1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 Coupe - Jay Leno's Garage

welcome to the episode of journals garage a featured car today my 1971 mercedes-benz 280 SC 3.5 coupe I love this error mercedes-benz especially these coupes and convertibles the coupe more than convertible actually for me because these are the last of the truly cult coachbuilt mercedes-benz these are basically hand-built cars if you go back and you check the restoration blog for 2016 and 2015 you'll see this car all apart and you'll see that all this chrome is beautiful brass that's been rechromed you know so many cars use you know plastic that's chrome plated or some kind of aluminum here I mean these are truly coachbuilt cars they just they just shut with such authority they're so well made and this was the top of the line the 3.5 they built a number of these in the 60s with the 6-cylinder mercedes-benz engine but this engine they built as the engine of the future it's a 3.5 overhead cam engine two valves per cylinder top speed about just about 130 miles an hour this is a real autobahn cruiser this was meant to compete I think with the corniche from rolls-royce it was less money than a corniche but I think a better car Mercedes always had trouble in the 60s in America because it didn't have a v8 Americans like big v8s Cadillacs Lincoln and Mercedes always had six cylinders with a session of the Mercedes 600 which is also a hand-built car there was a no v8 until they come out with the 6.3 then they started to catch up I remember when I worked from her sadie's benz dealer in the late 60s and early 70s there are newspaper ads used to say why would anyone pay ten thousand dollars for a four-door sedan and then they would explain why because ten thousand dollars a lot of money cadillac was six or seven thousand at the time this when I came out was between twelve and fourteen thousand dollars and the convertible just a little bit more so they were very expensive but I think worth it the texture of the leather that you got back in this era you know modern leather to me has this kind of weird half vinyl feel to it you know this is the kind of leather you rub that hide food in it gives you that rich kind of aroma has the beautiful wood as I mentioned in the restoration blog a company named Madeira concepts redid all the wood for us I found this car in Las Vegas it was pretty worn out but because it's Vegas and it's dry and the heat although all the rubber was gone the wood was all buckled and everything from the heat the body structure was sound it didn't appear to have been damaged and any accidents or anything like that it might had a few dings but we straightened those out chassis was straight engine was straight we didn't take the drivetrain out we had a stuck valve we worked on the engine in the car because once you take it out then there's just the myriad of problems that can happen you know the drivetrain everything was solid so that was okay redid the leather redid the paint every part of it well here here are some pictures as you can see the car was totally stripped down there's the wood all out of the dash the only thing we did differently we replaced the Mercedes air conditioning compressor which i think was made by Bayer with a vintage air compressor you know that's the company out of Arizona that we have all our cars converted to vintage air because they they're adaptable to almost any vehicle and they're small and they're compact so when you look at the dashboard here there are two knobs one to turn on the compressor you know with the fan speed and all that and the other one how much cold air do you want and I priced out the knobs and they were like four hundred and fifty dollars apiece for the knobs from Germany and we're not going to do that so we 3d printed one and then the other one because we use the vintage air part we use their controller but other than that everything else appears to be totally stock they're just wonderful driving cars let me let's open the hood and show you what it's like under there now we were painting this car the exact same color it left the factory this Mercedes silver I can't remember the name of it but and all we did under the hood really was cleaning it up we have a stuck valve on this side we fixed that obviously change the oil did all that of course we replaced the compressor flushed out the radiator but other than that it's basically as it left the factory even more of a modern battery rather than German battery those are just way too expensive and these interstates really do a good job but it cleaned up nicely 4-speed transmission and I always loved these stacked headlights more than turned the other way you know i think paul brock i think that's how you say the guys name i it's you know there's so many these German designers I read the name that I meyer their work but i've never heard the name pronounced and i pronounced it one way in my head and then they meet somebody go i had it all wrong so I think it's Paul rock I think he was the head guy at Mercedes this period I just like this era of mercedes-benz especially the 6.3 four-door sedan you seen that one we've had on the show the 600 and now this one sort of kind of makes it the the three favourite Mercedes Benz because well I worked from his 80s or at the car dealership from 69 to maybe seventy three something like that and I got to drive all of these and I never thought I would be able to own one of these cars gives it just so nice driving so plush and the Mercedes classics enter every single part for this car is available from Mercedes the parts are expensive but they're the actual Sadie's part one of the most expensive pieces we had to replace was I call it the compensator for the rear suspension they don't make them anymore