1958 190sl

I think the original color of the car was black with a black interior. I’ll probably paint it the original color but put a tan interior in it. I have a brand new steering wheel for it. The horn ring and center cap are already new. The radio face and controls are original but it has modern guts. I got the original tube radio with the car. I have the original clock, it’s not in the glove compartment door as it should. I got a new face and bezel for it. The one I have from the other car is in excellent shape so I’ll probably put that one in it. The engine starts by turning the key. The other one I have has a push button, as did the 1962 I had. I need to check to see if this is stock for the 1958.

The engine started and ran great. No smoke or noises. He just rebuilt the carbs and bought a new one for spare parts. He had all the outside parts cleaned and plated as original. Everything under the hood is stock.

Viguen and myself coming back from a test ride. The chrome rear fender guards and the rocker panel chrome are not on the car, but were provided.

Viguen and I checking out the car. The paint isn’t as good as it looks from 10 feet. But it is fine until I tear it all down and redo the entire car. The rear view mirrors are not stock. They will come off. I have a brand new drivers side mirror that I will put on eventually, probably along with the new paint job.

Getting ready to put the hard top on for the drive home. The rear bumper is missing the two uprights, like the front. Someone put a license plate light in the center part of the bumper. So I’ll get new uprights and do it right. The tail lights are brand new. The fender chrome is almost like new but I have brand new ones I’ll put on after the new paint goes on it.

All the spare parts about filled the BMW. The bottom box is all new sheet metal for the underside of the car. His wife got it for him as a Christmas gift. From what I could tell it really doesn’t need them. Tons of new stuff like a tachometer, fuel filter/reserve valve and a water pump. He has the original cable and mechanism to change the ignition timing from inside the car. I need to check into this because I haven’t seen this before on the 190. But this is a 1958. The one I did years ago was a 1962 and the other one I have is a 1960. Some minor things did change over the years. They started building them in 1955. 25,881 were made from the summer of 1955 to February 1963. Certainly not a big production car.

1955	1727 units
1956	4032 units
1957	3332 units
1958	2722 units
1959	3949 units
1960	3977 units
1961	3792 units
1962	2246 units
1963	104 units
total:	25881 units

What a cute car.

The rubber seal under the hard top was gone so what you see is a black towel. This is the older style small rear window hard top. The 1960 I have has the large wrap-around window.

Was overcast and rained a few times. One time it rained rather hard and I got a wet lap. I didn’t spend the time to make the adjustments and clamp the top to the window frame so there wasn’t a good seal.