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.
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.
