Originality Police

Greetings to all! This is my first post, hope it's in the right place...

My question is how the USA importation and gray market worked in those days and what mods were required to import. The specific 6.9 in question is a very nice 1977 car, #923. By all indications it's an unmodified Euro version (headlights with wipers, euro climate control layout, euro tail lights, bumpers, market designation code 5 on build plate (Europe outside Germany)). The only alteration seems to be a MPH speedometer.

The car also has a USA importation sticker indicating compliance with federal requirements. The only USA concession seems to be the speedo. Can anybody clariy what this means about the import channel or other modifications that would have been required at the time? Most puzzling to me is that the bumpers are certainly not US spec and I can't imagine any sane person retrofitting a US model with the euro climate control. Seems more like the importer just changed the speedo and asserted compliance or that sticker is fake. Who knows?

Any insights would most welcome. Thanks in advance.






Dave

Every euro car that I've seen is different from year to year, port to port and quite likely inspector to inspector and the relationship the importer had with them.

Some had square tubing reinforcement welded behind the chrome bumpers,others had US headlights, others had cats installed with 02 sensors and a jetronic box with frequency valve.

The only thing that would be consistent is that if the car spent any time in Europe before it was imported. It's going to be a rust bucket.



With best regards

Al

It has been my understanding that back in the days of the gray market, an individual could import one personal car into the USA for their own use, not resale, and there was a one time exemption that allowed a more relaxed set of rules. Not sure what the exact list of rules were, but for instance, I have a 77 6.9 that has a similar decal in the door jamb, with an individuals name instead of an importing company. In fact, the name on my door jamb decal is the name of the owner on the title, so that leads me to believe that this was a personal car imported by the owner. My 6.9 still has the original Euro exhaust with no cats, Euro headlamps and bumpers. The speedometer was changed to MPH, but that was about it.

Now, I have a gray market 1984 500SEL that has the same situation as far as the importer, again, a personal car imported by the owner for their own use. However, it has had a cat converter and fuel mixture control system added. It does have Euro headlamps and bumpers, but it has the added door intrusion beams and I think the bumpers have reinforcement bars added, which tends to alter slightly the position of the bumpers, making them protrude out further than originally designed.

I also know of a 1983 500SEC that was a gray market personal import, and it had similar modifications to my 500SEL. I suppose it's possible that the requirements changed between the 70's and 80's, or the individuals who owned the 80's cars, each had already used up their one time exemption on a previous car and now had to follow the rules as though they were importing for resale....whereas my 77 6.9 was an exempted car.

I'm sure there are others on here more familiar with the process back in the day, but these have been my observations. Like Al stated, there were as many variations in modifications as there were importers. I have seen many degrees of modification and also some pretty shoddy workmanship.

I have been lucky with regards to rust. My 500SEL and 6.9 both were most likely imported when new, or very close to it, and spent the majority of their life here in the Arizona desert. I also have a Euro 280SL (107), and it was in San Diego before it came to Arizona, and again, other than one small spot of rust in the trunk seal area, is completely solid and rust free. I have also seen my fair share of rust buckets that came from Europe, especially when I lived in NY.

Chris

Very interesting, very helpful, thanks guys. The car is no rust bucket, it's very clean.

I completely forgot about that one-time exemption. Chris, I suspect the scenario is the same as your first case. I was getting hung up the name "Heinrich F. Rupp." I once had a BMW 1800ti (bizzaro-land car but fun, try and find one of those!) and my brain told me same importer. But the BMW agent was actually Max Hoffman - still, a German name so maybe that's what I remembered.

Anyway, stay tuned. My last MB was a Euro 220SE coupe made of bondo-reinforced rust. Nice from far but far from nice. Turned lots of heads when I was kid in early 80's though. So now it's time to move up the food chain...

-Dave

Dave

It seems quite likely that the headlights and tail lights may have switched back to Euro spec at a much later date, after enforcement of these items became less common. Once the sealed beam requirement was ended in 1985, having Euro lights no longer stuck out like a sore thumb.

While the auto climate control was standard on US 6.9s, it was never a EPA/DOT requirement and wouldn't need to be changed to federalize a car. As Al says, some importers would weld extra beams inside to Euro bumpers to "meet" federal specs. I once had a Euro W123 that was like that, and it also had extra side impact beams welded inside the doors.

My understanding is that the one time car import exemption was only extended to US military personnel serving overseas.

quote:

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Originally posted by mtrei

It seems quite likely that the headlights and tail lights may have switched back to Euro spec at a much later date, after enforcement of these items became less common. Once the sealed beam requirement was ended in 1985, having Euro lights no longer stuck out like a sore thumb.

