some positive developments on the gate corrosion issues.

When I first looked at the car, I noticed this fissure in the rear gate. Because of the rust elsewhere, I assumed the gate is probably hiding some major rot under the cracking bondo here.



However, all it is is a dent! when I pulled the gate apart to play with the lock, the dent is visible from the inside-



They bondoed up and around the rear gate handle filling it out, then painted



This means the gate has no rust on it apart from a crispiness at the bottom here, totally fixable. its solid around the window from what I can tell




This section concerns me though. The right rear was hit at some point in the cars life, and this corner has some recurring rust issues. This section has already been looked at a couple times by the PO, and it comes back.

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so little disaster. Contractor was staining a deck with some kind of a special translucent dark wood stain, and managed to splash the front of the car, then tried to clean it off after it dried.

Hood and fender have to be painted, the stuff is tenacious, it does not come off for anything

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wife reports running warm in slow traffic and stopped conditions. sounds like possible fan clutch to me. gotta knock this on the head before true summer starts

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The 123 300TDT's are a great practical vechile I owned one for 22 years it never left me stranded just keep it in tune and it will follow traffic without a problem.

finally a pic of this.

The more I think about it, the more irritated I become. Have to let it go, but man, he ruined the paint on the hood, fender, and got it all over the headlight door, and the bumper, and this stuff does not come off.

Then he tried to clean it, and notice how he damaged the paint that was there as well, using a scotch brite pad. @#$%

Oh well, deck looks good on the plus side.



next the wife recently was driving a little frisky and managed to hang the car up on a boulder, so we had to lever it off, and the boulder did a little control arm damage.



however, glad I was looking closely at that, because uh oh.....
This is new too, wasnt there when I did the springs the other month.




In other news, when I first bought the spring conversion kit, it had some sensen shocks in it which were a bit cheapy, and one of them was blown almost immediately, if not out of the box, so new HD bilsteins went in.

I had to double up on the upper washer area to get the top end tight on the wagon using sedan shocks part numbers

Rides like a dream now, no more bouncy rattling noises for the wife to contend with

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You should get that moron to pay for the repaint if possible. I get irritated looking at the freckles all over the hood of my '82 240D, because some idiot PO got it repainted and then drove it home immediately, probably on a very hot day, before the new paint had a chance to cure!

A little spray-undercoat should touch-up that control-arm just fine.

Interesting you should mention Sensens, as I was just thinking about getting them cheap, from Rock-Auto, for my '96 Camry. But glad I decided to go with KYBs instead. Yeah I know many don't like the KYBs on a Mercedes. But they're just fine for a Toyota and are supposed to be one of the OE suppliers for that car.

Happy Motioring, Mark

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i let the paint ruining go, car needs a repaint anyway after i perform some other rust repairs.

that second pic is a hole into the control arm. beginning of the end for that contol arm, rusting out from the inside. a forum member is hooking me up with some spares though

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I didn't catch that second photo being a rust-hole in the control-arm. Not as bad as the rust in the left-rear arm of my first 240D, 8 years ago. That one rusted through near the spring-shock mount and nearly collapsed - the reason I got the car for $225 on craigslist. It was my introduction to dieseling, and a valuable learning experience. After 7 years, which included a replacement control-arm, numerous repairs for rust and other maladies, I did get $1000 for it.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Im noticing the front end of the car as far as engine clatter is getting louder than I previously thought.

The engine always sounded a little clattery, but I put it down to mileage, but now im thinking I might need a Vacuum pump. This moring for the first time I noticed it seems to be located towards the front of the motor specifically.

Ill try and nail down the diagnosis soon, with a new timing chain, I don't want this motor to be destroyed before its time

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You'll probably need to pull the vacuum pump to physically inspect the roller & bearings.
Other things that can rattle at the front of the engine include the alternator and AC mountings & brackets.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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