Inside Mercedes-Benz’s American Dream Factory

When I was little, my grandmother had a 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 4.5 sedan. She bought it new, drove it about 100,000 miles, then parked it in a small barn behind her house. I'm not sure why. Dad remembers transmission trouble, but my grandmother always said she wanted something new but couldn't bear to part with the Mercedes. Funny how that works.

Almost two decades after parking the car, gram hauled it out and sent it to a restoration shop. They refreshed it and repainted if for roughly what you'd spend on a used C-Class. The result was a nearly new old car. I've driven it. It's a neat experience, one with pomp and circumstance coupled with the hewn-from-solid-confidence feeling that comes only in an old Mercedes. But part of me wishes it was sitting in that barn, because the possibility — a sleeping giant, a dust-covered relic — was exciting.

I was reminded of that car, and of that promise, at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California. It is where sleeping giants are awakened and dust-covered relics restored.

The Classics Center is Mercedes' restoration and classic-car service in America, and it occupies about 28,000 square feet near the intersection of Interstates 5 and 405. It's a magical place where history meets talent and what must be the world's deepest parts catalog.

The Center features a showroom (shown above), where many of the cars are for sale and all of them appear brand new. When I was there not too long ago, a silver 300 SL "Gullwing" was for sale and another was being reassembled in the back shop.

On its own, this is not unique. It happens in restoration shops the world over. But there is only one place in America where Mercedes-Benz will rebuild your car to the exact specifications and condition it was when it left the factory.

Let's step inside.

 

This is the window sticker of the silver 1956 300 SL that was for sale. The SL is sublime. I drove one a few years ago. It was amazing. For just $750,000, this piece of impossible German art could be yours. It once belonged to NBC orchestra leader Don Ricardo. It rode to Europe aboard the Queen Elizabeth. It is amazing and gorgeous and fast and gifted with beautiful upswung doors and a hundred thousand sins' worth of excellent.

Given all that, $750,000 seems pretty cheap, no?

Mercedes-Benz being German, everything at the Center is ruthlessly efficient. For example, platform lifts allow maximum storage in the two-story showroom. Here we have a 1964 220 SE sedan alongside a 1954 220 cabriolet. Many of the cars in this room are for sale, which means this might be the coolest Mercedes-Benz dealer on the planet.

In addition to vehicles, the Center keeps historical records, a small collection of artifacts and an extensive selection of frequently needed parts. This engine is the legendary M100, the monster V8 that propelled the 600 limousine, the 300 SEL 6.3 and the 450 SEL 6.9 of 1975 to 1981. The latter was known simply as "The 6.9" because no other mass-production Mercedes has featured a V8 approaching 7.0 liters. Big-block German oomph meets world, world says, "Oh, yes, that's right. That's what the fist of Angry Math God looks like."

This engine was cut open for display, presumably for auto show or training purposes. Note the multiple accessories and enormous fan. There's a V8 in there somewhere. Don't make it mad.

The Classic Center is one of just two such factory-sponsored Mercedes facilities worldwide. The other, located in Fellbach, Germany, performs similar work but with the added advantage of having the corporate mothership within spitting distance.

The Center's main showroom prominently displays a Penske PC-23. The racer used Mercedes-Benz power and was part of the firm's infamous "stock-block" assault on the Indianapolis 500.

This 300 SL "Gullwing" is getting what appears to be final finish work. Note the painted steel wheels in the foreground. Note the protective masking tape on the wheel arches and the blankets on the leather-covered door sills. Note the general air of 1950s space-ship awesomeness.

Much of the Center's work can be accomplished using off-the-shelf factory parts, but some items can't be had, even for the factory. One of the Center's more ambitious projects was the recent revival of a 1910 Mercedes-Benz Simplex originally owned by a founder of R.H. Macy & Co. The work involved fabricating a new water pump and radiator, as neither were available. Here, a technician works on a 280SE 3.5 W111 cabriolet.

A vintage "Pagoda" W113 SL (below) awaits reassembly following restoration work. Note the spotless floors. Note also the wire-cage parts carts in the background; each car gets a cart or series of carts devoted to it, and those carts follow the vehicle from project start to completion.

This is the Center's state-of-the-art paint booth, just past its main service and restoration bays. As is typical with workshops of this caliber, you could eat off the floor. Or the car that just popped out of (or is about to go into) the booth.

Fender covers, towels, protection everywhere. The attention to detail, and the care with which even routine procedures are carried out, is amazing.

A six-cylinder engine, beautifully restored. From the period-correct reproduction warning label to the correct yellow-cadmium plating on the various brackets, the worksmanship achieves a general air of perfection. It isn't overdone, but neither is careless.

Everywhere you look at the Center, you see history small and large. Small, as in an overhead-cam four-cylinder mounted on its subframe and front suspension. The drum brakes give away the age.

More interesting is the 600 "Grand" limousine behind the engine. The 600 was famously the car of dictators, kings, and legends. It is just slightly more complicated, and expensive, to repair than 100 space shuttles. Case in point: The windows, like just about everything else, are hydraulically operated. The switches cost $11,200. Each. Be that as it may, a 600 is the first thing any sane person should buy after making his first $5 million.

 

The Center also performs regular maintenance and repairs, which means you can drive your 50-year-old Mercedes to the people who made it and have them bring it up to snuff. The Center prides itself for its access to factory resources — chiefly, a Mercedes production data archive second to none — and using them to keep customer cars in tip-top condition.

Plus, there's a boutique. Clothing! Mercedes swag! Who doesn't love that?

This 300 SL roadster belongs to a person with unique tastes. In addition to being fitted with a rare hardtop, much of the trim and nearly everything in the engine bay was chromed after delivery from the factory.

Source: Wired.