I bought this 1993 300D off of a forum member a few months ago and finally got it about 3 weeks ago. I really love these old cars and restoring what most consider "lost hope".
The story on the car is that it was owned by a girl in her late 20s in Jersey and it was her daily driver and she said it was doing a 100 on the interstate problem and then one day she said it wouldn't do over 40mph. She took it to a mechanic and he ruled it out as the injection pump.
He either was looking to make a lot of money on replacing the injection pump or was clueless about diesels. The fuel filters were clogged! Filled with black gunk! She must have gotten bad fuel or sat around with condensation in the tank and bred a bunch of critters.
The member I bought it from used it as a parts car but didn't take it too far so I saved it while still salvageable amd not too expensive to bring back.
When I bought it was in poor poor conditions.. typical parts car condition. Covered in grime and dirt and missing the following:
Headlights
Side markers
Taillights
The rear molding for the trunk lid for the license plate
Airbag
Steering wheel was loose
Radio
Door panels
Door window regulators
Seat switches
Window motors
The center roll box was disconnected
Lots of vacuum leaks and disconnected stuff under the airbox and fixed them so the wastegate operated.
The interior saw some moisture and was dirty and musty. I so far have sourced everything and put it back together for the most part besides the airbag, and door panels and window motors and regulators. Most things were still in the car and all the nuts and bolts.
I put a different set of wheels on it with good tires from an S-Class w220 chassis too which made the car so much more attractive.
So far here's what I've got done:
Put the interior amd missing stuff back together including all the trims and moldings
Cleaned the interior
Oil change
Diesel purge
Treated the system with BioBor JF which killed the algae after clogging about 5 or 6 filters
What I have left to make it secure to drive daily:
Valve stem seals
Rear flex disc and most likely the front as well
Rear brake lines that are rusted
Treat the rust underneath with POR15 so it does not come back or get worse.
Finally here's the pictures
