I just bought a '70 280SEL from an acquaintance as a HS graduation present
for my daughter, and I now find myself in the dubious position of taking
care of it. Since she's off to college in the Fall, the car's going to be
sitting covered in our yard for nine months out of the year, apart from
maybe driving it to work once or twice a month just to circulate the oil.
The car has 160K miles on it.

This is my first experience with a Mercedes, I'm a reluctant mechanic and
have never tried to keep a car this old running. It came with a cover, and
I've bought a "garage-in-a-box" to keep it in. Plus, the gentleman who
sold it to me gave me about an entire U-Haul van worth of parts - an
engine, tranny, 4 doors, window glass, several body panels, an entire
upholstery set, etc. - I'm guessing these were salvaged from a second
vehicle.

My first question is this: what habits should I get into with this vehicle
regarding lube, oil changes, and any other maintenance that Merc owners
take for granted but a newby like me is likely to ignore? I am afraid to
take the car to Jiffy Lube (my usual default for other vehicles) for things
like oil changes, since they pretty much treat every car the same and I'm
guessing that this one needs special handling (17 lube points for example).
Any opinions?

By the way, some photos are here:

http://home.comcast.net/~klebbaj/pix/kathbenz

 

That's a nice classic benz you've got there. Only advice I can give you as a MB owner is to change the oil every 2500-3000 miles. I do that for my car to make sure the engine is always running smooth and as preventive maintenance in the long run. Don't bring the car to just anyone to repair, that's a mistake I made with mine. Anyway treat the car good and it will treat you the same. Good luck with the car.