I keep spending little bits of money on this old car and am far past the upside down point as it is, this will be my last attempt to find it a good home before I either just let it sit till I'm caught up on other projects or do something moderately drastic to it to spark my interest again.
She's a running driving 135K mile 73 W114 280. I drove it daily for a year until a few months back when I finally parked it for the winter and rotated to another of my old cars for daily use. Since the weather warmed up I've done some maintenance and been driving it a few days a week again, but she does still need some work. Week or two ago saw new pads all around, new calipers rotors and wheel bearings up front and a fluid flush/change on all the usual's.
I added a 10 micron canister fuel filter underhood, replaced most rubber fuel lines, and installed an electric pusher type fuel pump near the tank in an effort better hot start's. It worked to a degree, but it's still managing to boil the fuel out of the carb bowl after sitting when hot any length of time. Nothing was hacked up or butchered at all in the installing of the pump and filter. Other than that it runs pretty well and starts alright cold, it's on the 5th 4A1 and out of all of them I've managed to make one reasonably functioning carburetor. This is not a car for anyone that is afraid of carbs.
The points are fresh, dwell set, valves adjusted 3K ago or less, tires have another season on them. AC intact but compressor bad. Everything else works that I can think of including the blower motor but excluding the passenger window regulator, the drivers side is maybe a year old. Interior is very nice for it's age, one inch long dash crack, seats pads are flattish but covers and springs are alright. I haven't seen any interior water leaks but it wouldn't surprise me, glass and seals look original, windshield has a horizontal crack low on the pass side from a rock hit that spread. Paint is a re-spray some time ago, I've seen worse and better, it waxes up quite well, is thin on the passenger front door though. Suspension is safe but old, could use shocks but it's not bouncy, I have subframe bushings for front and rear I'm sure it could use, not installed yet. Rubber boots are intact on all front end components, last check there was small play in upper passenger front ball joint, rest was snug. It has a few vibes at highway speed but they are pretty minor and I think rooted in the subframe mounts having the driveline out of wack, those and the engine and trans mounts and driveshaft wear items (which aren't visibly bad but are old) should all be renewed in one shot to clear everything up in my opinion. Trans shift like I'd always imagined a 40 year old Mercedes auto would. No slip, but it's a little quirky. It's had fluid and strainer twice and been steady in fluid small/color and behavior since I've had it. Engine is strong, chain stretch was middle of spec as I recall but can't remember precisely, I bought a new chain tensioner but after checking it the rough way decided to leave it be. Oil usage and smoke nill, and I drove it 40 miles a day on the interstate to work and back when used it for such. RUST, the big one, isn't that bad. Only real nastiness I have seen is on the lower passenger rear quarter below the bumper line in the usual spot, the inner is solid, the outer needs to be cut out. Rest of it's surface rust, for now. Shortly before I bought it the PO was backed into in a parking lot and the rear bumper has a slight bend inward, interestingly there isnt' so much as a scratch on the rubber, I assume it was a plastic bumpered newer car. It's bowed in slightly but I think a sufficiently motivated person could un-bow it as the chrome is very very nice, it isn't very noticeable.
She's a fine old car and not so bad off one can not enjoy it while fixing things.
The few people that seem to have any interest in W114's either want to pay large amounts of money for pristine low mile rust free cars or want to pay nothing for rusted up ragged beat examples it seems like. I think the W114 is a great vintage daily beater with it's more modern running gear and still having classic good looks and excellent ergonomics and road manners, but I guess I'm preaching to the choir here on that score. I'm selling because I'm bored and want to offset the cost of another car of some sort, but it isn't something I have to do. I think she's worth every penny (and then some) of $1500 being it's a solid, safe, roadworthy car, not to mention that fact that it's a relatively rare almost 4 decade old Mercedes-Benz.
Located in N.C. zip 27803, I'd consider it drivable home reasonable distances, few hours one way for example. If someone is really dedicated and out of state I can arrange through our Porsche transporting services for a pretty good rate to virtually anywhere if they wish. Photo's below from last spring when I last spent time detailing it, and also was driving it often.
Further photo's on request, my time for such is limited to weekends though as this is our busy season at work. Question away here in Private Message or E-Mail. Car is on Craigslist locally for $2K but I rarely get any reasonable inquiries through there. Cheers..
http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c221/wolf_walker/Mercedes/