brown 280 SL, exactly
the kind of car I'm looking for.

He sounds a really jolly chap on the
phone as well and he said it's for sale,

I can go and see it now, and the added
bonus, it's got a detachable hardtop.

So I'll finish me apple
strudel, munch away my

pretzel, finish me coffee
and get myself down there.

You must be Jurgen?

Yes.

Ah, hello.

I'm Mike.

You're from England?

I am from England.

Oh, very nice to meet you.

We spoke on the phone, er, and
I've come to see the SL, it's beautiful.

How long have you had it?

I have the car, er, 20 years.

You've had it for 20 years?



Wow.

Can we have a look round?

Yes.

Can I start it?

Yes, no problem.

Wow.

Sounds good.

Yes, the sound is very good.

And the engine is a 280?

Two 280, yes.

Yes, six cylinder.

Six cylinder.

And the motor is strong?

Very strong.

Yes, very good.

So, somebody's, er, ripped the...

Yeah, the people in Germany,
it's no good to make with a knife.

Jealousy.

Jealousy.

Jealousy.

That's what we call it.

OK.

Oh, there's a little bit
of rust here, isn't there?

A little bit of rust.

A little bit of rust.

That's a shame.

Yeah.

OK, Jurgen.

No problem.

It's good.

The car's good.

Yeah.

All I need to do is, erm,
obviously I need to check.

Yes.

It's OK to drive?

No problem.

And here it's OK to drive.

You said when I spoke
on the phone, this is private.

Yes, you can drive here.

Yes.

No problem on the street.

Oh, fantastic.

Woo-hoo!

Yes!

This is it.

The Mercedes 280 SL.

You know, I've always wanted one of these.

I love these cars.

Now, what's she drive like?

She's still got kick down.

The engine's got good
tug, good pull in the engine.

He said be careful of the brakes,
so here comes the acid test.

Well, she does brake, but
she pulls hard to one side or the

other, so it's going to be
worth Ed checking the brakes.

He wants 7,300 Euros for this car.

I'm going to be really cheeky, because
I know it needs quite a bit of work.

So I'm going to go in, when my size


I'm going to try him at 6,500 Euros.

Wish me luck.

Ah, Jurgen.

It's good.

Yes.

The car is good.

It drives very well.

It's very good.

It's very good.

The brakes, you're right, the brakes
are... The brakes are... Are dodgy.

And there's the rust, and
there's the tear in the roof,

and all these little jobs
that we've got to repair.

So how much is the car?

The price from the car is 7,300 Euros.

Wow, that's high.

That's very high.

That's high.

I was going to say, I was
going to make you an offer.

In England, we call it
an offer of 6,500 Euros.

Oh, that's not good.

I pay for the car 25,000 Euros.

Really?

Yes.



I cannot give you for 7,000...
I cannot make the price.





No, it's not good.



Oh, it's getting feisty.



Come on, I want to buy this car.

I want to take it home.

It's a good car.

I make a special price for you.





It's okay.

Is it okay?

Hold out your hand.

Okay.

Yes, I bought the car.

Well done, mate.

Okay.

It's good.

Thank you very much.

Well, that was a strange
experience, but I got a good deal.

At around 5,400 pounds,
the car is way over budget.

But I think this car has
got real profit potential.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Once Jurgen had helped
fit the hard top, we said

goodbye, and I loaded
the old girl on the trailer.

What lies ahead is a
one-way, 700-mile journey

through Germany, France
and the Low Countries.

You know what?

I thought the search for a Merk SL was
going to take days and days and days.

But it looks like I may
have struck gold right

out of the box because
I can't stop looking

in the rearview mirror because sitting
on top of my trailer is my Mercedes SL.

I'm going to say that again.

It's my Mercedes SL.

Oh, what a beauty.

Hello, mate.

How was your trip?

How were the autobahns?

Well, at least they got them
because it does make the

journey faster because I was
hauling this thing behind me.

What have you got?

I've got a Mercedes SL.

Ed, who would have thought
that me and you own a Merk SL.

That's yummy.

I mean, you can feel the
quality just kind of oozing off it.

That's awesome.

It's great, isn't it?

And you know, I'm so pleased with this car.

It's a real good one.

There are a few little issues, though.

Oh, I can see the bodywork.

There's a few little
issues there, but it's a start.

