So I've found what I consider to be a very good condition 1970 280SE. But it doesn't seem to start.

The man's father was the original owner, and he has had the car since his father passed on in 1977. It has been garage kept the entire time he's had it up until the last 4 months and driven moderately off and on since 77.

4-6 months ago it started to have an overheating issue.

The gentleman took it to a local shop to have it diagnosed. This is what he has said: "It had an overheat problem which a local mechanic thought was due to a timing problem. The water pump was removed and inspected and found to be good. No water was found in the oil so a head gasket problem didn't seem to be the problem nor a cracked head which would also have caused coolant in the oil. So it appeared that re-doing the dual point distributor would solve the problem. The mechanic then proceeded to put new points in the distributor and was then going to set the timing correctly. He was then not able to get the motor to start which is where the situation is now. "

Overall the car looks great. It was repainted and had some rust repair done to it at that time. It has great interior, all power windows work, and the man says the transmission and differential are both good.

He has been very good about answering all of my questions promptly and taking pictures of areas I asked him to for me. He even had the mechanic (where he's currently keeping the car because it now won't start) put the car up on a lift for me so that they could check out the underside.

This is what they found: "The unibody (frame) still has most of the undercoat and basically no rust. This is the same for the floor pans. The left core support for the radiator had a small rust hole. In the mechanic's opinion the car is very sound underneath with most of the undercoating still in place--not bad for a car 37 years old."

I am wondering what the experts here think about these issues. Specifically the overheating problem and why the car may not start after he messed with the distributor/timing... I'm really interested in the car.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

I think the car is at the wrong shop! Needs to be towed at owners expense to where they are familiar with this era car. The art of points setting and dwell and basic timing is fast becoming a lost art. Very few cars today have distributors let alone points. Is this car an in line 6 or a V/8? I would NEVER buy a car that does not run.