PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

JHZR2 · #2 01-14-2004, 08:16 PM

I guess the question is, over what time was the 8500 put into it? Even if it was over 10 years, thats still pretty good money put into the car, so it had good care taken of it. If he put $8500 into it over two or three years, chances are, a lot of the bigtime parts were replaced. Front end work is always needed in these cars, most that I have seen that dont handle well still have most of their original stuff, which, even if the car only has 100k on it, will still be old and worn out.

I think for $1500, its a steal. In the worst case scenario, Id pull the engine and trans and put it into a southern car with blown engine. You can hardly get a rebuilt trans for $1500, and you have a really strong running car.

Now, the bad part... Unless you spend in excess of $3-5000, you wont stop the rust. It really needs to be cut out, anti-rust paint applied to all the surfaces in the area, then good prep and painting done on the whole car. That isnt cheap, even if you know someone.

For that price, considering the work that muyst have been put into it, Id probably spend $1000 for the frontend, $2000 for a rust and semi-good paint job, and then have a $4500 car that is going to be better than 95% of the similar cars on the road.

Yeah, you probably can find a really nice one that looks nearly new and runs as well for $3500, but its almost guaranteed that itll need $1000 in something to make it 100%, and then its at $4500, same as the work Id suggest for your car.

Given the longevity and robustness of these cars, I have no problem shellingout $1000 for work on my car. But just make sure the rust is repairable first. If something like the floorpan or subframe is completely shot, it might not be worth it, and an engine swap into another car, or quick sale on ebay might be best.

It all depends on how willing you are to shell a fair deal of $$$ into this car. A lot of people tend away from spending more than the cost of an oil change or similar on a 20 year old car.

JMH