Yeah, it's a bit of a shame.

I reckon it started off as a stone
chip and just grew from there.

It's probably a bad repair pack.

What do you think of these wheels?

They are a joker's wheels.

We need to lose those instantly.

They are terrible.

Yeah?

There's a blow in the middle exhaust.

Right.

Look at this.

Proper hardtop.

That's nice and strict, isn't it?

That's lovely.

It's a really good Nick and that
really does add value to the car.

What about the soft top, though?

Is that any good?

The soft top is mint as well.

It's brown mohair.

It looks fantastic.

But somebody has got
the rear screen with a knife.

That isn't so hard to fix, actually,
so I'm not too bad with that.

That's okay.

That's okay.

Inside?

What do you think of that?

Horrible steering wheel.

That's going to have to go as well.

The bloke who owned the
car, he'd had it for 20 years.

He loved that steering wheel.

But the good news is the original one
is in the boot, so it's a nice easy fix.

That's cool.

Right.

When I was on the
test drive, I put my foot

on the brakes and it's
whirled down the road.

So I guess I can look at
those and maybe have to

change everything, but
it's not a bad thing to do.

It's not a bad thing to do.

But do you know what, Ed?

These cars are really, really
appreciated in value now.

I reckon a 280 was the best
engine Mercedes ever made.

So once you get this car
sorted, we'll sell it for a few quid.

Guaranteed.

That is a good little car.

Well done, that man.

Pleasure.

Cup of tea.

Absolutely.

So Ed's happy with the SL.

No doubt he's got a few seized
parts and rusty bolts ahead of him.

But I've got a good feeling about this car.

I just hope our Merc isn't
harbouring any nasty surprises.

Welcome back to Wheel of
Dealers, where we finally got our

hands on one of the 80s best
loved sports cars, the Mercedes SL.

Powerful, stylish and expensive.

It's probably the classiest
motor we've ever worked on.

I went to Germany to buy a cheap
car and found one with no MOT.

Rust damage, a ripped hood and a set
of Miami Vice wheels with dodgy brakes.

Still, it was a steal at £5,400.

Ed's first job is to stop
the rot in the front wing.

Now, this blistering
here is kind of evidence

of an earlier bit of
damage that's repaired.

But unfortunately,
over the years, the rust

has bubbled up again
and pushed the filler up.

So, in fact, you can actually
peel the paint clean off.

Now, I need to sand that down, but
I don't want to damage the bonnet,

which is relatively easy to fix,
so I can just lift that out of the way.

But I also don't want to
damage this piece of chrome.

And to get that off, I'm going to
have to take the headlight out first.

These headlights are set
up for left-hand drive roads,

so before I can go for an MOT,

I'm going to have to change the direction
of the beam to make them OK for UK roads.

I need to see what's underneath
these blisters, what's causing them.

I'm going to have to sand
through the top layers of paint,

perhaps even some filler,
and down to the metal,

just to see really what
is causing that problem.

You can see here I've
gone down to the bare

metal, and there's the
remnants of the rust.

Now, I need to treat
that, basically stabilize it,

before I can then put
my layer of filler on.

I'm going to be using rust remedy,
which is basically a chemical

which just stops the rust dead in
its tracks, it stops it from spreading.

Just put a bit of this on here.

What's going to happen
is eventually it'll go black.

It takes about 15 minutes or so.

As the rust remedy cures,
I'm moving on to the filler,

mixing a pea of hardener
to a golf ball of filler paste.

Then I'm applying it thinly.

Remember, the more you put on,

the more you'll have to sand off.

As always, we'll leave it to dry,

then come back, sand it down,

and maybe if it needs it, another layer.

Well, the filler's gone hard
now, so I can sand it smooth.

And with any luck, I can
then go over with some primer.

Well, that's actually pretty good.

So now I can do some primer,
and then it'll be ready for the top coat.

This car requires a high-quality finish

if we're going to sell it
on for a decent profit,

so I'm going to get this patch
re-sprayed by a professional body shop.

It should cost around 200 quid,

as I've done all the preparation.

Mike has receipts
which show that the rear

brakes were rebuilt before the car was
mothboard, and they seem in good Nick.

My worry is the front ones,

so it's off with the wheels so we can
check the discs and the brake pads.

Well, this is the brake
disc on the near side.