you can't get them but you can exchange them through mercedes-benz mercedes-benz hunts the world over to find used ones they rebuild them you give them your old car they give you a new one and now the car sits and drives nice and levels out nicely this is a sunroof coupe which I really like because you have that big giant sunroof know bluetooth they don't get annoying phone calls while you're driving it's fantastic fantastic and of course it has the classic German radio that's the Becker German radio bla punk and Becker were the two radios that came in these but as you can see it's just very solid all this rubber trim this came from mercedes-benz you know you can go to these places it'll sell you some rubber they tell you will fit but it won't you've got to get it from mercedes-benz if you kind of do it right you know you rebuilding an expensive car spend the money and get the proper parts even a new windshield because it was Las Vegas the original windshield was just pitted it looks like somebody can firing BBS at it you know just sitting out there in the sand but Las Vegas Arizona New Mexico those are good places to find these kind of cars because even though they might be worn out structurally their sound and that's what this one is come on let me show the interior come around this side as you can see plenty of legroom just big comfortable overstuffed chairs that's that now Bart is talking about it's the only thing we change from stock we made this on our 3d printer we've got electric windows here you've got the Becker you rope a stereo I love these radio I just hit the button I don't have to slide things or do any nonsense like you do tachometer obviously and you've got your standard gauges gasoline water temperature oil pressure rear defroster and your four-way flashers just the quality of the Chrome I love the fact that the glove box it's a solid piece of wood you know it's not a veneer stuck on plastic it's a solid piece of wood which is really pretty cool and it closes it with a thud these have a great Road feel to them you know they haven't been what's the word I want you know modern cars are so antiseptic and so smooth where is this thing you feel what the engine is doing all the times I like to transmission it ships just crisply and sharp and there's a little bit of a kick when it shifts which I like some of the guys that talk about the door jams look at the door jams on this car it's unbelievable it's all chrome and a heavy thick chrome which is very expensive to duplicate but something that's kind of funny I want to show you the trunk show you how chunks have changed in the last few years and you got dual exhaust to cars but the trunk is interesting me because it shows you it's putting me just one metal stamping you know modern trunks it it's all padded and insulated and all this kind of silver this is just just a piece of metal but look how big it is and an actual spare tire with a jack you know that's the cool thing about these you know I've got a tesslar and twice I've gotten flat tires because of potholes and there's no spare you pull off the side of the road you call a flatbed maybe Thursday somebody shows up and and your stuff where's this thing like just take jack 20 minutes you're back on the road again obviously we put all new rubber around here but it's just kind of how pretty much basic this is it's just one stamping here you know now this would be have all kinds of lights and all sorts of things in it now but oven that and we put all new rubber in so you've really got a slam it to get it to to to shut but it's just a fantastic car to drive come on let's take it out in the road and we'll show you show you what she does I love the high roof on this thing you know I like how spacious it is inside the greenhouse is fantastic the cars only got 82,000 miles on it that's what we didn't feel we needed to pull the engine out and totally redo it just cleaned up the top end a little bit stuck valve and sitting for a while that's all it needed and these motors will run well I've got my 6.3 Mercedes that has 300 24,000 miles on it and it gives us some idea longevity of these things I love the fact that it's real woods you can use furniture polish on it to clean it up I love thanks it's real leather you can use eye food you know so many of these things are these artificial look-alike fabrics that don't breathe like leather or even feel like leather see it's a strange thing I don't know whether I love these cars so much because I used to work on them and maintain them and polish them and clean them up for customers for people I thought I could never afford to live like or the fact that I just really like them man it's probably a little bit of both there's a psychological effect to it you know I just like to stack headlights it looks more substantial to me and I always been a big fan of this Mercedes steering wheel I I just liked it it really harkens back to the gullwing and this is now the goings not much what's that about sixteen years earlier than this so you see the relationship it just smells better you know this rich leather and across the giant sunroof which is fantastic when I got this card I'd whitewall tires on it and Michelin used to make a white wall radial back in the day in a 14-inch this one had some kind of Bridgestone or aftermarket tires we're saying you should always have Michelin and that's what I put on you I couldn't find the white walls white walls look nice and look period-correct but if the choice of having some of the other Michelin but to get a white wall I'll stick with the black wall tire I just think the Michelin suits the car better it rides better handles better I get a little bit more Road feel I mean this thing is just a great highway Cruiser you know 65 70 it's barely