Nice 1979 300D survivor

[tmessenger]

What's the saying about buying a used car? Anyone can buy new but it takes an astute mechanical genius to buy a good used car. Well that's the philosophy I adopted years ago and based on my track record I am not that genius.

I really didn't need this 300D but it was just 30 miles from my house and too tempting to pass by. This is a local one owner car that was sold at an estate auction this spring in a small Mississippi river town in southeast Iowa. A small time wheeler-dealer bought it at the auction had it moved to his place and then did the absolute minimum to it to get it more or less ready to sell. This is where I come in, it was listed on Facebook with 85,900 mile and it looked really clean in the photos so...

The original window sticker ($21,078) all the books, oil change records and even the orange cardboard tag that hangs from the cruise control when new were in the glove box. Original complete tool kit was in the trunk and the untouched first air kit was in the backseat shelf.

Lets start with the good first. Crazy oil change records, these where hand written in the original maintenance booklet, I counted them out and the average oil change from new after the break in change was every 2,200 miles. The engine started instantly and ran really smoothly. I did the oil cap test and no movement when loose, I removed the oil cap and no detectable blow-by non. I brought a large piece of cardboard with me to put down so I could check the underside of the car and door bottoms. No rust, no oil leaks, clean engine bay. All the rubber on the car was still soft, door seals, window seals, axle boots, even the 26 year old tires were soft, dry-rot free with no flat spots. The dealer had smeared a coat of wax on the paint, other then light oxidation on the horizontal surfaces the original paint was really nice. The car drove out really well with good power, stopped straight, drove straight hands free with no pulling. All the glass was good with no stone chips or pitting in the windshield. Crack free dash, nearly perfect interior including the original carpets with the exception of (see below). My take was this car had been kept in a indoor controlled environment on a lift or stored on blocks, rarely if ever winter driven and had been really well card for. I've owned a number of vintage cars even a few Mercedes and to find an original 40 year old Midwest car in this condition is a needle in a haystack.

The not so good. No working AC or heat but the fan and flaps all worked correctly and the car will hold vacuum for days. You guessed it the original servo was stuck and draining the battery and the AC charge was flat and the compressor leaking oil. I bought an old (2008) used UT controller cheap that was said to have been working when pulled from a wrecked SD. After installing the controller I discovered the heat only worked in the defrost mode so there was an issue with the sensor chain. It turned out there was 0 volts return current through the sensor chain so the low voltage power supply in the UT control was bad. I emailed the UT tech and he said we can rebuild it for a flat fee of $150 with a one year warrentee, wow these guys really stand behind there products no matter the age. It's back in and working perfectly. I pulled the AC compressor and re-sealed it, it turns good and looked good inside. I've replaced all the o-rings and drier, pulled vacuum on it and it held vacuum for 24 hrs so I think it's ready for a recharge.

The radio was missing, the original owner had written a note in the owners manual, " these dammed Mexico radios are no dammed good we installed 4 of them and non worked". The original Becker Europa must have bit the dust and he had tried to replace it with a Mexico with no luck. I got lucky and found a Europa 460 on ebay that was listed as not tested and condition unknown, no one had bid on it, I picked it up and it works perfectly. This radio is mono, 5w at 4ohms and has the right connections for the power antenna. I've only connected it to one front speaker to impedance match the amp with the speaker , it sounds great, pulls stations really well, is the right vintage, looks the part and most important to me it's analog.

No dash lights, easy fix just removed and cleaned the dimmer pot, all the bulbs were good.
Fuel gauge stuck on empty, another easy fix, the float shaft had a bit of surface rust that was hanging it up, no sludge in the housing to speak of so the tank is more or less clean.
Front bottom seat cushions (horse hair) was breaking down, the springs were good, I used canvas covered foam to fix.

The original German Bosch fuel injectors were not great, 4 of them had OK spray patterns but were peeing. I bought new Firad nozzles and rebuilt the injectors so all good now. I also reset the IP timing, it was a few degrees retarded. I replace all the braided fuel lines along with the fuel filters while I was at it.

All fluids and filters were changed, except the trans filter, it was last change by the dealer at 70k miles so I just did a drain and fill on the trans. I did completely flush the cooling and heating systems and install a new thermostat.

8 of the valves were a bit loose maybe by .002 ~.003 thousands so they were adjusted, the top of the head and inner valve cover were spotless, no sludge or staining.
I replace all the brake pads and soft lines, rotors looked great and all the wheel bearings felt tight and smooth.

There were a couple of things I did as a preventative measure that turned out to not be required. I replaced the vacuum pump diaphragm, the original sill looked good when I got it out, I replaced the motor mounts, the originals only had around6 mm of sag and looked good.

Even-tho the 1993 tires are showing no rot they will have to be replaced and the selling dealer installed a new battery but the wrong size (to save $15) that will most likely need to be replaced.



Tim