Restoration or Conversion?

[Mb300se65]

Dear Benz Friends

I have a 65’ 250se Cabriolet with a 5-speed manual transmission that I plan to do a total restoration on and have a question regarding how far one can go in using cannibalized items from a parts car and still maintain the integrity of the model and serial number identity of the car your restoring.

As an example, my 250se has 100% of its original parts and other than the body itself which is full of rust, the doors, the hood, trunk lid and fenders are all in decent shape. My thought has been to buy a stripped coupe body, remove the top and transplant the windshield and top bows to it.

I’d need to add the underbody stiffeners and transplant the folded roof storage area in the trunk, along with some other original sheet metal into the coupe body, but I think over 50% of the finished car would be items from the cabriolet and I don’t think anybody would ever know the difference.

So at what point would this no longer be considered a restoration, but a convertible conversion? Is there a percentage of parts transplanted from one vehicle to another that determine which is the original car? Or, is it determined by the serial number stamped into the chassis of the body?

I’ve built cars from scratch using many different components compiled from multiple cars and in some cases took a title that came with a pile of parts with no body and applied the serial plate and number associated with that title to a usable body with no title and ended up with a registered car.

Can someone please enlighten me where you draw the line?

Thanks,

MB300se65

 

[Legoman]

afaik its determined by the serial number stamped into the chassis of the body theres no other way you can tell tbh if the job is done properly , same with the engine , only thing that conserns me is changing a coupe to a Cabriolet as the bodys tend to be constructed differently for strength , also for the amount of work your talking about it might be more viable to rebuild the original body by welding in new sections after getting it sand blasted and cuting old stuff out.