Family-Owned Mercedes-Benz Stayed 30 Years in Storage, Now It Looks Better Than New

After keeping it in storage for 30 years, father and son decided to restore it.

The good old Benz had been with the family forever. The owners had been thinking of restoring for years, but it was never the right time. They finally decided to do it during the Covid pandemic. So, they sent it back home to Germany for a frame-off restoration.

Eric Blumencranz, the son of the original owner, followed the project closely. He is a control freak; he has to know everything, see everything, and anticipate everything, and it does make sense. He couldn't just leave everything behind and fly across the world to supervise the restoration in Germany. So, the experts from Arthur Bechtel Classic Motors sent him updates and photos weekly.

The Mercedes was a car that had become a member of the family over the years, but its route from the showroom floor to the family's garage wasn't easy. Eric's father, Roger, used to drive past a Mercedes-Benz dealership on his way to work every morning back in 1969. He kept seeing the Mercedes-Benz 280 SE sitting in the window. It was painted maroon and represented everything he was dreaming of at the time.

He went into the dealership and checked it out from bumper to bumper a couple of times, but he knew couldn't afford it then, so he just left it there and, with it, his motorized dream. However, that was only temporary.

Next year, Roger could finally afford the Benz
A year later, he decided he could no longer stay away from the car in the dealership window. It was like the Benz had its name on it. So, he and his business partners ended up buying three Mercedes-Benz examples: two 280 SE 3.5s and a 300 SEL.

One of the 280 SE 3.5s was shipped to Roger's house. He had small kids at the time and Eric was one of them. Eric and his brother were staring out the window when the car arrived on a trailer. Eric remembers that moment as if it was yesterday.

For him, who was only about five back then, it was love at first sight. For the next few years, he would wake up early every Saturday morning to wash the car with his father. It was a father-and-son routine. The Benz had never been in a car wash; only the family knew how to pamper it properly.

Roger chose the brown paint and the tan top because a handsome young salesman convinced him to go for this color combination, even though he preferred the burgundy. "That's probably the only brown car I've ever owned in my life," says Roger.

His convertible was one of only 1,232 units 280 SE 3.5 convertibles that Mercedes-Benz has ever built, and today, after the thorough restoration, it looks better than it did the day it rolled off the production line.
The convertible became Mrs. Blumencranz' alter ego
Roger drove the car for a year and then gave it to his wife. She drove it for the next 17 years and eventually stored it for the next 30 years. Eric and his father decided to restore it during the pandemic. The leather had dried out, and rust had eaten the floor of the car.

When she finally saw it fixed, she could not hold back the tears. Eric's mother is now 86. "This car was like her alter ego," her son says. A mother of two, she never had another car.

Roger recalls so many amazing memories with the Benz. He laughs when he remembers they once got caught in the rain with the top down and the kids in the back seat, and putting it up wasn't exactly easy.

The Blumencranz family's Mercedes starred in a Coca-Cola ad
Eric remembers he used to drive it too fast. He no longer does that. The 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V8 engine pumps out 197 horsepower (200 metric horsepower) and 210 pound-feet (286 Newton meters) of torque. A four-speed automatic transmission puts the power down through the rear wheels.

The Benz takes ages to reach 62 mph (100 kph) from a standstill: 9.4 seconds. The needle of the speedometer goes as far as 127 mph (205 kph). It doesn't sound like much to write home about, but the convertible was not about driving at the speed of light but about enjoying the ride. "It's more than enough," Roger says, and we believe him.

His father says he loves it today just as much as he loved it the day he bought it. For the past years, he has owned between 30 to 40 Mercedes examples, but the 280 SE 3.5 has always retained the top spot in his heart.

The family-owned Mercedes even starred in a Coca-Cola commercial. They received the money from the company, but they never got the short film. They only saw it on national television, where it ran for a few months.