Fate of this w116 wagon??

[Benzcrusher]

From the Aug. 1978 Road & Track Classifieds...

[Toxicant]

I believe John Olsen, one of the guys behind the M100 group and the SL Market had a 6.9 wagon.

See if you can hunt him down, he might have some info for you.

[psfred]

I believe all wagons prior to the W123 estate were custom body coversions, not factory. They were relatively rare as a result, being rather expensive.

Peter

[gerryvz]

Yes, John Olson, editor/publisher of the SL Market Letter and founder of the M-100 Group, owns a custom-made W116 station wagon which is a 6.9. I believe it was an English company that did the conversion. John has owned the car for many years.

I also believe that at least two companies (English and German) did W116 conversions that looked generally the same, but slightly different in the tailgate department. On the German side, I believe it was Binz.

John can be reached at slmarket@aol.com

Cheers,
Gerry

[nachi11744]

is/was the English company doing W114/115/116 conversions to *estate cars*.
Have a good weekend.

[diametricalbenz]

To follow up on this thread, one of these 450SEL wagons has appeared in Marina Del Rey in CA.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/car/60679222.html

I emailed them and this is what they responded with.

"This is a custom built vehicle, it's the only mercedes estate car that had full daimler benz warranty, built by Crayfords in 1976 in England. If you want to talk to the managing director of that Company he's retired, living in spain but in LA right now, returning to the UK tomorrow, or call his sons who run Crayford Coachworks in Marina Del Rey on 310 577 9830 and currently own the vehicle."

[Bear]

The original Crayford company is still going in the UK and is now called Crayford Specialist Vehicles Ltd,but I don't think they produce convertibles now.Now that most marques produce their own convertible models there isn't a viable market for them anymore.For further pics of the Crayford Mercedes check these out http://mitglied.lycos.de/albeyer/id47.htm
There was a Crayford wagon on UK Ebay recently in need of restoration,unfortunately I haven't got the space otherwise I'd have been tempted

[diametricalbenz]

Originally Posted by Bear

The original Crayford company is still going in the UK and is now called Crayford Specialist Vehicles Ltd,but I don't think they produce convertibles now.Now that most marques produce their own convertible models there isn't a viable market for them anymore.For further pics of the Crayford Mercedes check these out http://mitglied.lycos.de/albeyer/id47.htm
There was a Crayford wagon on UK Ebay recently in need of restoration,unfortunately I haven't got the space otherwise I'd have been tempted

I have no idea what condition this wagon is in. I take it that the car is in decent shape if it's owned by the manufacturer's sons. If I had $7500 to burn and another parking space I'd take a closer look at it too. I wonder if I could get it on Top Gear as a feature car and see if Clarkson could come up with a ridiculous analogy to describe it. Nonetheless, it would complement my 6.9 nicely!

[Bear]

Here's the one I'm on about this is actually a 115,and sadly it didn't get any bids at all.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31360&item=4519581608&rd=1
Might be of some interest to someone here