1969 Mercedes-Benz 280SL

• Photos are watermarked Beverly Hills Car Club stock #20233.
• Red paint has shine and the panels look straight, but the inner wheel arches are bare, grimy and rust-stained front and rear, so the underneath story is very different from the topside.
• The white soft top is finished — torn at the seams with the rear window pulling out — so a complete new top is an immediate cost.
• The hardtop that comes with it is black, not matching red, so add paint money if you want it to match.
• It rides on later Bundt alloy wheels rather than the original steel wheels and hubcaps, a small originality deduction.
• The floor-shift manual gearbox is a genuine plus on a Pagoda and supports the price.
• Black seats are worn and creased with tired carpets, so the cabin wants a refresh rather than a full retrim.
• Trunk floor is badly rusted across the left side with heavy orange corrosion, so trunk floor replacement, not treatment, is the realistic budget line.
• Engine bay is heavily oxidized and grimy, with corroded fittings and aged hoses throughout, so mechanical recommissioning money is certain.
• Can't judge the underside — no undercarriage photo appears in the sampled photos, and the arch and trunk rust say that check matters most.

Money: at $49,950 the manual gearbox and shiny red topside do the selling, but the rusted trunk floor, dead soft top and corroded bay mean this is a project-priced Pagoda only if the floors and sills check out on a lift.