Most "obssessed" thing you have ever done while parts hunting... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Carrameow · #1 10-30-2005, 10:53 PM

I drove 350 miles to Boston this weekend to visit my daughter at cooking school. It was 33 degrees and it actually snowed, it was pretty cheerful and wintery and happy. Saturday was also supposed to be a family reunion day, so I was out of my usual weekend attire consisting of a grease stained shirt and shorts. I actually dressed presentable in nice clean new clothes.
I drove my daughter, her boyfriend and their friends to the huge outlet mall South of Boston Saturday afternoon. I got stuck with watching the family dog in the car. I decided to drive around the picturesque landscape nearby the mall, and two hours later while threading through the small towns around the mall, I chanced upon a lot with 30 Mercedes W123's parked there.
THAT CAUGHT MY EYE!!!Boy did I do a double take! I thought i was seeing things!Even better the owner of the lot was there!
I stopped the car and started up a conversation. The man was very friendly and and a real gentleman and we talked about 300D's for about ten minutes and suddenly I remembered the vacuum brake booster I was looking for, ordinarily a $150 part used.
I asked the man if he had one, and he said, "Yes", its in a scrap car in my backyard. You can have it for $30.00 if you take it off yourself; $70 if I take it off , but its too D___cold, you will have to take it off yourself"
I took a quick look at my watch in despair. It was 3 pm already and i was supposed to meet my family in 1 hour.
Worse I had a nice sweater, slacks and suede shoes on.
It was about 33 degrees out and still snowing. I asked the man if I could come back the next day, and he said "No, I'll be out tomorrow." I realized i might never see thsi palce or man again.
I panicked and hesitated, because I had really good clothes on. Then the inspiration hit.
I stripped down to my boxer shorts in the cold weather and got a 13 mm socket and bar from the man. Needless to say, my Adrenaline was pumping!!! I had the booster off in 5 minutes, though I was already getting frost bite! 30 minutes later I was athe mall, totally cleaned up and dressed up again and the booster safely hidden in the trunk. No one was wiser!

Glinko · #2 10-30-2005, 10:57 PM

Dude, you are bizarre.

The most obsessed thing I ever did while parts hunting was yank an aftermarket CD player out of a wrecked 88 Toyota Celica and hide it in my toolbox so I didn't have to pay for it.

Okay I'm lying, my friend did that, I just gave him moral support while he went about it.

We deserved that CD player, though, there was a five dollar fee just to get into that stupid pick-and-pull, and we didn't find a dang thing (aside from said CD player)

JimmyL · #3 10-30-2005, 11:11 PM

That's not obsession, that's thievery!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glinko

Dude, you are bizarre.

The most obsessed thing I ever did while parts hunting was yank an aftermarket CD player out of a wrecked 88 Toyota Celica and hide it in my toolbox so I didn't have to pay for it.

Okay I'm lying, my friend did that, I just gave him moral support while he went about it.

We deserved that CD player, though, there was a five dollar fee just to get into that stupid pick-and-pull, and we didn't find a dang thing (aside from said CD player)

t walgamuth · #4 10-30-2005, 11:13 PM

the carburator and intake on my 51 caddilac from a four barrel to two barrell in my good clothes while waiting for my wife to change her clothes to go out to eat.

i have also changed the benz diesel oil in good clothes.

i once drove to detriot to buy a 240 block from a shady mb parts guy. (that is a five hour drive). wasn't worth it.

i once drove to south of atlanta (700 miles) and bought three 50 to 51 cadillacs in order to get one convertible. they were all rough, and one i never should have brought home at all. just crazy. but the convertible and the coupe made it all worth it. the convertible had a set of ss wheel covers that i sold for $375 after cleaning them.

i could go on and on.... and i already did!

tom w

t walgamuth · #5 10-30-2005, 11:14 PM

the image of you standing there in your boxers taking the booster off is hard to beat!

tom w

JimmyL · #6 10-30-2005, 11:36 PM

Carrameow,
Too bad you're not a Texas guy. I get the feeling it would be fun to get together and work on MB's, or go on parts foraging expeditions.
Who knows, the diesel Volvo might even be an option.....