Now, on first glance, I
mean, it's a little bit scored,

but it wouldn't be the
end of the world with

that, but it has got
quite a big lip on it,

and that'll make it quite
difficult to get the caliper off.

But I'll tell you what's going to make it
a lot more difficult to get the caliper off

is the fact that the
disc is utterly seized.

To free the seized discs,

I'm splitting the front caliper,
which holds the brake pads in place.

It all looks pretty rusty,

so we're looking at new discs, calipers,

and brake pads for both sides of the car.

Total cost, £380.

Pricey, but essential.

Well, this is the disc
we've got off the car.

Now, if I have a look on
this side, you can see the

hub here is attached to the disc via five
bolts, and I can see them on the inside.

There we go.

It's got these five hex head bolts.

Looks like they've been there a long time,
so I'm going to get the windy g*n on here.

and crack them off with a bit of force.

There we go.

Hopefully, it shouldn't be too hard.

Lovely.

Lovely.

There we go.

So there's our old brake disc.

Definitely makes sense
to change this anyway.

Well, this is our new disc, and
as usual, there's a protective film,

like a light oil over the disc.

That stops it rusting while
it's on the shelf or in transit.

So I'm just going to clean that
off with some brake cleaner.

Off to there.

Of course, now we need the bearing.

This is the outer bearing.

Just pop that into place.

Cool.

And now, the locking nut.

And with that Allen bolt tightened
up, we're now ready for our caliper.

With both discs up front now shiny
and new, it's time for the calipers.

Leaving the brake lines in place

saves me time, and it's easy
to thread the caliper back on.

Next, the new pads go
in, and I fit the bottom pin.

The retaining plate is slid in
and secured with the top pin.

Then, the all-important
brake sensors, which tell

you when your brake pads
are worn, are connected.

Then, it's a case of
same again on the offside.

Well, putting all that together
was remarkably painless.

I'm going to have to bleed the brakes now.

I will need an assistant.
I'm going to get Paul to come in

to pump the brakes so I
can bleed them at this end.

I'm taking the cap off the brake fluid
reservoir so I can top up as we go along.

OK, Ed, ready when you are.

OK, just give it a couple of pumps.

Brakes are a sealed
hydraulic system which needs

to be full of fluid to give
good pedal pressure.

As Paul pumps the brake pedal, any trapped
air bubbles are forced out of the system.

When Paul feels the pedal firm up,

I know that the system is bled
and the brakes are working well.

The offside bleed is straightforward too.

I just repeat the same process and pretty
soon our Mercedes stops as well as it goes.

How's the pedal now?

Yeah, it's good. Very good.

Job done!

Ed, all right, mate?

You all right, mate? Yeah.

What have you been up to?

This car looks the same as it
was when I dropped it off to you.

Don't you dare.
I've been working very hard.

Check out this bodywork.
Remember that blister?

It's all gone.

That's a great job, isn't it? Really good.

It is. I did all the prep
work, but I did get the paint

done by somebody else to
be absolutely sure it was mint.

Superb.
So the bodywork's nice and straight.

What about mechanically?

If you look down there,
you've got a nice shiny new

calliper and brake disc.
Remember, the brakes

were C, so that's all
sorted, but the back brakes

actually were OK. So we've
now got a nice powerful sports

car that will stop in a
straight line. Exactly. Wicked.

So it's almost done.
All you've got to do is

throw a bucket of water
over it, buzz the wheels on

and we'll get it sold.
There is no way I'm putting

these horrible wheels back on
the car, and in fact it's going to

stay on the ramp until
you honour your promise

and give me some nice new original ones.
What's up with these?

They're horrible. Look at them.
They're disgusting.

They are a bit Mickey Mouse, aren't they?

And I did say I would
get an original set for it.

So you never know.
I might be able to put these in

part exchange, get
some money for these, but

I will honour that promise
and get you a set of

wheels. Promise. Cool.
You did get a really good car, though.

Thank you very much.

Hope those wheels are cheap
because we're already way over budget.

The car cost £5,400.

Travel set me back £400.

A respray was £200.

And the brakes cost me £360.

It's eating money, and there's
still a lot of expensive jobs to do.

All my fingers and my
toes are crossed that we

can make a decent
profit when we sell it on.

Well, it may not look like it,
but this sensational SL will

soon be making its
debut on Britain's B roads.

