Removable Hard Top on R129 Mercedes SL - Things to Bear in Mind Before Buying

I love the fact that the R129 Mercedes is not just a soft top convertible, but also comes with a hard top as standard. In fact, I am not sure I would buy a convertible without a hard top - something about the extra security from knife happy drunks just resonates with me. I also completely for no reason and with no research feel that a hard top will offer better protection for the car from the elements. But having a removable hard top is not without its drawbacks.

If your car is a happy resident of a lovely spacious garage, then you should consider yourself very lucky, as most of the problems described here will not affect you. But if, like us mere mortals, you are experiencing the joys of London (or similar) real estate market conditions by having to park the car somewhere outside and are thinking of buying an R129 Mercedes SL and to use it as a convertible, then here are a few things to think through before you make the purchase.

First of all, getting the hard top off. The lucky owners of spacious garages (can you already tell I'm jealous?!) could attempt to source a roof hoist to make the job very easy. Mercedes don't make these any longer, so it may take some time to find, but once you have one, you're sorted! Here's a photo from Pistonheads of one of these:

For the rest of us, removing the roof will be a two person job. If you have a panoramic roof, make that two strong people job, as the panoramic roof is quite a bit heavier than the standard hard top. When lifting it off, be aware that you do need to be coordinated and precise, as you can easily scratch the car in the process or God forbid drop the whole thing and damage both the roof and the car.

Once the roof is safely off, what you need to figure out is where to store it and how to get it there. I can imagine you probably don't want to have a car hard top as the defining feature of your living room or clogging up the hallway. Even if you have storage available in your house/apartment, you will first need to carry the hard top inside. Again, thinking about the panoramic roof - this isn't really something you'd want to take for a walk/up the stairs on a regular basis. There is a stand with wheels that you can get for not that much money, like this one on Amazon, but as you can see it's more for moving the roof a couple of inches here and there, not really for taking it down an uneven street.

We have had our beloved R129 SL500 Mercedes throughout the summer and in spite of plenty of sunny days and the amazing feeling of driving with the top down, we are yet to attempt the hard top removal. Weight + having to carry it up a couple hundred metres up a street + nowhere to store it = using the car as a coupe 100% of the time

The next generation of the SL class comes with a retractable hard top. We could talk about the lack of space in the trunk with the roof down and also the tough job of figuring out what to do if the roof gets stuck in the open/half open position; we could also talk about the poor track record of R230 in terms of reliability, but let's face it - there's two things you won't find yourself questioning with an R230 - how the hell do I get the roof off and where do I put it?