Finally found a clean 123 body close to me - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

ImBroke · #1 07-04-2015, 10:46 AM

Scrolling through the Craigslist, as usual, I found this ad for an 85 300D. Price was cheap enough, so I figured I'd go look and find a rusted out car like mine. Nope, solid floors, solid suspension points, etc.. We settled on a price, and he drove it to me. I was going to swap everything over and junk mine. There are minor rust spots (battery tray area, fender bottoms, etc..), but having solid floors was the major reason I bought it. Now I will have an extra motor and transmission, and need to find something to do with them. This new one is wearing the inner sides of the front tires out, and when he was coming up the driveway, I noticed it cambering badly. I'm not all about "stance", or whatever ricers want to call it, so I need to get that fixed very soon. Here's the first pic, new one is on the right, old one on the left.

Dan Stokes · #2 07-04-2015, 11:08 AM

Looks pretty good! How much do you want for the 617 engine? I don't have a back-up for Mutt and I'd like to have an engine to build from the pan up. You're close enough that I can come and get it. I could even bring the cherry picker if needed. PM me.

Dan

MagicBus · #3 07-04-2015, 01:31 PM

How bad is the rust that you want to junk the old one?

ImBroke · #4 07-04-2015, 04:08 PM

MagicBus, if you look underneath mine, the rust line goes from the front to the back, down both sides. Add that the trailing arm mount is rusted and I'm not sure how much longer it's viable.

MBeige · #5 07-05-2015, 12:24 AM

Did you sell your 15" bundts?

I hear ya about transferring all good parts to the "good" body. Hopefully it isn't too much work.

ImBroke · #6 07-05-2015, 10:48 AM

Never sold the 15" bundts, so you know where they are going. Once I get the suspension done, of course. No sense tearing through new tires. Nothing is too much work, I'm used to tearing the interiors out as soon as I get them anyways.

vstech · #7 07-05-2015, 02:11 PM

Let's get some good pics up of the new one, I think I see rust in the rockers on it. Also, the hood lines aren't aligned, nor the back door... Possible wreck recovery?

ImBroke · #8 07-05-2015, 03:42 PM

John, here's the rust I think you were talking about. Surface rust, as I can tap it with a wrench and it's solid. Second and third pic are of where the rear trailing arm bolts up. First on the old car, and second on the new one. Nice and solid.

Old car's suspension bolt in point.

New car's suspension mounting point.

ImBroke · #9 07-05-2015, 03:46 PM

Camber like a boss.. I know the upper control arms are not good, hope that's the only thing.

ROLLGUY · #10 07-05-2015, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ImBroke

Straight-piped too!

ImBroke · #11 07-05-2015, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROLLGUY

Straight-piped too!

Yeah, that's gotta change. Won't pass inspection that way.

cooljjay · #12 07-06-2015, 01:03 AM

That tire being in that position, also tells me that it is very very possible the rusty battery try spread into the mount for the torsion bar/sway bar mount....eating away the firewall....not a fun place to fix rot...the fender could be hiding it all...

ImBroke · #13 07-07-2015, 08:39 AM

cooljjay, didn't think of that. Both sides are cambered in. Had the car on stands, and I can move the UCA where it bolts through the shock towers. I was hoping for bushings, now I have other things to look at.

cooljjay · #14 07-07-2015, 02:05 PM

Yeah a lot of people seem to forgot about this feature on the car....I was having bad wear on the outside of one tire....being broke I didn't want to just start replacing things...when I started reading...I found out that torsion bar/sway bar does a lot...and its worth replacing that little bushing too...even though it requires some small hands under the brake booster...so check that out...

Shows a bad bushing...

BillGrissom · #15 07-07-2015, 03:04 PM

Check the lower control arm (LCA) pivot. If the eccentric washer is at max (thicker part pointing outward), you won't be able to pull the LCA in more to adjust out the excessive "negative camber". My 1984 300D was like that because the cup around the pivot bushing had cracked. I pulled it back into position and welded a long strap to secure it (stronger than factory design). Later, my son had a similar deal on the other side when the upper K-frame welds popped loose, causing the LCA to rotate outward, making both extreme camber and the wheel pointing outward. Both were left-overs from a crash into a curb when stolen from the PO. The shop repairs didn't hold.

In the later case, I pulled the LCA back (later found that jacking it up by the frame, gravity rotates it back) and strapped the two pivots together w/ a chain (2800 lbf, fit like a glove between engine and tranny), which brought camber and toe-in back (tweaked perfect toe-in w/ tape measure), and drove it home 600 miles. It drove perfectly straight (could take my hands off the wheel). That could have been a permanent fix, and even stronger than the factory design, but too redneck so I re-welded the upper K-frame and added an L-bracket so it can never pop away again. I will do the same on the driver's side so I don't worry about that shop repair similarly failing. I expect in rusty areas that region could fail since it looks like just a few spot welds secure the top of the K-frame.