Well, I now have my newly aquired '76 300D officially registered and inspected. To my surprise and delight, this 29 year old auto passed gov. safety inspection with flying colors! Absolutely nothing wrong- not even a bad bulb! Got her for $3500 on eBay, sight unseen until a friend delivered "Pearl" to my doorstep. I've named her in memory of Janice Joplin, and she's white, and it seems as if the Lord has indeed "bought me a Mercedes Benz." (Sorry if I sound hokey, but I'm pretty excited!)

Had to do a little plastic surgery around the rear wheel arches- very easily accomplished and already done as of today with some fresh metal, a bit of Bondo, and some white spray paint (I can hear you Concours types cringing as you read this). I'm not out to win shows- just want to preserve Pearl and keep her on the road forever.

The only mechanical issue I can see so far is that the oil pressure guage is pegged at maximum all the time the engine is running. It survived 1200 mile trip this way to get her to her new home, and runs fine, so I'm assuming this is not serious. I think I've seen references already to a grommet inside the oil filter housing that could cause this. I'm going to take her to an independant MB Mechanic this week for an oil change and have this investigated- hopefully that's all it is- or perhaps a bad guage / sender unit.

Just sharing my joy!

No Airbags
No Catalyst
No Computer
No EGR
No Emmissions Testing where I live
Just Eat My Smoke!

Dave