I am was at the pnp and there is a 80 300SD sitting here that just arrived. Totally rust free, interior except for being taken apart is beautiful and front and rear seats appear to have had the padding replaced not too long ago. In the back seat is a full set of books and records in a huge folder appearing to go back to when the car was new. Unbelievable. Had lots of work done at the local Indy here. I wonder where this car turned up from?

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That sad truth is : W116's are getting *very* old and only a select few want them and older Mercedes DieselHeads rend to be tight fi$ted in basic nature.....

I've been going to Pick-A-Part since 1973 or so and know you'll yank your self hankless if you're not careful .

So many good vehicles junked by uncaring family members after some old guy dies or gets imprisoned and no one wants to hassle getting keys and title, just make it go away .

Sad, very sad .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

My son and I saw a volvo 240 wagon manual, low miles, all records in car, that was driven in and sold for scrap, basic divorce story. Because it was scrap, no way to buy as a whole. Sure, we pull engine, sell it to you. We pull transmission, sell it to you. You can then buy carcass and put it all back together. Oh, it's a salvage vehicle at that point, so sorry.

You should check out the JYs in LA some time lol.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

"You should check out the JYs in LA some time lol. "

Only if you really like to be depressed .

I came to California in the Summer of 1969 and was amazed by the acres of rust free vintage cars piles up every where, especially in the Desert East of Los Angeles ~ growing up in rust country and loving old cars this was a real eye opener ~ most of them simply needed $300 worth of work and at that time were difficult to sell so off to the scrapper they went .

For decades I'd buy a $25 vehicle and drive it whilst I tinkered it back to proper health, then I'd get an offer to sell it for maybe $50 profit and off it went, I'd begin anew .

In this manner I was able to own and enjoy a bewildering variety of vintage cars that were at that time just interesting to most at the very best .

Remember : Tom Mix's convertible was left at a service station for a simple valve job and pushed down a gully for many years before being re discovered and thankfully saved .

When I ran a junkyard I made decent $ and sold a load of old cars, I never had unsold parts stacked up like modern yards do ~ I _SOLD_PARTS_ as that's what a profitable business does : SELLS .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

While I’m shocked at the low resale value of mb diesels, I’m happy I can afford one.

I’ve sunk more money into my cars that I’ll be able to sell them for, but I can certainly drive the value out of them.

Craigslist is full of cars being sold off by some dead guys family. I told my wife and kids to just sell my cars off cheap to an enthusiast if I kick off. They don’t want to repair them and I sure don’t want them burning money trying to keep daddy’s Benz on the road.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

You still get situations where someone is handed these in an estate and it is appraised at nothing...or they get tapped in a parking lot and the insurance company totals it with 500 bucks of damage. I was looking at a car recently that would full total at 350 bucks but selling at 12k, all because insurance is not market value. Bit of an assumption it's the case here, but it def happens.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Meanwhile, probably some guy who has been wanting a W116 300SD for years finally works out a deal on a rusty one with high miles and a trashed interior that was for sale by a guy who wants some outrageously high price for it.

So now he spends a bunch of money replacing the interior with parts on eBay and welding in new patch panels and has a fortune into the car, and it's still not much of any good, plus it needs paint.

It seems that only the rustiest, roughest cars ever go up for sale (except the ones that are listed at high bluebook prices) and the sellers want way too much money for them. And then the really nice examples like this get scrapped.

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Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

I never understood why people in the rust belt take on insane restorations while perfectly rust free examples are going to the JY just a 3 hour flight away. Even shopping a non running car is far cheaper than rust and paint repairs.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

I went back this morning and finished stripping the car. It is pretty much a shell at this point. If the car is still there next time they have one of their half price sales I may try to grab the engine. I did not pull the door panels and window regulators but probably should have. Some of the goodies I got were what appeared to be a recent aluminum acc servo, a rebuilt acc amp with a 2017 date on it, newer looking Hirshmann antenna, and of course those great looking seats.

Go get those window regulators if they are OEM. They are NLA and aftermarket ones are trash.

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'80 300SD - '83 240D - '00 E55 AMG - '02 G500

yea I might try to do that. It has been years since I pulled regulators out of a 116 but I seem to recall either the fronts or the rears were a real bear to get out due to clearance issues with those big old window motors.

Take the doors if they aren’t rusty.

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon
02 C320 wagon

Risk of locating it plus the time factor primarily. I live in the rustbelt. I agree it is almost pointless to do major rust repair on these particular unibodies. So you need someone to source the car for you far away. If it is not a driver you also will have to ship it home somehow. There are cars in the salvage yards in the southern states. That are really far better than the cars on the roads here.

As my departed father used to say you can repair the mechanical aspects of any car usually. Serious rust in comparison is another story. I am sitting on a very nice running 240d with fairly low millage. That I will probably part out rather than repair the rust. What southerners call rust is a real lack of understanding. You have to have really dealt with it here at one time to really comprehend the problems. Plus if you do not have serious heat available forget even working on them mechanically. Cancer is a feared term . Yet when using it as a description of the rust problems here it is not an understatement. It kills cars with little to no mercy.

Sad to see nice ones like that in the scrap yard. Its true about rust....its just not worth spending time fixing. Thankfully the newer vehicles are galvanized, so rust is minimal concern. There's also the ancient factor of the car....W116, W123, and W126 have complex old design suspensions and steering that its getting harder and harder to find quality parts for and shops that can properly repair/align/work on them. My Metris van has about 3x better handling than a W126....and is significantly faster. Modern is nice! Same for the diesels.....my GLK is like a space ship compared to my old diesels....can't argue with 369lbs of torque!!

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)