ddoc1102

My dad has passed his 1973 Mercedes down to me.The car is a blast to drive and is in pretty good condition except for a few items like the heater controls levers are broken off and there are a couple of clips missing for the hub caps. I have no way of knowing what to get to make the repairs. It is a 2 seater with a hard top and a soft top. It has a v8 with a 4 speed manual transmission. How do I go about researching the car to see exactly what I have? Is there a sight that I can research the VIN? The car has been repainted at some point and someone has installed 560sl on the back of the car. The research I've done on the internet says there's no way and is the manual transmission something someone could of added to it later? I have found no other 73's with this transmission.