A little before and after. Maybe this thread will inspire me when I'm feeling overwhelmed by repair work. After all, I've made a lot of progress so far!

To start with, my wife and I picked up this car for $600. The seller was asking $800. In hindsight, I paid too freaking much for it, as it's basically a moving parts car. On the other hand, we live in Seattle, and these diesel Mercedes seem to be worth their weight in gold around here, even when they've been used as a rat condo for ten years. (No, mine has no evidence of rat infestation, but it couldn't have been far off.)

Here's the beast in all it's glory, after getting it to my friend's house for repairs. (I arrived white-knuckled and in need of a stiff drink, thanks to the incredible amount of slop in the steering system.)



And here it is in it's current state. Nice fresh tires and freshly refurbished Bundts. It doesn't look like it, but there are a number of changes. The driver side fender trim and front door trim have been replaced with used, but intact pieces. The grill has also been replaced with a straight, non-broken assembly, and is topped with a shiny new OE hoodstar. (This car without a hoodstar is just wrong. It's like a kitten without whiskers.)



Under the hood, fresh oil cooler hoses are in place, the power steering system, which lacked any filter when I obtained the car has been flushed with several quarts of power steering fluid, before installing a fresh filter and re-filling the system. Numerous gaskets and o-rings have been removed and replaced in order to prevent a recurrence of the degreasing project that required a pressure washer and several gallons of degreaser. The valves have been adjusted, despite the fairly worn camshaft. An OE thermostat of unknown age was replaced, and filthy green coolant along with several clots of white chalky deposits were flushed from the cooling system before refilling with approriate Zerex coolant.

Beneath the car, every bit of the steering system was replaced with new components. Both tie rod assemblies and the drag link were severely bent, and all suffered from joints that were so loose, they rattled. The idler arm and steering damper were also replaced before adjusting the steering box to eliminate the 2.5 inches of play that still existed in the steering wheel after replacing all of the steering components.

Sadly, at this time I have faced another setback. Despite suggestions from fellow forum members that my bushings appeared serviceable, I've been denied service at the alignment shop. They will not even attempt to align the car without at least installing new lower control arm bushings, so a completely front-end rebuild is in the works.

More photos and details of the other work that I've done will follow...

__________________
- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread