Giving up on my 1985 300TD

[MeinGreaseCar]

I post this not to drum up a sale.. just to lament.

A friend of mine and I were both into MB diesels. He bought the 85 wagon... I got an 85 sedan. He put it away in winter.. and was a complete 'fuss pot' about everything. I ran the sedan summer and winter.

I went with making biodiesel... he went with a grease car kit. Eventually.. after several years.. I had to give up on my sedan. He was SO jealous when I found a 91 sedan that had never seen snow, and had 27k on the clock just 4 years ago.

He got cancer.. several times. Had to give up on maintaining his wagon. It was in sad shape. The spring poked right through the control arm on the rear.

When he passed, he had told his wife I was to get the wagon. I sunk probably 5 or 6k into it.. and drove it for several years.

Recently the spring went through the OTHER rear control arm. I kept at it. took me 5 tries to get a used one... and I did the rear calipers while they were back there.

BUT>>> on the way home from the garage. I heard a snap. The bushing and bolt pulled out of the frame on the opposite side of what I had fixed. There's just no easy fix. There is a captive nut in the frame of the car. I'd have to drop the whole rear suspension again to get that piece out. The bushing itself is a nightmare. A big aluminum block which has a steel bolt in it. Everything is bound tight. I thought I'd cut it off with a torch. Mess, rubber on fire, and damaging the keeper that holds the bolt head.

No real way to get at the frame to cut the old captive nut out. Don't want to invest the time or money to remove all the suspension to get at it to fix it.

I'm giving up. Don't think less of me.

The garage, while griping for years.. is agreeing to take a bit less off the last bill for the benefit of not having to work on it again. I give them a lot of business. They had warned me on the last few repairs that it was 'time' to give up.

I've finally reached that point. I'm not going to just haul it to the scrap yard. I figured I'd post on here first. SOMEONE would want it for more than scrap.. I hope.

4 good snow tires. Two additional that have studded snows. A few extra rims. (I don't have a need for extras now, as I don't have any more 123 or 126 cars.)

Bout as new a rear brake calipers as you can get. 15 miles on them.

It has the 'grease car' kit in it. Stainless tank (maybe 12 or 15 gallon)

I'll stop posting.. and go over to classifieds.

Someone out there lift a toast to 'Scotty's Wagon' tonight.

I tried to do right by her... even when it didn't make sense. Knew I'd have to give up some day. I had wanted to go 'one more sticker' I did that one a few times.

JP