Finally, an intro to the 300TD manual project. - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

crazy4diesel · #1 03-01-2014, 06:28 PM

Hi there all, I thought I’d do what I probably should have done early on here, introduce this project! One reason I didn’t was because the “project” itself took shape in a rather organic way.
It all started when I saw an ad on Ebay for a 1981 Euro 300TD with 4-speed manual transmission. It was a very nice looking car, here’s some info on that car: http://www.memory-motors.com/Show_Car.php?CAR_ID=132#main I was so enamored with this car I flew to Milwaukee to check it out.
At nearly the same time I found a car locally in Southern California, that was a very not so beautiful 1982 Euro 300TD. The difference was that the “beater” car was well, let’s just call it $10K cheaper. I drove the local car, the day before my flight to Milwaukee, and told the owner I’d call him from Milwaukee when I knew which one I wanted to go with.
While the Milwaukee car was just about perfect, as I dug, and dug, I began to find things with it I just wasn’t sure about. Some blistering under the paint in a couple spots, a decent amount of blow-by going on, and some signs of a previous serious oil leak, but it was really a drive away car…AC worked, SLS worked and had just be gone through (for the 3rd time in its life).
Long story short I called the guy in California, and asked him how to get a deposit to him to hold the car till the next weekend when I could get down with a friend to pick it up.
The “brown” car, a 1982 Euro 300TD N/A with 4-speed manual.

One of my early thoughts was to find a turbo engine, and build up on that. But, did this car ever need a lot, besides a new engine, which it needed badly, as I found out, in the short time I drove it, it was burning oil like it was trying to keep OPEC happy, though it did always start (unless below 50 degrees) and ran pretty well, if very slow. The list was getting longer though, interior bits and pieces that were missing or just in bad shape, a fuel tank that was leaking due to road rash, since the SLS was long gone, and rather than put heavy duty springs, they just used the same springs with spacers in them, and HD shocks…it didn’t work.
So, I was faced with buying a bunch of stuff…and as luck would have it, I found a 1983 US 300TD with 199,000 miles on it right in my neighborhood. I went to drive it, and found several little issues, and creative home mechanic “solutions” that didn’t work, like cutting off one of the air cleaner brackets to replace it rather than moving the oil line to the turbo to install it properly…But, the price was right, and the engine was very powerful, solid, fired right up, and sounded “right” to my ear at least. AND it had almost all the parts I’d need for the other car…so, I bought it:
The “white” car, a 1983 US 300TD Turbo with Automatic.

I went back and forth on which car would be the donor and which would be the keeper. A buddy that would be helping with a lot of the heavy projects, proffered that I should keep the white car, because he liked all the nice things on it, sunroof, power windows, etc…, where as I saw most of that as a detriment, I really loved the simplicity of the crank windows, solid roof panel, manual climate controls, etc. In the long run, I ended up going with the white car, once I found out I could move the manual climate control system to it (the push button system, was in the dreaded “fail safe” mode with defrost only).
Some of the other reasons for going with the white car:

So far, the engine and transmission has been pulled from both cars. I’ve gone through the turbo engine, replaced the water pump, swapped the pump housing from the euro engine, replaced the turbo drain line seals and O-rings (OMG that is not an easy job even with the engine out of the car), checked the timing chain stretch (thanks to all the help I got from people here on the board), replaced the oil cooler lines, replaced the oil filter gaskets, deleted the EGR, replaced all the rubber fuel lines, and installed new injectors (shout out to Greezer), and glow plugs, replaced the vacuum pump gasket, replaced the oil pan and gasket, and installed a new AC compressor and brackets using a kit from a to be un-named source, cleaned and degreased, and then degreased, and cleaned some more

(was this thing part of the Exxon Valdez oil spill?), and I’ve begun the process of stripping the white car’s engine bay and front end to prep for paint as I intend to do a color change…leaning toward a solid taupe/gray of some shade (still working that out in my mind). I just hope I can get the bay cleaned well enough for paint to stick, at some point the SLS must have exploded, as that entire side of the bay including the headlight buckets are just covered with oil.
Since everything in here was BLACK before, I'll call this progress.

