Please post some PICTURES of it. Guys are visual creatures. All the other details discussed ad nauseum don't matter much to the guys on here.
Opinion poll: '82 Mercedes OM617 prelim treatment?
- Thread starter Alex_V
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Well, then - feast your visual eyes...
Typo: Build date is 08/81, not 01/81.
Typo: Build date is 08/81, not 01/81.
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195's IIRC.
Looks pretty darn good for a 36 YO car.
Looks pretty much original and unmolested as well.
What are your plans for this car?
From what I can see in your photos, it wouldn't take a horrible amount of time or money to make this into a really nice old Benz.
OTOH, you could just use it as a good weather DD and with any care it shouldn't deteriorate much over the next ten years or so.
You'll probably never put enough miles on it to wear anything in the drivetrain out.
Looks pretty much original and unmolested as well.
What are your plans for this car?
From what I can see in your photos, it wouldn't take a horrible amount of time or money to make this into a really nice old Benz.
OTOH, you could just use it as a good weather DD and with any care it shouldn't deteriorate much over the next ten years or so.
You'll probably never put enough miles on it to wear anything in the drivetrain out.
It is - I don't think there's a dent on it, and it was maintained by an import shop so what repairs have been done were done with correct parts so nothing's cobbled together or "retrofitted". Pretty much all the paint is weather checked and there's rust starting under the corners of the front bumper (visible), over the rear fenderwells, and at a few spots on the unibody rails, but I believe it will be mostly neutralized by stripping the areas and spot-shooting some rust stop primer and rattle can paint of an appropriate color. The driver's seat and a few other interior components have decent wear, but once again nothing's beat up or really broken badly. Driver's front and pass. rear window don't work, rear window is starting to delaminate, needs right upper? ball joint and a carrier bearing, and all the brakes mostly due to rusty rotors. A/C doesn't work, as well as tach and dash clock. I'll be driving it as soon as I get it home, chipping away at repairing all the little things when I can. With a good cleaning and that spot rust repair it'll be more than presentable as-is, and it'll just be my DD so the wife can have the Cruze for the baby (carseat in the rear). PO said I could keep it, or fix it up and sell it, but since I've admired the W123's for a while yet they aren't practical enough for my purposes to justify buying one in decent shape, I'm going to keep it unless it comes down to having to let one of my rigs go.
The Cruze has gotten exactly 25K put on it every year I've owned it because all my other rigs get 12-13 MPG ('85 GMC 1-ton and '67 Suburban), so with the Benz in the fleet now it'll allow wifey and I to each have an economical car for our daily needs... and give me a DD that's a rolling conversation piece, to boot. My wife has tentatively named it "Pearl".
And if I do drive it until it flat out needs restored (probably close to a decade from now), I'll do that and continue driving it. That's kinda the plan for my 'Burb, too - restore, use, repeat.
Should I start a GoFundMe for "Pearl's Revival and Immortality"?
The Cruze has gotten exactly 25K put on it every year I've owned it because all my other rigs get 12-13 MPG ('85 GMC 1-ton and '67 Suburban), so with the Benz in the fleet now it'll allow wifey and I to each have an economical car for our daily needs... and give me a DD that's a rolling conversation piece, to boot. My wife has tentatively named it "Pearl".
And if I do drive it until it flat out needs restored (probably close to a decade from now), I'll do that and continue driving it. That's kinda the plan for my 'Burb, too - restore, use, repeat.
Should I start a GoFundMe for "Pearl's Revival and Immortality"?
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As long as this old Benz is reliable, which a mechanical IDI diesel should be, why not put wife and baby in the safer car?
As old as this Mercedes is, there is little doubt that it would better protect its occupants in an accident than would a Cruze, however many airbags the Chevy might have.
As old as this Mercedes is, there is little doubt that it would better protect its occupants in an accident than would a Cruze, however many airbags the Chevy might have.
I have to believe the 30 years of technology on the Cruze's side gives it at least equal crash integrity, and I've had a few experiences with the stability control where it did its job and did it well. It'll be a bit before I have as much confidence in the Benz's reliability as the Chevy from plain old familiarity with the Cruze's history. But she's already looking forward to times when she can take the Benz, and have the car seat up front.
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Well, Mercedes understood all about offset frontal impacts when they were developing the W123 and made the front end structure much stiffer to account for this.
A 123 is also very sure-footed in treacherous conditions in my experience with them.
There is a difference between a well developed RWD and a FWD with stability control when the going gets tough. I'd be more confident in my ability to drive my way out of trouble in the Benz, stability control or no.
The Cruze will have ABS while this Benz probably doesn't, but old Mercedes brakes are pretty strong in any event.
Personally, I'd take the old Benz in any accident scenario.
Thirty years of technology can't make up entirely for a car built to a price versus one for which cost reduction wasn't of any pressing concern.
A 123 is also very sure-footed in treacherous conditions in my experience with them.
There is a difference between a well developed RWD and a FWD with stability control when the going gets tough. I'd be more confident in my ability to drive my way out of trouble in the Benz, stability control or no.
The Cruze will have ABS while this Benz probably doesn't, but old Mercedes brakes are pretty strong in any event.
Personally, I'd take the old Benz in any accident scenario.
Thirty years of technology can't make up entirely for a car built to a price versus one for which cost reduction wasn't of any pressing concern.
Cool car...
I had a magnesium brown 300CD that I dropped in a 300TD engine and 240D 4-spd (MT). Turned up the boost and fueling on the pump... fun car, very simple. Spent way too much time and effort to fix all the rust though.
Vacuum runs EVERYTHING... old rubber hoses break down especially when running any amount of Bio. I ran 10-40W or 15W-40 in it year round in the Northeast (it did crank noticeably slower). It did have a block heater, which came in handy on the coldest of mornings.
I had a magnesium brown 300CD that I dropped in a 300TD engine and 240D 4-spd (MT). Turned up the boost and fueling on the pump... fun car, very simple. Spent way too much time and effort to fix all the rust though.
Vacuum runs EVERYTHING... old rubber hoses break down especially when running any amount of Bio. I ran 10-40W or 15W-40 in it year round in the Northeast (it did crank noticeably slower). It did have a block heater, which came in handy on the coldest of mornings.
Follow up on this: borrowed my buddy's lift at his shop where I'd stashed it in MO to change out the carrier bearing plus OC (went with Schaeffer's 9000 5w40), fuel filters, and fan belts, and it made the trip home (450 mi.) without a problem. First half of the trip was a lot of hilly 55-65 MPH 2-lanes which got me 28.3 MPG and very little oil used.
It's still got a driveshaft vibration (gonna try re-clocking things to see if I, or someone before me, got it out of phase) and needs TLC on a lot of little things but she's coming out of mothballs in good form.
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