Mark, my favorite benz I've ever owned was '73 280/8.... at one point the heater lever behind the dash snapped a nub that holds a cable.... different from the 108 problem where tiny plastic handle on plastic wheel always brakes off.

And what I'm tellin you about the seats is not a joke.....

Massive seats from late '60's contained highly flamable glue holding the fibers together..... then, sometime in early '70's MB "corrected" this problem with glueless crappy fibers that always caved in. Somewhere, someone who owns later model 114/115 with flat seats might want the entire interior including door panels out of the car - an easy job switching (irregardless of color) as all dashboards and consoles were black/dk.brown.

BTW, another carb conversion I've seen on 114's is Holly carbs that bolt right onto mercedes manifold just by drilling new holes in Holly carb base..... also making linkage adaptation.

Hell yes, the 114/115 body style is highly desirable.... I'd swap both of my 240D (123) standard shift diesels for *one* rust free standard shift 240D (114).