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Junkyard Find: 1974 Mercedes-Benz 450SL

by Murilee Martin
(IC: employee)
January 10th, 2013 10:53 PM
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When I lived in California, I’d see R107s in self-service junkyards all the time; since moving to Denver a couple of years back, I see them only occasionally. There was this ’78 450SLC last summer and that was about it. Last week, though I found this screaming yellow Malaise Era kokainwagen.

This one entered the used-parts ecosystem in fairly beat/rusty condition (yes, Midwesterners, I know this is amateur-grade rust), and quite a few bits have already been picked from it.

I like these cars so much that I’ve been trying to buy the Rally Baby Racing ’75 450SL (which is street-licensed) for the last ten months. It’s a slow and heavy race car, but would look great on the street.

This engine would look great in a fenderless ’39 Opel, ja?
















#1970s
#1974
#1974Mercedes-Benz450SL
#Convertible
#Denver
#DownOnTheJunkykard
#Junkyard
#JunkyardFind
#Malaise
#MalaiseEra
#Mercedes-Benz
#R107
#Mercedes-BenzR107
Published January 11th, 2013 9:00 AM
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450SL an icon in its day.. The first owner rolled around the summer of 74 with the unescapable news of a disgraced president playing out on the radio, In 74 British Leyland would have liked you believe their Triumph Stag a worthy contender. Build quality & brand duration not even close. I would have desired balloon whitewalls & color-coded hubs with that yellow more than euro-spec bumpers.
Since I'm too lazy to search for the answer myself, do people ever do SBC swaps in these cars? I always liked this body style, but I can't imagine 35+ year old Mercedes-Benz V8's are easy to work on or find parts for.