“When I first arrived in Windsor, Canada from Germany, I was a teenager and had 36 dollars in my pocket,” said Adolf Befurt as he leaned against his beautifully restored classic 1967 Mercedes 230 SL convertible. The date was July
“When I first arrived in Windsor, Canada from Germany, I was a teenager and had 36 dollars in my pocket,” said Adolf Befurt as he leaned against his beautifully restored classic 1967 Mercedes 230 SL convertible.
The date was July 4, 1956, and Befurt arrived with no connections, no friends, and couldn’t speak the English language. So he bought a little German-to-English pocket dictionary and used it to communicate in this new land of opportunity.
Befurt’s determination to improve his life, combined with his German apprenticeship training in the automotive trade, gave him the spiritual drive and the means to continue his travels. He moved from Windsor to California and found work in a Marin county custom body shop. Befurt’s journey in life wasn’t over quite yet.
“After some years passed, I got a call from an old friend who moved to Hawai‘i and he encouraged me to move to here too,” said Befurt.
So in 1975 Befurt once again packed up his tools and moved to Honolulu, finding worked at the BMW-Mercedes dealership. Eventually, Befurt got married and had a son, Adrian, and when the boy was six months old, the Befurt family gathered their possessions and made the final trek to Kaua‘i. Befurt quickly found work at Nissan of Hawai‘i through Dan Mackey and later started Kaua‘i Foreign Cars in Puhi.
After some years passed, Befurt felt he needed to own his own business in order to help pay for his son’s college education. So he found a location in the Lihu‘e industrial area and opened Adolf’s Body and Paint shop.
“I owned Adolf’s Body and Paint shop in Lihu‘e for 25 years, and in good times or bad times, it has always given me a good living,” said Befurt. Four few years ago, he finally sold the business and retired.
In 1992, Hurricane ‘Iniki blasted Kaua‘i and left in its wake damaged buildings and vehicles. During the recovery process, Befurt had a 1967 Mercedes 230 SL convertible in his shop that took a while to restore.
The original owner, meanwhile, discovered another car in Honolulu to replace the restored Mercedes and offered to sell the older car to Befurt.
This particular car was one of Befurt’s all-time favorites because of the many features, including the engine size, the two-seater style and the beautifully designed boot to store the convertible top.
When the roof is lowered into its storage compartment, the cover fits smoothly all the way around, achieving a classic styling with smooth body lines. Once he took ownership of the Mercedes, Befurt took great pleasure in giving the ‘67 classic a well deserved restoration.
“I stripped it down to bare metal and put a two stage paint job on it, installed a new windshield, replaced all the rain soaked carpeting, and cleaned up the stock 6-cylinder Mercedes Benz 230 SL engine,” said Befurt.
The two front seats remained in their original condition and Befurt installed a speaker system so he could listen to classical music while cruising around the island.
Befurt has chosen the name Marlene, as in Marlene Dietrich, the famous German actress of the 1920s, for his ’67 Mercedes classic.
“I love to drive her around on weekends because it’s a really fun car to drive and I believe everyone should own a convertible to see Kaua‘i with an open sky view,” said Befurt. Marlene has a 130,000 original miles, and though she is 42 years old, her beautiful shape suggests that Befurt has many, many more sun-filled miles to go. Watch video
footage online
of this classic 1967 Mercedes in action as part of The Garden Island’s recurring series on Kaua‘i’s Classic Car Club and check back each week for a new classic.
• Leo DuBois, contributor, can be reached via news editor Nathan Eagle at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or via e-mail at neagle@kauaipubco.com.
