1967 Mercedes 250SE Coupe

I owned this 1967 Mercedes 250SE Coupe from August 2008 to May 2010 in Detroit.   I found the car via a fairly bad craigslist ad near a city called Grand Rapids (around 250 miles from Detroit).  The ad had no photos but it sounded interested, so not thinking it would lead to anything I contacted the seller.    The car was much better than I assumed, and so I was able to purchase it for a reasonable price.

The car had been originally owned by an Airforce Colonel who flew the B52 Bomber.   It had been regularly used until 1994, and at some point fitted with a 280 engine and the turn signals from a 280.   It also had some unusual options such headrests, floor shift, power antenna etc.   Since 94 it transferred ownership a few times, and was basically solid, but with some rust, and was running poorly since it had hardly been used in almost 15 years.

When I got the car, it would run ok for a while, but then start spluttering and stalling.   Eventually I had to pull the fuel tank and clean it out, as well as change the fuel filter a few times.   In addition, the brakes had no power boost, and there was a pretty bad vacuum leak.   A new (used) brake servo, master, vac line and full bleed cured that.    I probably put 1500 miles on the car and ultimately sold it for double what I paid, including keeping the rare headrests.

This was the first car I did any serious mechanical work to.   Probably dropping the fuel tank on my own over the weekend in a public carpark was a foolhardy idea.   I got it done and back in the car by the end of the weekend.

With this 1967 Mercedes 250SE Coupe I also got the log books for the first 100,000 miles (It had 194,000), as well as the original invoice.

Original-bill

When I finally came to sell the car, I filmed a ‘virtual test drive’.   By the time I sold the car I was already thinking about moving back to Australia.  This car was not worth shipping back.   It was sold to make way for the 1965 Jaguar E-Type.