In the end, I'm hoping I end up with a nice, reliable, trustworthy, 300TD Euro driver with a turbo engine. So far, I’m excited, though a bit overwhelmed, and everyone here as been fantastic in helping with the latter aspect. I feel like I’ve made some friends here, and really appreciate all the knowledge there is here. I hope, on occasion I’ve helped too, in the comparatively small way I can. Shout out to cooljjay (who helped me figure out how to put pics in the post), yes of course, I might have some N/A bits for your car once I know I’ve got mine all sorted out!

jbrianfoto · #2 03-01-2014, 06:42 PM

Very, very cool and ambitious. I will be watching this project with bated breath.

Deemo13 · #3 03-01-2014, 07:13 PM

Cant wait! You're further than me so far lol.

Mölyapina · #4 03-01-2014, 07:17 PM

That's very nice! I would have gone with the other car

. You're making great progress!

uberwasser · #5 03-01-2014, 07:37 PM

Nice!

You can also move the crank windows over to the white car.

cooljjay · #6 03-01-2014, 08:40 PM

Awesome project love the photos and love I will be getting a care box!

I too would have gone with the brown guy, probably because he matches mine

but your right the rust would mean a lot of cutting and welding....just not worth it for the color...when you can get the white one sprayed...

I would like to see the inside of the brown guy. I see there is a fender mounted antenna so that guy was ordered with a radio, mine was radio delete and if I install a radio I want it to be installed like a euro...so i will stop beating around the bush, I would also be interested in the radio and antenna if the are original....would also like to see how the antenna is mounted to copy it.

Does the brown guy have cloth interior? I would switch that over too...

Heres a link to factor color options....see if you can find one that you like and it would be a mercedes correct color change

Google Translate

crazy4diesel · #7 03-02-2014, 11:08 AM

The brown car has MB tex fronts (replaced at some point is my guess). The rear seat is one piece fold down with cloth, and with the head rests. (the white car, has split folding seat, but doesn't have head rests at all, or even holes in the seat to accommodate them, is this right?)

The antenna and cable are there, and intact, but there is no radio at all. My plan if I were to have kept this car would have been to put a "stinger" antenna like that used on the VW Jetta wagon at the back of the roof, since some wank had already drilled a hole there for a CB antenna at some point.

Of MB colors, my choices would be: 751 Liasgrau, 940 Hansa Blue, 501 Oriental Red, in no particular order. The other option is a custom mix that would be close to Audi's Nardo Gray. The interior is palomino.

I'll post some pics soon, but it'll be a couple weeks...I've got some work travel out of the country, coming up soon.

Mölyapina · #8 03-02-2014, 11:17 AM

Headrests came with the third-row option, not with the split-folding rear seat.

cooljjay · #9 03-03-2014, 01:15 AM

Thats a bummer would have been neat to carry over the cloth seats, it will be so hard to find a set of skins.

The headrests can be added on to the rear seat....pretty easy, there is a how to floating around somewhere....just have to trim out some foam and switch parts over.

charmalu · #10 03-03-2014, 01:38 AM

If you are going to sand down the Engine Bay to repaint it a different color, you really have a lot of work ahead of you. If you don`t get it sanded to give the paint something to bite into, it will peel.

have you ever used a Soda Blaster? It will take off the paint down to the metal, then the clean up is easier, just wash it down with water and dry. use Phosphoric Acid to etch the metal and remove any flash rust from the water, and POR it or your favorite Primer etc... Nothing looks worse than a lighter color showing through with a darker color painted over it if it gets scratched. All depends n how deep you want t get into this project.

