Yea its was done way wrong, that is why it will be removed and will be put back to stock.

Electric Coolant Heaters
 

Oh, I see ~ I grew up in New England where block heaters were a good thing, this one being in the heater hose I thought it was for veggie fuel or something .

As mentioned, the lower hose is where you'd be wanting to put a coolant heater to ease cold weather starting .

Dropped it off at the paint shop this morning. They will straighten out the dings and dents in the bodywork and give it a great paint job. Well worth the time and effort to save this wagon, as good rust free ones are getting hard to find in this part of the country.

Can't wait to see the finished paint job. I'd like to paint and get the dents removed from my sedan someday.

Nice. What color did you pick for the new paint?

Will be painted the same original color, which is Labrador Blue (Code #312)

Looking Good !
 

It's going to be prettier than my re sprayed wagon......

I hope you take the time to remove all those plastic body molding clips on the lower body ~ paint shops always get too busy to remember and you will suffer .

Yes, and half the time they break when the molding is put back on. It is best to just replace them.

Plastic Molding Clips
 

......and, the ones that don't break will now be covered in paint and never hold the trims in place well .

I used to do salvage - reconstruct in the 1970's and these little details always came back to bite those who were so cheap they'd fret over some .25 CENT (back then) molding clips .

My graymaket 300TD is beige, most like it, I'm not partial to beige cars, this looks ever so much better .

Excellent. That's a great color.

I really like blues, greens and reds of the 70s/80s w123s. Most of them are really unique twists on the traditional colors and stand out from the crowd when well-preserved or restored.

My 240D, on the other hand, is the ubiquitous beige, which is fine, but far down the lists of colors I would have chosen if I lived 40 years ago and could order one from the factory.

I'm with you there. There are only a few car companies that sell cars with "color" anymore. Most are what I call "non-color" or "grey scale". Even the "ubiquitous" beige you speak of would be of "color" in yesteryear's color pallet. Actually, Light Ivory (beige) was quite a popular color back in the day. It happens to be my favorite 'Benz factory color second only to blue......Rich

Vehicle Colors
 

Sadly most manufacturers and dealers only want to carry the most popular colors, it's a money game .

The other day I was driving along the freeway and happened to look down into the huge parking lot of an Asian car dealer, there were several light blue cars scatted about and three orange ones in a bunch .

I was pleased to see at least a few color choices out there .

Not all colors match well with the shape of all vehicles, a thing Mercedes knew very well indeed when they did color research .

I have noticed several times that I have gone to Disneyland or Universal Studios, that the parking lots ar filled with greyscale color cars. There would be a few red, and an occasional blue car, but for the most part, white, black, silver or grey- THOUSANDS of them!

Just so Rich ;

And a sad thing it is too .

Well I did it again! Picked up this wagon today for very little money. Will most likely just part it out, as there is way too much rust to bother repairing it. But will make a great parts car for the blue car restoration.