A Sad Ending for an Old Friend

[mac2]

The thread with the w115 in the junkyard reminded me of this. It's the story of my first car, full circle.

My '76 300D was a great car. I picked it up for a bargain at $450 from a rather scary guy in the country. I bought when I was 16 and drove it all through High School. Thousands of hours I spent under the hood of that thing (many are detailed in some of my threads from that era) learning the ins & outs of working on these durable old machines. It survived my earliest mistakes like underfilling the transmission fluid, an improperly heated WVO conversion, etc & it never let me down.

Time went by, I continued to drive the old 300d through the first two years of college, never skipping a beat. It even started with B50 in the tank on an 8 degree winter day when me and some friends went and spun it on the ice for fun. I still remember that state troopers face as we slid sideways through the intersection and off the road... Even that sort of abuse couldn't bring it down.

But I really wanted a 190d. I wanted better mileage and I wanted a newer chassis that would be easier to get parts for. I saw the opportunity on craigslist for a '84 190d for $1800. After a short drive and a smile at the young woman who owned it, for $1300 bucks it was mine.

This of course meant my old faithful ride had to go. So precisely 2 years ago in July of '08 I made the decision to sell my '76 300D. I had it on Craigslist for about a week when someone came by, test drove it, and paid the full asking price. I was sad to see it go but I really liked driving my new 190d.

Fast forward to a month or so ago. I was wandering around the Pick & Pull in Sherwood, not finding a whole lot. I spot a cream colored w115 down the row.

There it was, sitting there in the yard, my old car.

On the window it said "runs" so it wasn't the motor that put it in there. The interior was still fairly intact, no damage to the body or the wiring. Then I took a look underneath and it became immediately obvious what did it in. Rust, hidden underneath the undercoating had rotted the area where the rear subframe mount attached to the frame. It must have failed while driving given the rubbing I could see on the inside of that wheel well.

I snapped a couple of pics with my cellphone, the last picture of me and my old ride. It was odd to see it all come full circle, but at least the parts will live on in someone else's car.

I bought the star off the trunk and waved goodbye.