While the auto climate control was standard on US 6.9s, it was never a EPA/DOT requirement and wouldn't need to be changed to federalize a car. As Al says, some importers would weld extra beams inside to Euro bumpers to "meet" federal specs. I once had a Euro W123 that was like that, and it also had extra side impact beams welded inside the doors.

My understanding is that the one time car import exemption was only extended to US military personnel serving overseas.

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Interesting, thanks. So if I understand right, you're suggesting that this was likely a federalized euro car that was later re-euroized? That suggests that the engine was also euro-spec, though possibly with some added emissions equipment. If so, what would the emissions equipment be? EGR and maybe cat converter? Those seem like the things to be looking for (if they're there at all) and "corrected" to get back to full euro-spec. Unless it's been done already. Will see.

Incidentally, back in the early 80's I ran a 230S and a 220SE, both with euro lights, and never had any trouble with them. Except form other drivers. I put Swedish 55/110w bulbs in and my god were the high beams bright!

Dave

I'm not sure about the exemption being only limited to service people. My 77 6.9 was owned by an old German man in Sun City, AZ and it is one of the purest Euro cars I have ever come across. It has the original factory exhaust system, with no cats, never had any of the emission parts added to the engine. The only parts that were DOT'd were the added bars behind the bumpers, the speedo was changed to a MPH unit, and the tail lamps were changed. The headlamps appear to be the original units, but I suppose it's possible that they were converted and the switched back. I even have the Webasto aux heater under the hood.

Anyway, back to your car...as far as engine mods, usually they would have added a catalytic converter, EGR valve, and if it was to be sold in California, it would have an air pump with the tubes feeding air to the exhaust manifolds. There would be not feedback fuel mixture system on a 77, as even the USA cars did not have that yet. If it's the original engine, it should still have the higher compression ratio Euro spec engine. The EGR was needed to reduce NOX which are produced from the higher combustion temperatures from the higher compression ratio. The air pump was added to help heat up the catalyst sooner to oxidize the CO and HC emissions. Unfortunately, a lot of the exhaust modifications to add the cat or cats ended up restricting the exhaust flow and reducing power output. Depending on the state you are in, you may be able to convert it all back to correct Euro spec. Here in AZ if you have collector car insurance, you are exempt from emission testing.

Chris

My advice is to "compare" carefully with codes on the datacard (and if available productionpage). That will tell you how the car left the factory .

This story is looking better and better. Car left factory as market code 5, "Europe excl. Germany." Whatever has been done in the meantime, which seems to nothing as far as I can tell to this point, would be returning the car to that original state of euroness.

The icing on the cake is that I live in Utah. In Utah any car over 30 years old can be registered as "vintage" and is exempt from ALL testing, including safety and emissions. Apparently there isn't even any mileage restriction for the vintage designation, it just can't be your daily driver. Though I can't be sure, I suspect that this reflects the astounding number of road-legal, crazy, off-road Mad Max vehicles that are so popular here. Anybody that has visited Moab knows what I mean - it's just nuts!

Thanks to all for the great info!


Dave

quote:

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Originally posted by raueda1

So if I understand right, you're suggesting that this was likely a federalized euro car that was later re-euroized?

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People often reverse things like the headlights, because after the headlight rules were relaxed, this shouldn't cause a problem with most state vehicle inspections, even if they are still technically illegal. Many states will still run an emissions test even on older cars, so you may need to keep any emissions equipment in place. I had a real problem getting my 1985 280TE to pass NY emissions, even with a CAT installed. However, there is now a EPA/DOT exemption on all cars over 25 years old, so it may not be a problem on a M-100 car.

Mike, I remember trying to get a Euro 500SEL to pass emissions in NY back around 2000. What a job, the problem was high NOX due to the compression ratio of the Euro engine. The EGR tube was plugged with carbon and wouldn't allow enough EGR flow, it needed every bit of it, and even then, I had to play with the timing to get it to pass. At least this was at a friend's shop where I could use his exhaust analyzer and play with it. It's nice to have the exemption on older cars now here in AZ.

Chris

I had a 76 euro 6.9 (162) that had door beam, bumper beam, us speedo, headlights changed, air pump/egr and plumbing to manifolds and a sticker on the door jamb.
My other 77 (1951) 6.9 I kept was and is completely euro with no mods whatsoever,no door tag either. Delivered and lived in Germany for about 5 years before import. I suspect a serviceman brought it back as they just put their personal property in a container and the govt ships it to them in the USA.

in mid-late 80's I brought in a BMW 635 CSI, we got a one time EPA exemption, but had to do the DOT changes.

rumb
68 250S, 77 450SEL 6.9, 91 300SE, 98 SL500, 14 CLS550