New Here

[commodorecollector]

Hi All,
My name is Christopher and I am from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. When I was growing up my grandparents had a Mercedes 280SE and a 250C which were sadly sold - the 280SE in 2005 and the 250C in 2011. I have been into classic cars since 2012 and have managed to get a fairly large car collection. I started out with Hudson's at first but also got into Volkswagen's in 2013, with a dream of getting a Porsche 356. I came across 170's in 2013, and would like to some day soon acquire a 1937 170v, either a 2 door sedan or 4 door sedan. As for the restoration process, I am not afraid of it and instead enjoy it. I own a home based restoration shop on Van Isle specializing in early Volkswagen's but willing to take on domestics and possibly other European cars if the parts are all there.

I just have a couple questions regarding the 170's:
How much would a 170v project go for now a days?
How difficult are parts to find?
How rare are prewar 170's in North America?

thanks,
Chris

[Henry Magno]

Have you ever restored a car with wood coachwork? This might increase the fear factor. The effort involved with this is way out of proportion with the value of these cars. If you could stretch your budget and start with a Cabriolet B perhaps, you would be better off. You probably won't easily find a pre-war 170 V to restore in N. America but it's possible. I'd consider looking for post-war cars as well. If you must have a 170 V, your chances of finding one that has some good woodwork is greater if you include postwar cars. For the pre-war look without the wood, you might consider a 170 S or 220, sedan or Cab B.

Parts are available for the most part, surely more expensive than VW parts, but it would still be advisable to find a mostly complete car.

[commodorecollector]

I have pre-war Terraplanes which have wood roof bows construction and no I am not worried about that at all. I have seen a couple 170v's come up for sale in the last couple of years but have either missed out on them due to them being already sold or just too far away. I doubt any early Mercedes parts would be the same as VW parts in price; probably a lot closer to Porsche 356 parts in price?

[Stephen Dietrich]

Definitely in the 356 Porsche range or maybe a bit higher. Stephen

[hansvdc]

Better than nothing...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-Benz-Other-170v-/121812729249?forcerrptr=true&hash=item1c5c9abda1:g:ZIEAAOSwYHxWQ6FP&item=121812729249

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-Benz-Other-W136-170V-Cab-/252166404800?forcerrptr=true&hash=item3ab649fac0:g:A~4AAOSw~bFWQ3md&item=252166404800

[Henry Magno]

I'm not sure what you mean by wood bows in the Terraplanes, is this on the fabric roof inserts in the sedans? Do they have structural wood in addition to the bows?

[commodorecollector]

Let me see if I can find some pictures online of the terraplanes and their structure. In the meantime here is a terraplane advertisement made into a PDF - http://www.hudsonterraplane.com/tech/1937/1937HudsonSalesmansBooklet.pdf

Question about the 170's - what years had the spare tire mounted to the deck lid with the metal cover?

[Henry Magno]

170V, Va, Vb, D, Da, Db through 1953

[Ted]

And if it's lid, then the car is postwar. The prewar cars /as well as the very first postwar, I think/ had no opening lid, just a closed trunk, accessible from inside the car, behind the rear seat. Although some owners did modify their cars, cutting a lid on the trunk, but that's another story.