By Tim Odell
I stumbled across this 1965 Mercedes Benz 200-amino while using Row52 to hunt for an alternator donor for my Falcon. With only one picture to go by, questions outnumbered answers 10:1. After pulling the alternator I needed from a 1970 Fairlane wagon and a 10 foot battery cable from an e30 BMW (for future trunk battery mounting), I burrowed deep into the SUV section of the yard to find our subject…
I can give you more of the “What”, but the “Why”s might be a little harder to come by. It was originally a sedan, and the whole back was chopped out to make the truck body you see here. The sides appear to be some kind of fencing or other factory-made product booger welded into place. There’s an auto insurance bill envelope, labeled in Spanish as received last August. Those details alone suggest someone got a good deal (like free) on an old M-B and put it to use as a pickup for hauling something that didn’t leave trace markings or (thankfully) odors. In the engine bay, there’s some evidence of fire or extreme heat, given the melted foam on the firewall.
But then we get to the cosmetics. The gold-spraypaint-and-miscellaneous-crap-glued-on dash is an art car staple, for sure. Also worth noting that someone took the time to spray-bomb the trim rings from the wheels. That unique surface finish? Wallpaper.
So…what to make of it? Work truck turned art car or art car turned work truck?
Ross Ballot 
Jeff Glucker