There's just a few more
jobs for Ed to finish.

He's got to do the
exhaust, repair the hood,

change the alloy wheels,
and give it a good Polish.

Welcome back to the workshop where we're
giving this gorgeous Mercedes SL a proper

spring clean. Now, I bought
this car in Germany where it

was stored in a C container
for over a decade. But now,

thanks to my mechanic mate Ed,

it's well on its way back
to being its Bavarian best.

We're so proud to own the
silky smooth Mercedes 280 SL.

It's a highly desirable
classic car. UK prices are

sky high, so I went all the
way to Munich to find one.

Bargaining hard with a hard-nosed German,

I paid for the car €25,000.

And came away spending
£5,400. A good deal,

but far beyond that £5,000 budget.
And it still needed a lot of work.

The brakes were seized, so Ed
got straight down to overhauling

the system, replacing
the discs and calipers.

The body was basically straight, but a
large rust bubble was spoiling the view.

So Ed rubbed it
down and sorted it out.

But there's plenty to do before this
car will be back up for sale and hopefully

giving us a good profit. The next
job is getting rid of those cheesy.



I gave Mike a bit of a hard time about
these wheels. They're actually in pretty

good Nick.
They're just a bit too cheesy for the look

we're going for, which is a nice stock
Mercedes 280 SL. Now he has finally

come good with these lovely classic
alloy wheels. And I know they're original

because they're exactly
the same as the spare

wheel that's in the boot. Let's get
them on and see what they look like.

The old wheels are fairly
valuable and have decent tires

and my Internet auction for
them promises me £70 more

than the price of these
replacement alloys. Wait a minute,

that's cash in my pocket.

And the classic Merc wheels have given
me a stunning transformation. Perfect.

The wooden steering wheel has
to go. The owner let Mike have

the original one for nothing
and that's going straight

back on. And someone has
offered me £65 for the old one.

Great news for the kitty.

Like the rest of this car,
this soft top's in really good

condition but unfortunately the
windows haven't weathered so well.

They've actually got a bit of
sun damage, they've gone a bit

cloudy, but also they've gone crispy
and actually broken. In fact, the rear

window has this really bad crack in it.
Now it is

possible to replace just those windows
but it is a very involved and fiddly job.

So we've gone with the
slightly less fiddly option

of replacing the entire roof.

This might seem drastic but
the quotes I got from specialists

to replace the windows were more than
the reasonable £300 the new hood cost.

Made to the original Mercedes
pattern in any colour, it's a good deal.

Search on the Internet
and you'll find suppliers.

I've saved money but replacing
the hood on the SL is tricky

so I'm taking the frame
off the car to work on it.

Getting the hood off is a matter
of a few bolts deep in the interior.

It's heavy to lift so I've asked
Paul to come and give me a hand.

First up I need to get the
old fabric off the frame.

The lip is easy enough to
unpick but the middle section

of the roof is glued to the metal
frame under five slim folds of material.

But the glue is too old to peel off,
it's better just to cut the fabric away.

Next, the frame goes back
on the car as it's the best way

of getting the tension spot
on for the replacement hood.

Right, so now those
shims are quite important

let's make sure we get
them in the right place.

Okay, right now we need the back bar.

Let's drop that over there.

Now, it's at this kind of stage you get
the feeling that perhaps paying the £300

to £350 to have one of these fitted might
not be a bad idea after all but I think.

it's quite a fun thing to know you've
actually done the work like this yourself so.

if you're brave enough
it's worth having a go.

Okay, cool. So now the
next thing I have to do is

just clean off all this glue
here. Because basically

the solvent in the new glue
will actually make the old

stuff kind of soften up again
and it means it will never

set again properly which
means we never get the right

amount of tension so it's very important we
get everything absolutely superbly clean.

Scraping off old glue
isn't the most glamorous

of jobs but it is important
and needs to be done

thoroughly. All you need is
a sharp blade or a scraper.

How are you getting on Ed?

It's going pretty well.
There's quite a lot to do down here though.

Do you want to see the glue on the front?

No, but I'm fine down
here, thank you very much.

There's no worries.

I'm happy that the frame is prepared so
the next thing is to protect these windows

we're going to be wrestling
them over that frame

when this plastic does scratch
rather easily so just to protect it.

we're going to use a bit of cling film.

