At this point in the car's life I am celebrating every 50K. First pic is from this summer, second was Sunday on the interstate. Car was totaled back in 2015, but couldn't find one mechanically that sound so we straightened the frame with come a longs and put a new blue nose on her. I am working now on an 84 that will replace this one, but until it rusts in two we will keep driving it.

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1985 300 TD 448K
1984 300 TD 278K

1983 240D euro 240k
1994 f-250 idi turbo 330K
1986 f-350 IDI
1987 F-350 IDI

1985 JD 1050 4wd
1965 IH 3660

That's a lot of miles, keep them going

PS
Update your signature to reflect the achievement

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Stable Mates:
1987 300TD 310K mi (Hans)
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee OM642 165k mi (Benzrokee)

You can actually straighten out the frame with comealongs? What did you tie them to - a tree or telephone post?

Yes, I too have used chain pots & sturdy trees to straighten bent uni bodies .

I really like the bucolic photograph you took there .

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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

To straighten frame I tied a strap through the unibody through the front swaybar hole to a tree, and then attached two come alongs to another two trees pulling in the opposite direction and the opposite direction and forward. I got hit in a glancing blow that knocked the passenger side toward the driver about 1 1/4 and crushed the passenger front corner.
I found some pictures. The 2x4 you see in the pictures is attached to the cowl by the holes used to hold the cowl vent covers in place. That and the sheetrock square gave me good reference points so I could measure both my pull forward and the frame straightening.
It is still out by 1/8th of an inch. I just couldn't get the frame to relax enough to get it perfect. If you look down the fenders you can tell the front clip sweeps in more on one side than the other and the hood and fender aren't perfectly aligned on the passenger side. But the insurance company paid out $4800 on the accident (wasn't my fault) and I only gave $3k for the car so I figure I am to the good as long as it lasts.

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1985 300 TD 448K
1984 300 TD 278K

1983 240D euro 240k
1994 f-250 idi turbo 330K
1986 f-350 IDI
1987 F-350 IDI

1985 JD 1050 4wd
1965 IH 3660

This is what it looked like just after it happened. We were on a cross country road trip and got hit in Page AZ. This is Zion I think. I had to slip the wrecker driver cash to pull it out enough so the fender wasn't rubbing the tire, then I hooked up with an old friend in California and we did some pulling on it to get the passenger door to open and the hood to close. We also had to replace the radiator in Cali. The impact broke the tab to the return tank off, so from AZ to Cali I just had a screw with some silcone keeping the antifreeze in.
It was bent enough that the wheel was almost a half turn out for the rest of the trip, but amazingly it didn't eat tires or pull too badly. AND though the drier was bent all around underneath there, it didn't dump the gas from the ac so it worked all the way home.
That was a 6200 mile road trip and I assumed at the time it would be the last. The car had almost 400K on it then.
We probably would have ditched the car and rented somthing, but there was nothing to rent in Page that would tow the trailer and we had reservations in the Grand Canyon that we didn't want to miss to we just kept driving. By the time we were out of the canyon we felt confident enough to continue.
These are damn tough cars.

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1985 300 TD 448K
1984 300 TD 278K

1983 240D euro 240k
1994 f-250 idi turbo 330K
1986 f-350 IDI
1987 F-350 IDI

1985 JD 1050 4wd
1965 IH 3660

Thanx for sharing the details .

__________________
-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

Awesome story

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Greg Schwall

1983 300SD - 465,000 miles

I should add that the floor jack and plywood underneath the car was also important. Without jacking up the tires much of my pulling energy was used to overcome tire friction with the ground. Once up on the floorjack the car body can move. My process was to put as much tension as the straps would handle on the car, and then work all the bends with a ball peen hammer to relax the tension, then add more pull and repeat.

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1985 300 TD 448K
1984 300 TD 278K

1983 240D euro 240k
1994 f-250 idi turbo 330K
1986 f-350 IDI
1987 F-350 IDI

1985 JD 1050 4wd
1965 IH 3660

Wow; incredible. Congrats.