Adventures with Finny Minnie
My Father’s Finback
Article Robert G. Fuller Jr.
Photography Rider Design Photography
When my family lived in Massachusetts, my father owned a 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230 finback sedan, a gift my mother purchased for him. I’m not just sure why she bought him the car, but I think it had something to do with the fact that he was moping about because he had just sold his 1963 split-window Corvette, which had become a bit impractical.
My parents had a summer place in Maine at the time and they needed more carrying capacity for, among other things, the seasonal trips to and from the home in Massachusetts. As you may know, the finback sedans have cavernous trunks. And at one point, some thugs stripped the Corvette of its wheels and tires while it was parked at the railroad station parking lot, leaving it mounted on cement blocks. I believe that was the final blow that led my father to sell it to another Corvette enthusiast.
Robert Fuller Jr. carefully kept the original bill of sale, showing that the car was purchased by his mother as a gift to his father, and that she traded in her 1960 Rover, for which she received $800.72 against the $4,563.72 purchase price of the car, a high price in those days.
My mother had a Rover, which was also short on trunk space, so she traded it in at the time she purchased the Mercedes. The replacement for the Rover was a Jeep, which became my father’s daily driver to the Route 128 railroad station from where he commuted to his office in Boston – the Jeep also morphed into a driveway snowplow in the winter.
Fast forward to the year 2000. My father was now 89 years old and he and my mother had moved to a senior living center. The Jeep, now recently retired, had been replaced by a new 2000 E-Class that became my mother’s daily driver. My father, still at the wheel much to the terror of my brother and me, now used the 230 – which had acquired the sobriquet, “Finny Minnie” – to commute the eight miles to and from his new suburban office. Minnie had more than 150,000 miles on her odometer and displayed the M-B mileage-award emblem.
After my father turned 90, his secretary drove him to and from work in Minnie. He finally gave up the car keys in 2008 and selected me as Minnie’s next steward.
Robert Fuller Sr. took great pride in his collection of grille badges from overseas car clubs. Of course, the stately grille made its own distinctive statement in the late 1960s.
When my father died in 2010, I began restoring Finny Minnie; I had not driven her much in the interim. My father had been quite an automobile enthusiast – in his youth he raced a Type 35 Bugatti – and through the years took meticulous care of Minnie. During the early years of his ownership, Minnie won a first-place and two second-place awards in the daily-driver class at annual Germanfest competitions held at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts. But in those last years, Minnie suffered from deferred maintenance on the exterior and the interior and was getting a bit ragged around the edges. However, due to regular oil changes and periodic use, her engine was fine.
We did replace the gas and brake lines as a precaution, and the harmonic balancer – locating a replacement for that was quite a challenge – and refurbished the suspension, for example replacing the kingpins.
All trim pieces were removed and rechromed, and the car now shines “like a deer’s eyes in headlights.”
My restorer in Maine, where I then lived, ground off the existing faded paint, primed the car and repainted it in its original dark green. I removed every piece of chrome for re-chroming and Minnie now shines like a deer’s eyes in headlights. There was some rust that required attention, but the only really bad spot was the spare wheel well, which had to be re-fabricated. The dash was refinished with nine coats of lacquer. There were a few other minor fix ups, but I will not run on further.
With nine new coats of lacquer on the dash, and the new soft trim, the interior of the car looks again just like it did when new, with its unusual configuration of gauges in a vertical layout, complete with a thermometer-style speedometer.
Minnie has since moved with us to Florida where she is now enjoying an active retirement with her owner and other senior citizens of both the human and automotive variety.
Upon Minnie’s relocation, I replaced her upholstery with the original MB-Tex vinyl material and the carpets with the original German weave carpeting.
Although like most 110s Minnie is somewhat of a “Plain Jane” in terms of body style – dare I say frumpy? – she still turns heads at car shows now that she is decked out in her new finery
Though the car needed a metal-up repaint and new upholstery and carpets, and the suspension was refurbished, the engine only required new hoses, gas and brake lines.
SPECIFICATIONS | 1967 W110 230
ENGINE: 2,308cc 6-cylinder OHC, Two single-barrel carburetors 118 hp, 137 lb-ft torque
TRANSMISSION: Floor-shift 4-speed manual
WHEELBASE: 106.3 in
LENGTH: 186.2 in
CURB WEIGHT: 2,750 lbs
BRAKES: Disc front, Drum rear
FUEL ECONOMY: 16 mpg
MAXIMUM SPEED: 89 mph
Fuller poses with the car at its new home in Florida after its restoration in Maine. Though this car, and the one in the previous article, have almost the same model number, this is a W110 and the 230S is a W111.