Meet "Orwell", my Panamerican expedition 300TD

[Delibes]

Hello everybody,
After roaming Heaven and Earth for an original, fun, sensible choice for a vehicle for a future Alaska-to-Argentina trip, I have stumbled across this Euro-spec 300TD Turbo in one of my car delivery errands. I bought it off a very woodie character in rural Ohio. The story of how I got it is worth telling, so I will write about it eventually on my travelogue. The wagon runs like a top, it is fast and does not shake. It needs some suspension parts, and I would like to convert the front windows to manuals.

I will create a separate topic to sell some parts off this wagon to compensate for the whooping $1,200 that it cost me, so I can reinvest them in maintenance to make it a capable overland vehicle. I figured out Newport is just way too nice to beat it up like that.

For the Panamerican trip I will not need 4WD, as it is often believed. I know these cars better than most, they are simple, rugged and dependable enough to trust the 134k miles of wear not to affect its integrity on the way down south.

Here are some pictures!

To compensate for the costs of maintenance, I am going to sell off some of the non-critical parts off this wagon INCLUDING THE EURO CLOTH INTERIOR. The car has 134k miles and it is in overall very good shape, excluding the rust that I mentioned before.

I made a topic (click here) in the parts section with some of the parts I am selling, the ones I need, and some I am just giving away for free.



She's got a bunch of rust at the bottom of the doors, jackpoints and hatch.
The frame and floors are great, though. Should not split in two!



Previous owner redneck-engineered an SLS-delete. Rides just fine, despite some crude repairs.
The bumpers and the hatch are slowly being eaten by rust from the inside...



The interior is the very rare black cloth interior, dirty, but in great shape!
Definitely thankful for those in the 90 degree heat here in Kansas.



Windows work, A/C works, cruise works. Drove me from Ohio!
The wood-grain on the dash strip is impeccable.



Comes equipped with a 3rd row seat and cargo cover hardware.



It also features an untouched German first aid kit and safety triangle!



Despite being federalized, still has the vacuum switch for the headlights!
Also, pay attention to the town-and-country horn switch!

Overall, it is a car that will never be pretty because of all the rust, so it makes a perfect candidate to do some basic maintenance, some preventive replacements, drive it down to Argentina and sell it there for scrap once I am done with the trip. Just not worthed to drive/ship it back. Or is it? It has the M-Pump (will take with me once it's done with) and the turbo, which make it WAY faster than Newport (USA), and parts all over the Americas should correspond to the European models should I need them.

Tell me what you think!