It could have been
brown paper with a bit of

masking tape pretty
much anything will do.

just to stop any damage.

There are a couple of
things we have to do before

we can put the roof
onto the frame. The first.

are these little window seals. These rubber
bits go above the windows on the car.

There's a little slit here where the cable
comes through that we took off earlier.

and I'm just going to edge that up to there
and they're going to sit along that seam.

like so but obviously to attach them
I'm going to use a contact adhesive

so I'm going to have to put some
glue on this side and on that side

but this material is very
absorbent so I need to do

at least two runs with that
glue and I'll do the same.

at the back here where that metal bar is
going to be attached as well because again.

I need to get this to set before I
can start putting the extra glue on.

This quick drying adhesive comes
special order from the hood suppliers

off the shelf stuff just won't
be strong enough for this job.

So now.

while that first coat is
still going off I'm now going

to do a little bit of coating
on the back aluminium bar.

and let's just get
that middle bit.

This is the important part.

Okay, cool.

Before the glue goes off we need to be sure

the centre of the hood lines
up with the centre of the frame.

Now our connecting wire is threaded through
the fabric which will pull on the frame

creating the right shape
when the hood is up.

So I'm going to run this cable
through the channel in the roof

and to get it through I'm
going to use a very high

tape bit of equipment.
Basically it's a coat

hanger with a little
tiny hook on the end.

I'm just going to feed that through.

the slit there by the rubber, pop
it down the back, just pop out the

back, there we go, in the hole.
I'm just now going to hook.

the hole on the wire.

onto the end of the coat hanger

put it back through.

I'm just going to work the
screw through the hood.

Now we're getting ready for the front.

edge of the hood now so
I'm just putting some glue.

underneath here.

and on the top and then
of course also on the front.

I'm getting very close now, it's going
to start to look like a convertible hood.

It's pretty cool.

Just touch that down there.

Now this little bit of
aluminium extrusion here

you can see has a little
channel for rubber and

what it also does is hold
the hood onto the frame.

With the aluminium in place I'm now
going to use a knife to trim off the edge.

At days work and we're nearing
the end of this job, I just need to glue

the fabric to the list rails
inside and we're done.

Look at that.

That is just fantastic.

Look at that in position. That is lovely.

It's so taut. It looks like
it's just come out of a factory

which is a good thing because it
took a long time to get this to this stage.

But it was definitely worth it.
It's a really lovely job.

The only thing is it's so clean and the
windows are so clean it would be such a shame

to get this all dirty now so
I'm just going to pop it away

into its little garage with its protective

cover and that way
we can just get on with

the exhaust and it'll
be fine and safe inside.

Welcome back to Wheeler Dealers.

Our day job is to buy,

restore and sell on classic cars.

The budget is five grand
and we've passed it a while

back on our restoration of
this beautiful Mercedes SL.

Ed's about to take a look at the exhaust.

Fingers crossed that won't
be too expensive a job.

Well that is ridiculous. There
you are in a lovely convertible

car driving through the
countryside and you have to

put up with that racket.
Clearly I've got to

sort that out.
There's something wrong with the exhaust

and to have a look I need
to get the car up on the ramp.

Well I think I know where
the problem is. First of all

we've got this problem with the sil*ncer
at the back here. It's actually not

touched badly but there is quite a bit
of corrosion around the back of it here.

If I go a bit further on
there's a link here. It's

also really rusty. There's
a few little pinholes

so there's probably exhaust
coming out of there as well.

If you go a bit further
back it's up to this resonator

or perhaps sil*ncer and you can see all
this heat shield has already rusted away

but also around the back I
can actually see physical holes.

Oh dear, the exhaust is much
worse than I thought. The only answer

is to drop it off and replace all
sections apart from the manifold.

It's not that difficult
a job but it will take

some time and much more
money than I was expecting.

Now this next bit is
going to get a little heavy

so I'm going to get Paul to give us a hand.
So Paul, pop in here

if you could.
I'm just going to get him to hold the

exhaust.
I'm going to just take off these last two.

rubber mounts.

Very useful tool, this
saves losing your fingers.

The other one.

Okay, now.

just lower this down.

If you go that end and just see.

this is where we're going to try and feed
the exhaust through the steering idler arm.

Do you want to go down a bit?

There we go, look at that.

That's a very heavy exhaust,
well a very heavy scrap exhaust.

