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Old 06-15-2013, 09:48 AM
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JimFreeh JimFreeh is offline
Benz addict
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Hampton Roads, Virginia
Posts: 3,366
This decision is a no brainer....

Over the last twenty years of w124 ownership, I've bought/scrapped many W124 chassis cars.

With the value of really nice W124 cars hitting a ridiculous low, there is no economic justification to returning this car to the road. Even if you value your time at zero, and the car was free, you're not going to come out ahead.

I've had to make this decision lots of time, and only twice have I repaired the car. Once was a very nice, one owner 300TE with a bad trans ( I had a known good one in another wreck), and nothing significant wrong otherwise.

The other was my current 95 E300, which had full records, had been serviced as required and other than the crunched rear end (I had all the parts from a 94 E320 parts car), was also a very nice car. If I add up the value of the rear clip, exclusive of my time invested, I'm probably close to market value in the car. I chose to fix this car because of it's relative rarity...and because I wanted to drive a diesel again...

In both cases, I only had one main issue to deal with per car, and I had the needed parts for each in hand for no additional cost outlay.

The other no go is the rust. The W124 body is very good at disguising rust. I owned a 400E that had been driven in Pittsburgh. The car had been owned by a bodyshop owner. To walkup to the car and look at the paint and interior, you'd think it was a very clean car.
But.... look underneath, and EVERYTHING that bolted onto the body was rusted. Not just rust, but stuff like the rear subframe mounts rusting off, brake and fuel lines rusting through, calipers frozen, and much, much more. Moreover, just working on the car was a PIA. EVERY bolt was seized, then rounded off no matter how much penetrant you used.

Gack.

Use the parts to upgrade your D. But... be aware that many of the electrical connectors use a different style pin, a change I believe was made in 94. Oh, I bet your headlights are std USA, The '94 front end update uses a euro style USA legal light that perform at near euro levels. No 5w parking light or levelers, otherwise equivalent to euro spec.

Jim
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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles
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