Mercedes Now Sells Brand New 300SL Gullwing Body Parts

Driving a Mercedes 300SL is a wondrous experience. The process of climbing in over the huge sill and closing the gullwing doors, firing up that glorious straight-six - if I owned one of these, I’d drive it all the damn time. And many owners do.

The only trouble is, what happens if at your latest historic rally, you bin it, or someone ploughs into you? We have seen it happen before with a 300SL on the Mille Miglia, after all. Thankfully since then, Mercedes has come up with an answer that’ll help anyone with either damage or the dreaded tin worm to deal with.

Stuttgart now sells a range of reproduction body parts, built by a “certified supplier” with tooling created via “optimised 3D data from original bodies.” The final shapes are meticulously beaten in using wooden mallets before the panels go through a painstaking quality inspection.

Sounds quite involved, doesn’t it? As you’d expect, this results in the parts being rather expensive, if perhaps less than you’d imagine considering the limited market, and the fact a good Gullwing is a million dollar car these days.

Prices start at €2975 for the ‘rear-end centre section’, rising to €14,875 for a rear quarter panel. The bits can be ordered, “from any Mercedes-Benz sales partner.”