My Latest Purchase - Is This a Steal??

[aphelan]

WARNING: LONG STORY

I'm still extremely new to the MB diesel game but I fell in love with these cars earlier in the year when I purchased a 1982 300D-T for $1800 (I named her Claudia).

Claudia has 240,000 miles on her but I bought her from an airplane technician who works for FedEX. He used Claudia as his daily driver and rebuilt the transmission, upgraded the air filter, replaced the suspension and brakes, and ran jet fuel in it. Mecianically the car is in pretty decent shape but the body needs a lot of work as does the interior. I also had to reaplace the A/C compressor ($400) and clean out the fuel system. Even with the clean fuel system I still have to give her some diesel everytime I start her up. She needs $1000+ worth of body work and about $500-$1000 worth of interior work to get her where I want her.

I began my search for a 1982-84 300D-T with low miles, a good engine, and minmal rust/body issues. Last week I was surfing around on Chicao Craigslist and found an ad for an 84 300D-T in "mint" condition in Elgin. The ad was extremely vague, didn't list any milage and only had 2 very small, grainy phone camera pictures. He was asking $4100 in the ad.

I called the number listed on the advertisement and the man on the other end spoke very little english. He had his friend call me back who served as a translator throughout this entire process. Upon speaking with his friend I learned that the car had 145,000 original miles on it and he was the 2nd owner. I live in St. Louis so I told him I would make the drive up there on the weekend to check it out.

I brought my friend with me who is a big time Benz diesel junky; he's owned 8 of them and knows virtaully everything about these cars. When we arrived in Elgin, the owner and his translator were both waiting for us. We discovered that they are both Argentinian and the owner is a diesel mechanic.

The owner's daily driver is a stunning 87 300SD and right off the bat I could tell he was extremely passionate about these cars. He told me he bought the 300D from an old woman in Florida 8 years ago and over time has essentially re-built the engine. When my friend got in the car and drove it he said it may have been the best feeling diesel he's ever driven. When he got under the hood he was even more impressed; particularly with the new master cylinder (he said the brakes were the best he's ever seen on any MB diesel).

The interior is nearly perfect; uncracked dash, mint wood, good seats with good springs (this was one of the things I was planning on replacing with Claudia and was quoted $250/seat). The exterior has been re-painted silver using MB paint (I think it was originally beige as the interior is beige/khaki MB-Tex) and there is virtually NO rust as he kept it in a heated garage. My only complaint was the cheap purple tint he put on the back windows, but this will be cheap to take off.

I immediatly fell in love and knew I had to have her. It was a good thing my MB-expert friend came with me as he is also an excellent negotiator. I walked away with this beauty for $3,600

I named her Heidi.

What do you guys think?? I'm going to take a bunch of hi-res pics of her today and I'll post them.