Quote:
Originally Posted by joshhol
Yes, I don't really care about being upside down on the cars, however I'm not a person of unlimited means. Sorry it's hard to read my mind on this. I think generally my goal is to have both cars in good health, properly stop the rust and put the cars back to occasional driver use. Not a lot of money I guess is relative. I suppose if forced to provide a figure I'd say I can stomach to spend 10K on the two, if pushed up to 15. After that I'd have to re-evaluate.
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OK, that helps put things in perspective. I own a 63 220S and I think it's a hoot. It has very minimal rust that will not be repaired, it had surface rust in the trunk. Both of those have been surface treated (encapsulated) and I'm fine with that. My car has a big dent in the left rear quarter panel that I will probably have fixed at some point. Living in S. Cal. the car isn't exposed to more rust encouraging weather so my 220S will always just be a driver that I enjoy. My priority for it is to get the idle a little better and then decide if I'm going to shell out the money for a decent interior (currently poor condition red leather) and maybe have the fender painted. And get the trunk-mounted Artik Kar air conditioner to work again...
I had a really nice 114 coupe that I sold for $4000 - it's in Germany now.
I think if the rust isn't getting worse, you encapsulate the easy stuff and maybe fix some of the more difficult stuff, or maybe defer it and see if it is getting worse. I think the best thing you can do for the car is to use it occasionally and keep it in circulation. I don't think the cost of fixing it is going to change much over time so you don't really have to make a decision about it now.
I would also pick which car you like best and make it better and pay less attention to the other -- in a way they are kind of redundant but if you have the space for them then why not.
Lord knows none of my "normal" cars (Jetta and a Prius) get an indoor parking spot! Those are the disposable cars. The assortment of MBs are the fun cars and a couple of them get indoor parking and a couple just get covered. But since it stopped raining in S. California I'm not too concerned about them being outside. I did just replace the trunk gasket on my 220S and I feel less guilty about it getting wet now because I expect the trunk to get less water in it.
Others can say better than I about the rust bubbles on the body. All I can say is that I had an Alfa 2600 coupe for about 8 years that I bought with a rust bubble the size of a silver dollar and sold with the same rust bubble the same size.
Is one car more special to you than the other?