Food for thought: At $800 I am sure there are a lot of other things that need to be done on the care such as all of the suspension rubber bits underneath. If you are restoring a car, I would begin with it mechanically (not just engine) and once I felt good about that I work get on with the aesthetics.

__________________
1987 300TDT - 195,000 (Original #14 head)
1993 190E 2.3 - 105,000
1981 300D - 250,000

One year ago I would have agreed with you.

Now I think otherwise - I think the body work is now the most important part of the car. Mechanical parts can be so easily changed / rebuilt compared with the hassle involved in sorting out the body.

On a car of unknown condition - I think the OP is way better off stripping the car to a bare chassis and then finding out how much welding needs to be done before spending any money on mechanicals. The start of the project is the best time to find nasty body work surprises that are going to cost a fortune to fix.

Take it from me!

My W123 saloon / sedan old accident repair (and a bit of rust repair) thread

If in the worst case scenario it turns out that a monocoque chassis is "not ecconomically repairable" then the OP has at least done all the hard work needed to turn the project into a spares car - or to sell the spares off separately and get his money back on the original purchase price.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Well, yeah. The guy I'm buying it from is really trying to get money out of it. He was unemployed for quite some time (like me) and is having a hard time letting it go.

Plus all the wagon bits that people are looking for are on the car, cross bars for the roof included. Plus it's got some crazy type of bumpers on it I've never seen before. They're definitely US, but they have two uprights and a chrome bar running up in front of the grill. I've been told they might be "safari" which I haven't been able to find information for. The front chrome bar might be used to mount lights on, but that's my personal guess.

It also comes with a 3rd row seat kit that he bought for $500.

So I looked at it as a safe investment. If I can't repair it economically I can at least get most of my money back in parts.

__________________
Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat

I recondition w123/w126/w124/w140/r107/r129/ steering boxes!


1984 300D "Elsa" odo reset 6/2011 147k
1983 300TD "Mitzi" ~268k OM603 powered
1995 E300 "Adelheid" 262k [Sold]