Bad harmonic balancer

[shiretmstr]

I'm in the process of buying an '84 300D that had the harmonic balancer fail. It marred the end of the crank shaft and tapered the hole on the balancer itself. Beyond that the engine seems OK. My question is do I need to pull the crank and have it machined to adequately repair the damage or is it possible to do a minimal repair and use the engine as is? The car is in very good condition and I am purchasing it knowing I may have to do a swap with my '85 that runs perfectly but is dying of terminal cancer and other various ailments and afflictions (rotted floor, cracked windshield, electrical quirks, etc, etc). The engine in question has under 200,000, my '85 is approaching 260,000. I'd like to do the simple repair but want the job done correctly. Dale