Time for the new one. I'm choosing
not to use original Mercedes spares.

We need to save money and
cheaper pattern parts came in at £395.

First, I'm fitting the
downpipes to the manifold.

Well this is the clamp that holds
this downpipe to the engine manifold.

Basically, you can see there it's
got like a kind of ball and socket affair

which means you can kind of
move it around to get a really perfect

fit and it also means the
exhaust will be in exactly the right

position. So just
pop that up into here.

Access is difficult and the parts are heavy

so an extra pair of
hands is really helpful.

Well that's actually
probably the hardest bit done.

The downpipes are now
attached to the manifold

so what we're going to have to do now
while Paul still does a bit of balancing.

I'm just going to put some
gloves on because I'm

now going to get some
exhaust paste to put around.

these pipes here so that the next
section of the exhaust has a perfect

seal because at the
end of the day if anything

leaks out from here
it's going to not only be

a little less safe but also it's going to
be much more noisy which we don't want.

This is just your
standard exhaust paste

available from pretty
much any motor factors.

Now this is pretty clever
stuff because basically

it's all sort of soggy and
gooey when you put it on.

but then as the exhaust heats up
or in fact if you leave it long enough

in just the air it'll go
rock hard and that'll give

it a perfect seal. Next
comes the middle section.

Okay here we go.

Now this. You alright there Paul?

I'm fine mate. Well the blood will be
running out of his arm but we'll be alright.

Right.

Next.

Now a little top tip.
When you put in these kind

of exhaust clamps on it
does help if you can just

twist them round so
they're just out of the

flow of things like speed
bumps, logs, drops,

that kind of stuff just so they don't get
ripped off and damage your exhaust.

Also don't go so far

that they touch the underside of the car
because they make a horrible rattling noise.

Lastly there's the rear sil*ncer.

Lift it up.

There we go.

This final rubber mount
will stop the back box rattling

and our Merc is going to
sound the way it should.

Well after all that work we had to
do on the hood that exhaust was so

easy it was great so let's just
see how good it sounds now.

That is a beautiful
thing. That really is.

That marks the end of
the transformation for this

superb Mercedes and I'm
proud of what we've achieved.

This was a car that had
not been driven for years,

wasn't road legal and
needed a second chance.

Well look at it now.

My search for an SL in the UK
proved fruitless but in Germany

I found the right car at
the right money. £5,400.

The brakes were shot and Ed
replaced the discs and calipers.

Ed got to work on the only rust
on this otherwise straight car.

The horrible 80's wheels were
ditched in favour of original items bought

on the Internet. The slash
plastic window meant Ed had to

replace the hood in original colour
and spec. It makes the car look

like new. And the blowing exhaust
simply needed to be changed over

for a patterned part.
Now it sounds fantastic.

and it looks fantastic.

Crunch time. How much did we spend?

The car cost £5,400.

The travel £400.

Respray £200.

The exhaust £395.

The hood £300.

Brakes £360. But we made £135 back from
selling the steering wheel and old wheels.

That means the Merc
owes us a whopping £6,920.

It's way over our original budget and
we'll need to sell high to make a profit.

Ed, alright my son.

Now that is a proper

mimp motor. Is it all ready to go?

It's ready to go and looking awesome.

I can't believe this is
the same car that was

sitting neglected in a C
container for over a decade.

Looks fantastic but you've
had your fair share of problems.

Well there were quite a few things to fix
but under all that is a real gem of a car.

I had to sort out the hood, the exhaust
and the wheels and it's an original spec.

It's going to sell so easily.

I hope it does sell easy and
you know what we have got?

We've got a proper 80's
Icona Mercedes convertible.

That means it's highly
desirable, very collectible

and worth quite a few quid.

Well Michael before you sell this car,

the hood's down, the sun's
out, let's hit the open road.

We've cracked it haven't we?

A Mercedes SL roof off,

got the wind in our hair and
we're driving such a classy car.

I mean we've got that three pointed start,

the feel of this brilliant steering wheel,

the smell of the leather and
the burr of the walnut dash.

Well of course not only was all that
lovely mechanical work done underneath

and now we've got this classy car but also
doesn't she look classy on the outside?

Well she does and of course
a car like this has to look right.

It did have a few rust bubbles.

And the wheels, the wheels really helped.

