1982 300TD

[shadetreemechan]

I bought this car recently as a non runner and had planned to part it out. specifically I was going to cut body and chassis part off of it to fix rust on my 85 wagon.
Once I got it home and running (bad oring on fuel filter head) I realized its too nice a car to part out. It would make a good project for someone.
It appears to have new alternator, water pump, glowplugs and ac hoses, and battery. It also has good tires. These pictures were taken with it running this morning and it started without block heater with 26 degree temps.
The car is remarkably rust free. Thats why I bought it. Picture below is rear passenger jack point which often is the worst on these cars. Floorpans are solid, its all pretty solid. It has dents and dings, but nothing at all major.
The bad is the interior. Headliner is full of holes, mb tex is rough, busted seat spring on drivers seat. No radio and trim missing from cracked dash. It does have the third row seat.
Odometer shows 249k but PO said it slips from time to time.
If no one buys it I will probably slowly peck away at it, but I don't have time for another project. My daily drivers are all projects enough for me.
Priced at $1900 so someone else can make this car great again.
Car is located off I-24 between Chatanooga and Nashville.
PM or call 931-636-8132.

[shadetreemechan]

No interest at all?
Offers?

[gatorblue92]

I would love it but I don't have space or time for a 3rd project car. Bump for a solid wagon.

[shadetreemechan]

Update:
I have someone from the site coming to look at the car this weekend. In anticipation of that, (and because I had accumulated some parts) I rebuilt the driver's seat with new springs and foam today. I was planning on just doing the base, but the back frame and horsehair was shot so I put a newer frame on there as well.
The seat I had was not the same color, so I reused the original upholstery from the car so its not perfect but definitely much nicer to sit on.
I also replaced most of the missing dash wood. Still missing one corner piece on driver's side.
While replacing trim I found a receipt that shows that the injectors were replaced and the valves adjusted when the glow plugs were done late in 2014. This would have been close to the time the PO quit driving it. That probably explains why it started and runs so well.
Price is still the same for now. If it doesn't sell this weekend I will work on the SLS and climate control next. Once they are working again the price will go up.

[shadetreemechan]

Old seat base had springs broken in three different places. No wonder it sucked to sit in.

[joegolden]

Thanks for the update !

[tyl604]

Seat springs. Can you pop the seat out and just tie the broken springs together with a very small hose clamp, the screw type? Or can you weld the broken springs back together?

[shadetreemechan]

Originally Posted by tyl604

Seat springs. Can you pop the seat out and just tie the broken springs together with a very small hose clamp, the screw type? Or can you weld the broken springs back together?

Welding will ruin the temper of the spring. I dunno about the hose clamp. My experience has been that they always break at a hard bend in the spring making clamping difficult. Someone on here repaired one with a very small compression pipe fitting once, but I am not sure how long it held.
The seat bases between driver and passenger side on the 123 are identical so you can generally find a good passenger seat to rob springs off of. Then its just transferring over upholstery, seat mounts, and back. It took me about 2 hours to strip both seats, reupholster and assemble. That time includes a couple of rusty screws that had to be drilled. Now I have one good drivers seat, a pile of broken seat frame, and a parchment upholstery set for a front seat to put up on ebay or save for another car.

[gatorblue92]

Originally Posted by tyl604

Seat springs. Can you pop the seat out and just tie the broken springs together with a very small hose clamp, the screw type? Or can you weld the broken springs back together?

I know someone used a piece of hard injector line from an OM616/7 engine to repair a broken spring. No idea if it lasted or not.

[Zacharias]

Originally Posted by gatorblue92

I know someone used a piece of hard injector line from an OM616/7 engine to repair a broken spring. No idea if it lasted or not.

I think it's safe to say that repair has been used quite a bit and works.

There is another variant of that but I can't remember what the material used is. Anyone?

[shadetreemechan]

Car is still for sale. Shop is filled with another project so I haven't really done anything else to it.

[shadetreemechan]

Car sold to member here. Hopefully we will see a restoration thread on it soon.

[crs82]

Crap. Why have I not seen this ad??