And I'm with TW, that is quite the mental image of booster removal.

Nate · #7 10-31-2005, 12:10 AM

Jeeze Glinko, a "stupid" $5 fee when you could sue them for a thousand times that if u hurt yourself... sounds like reasonable fee... and even if u signed a waiver, still

Theivery is never reasonable, and a theif/accomplis is lesser of a person in my eyes.......

Anyways the most obssessive thing I did was accually for my cousins car (love the car, hate the cousin... his dads paying for it

) He drives (notice I didnt say owns

)a 73 mustang... They didnt make a ton of 71-73 mustangs, so parts are kinda rare/hard to find. The car had an aftermarket gas cap (a work of art, accually pretty cool) It didnt work so well, so we went to a salvage yard to get one... An hour into hunting (2 unsupervised minors, boy wouldnt that have been great if we got hurt) We found the mustang corall. There were a row of his years, and only 2 of the 5 had gas caps on the tank. Both of them were in pretty rough shape.

I came to a coupe that had a dissasemboled interior(s) of that year, and got an "urge" to dig through some history... 5 min later, after I got a ton of crap off the floor, I found the cap. PRISTIENE CONDITION!!! Jackpot (this is a $50 ebay item)... He got it for $15 (I coulda haggled, but I dont like him, so I didnt) Well that was all well and good, untill a month ago he fueled up, and didnt "quite" screw the cap in... 32 years of history bouncing down the highway

Yeah I know, just a stupid gas cap story... But I thought it was funny

Glinko DONT PULL THAT CRAP ANYMORE!!!

~Nate

#8 10-31-2005, 12:58 AM

I paid $15 for every thing I could strip off a clean 1979 300D in 10 minutes the car was still hooked to the tow truck a mile from its new home at pick-n-pull. I do collect Mercedes hose clamps I have a very large bag of them I just cannot leave a clean old hose clamp behind this probably is obsessive.
DHS

propigskin · #9 10-31-2005, 04:56 AM

sounds like you had a fun day at the mall!

about the stolen CD player, yes that was wrong. However, local pick a part charges 3 bucks to get in no matter if you buy nothing. I end up taking a few screws or trim piece retainers or a bulb to help pay for the admission that i paid for...I see nothing wrong with that, but stealing an expensive item is different

erik

MS Fowler · #10 10-31-2005, 05:32 AM

Okay I'm lying, my friend did that, I just gave him moral support while he went about it.

Referring to your participation as "moral support" is so full of irony, I am speechless.

J. R. B. · #11 10-31-2005, 08:13 AM

The closest thing we have to a pick n pull is what we call self service wrecking. Unfortunately there are no Mercedes there. Just American and Japan cars. There is some stealing going on that is for sure but at this place you better not get caught. The employees are loyal to the yard owner and think nothing of stomping the crap out of thieves. The owner also has a kennel full of German Shepherds (four legged meat grinders) that roam the yard by night.

GlennCraven · #12 10-31-2005, 08:55 AM

Carrameow, you rule.

boneheaddoctor · #13 10-31-2005, 08:59 AM

I've never stripped to my underwear to get a part before in the summer much less the winter....

300DPETE · #14 10-31-2005, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carrameow

I panicked and hesitated, because I had really good clothes on. Then the inspiration hit.
I stripped down to my boxer shorts in the cold weather and got a 13 mm socket and bar from the man.

I've done that just from pure laziness in not having to want to go down to the basement and get the clothes out of the dryer (the front door is 30 seconds closer)....then again, I've been known to hike in a t-shirt and shorts when it's snowing out and in the mid-20s (warm clothing in backpack, be safe)

Pete.

P.S. Proof: http://www.petechipmanphoto.com/contact.html

d.delano · #15 10-31-2005, 09:38 AM

I once went to great length to get a trunk triangle bracket out of the locked trunk of a 300D euro. How great of a length I will not disclose for fear of being ostracized. I felt like I had found gold or won the lotto. I was super happy. But I never stole nuthin'. The yard keepers totally have the right to charge the fee, and I can always find something that I can use. Besides, junkyarding is fun.