My turn for the wrecked W124 thread

[engatwork]

The wife was driving home in the rain this evening and seems to have needed to stop without enough room in front of her and hit the back of an 81 Bronco. She texted me a picture of the car and it looks repairable. Thankfully she was not hurt. I'm also thankful that all I have on it is liability so the insurance company can't "total" it. Time to start nosing around the pull a parts or buy a parts car. It only has 284k miles on it and has alot of new parts. The transmission was rebuilt at 250k miles. I hate to see one less 95 E300 on the road and right now (without seeing it yet) I plan on repairing it.

She is still driving the car. Nothing is leaking, the a/c is still blowing cold and it is not running hot so hopefully it will be a straight forward fix. I'll know tomorrow when I get a chance to take a look at it.

[charmalu]

Bummer. no one hurt was a blessing. fortunately there are a lot of W124`s in the yards. at least out west.

looks like a hood, fender, healight assy, and a little sheet metal pulling.
look at it this way, she just got winged, a flesh wound.
(As they use to say in the old Cowboy movies )

Charlie

[kerry]

Glad no one was hurt. Looks fixable.

[Jeremy5848]

Just as a point of reference, a deer ran in front of my '96 E300D (same engine as your '95 but W210 chassis) and the damage looked very similar. We have full coverage insurance and, after confirming the car's value with an appraiser, the insurance company paid $7800 to have the car fixed. That's a horrible amount of money but I've been paying them premiums for almost 40 years so I figure they owe me one. The front of the car now looks new -- better than before the accident, actually, since 275,000 miles of road rash was removed. Animal accidents are not "chargeable" and are covered under comprehensive so my cost was zero.

[1980sd]

Hate that Jim At least your wife is OK.

We needed the rain but...

[compress ignite]

Fixable.

extra nice she's O.K.

[charmalu]

Animal accidents are not "chargeable" and are covered under comprehensive so my cost was zero. (quote)

So does that include Bronco`s?

Charlie

[engatwork]

So does that include Bronco`s?

lol, I'll ask.

Thanks everyone. I have been looking around and to be honest the 95 E300 is about the only car I want to own (although I have been considering a 98/99 model diesel E class). I'll do what I can to fix as much of it myself as I can and will use a local body shop to pull/straighten out anything I can't do. Heck, this may be a good time to go with a conversion where I put a 210 front end on it.

[charmalu]

When I see the W210 models, the headlights remind me of the "Little orphan Annie" cartoon strip. their eyes were just white with no life in them.

Maybe some of you are too young for these old cartoons.

Charlie

[Jeremy5848]

I remember! Personally, I much prefer the 124 for a number of reasons, but the wife likes her 210 so I have no say in the matter.

[pwogaman]

Looks like you might need a straight radiator support. Given you only smushed in the crumply part it should not be to hard to cut replacement pieces from a donor. Also a plus is just about everything cosmetic up front there is bolt-on. Swapping those fenders off and on is a breeze.

If you're not too particular about the unseen side of it you can bang/pull back the parts until they line up, rust seal where you knocked off the paint, and bolt on replacements. If you're really lucky you'll find your replacement pieces in the same original color. I'd wager your alignment is even still good.

My opinion on the W210 conversion: too much work and I don't like it as much anyway.

[sixto]

Is the right fender unique to the 95? I thought I read that 90-93 300D fenders are slightly different where the cladding attaches.

The inner fender might be different from gassers because of the air cleaner intake.

Sixto
87 300D

[engatwork]

I'm going to have to haul the car back to the house. The wife finally got home (driving the gold E300 now) and indicated that after she had parked for awhile there was clear fluid dropping out from underneath it. I'll get it up here to the shop over the next few days and start a thread on repairing it.

This may give me the opportunity to pick up a parts car.

We need another car so the wife has shown her interest in finding one this weekend for the stepdaughter. We're nosing around for used Civics and Corollas this afternoon.

[engatwork]

Finally got a chance to take a look at the car. The wreck damaged the fan and fan clutch. It looks rebuildable from what I can tell. Time to try my hand at a little body work. Wonder how much trouble it would be to graft a w210 front clip on it? Now to get it to the shop.

I was thinking about getting a wild hair and put the engine/tranny out of it into a full size Ford truck, 1997. Wonder how that would work out?

She ended up getting a good, used Honda Element.

[engatwork]

Got the car to the shop and have finally gotten an opportunity to start on it. Pulled the fender off, cleaned all the broken bits out, removed the fan and fan clutch and pulled the radiator support out with the tractor. The radiator has a small leak where it tried to take up some of the same space as the fan clutch but will hold coolant enough to yard drive. In addition the water pump shaft looks like it may be slightly bent. Car starts just as good as always and the a/c system is still charged and operates.

I've found a parts car in north Georgia and will probably head up there over the next week or so to pick them up.

I'll keep ya'll posted.