A good Video from Eastwood.
Soda Blaster on My Classic Car from Eastwood - YouTube

A.H. Soda Blasting, LLC - Soda Blasting Demo 1- Paint Removal - Sheet Metal - YouTube

This would be a good time to replace the Sway Bar Bushing on the Fire Wall

Following link is for the TD Bushings 123-323-12-85
Pelican Parts - Automotive Parts and Accessories - Porsche & BMW

Pricey at $33. they are $25 wholesale price form the dealer.
www.benzpartswholesale.com our local dealer.

Also this part# works W0133-1807027 for around $3 ea but Febi brand what I see mostly.

Charlie

crazy4diesel · #11 03-03-2014, 08:03 AM

Thanks for the tips!

Cooljjay if you happen to come by that how-to on the head rests let me know (it's way, way down the road project I suspect).

Charlie, I do have a soda blaster, just wondering how pissed I can make my neighbor with the dust...it will be the best way to deal with it though for sure. Then maybe use some sort of etching primer, followed by the base coat. I'm really leaning toward Oriental Red or Hansa Blue at this point (I think). And you say the Febi bushing work? Cause none of the sites say they fit 300TD.

I'd even considered just a flat black engine bay...that would be fine as well. This is not intended to be a concours restoration. I did one of those (sorta, didn't put proper wheels on it though, and didn't use a stock color)...took 10 years.

MagicBus · #12 03-03-2014, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazy4diesel

Some of the other reasons for going with the white car:

Was that the extent of the rust on the brown car? Where I am, I'd still consider that to be close to mint condition. Right now, I'm patching up a 240D that was a parts car even by New England standards.

I'm curious what that first photo is a picture of. Hard to tell with such a close shot. Personally, I can't justify spending a lot of money on a local (to me) W123. Even the "nice", expensive ones are hiding a lot of rust. I see too many cars listed on Craigslist that have sofa sized holes in the floor, described by the seller as a cheap, simple fix (if the seller discloses the rust at all).

Looking forward to seeing more of your project.

JB3 · #13 03-03-2014, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagicBus

Was that the extent of the rust on the brown car? Where I am, I'd still consider that to be close to mint condition. Right now, I'm patching up a 240D that was a parts car even by New England standards.

I'm curious what that first photo is a picture of. Hard to tell with such a close shot. Personally, I can't justify spending a lot of money on a local (to me) W123. Even the "nice", expensive ones are hiding a lot of rust. I see too many cars listed on Craigslist that have sofa sized holes in the floor, described by the seller as a cheap, simple fix (if the seller discloses the rust at all).

Looking forward to seeing more of your project.

looks like driver rear wheel arch to me.

LOL, with you 100%. That would be a mint car by local standards.

I would have picked the brown wagon too personally, none of the sunroof drain rust issues most of these cars have hidden. Excellent project though, can we get a pic of how the parts car non sunroof inside headliner looks? attempting to eliminate the sunroof on the wifes car, too many rust issues to keep it around. Curious what stock looks like

charmalu · #14 03-03-2014, 12:12 PM

I bought the HF 15# Soda Blaster on sale plus my 25% off coupon.

Haven`t used it yet, looking to upgrade my 20Gal 4hp compressor. needs more oomph or blow power.

It does make a bit of dust looking at this video. too bad the guy doesn`t show his results. Being Soda it will just dissolve and wash down with water. Not sure your neighbor would be happy. the negative of living in a Suburbia environment.

Looking Cool and Soda Blasting Carbs - YouTube

There is the Dust Less type of paint stripping also, but probably quite a bit more expensive even with this small unit in the following video.

Dustless Blasting on the My Classic Car Show! - YouTube

Which way you decide to go, Iam sure it will look good in the end.

There are two parts numbers, one for the Wagon and one for the sedans.

123-323-12-85 or W0133-187027 for the Wagons

123-323-05-85 for the Sedans

I installed a Wagon Sway Bar in our 85 300D and used the Wagon Bushings. The difference is because the wagon bar is 2mm thicker.

Charlie