Now we put these on, it's
just turned the clock back.

The car looks totally and utterly original.

In fact, you know, really
the whole car looks like it was

rolled out of a showroom
in Germany yesterday.

Well absolutely, I think the
kind of person who's going to buy

this car is going to be just like
the Germans who put it together.

They're going to be really into the detail.

It has to be detail perfect.

Well I mean we're going
to have to be perfect

with the way that we
price this car because

we have got a tough
marketplace to sell this car in.

It's left hand drive and there's plenty

of right hand drive
models out there for sale.

Now what we can do is we
can steal the March and all those

right hand drive models by
just pricing this one correctly.

Now I've had a good look round,

a right hand drive version of this car,

not as good as this,

will cost in excess of £10,000.

Right, now I know we've
got it for good money this car,

and I know we spent good money on it,

but I think.

if we can sell it for about £8,000

we're going to get a good profit and
somebody's going to get a cracking motor.

No, I'm going to agree with you on that.
I think definitely that's a good way to go.

£8,000 it is.

The SL is a prestige car
with broad appeal and I

left a fixed priced ad on
an Internet auction site.

Hundreds of hits yielded a handful

of hopefuls.

Our first visitor is Sally who works
nearby and asked if she could have a look.

So it's a lovely car isn't it?

It is a lovely car, it is.

Just out of interest how many owners
has it had? You wouldn't believe it,

for a car that's old, I mean
it's over 25 years old this car,

it's actually one owner from new.

The guy that I bought it
from in Germany, he bought it

brand new and actually over the last 10
years he just stored it in a container so it

weren't even used. Really?
Yeah, he's kept it in good Nick.

I'm getting the feeling
that Sally likes the car

but I don't know if it's right for her.

The only way to find out
is to press her for a deal.

So it's got a new hood,

it's got a detachable hard top,

it's got one owner, it's got a
very good service history, it's

got new wheels and it's ready
to go and it's only 8 grand.

I am very interested, I think it's a
lovely car, I think it's obviously been

well looked after, but
I'd really like to go away

and think about it.
I'll give you a call tomorrow.

I just think you should
buy the car now Sally.

It's the right time to
buy the car, you're not

going to find a cheaper
one. I really am interested

like I said and I won't keep waiting
too long but I'll give you a call tomorrow.

While Sally ponders another potential
buyer Joe comes to view. He told

me originality is
top of his wish list.

Well I don't know what
you're looking for down

here, you won't find any
rust. I'm just checking.

I know you're just
checking, I will tell you

though Joe, it's solid
this car, underneath.

I had it up on the ramp and it is
clean as a whistle. In fact I'm going to

make a confession, the
only bit of rust on the whole

car when I bought it was there was
a nasty blob here on the front wing

but now look.

not a Mark on it and it's
been professionally painted

and it's solid under me.
I'll take your word for it.

Take your word for
it, I got it on his face.

But round the front it's all in good
order, it's in lovely Nick all the way down

the sides as well.
What do you think of these wheels?

They are the dogs.
They are aren't they?

Very nice. I'm on the homeward straight
and I can see the pound signs. It's time to

reel him in. So it's eight
grand, that's what I want for it

and I've got a funny feeling
I'm going to get that all day long.

Not eight grand. Why would you say
that? Seven seven seems more right to me.

Well that's a fair offer, I
will say seven seven is a fair

offer but you'll have to
give a bit more I'm afraid.

You're beating me up here
mate. No I'm not beating you up. I'll

tell you what, I like your face
and it matches your jacket.

I'll give you I'll let you have the car,
seven thousand nine hundred quid. Don't

try Joe, don't try, just hold
out your hand. That is the

cheapest moke for sale in
the United Kingdom. Abbot,

done. Well done. You
got yourself a cracking car.

Cheers, thanks.

Considering I was worried
about losing money, a

profit of nearly a grand
is a very sweet result.

But what's worth more than money is seeing
out 280 SL back looking her best. After

a shaky start, this has been one of the
most rewarding Wheeler dealer missions ever.

Well this Mercedes SL has
turned out to be a real success

story. We've taken a
car that's over a quarter of

a century old and turned
it into a real gem. Plus.

we've earned a cracking profit to boot,

which is the most important thing. And if
you want to see more cars getting this kind

of treatment, then make
sure you join us again soon.

Ta-La!