Mercedes-Benz 280SE
From a daily driver to a super classic in several very expensive moves.
Although the build quality of cars produced by MercedesBenz during the ‘ Sixties and ‘ Seventies has often been compared to the proverbial panzer tank or brick outhouse, several decades of soaking up the worst of the British weather will eventually take its toll on the metalwork of even the finest built car. And that’s just what peter Grieves, the owner of this superbly recommissioned W108 280SE coupé quickly discovered, luckily before he handed over any cash to buy the car.
“i was fully aware of the condition of the SE when i bought it”, explained peter. “The sales person kept on glossing over any comments i was making about the condition of the bodywork and harped on about how the car had once been owned by the Beatles’ drummer, ringo Starr”. peter told us he wasn’t too concerned about the car having a famous owner, but was more bothered about its overall condition, which wasn’t actually that bad.
“i’d seen a lot worse and the fact that someone famous had once owned the car never really came into the decision to purchase the SE. Originally, we’d wanted a convertible W108 but i didn’t like how the hood piled up on the rear deck when it was folded down. it looked messy. So we decided to track down a two- door pillarless coupé instead and were delighted to come across EGX 999J for sale”, recalled an obviously very happy peter.
FIRST OF THE V8s
peter’s fine looking 280SE was first registered on August 18, 1970, and is powered by a M116 3499cc V8 engine driving the rear wheels through a four-speed automatic gearbox. The ‘E’ suffix on the boot badge stands for Einspritzung (injection), which means the V8 powering peter’s car is equipped with Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection (the ‘S’ by the way stands for ‘Sonderklasse’ or Special Class). it’s also interesting to note that all V8 powered 280SE’s came with automatic transmission as standard and although airconditioning was an optional extra on this model, it wasn’t fitted to peter’s car.
We were keen to find out how much work peter has done
to his car to bring it up to its current high standard, so we asked him what the condition of the car was like when he first bought it. “Looking back, I suppose it’s fair to say the car had seen better days when I bought it back in 1989. However, that didn’t really worry me too much and we quickly nicknamed the Mercedes ‘Ringo’s rust bucket’.
“Even though it was one of the last mainly hand-built series of cars produced by Mercedes-Benz in what many enthusiasts call the company’s ‘Golden Age’, the 280 turned out to be quite rusty in some places, so I started to hunt around for a few bodywork quotes”, added Peter while thinking about what the first jobs were. “I have to admit that reviving the Mercedes has been a case of restoration by cheque book. Although my mechanical skills aren’t that bad, I didn’t have the time and was haunted by memories of working on my old motorbikes and never being able to get away with doing the job once”, joked Peter.
INITIAL INSPECTION
The first port of call for Peter’s newly acquired 280SE was to John Griffiths Ltd (0118 948 2953), an independent MercedesBenz specialist based in Caversham, near Reading, for a few of the initial jobs to be sorted out. “I’ve also used a Mercedes specialist near Amersham and the car’s also been to another specialist based in London. One of the first jobs was to have one of the SE’s rusty front wings replaced, as well as having a few other urgent body repairs carried out”, added a still very enthusiastic Peter.
“I like to think how this car has been gradually recommissioned rather than restored and among the initial jobs was to have the top half of the engine overhauled. Although there was nothing seriously worn in the engine when the heads came off, it certainly benefited from a good clean up and a set of new seals”. Peter then surprised us by recalling how he used the Mercedes for around seven or eight years as his daily driver, commuting from home in Surrey to his place of work place in London.
“Being a V8, the 280 managed to hold its own on the fast bits of the A3, but thinking about how much fuel those
eight cylinders gulped on a daily basis still gives me the shudders!” Next question was to ask was if the car ever let Peter down during this period of every day use and we were told that other than a few little niggles, the only major issue was traced to a faulty ECU (Engine Control Unit).
“It was one of those irritating faults that caused an occasional misfire. I had all the plugs and leads changed to try and cure the problem and even had the fuel injection system overhauled, but the big V8 still fluffed occasionally, which was very annoying”, continued Peter. “Getting to the bottom of the problem became a mission and I even bought two replacement ECUs off the Internet in a bid to cure the problem but they both proved to be just as bad as the original”. Asked how he eventually solved the problem, Peter explained how the
Mercedes Owners’ Club came to the rescue.
“All the replacement ECUs had a similar misfire but in a slightly different pattern and at first I thought there may be a possibility of taking the units apart and building a good one. A quick look inside, however, soon put paid to that. Fiddling around with these units would end in disaster, so I got in touch with the technical experts at the owners’ club.
“They were absolutely brilliant and a guy called Jeremy Stephens even built a test rig with flashing lights to show the spark plugs firing and after a while he managed to fix the all the units I’d sent him”. Peter then told us how it must have taken about two or three months for Jeremy to get to the bottom of the ECU problem and Peter now has one reconditioned spare unit sitting on the shelf, while the third ECU was donated to the club.
