Buying a W107 SL

[ianedmondson]

I'm a new member and I'm looking for advice on what to look out for when buying a W107 SL. I have a budget of around 8000 but I've seen models for anything between 5000 and 20,000!
I'm assuming that leather is better than cloth and a rear seat is desirable but is it possible to fit a rear seat if there isn't one? How easy is it to find replacement parts? What about soft tops?
The biggest area of ignorance for me is engines. Is there one that's performs better or is more sought after? I'm not particularly bothered about speed but want something with adequate performance and fuel economy.
Any advice is welcome!

 

[neileg]

Do a search, this is a regular.

However, I would emphasise that rust is the killer of these cars. Disregard the model, and buy the one that is in the best condition you can afford.

The six cylinder cars, 280 or 300, are adequate performers.

The early cars are iron V8s (350 and 450), the later ones are alloy V8s (380, 420, 500). In general the alloy engines get better fuel economy than the iron ones, but the consumption doesn't vary much for the engine size.

If you get an iron engined one with a duff engine, you can drop in an alloy engine from a saloon.

I ran a 380SL as a daily driver. I didn't pay enough attention to the rust issue, but otherwise it was a great car.