working and these gonna run 130 miles an hour an American cars are top out it you know 106 105 this thing will run 130 miles an hour all day long let me cut in front of this lesser Mercedes see that model does nothing for me it doesn't have the presence of this car we drive this car you long ago what is that my Mercedes while we hear that you know and it's sort of a timeless style I think even though it's just about 50 years old it still looks reasonably contemporary and a 3.5 ei that's tiny by American standards good heavens this might have been a good size engine by European standards 3.5 liter but my American Standard is pretty tiny I mean 3.5 liter is only about what 213 cubic inches that's that's smaller than the to 65 Chevy v8 or 264 or any nose gun thanks it's small over the 215 you begin to view it so tiny by American standards but makes a lot of torque a lot of power and a really really good motor it was expanded over the years to 4.5 liter and you know in increments after that I just love the way these handle obviously don't handle as well as a modern mercedes-benz with sophisticated suspension it's just still a remarkable car when you put your foot in it it kicks down you know but a vehicle like this it's really about how it makes you feel when you're driving it you know it's a bit like the distri just get an electronic watch and then a beautiful watch it you enjoy winding the main string and four mainspring every night before you go to bed yoga solid clicks that's what this feels like to me it feels like the solid click of a you know a handmade watch it's just that's a remarkable automobile really are and you can see all kinds of room in this thing as I mentioned before a horn ring right here tachometer gas oil pressure water temperature and some idiot light therefore emergency brake of things they're just phenomenal right here 100 mile hundred sixty mile hours for now I'm gonna somewhat optimistic one of my favorite things is this here it's big giant sunroof take a look how big it is nothing like driving one of these on a cool California night got the heat on in here and just enough cold air swirling around especially many going along the coast it just great and the nice thing is it seals up you know most modern sunroof cause the roof is lower and kind of hit your head if you want the sunroof or is this thing there's so much space in here and this wood gives it a real quality finish you got your Becker you Roper radio these are really expensive back in the day but really good radios I turn it on for you but then we have to pay royalties of some song plan I this was sort of the first time well not the first time but mercedes-benz have just started to integrate air conditioning into their cars you know German cars really didn't have air conditioning back in the 60s and 70s because it's Germany you know summer lasts for like two Thursdays you know but then as more and more cars got sold in the American market it began being integrated into it but it works quite well you know it disadvantage the only event you have a right here you know there's no vents on the side or anywhere else you know modern cars air conditioning pumping through the roof and every other and there's nothing quite as prominent as that three-pointed star on the hood when he going down the road I really enjoy that even the clock works on this one I hate when we get into a car and a clock doesn't work I go come on what do you do so if the dog doesn't work what else doesn't work but this is a car you could cross continents in like that you know you could drive this from England all the way to the south of Spain and I never want to get out of it we've got the seats all the way back but as you can see this is room for four in this car might be a little cramped back there but hey I'm not sitting back there what I like and as I mentioned before the solid wood love compartment which I like and that manual you always got like four of these books in there and they're really kind of cool because they tell you how to do everything you know modern manuals don't really tell you anything they just tell you to not sue the company where does that tell Jed of changed tires oil filters all kinds of things the nice thing about this is this was a 1-owner car and I always liked that it got a bit neglected in the end of its life I think the gentleman got elderly but it was well maintained you know they only build about something like 32 hundred of these coops worldwide which doesn't have very many but it's amazing how many survived people just seem to take care of them and cherish them as I do this one I hope you like this little bit of German nostalgia here because to me this is such a thrill to be able to finally be able to get one of these and get it back in the kind of shape they were in when when I had to wash and polish them the first time Allah let's see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 647,162

Rating: 4.9412799 out of 5

Keywords: mercedes, benz, jay, leno, garage, 280, SE, Coupe, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: 9obeU_R1uwU

Length: 20min 20sec (1220 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/tectonichk007852]

just saw this, been watching his videos since the first one

love his taste in cars, the interior of that is so mint

[u/[deleted]]

This thing is unbelievably gorgeous. Mercedes top of the line coupes have always been among the most beautiful cars on the road.

[u/royal_nerd_man_kid]

Much like him, new Mercs don't really get my attention but on my bucket list is most definitely a W123 or earlier Mercedes. To quote RCR, this was when a Mercedes was a Mercedes.

[u/Clareth_GIF]

I really love the analog nature and the use of real materials in these old cars. Leno is such a car nerd.