HELP ALWAYS AT HAND
This just proves how useful it can be to belong to a car club, as there’s always a member that’s experienced or experiencing the same or a similar problem to the one you’re trying to solve. “I can’t thank the club enough”, added an obviously still delighted Peter. “You have to remember that this problem occurred when I hadn’t owned the car very long and there weren’t that many companies specialising in repairing faulty ECUs back then. The part was obviously unobtainable from the main dealer and an electronics company had already quoted me £1000 to try and repair it. So without the diligence of the club’s tech department, I don’t know how that problem would have been solved, as I couldn't have afforded a £1000 then.”
Peter agreed with us that it’s very different today when it comes to repairing electronic
modules. Most ECUs can now be repaired on an exchange basis by a growing number of specialist companies. As the electrics on modern classics become more complicated, many of these independent repairers are snapping up redundant test equipment used by main dealers as the electronics fitted to new cars gets ever more complex.
With his prized Mercedes finally back on the road with its overhauled ECU working perfectly, Peter decided to start his own business and rather than sell the 280SE, he ‘mothballed’ it and put the car into storage. “The car ended up being stored for a few years while my business soaked up all the spare cash rather than diverting any funds into what was fast becoming my hobby car. In fact the Mercedes didn’t receive any attention until around ten years ago and a close inspection showed there were now a few rust patches in the floor and various other places that urgently needed dealing with”.
Once his business was on a sound financial footing, Peter could then afford to spend money on reviving the Mercedes and the car was booked into a local bodyshop to have the rusty panels repaired. “The other front wing was replaced and all the corrosion was chased out of the floorpans and sills. The bodyshop did a really good job and after all the rusty bits had been dealt with, the bodywork was taken back to bare metal and resprayed in the car's original colour”, added a very pleased looking Peter.
LASTING WELL
Although most of the work was completed almost ten years ago, the condition of the 280’s gleaming paintwork still looks good and Peter told us the next stage in reviving his pride and joy. “By now, the car was obviously not being used as my daily driver, so after the bodywork had been sorted out I decided to have the interior re-trimmed. This work included refurbishing the seat covers and fitting a new headlining, along with replacing all the original carpets.
“While the headlining was out, I had the sunroof repaired but sourcing a new operating cable proved very difficult”. Peter also explained how he is going to have the door cards rebuilt, as his wife kept complaining about a very unpleasant odour in the car every time she got in.
“My wife has a very keen sense of smell and kept telling me there was a really bad smell of damp in the car. I knew there was a very slight leak somewhere in the back, so booked the car into D- Class Automotive of Cobham (01483 722923), near where I live in Surrey. They found a very small hole under the rear seat, which they repaired. Plugging the hole up didn’t unfortunately cure the odd pong and this was later traced to the door cards”.
Peter then went on to say how the base material that forms the door cards is made from some sort of cardboard and this had got wet and was starting to rot in places. “On the surface, the cards looked okay, but one had been off recently when a window lift motor was being repaired and looking at the state of the back, I could tell straight away where the bad smell was coming from!”
This keen owner never seems to do things by halves when it comes to his Mercedes coupé and the next job planned is to get D- Class to make up a new set of door cards using the original outer trim and get them fitted before the car is put back on the road in the Spring.
We asked Peter if there were any other parts he’d found hard to find while refurbishing the 280’s interior and the only bits that caused any difficulties were the chrome covers that go over the hinges on the front seat backs.
“Where the front seat backs fold over to allow access to the rear seats, there’s a couple of chrome finishers that go over the arms and centre of the hinges. So far it’s been very difficult to find any decent replacements for the round centrepieces and I’m still looking for a couple. Hopefully, these items may turn up at one of the German shows I occasionally visit when time allows”.
With the value of these highly desirable coupés still increasing, the final question we were dying to ask Peter was how much his V8-powered 280SE had cost him back in 1989. “I don’t mind answering that question at all”, replied a smiling Peter. “It cost me £17,000 and that would have
obviously included a premium due to Ringo Starr having owned the car for four years.
KEEPING TABS ON COSTS
Peter has all the paperwork showing how the former Beatle purchased the car in 1980."I've tried contacting Ringo, but he's never got back to me. Maybe he’s not interested in his old cars, which is a shame. He's no doubt owned lots of nice cars over the years and probably can't remember this one", added Peter”.
Not only can Peter recall how much he paid for his Mercedes, he’s also kept a record of every penny spent on refurbishing the car and revealed that the total now stands at £40,000. “And that’s not counting the cost of refurbishing those smelly door cards”, quipped Peter before going on to tell us he has no intention of ever selling this stylish looking executive coupé and is looking forward to getting it back on the road in the Spring.