I'm off all this week and spent the last two days cutting 1/8" plate off my pasture shredder and then cutting new plate and welding everything back together. It doesn't sound hard but if you've never done this kind of work it is EXHAUSTING; up and down, pulling, lifting, straining, getting hot molten metal in your boots.

I finished yesterday and I'm trying to lay around and recuperate today.

With my liesure time I want to reflect on what Mercedesshop was in the very Early Days.

This will be lengthy, so I will write in a series of posts since my satellite connection seems to be flaky today. Doiing it in small chunks should prevent me from losing a lot of text if it crashes.

Believe it or not, in the early days of Mercedesshop we spent our time helping each other repair our cars. There were some notable members in those days, most of which no longer post. I will be giving a description of some of them, even the ones I can't remember their name.


My wife bought our first Benz in 1979. It was a '73 (I think) 250 gas car. Then in 1977 I bought a new 240D. I put over 280,000 miles on it and then bought an '84 Euro 240D with only 17,000 miles and ran it to over a half million. In '96 I bought a new E300D and then sold it in '98 I think.

In the days of these cars I was driving 60,000 to 70,000 miles a year and doing ALL my own wrenching on these cars. I sure wish I would have had access to Mercedesshop THEN!

In January of 2000 I put my '84 Euro car back on the road after my son had driven it to high school. I got a parts car and was more or less rebuilding it for a commuter car. At that time I needed to know the best approach to changing the rear center section and starting searching the internet. I came upon a sparsely visited MB forum and posed the question. A fellow named Larry Delor on that forum, told me to pose the question on Mercedesshop.com. He said there were some pro techs there that would probably answer the question within an hour.

I posed the question and it was indeed answered professionally and accurately within an hour by Benzmac.

I will be citing many things from memory in this thread so I apologize for any inaccuracies.

Larry Delor, as I recall, was a Restaurant owner in Florida. An upbeat and helpful type fellow.

Benzmac was Donnie Drummond, who at the time he answered my question, he was a young, but experienced and savvy tech at an MB dealership. I think he might have more correctly been a Shop Foreman or Service Manager at that time. Several posts indicated his high standard of ethics and pension for hard work.

Donnie and Bill (current PeachParts owner) built a modern MB independent shop in the Atlanta area and were very generous and helpful to most anyone on the forum that needed help.

During these same early times, there was a frequent poster who called himself Deezel. He was an aircraft mechanic in Georgia and a very savvy guy. He had obviously seen at least one very serious accident, so he ended up as the forums self appointed safety advisor. He constantly inserted safety suggestions into most any thread that involved description of a potentially dangerous operation. I've often wondered how many accidents he might have prevented that we never heard of.

Deezel is a very good example of the caliber of people in the early couple of years. All he wanted to do was help people and see that they know the hazards involved with what they might be doing and offer advice how to do it safely.

In those first few months Deezel drove to California and picked up a mint 116 car. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the Mercedesshop member that he had dinner with while in California, even though I've had several meals with the fellow myself. This unnamed person was a Border Patrol officer.

The Border Patrol officer came through Texas a few days after 9/11 and I met him for the first time and we had breakfast together. Actually I had breakfast with him before that while I was in San Diego for a conference. He had a really neat V8 116 car and we met for breakfast in Temeculah. He was extremely intelligent, courteous and helpful guy. We had lots in common in that we were both into MB's, woodworking and horses.

Later on I got together with him, Suginami and another Californian whose name I can't remember. We had dinner in the Orange County area while I was there in business circa 2003.

One of these top notch MShop posters, and one of the few still posting here was MBDoc. He was super savvy and would give DETAILED help and documentation at the drop of a hat. He had(has) a natural desire to help people that need help.

Another pro tech and another legend here as far as I'm concerned is Steve Brotherton (Stevebfl) He has helped thousands of people in all different ways. He is very savvy, very intelligent, and as nice a guy as you could ever hope to correspond with. Steve helped me hook up with a wholesale only driveshaft shop one time. A very helpful guy.

Another one of the early posters who I occasionally see post here is Suginami. He worked for a food spice company traveling the US. He made a point of connecting with as many MB members as he could during his travels. He might have shaken hands with more different MShop members than anyone else. He is a super nice guy and had the most beautiful condition late series 124 car that I EVER saw.

The other fellow from California that I can not remember his name had the nices EARLY 124 car I ever saw. He had put a sportline suspension and other mods and it was beautiful. When I had the dash out of my 300E for a podectomy, he sent me a set of expensive front speakers and would'nt except any payment for them. He said, "put these in there while it's apart and tell me how the radio sounds." I did and it sounded great. I still enjoy those speakers.

Another great guy and great Mshopper is Aldedmon. His name is Albert and he drove from Houston to the Dallas area one time for a picnic that we had. He was in THE MOST BEAUTIFUL 500E I ever saw. I could write a novel about the car and it still wouldn't convey how brand spanking new the car looked. It was RED and red it should be, given the love and care he gave that car. He also had a 400E as I recall and did an evaporator job on it. That's NOT a job for the feint of heart. Albert is one of the real keepers that's been on this site over the years.

Another great poster of the past who I occasionally see a post from is Engatwork. He was an engineer at an Electric plant. He called me one time to discuss an upcoming rebuild on a 123 diesel car. He dove into it all the way to the shoulder blades and kept on digging on lots of cars. He learned a LOT and always looked forward to helping anyone that he could. He is in Georgia now on a large parcel of land that has been in his family for quite some time. I never had the pleasure of shaking his hand, but I felt like I knew him well and he was one of those many early posters for which I had massive respect.

Another early poster who I REALLY enjoyed reading was Carrameow. He posted a lot of pictures of the process he went through in THOROUGHLY rebuilding a 123 diesel car. He did it in a very small garage and always talked about how much therapy it was for him. He started a lot of threads that began with super interesting rhetorical questions. He's another that I never had the pleasure of shaking his hand, but he was a great contributor.

Another notable member who came a little later on was Lizem100. He is a physician at the Medical School in Dallas. What a great guy! He sat at dinner one night with myself, my wife Jean and Suginami. We asked him about the different kind of doctors and he gave us a very interesting and lengthy explanation. Most people going through something like that would bore you to tears, but we were all captivated by the way he explained it all.

Another notable and VERY impressive member from that era is GBenz. Another that occasionally posts here. He is a very intelligent, energetic, life of the party types that you don't forget. He's the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.

There were lots of others in the early years that I had the pleasure of meeting in person. In spite of the fact that we were a diversified group, with generally only MB's in common, they all just wanted to talk about cars and help each other any way that they could. That was what Mercedesshop was about in the Early days.

How things change.

Mike Tangas was the BP officer i'm sure. I've been around way longer than the 2004 join date.

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TXBill



Former owner of a few diesel MB cars
1998 Lexus ES 300 In Chicago We Trust

THANK YOU! I still have a great memory, but it's kind of short.

Mike is a terrific guy. I emailed him a few years ago when the grass fires were moving in very close to Temeculah. He said he and his wife (also in law enforcement) had been working almost non stop and were exhausted, but their place was safe.

Mike is a terrific guy. He's originally a Texan and went to A&M. They don't get any better than Mike.

Thanks again for the memory jog.

I met Mike Tangas at two different GTG's, and he was a genuinely nice guy. I enjoyed reading the posts of his maintaining his W108 280SEL 4.5. I think it was brown.

He also bought a 560SEL from a junk yard that had a catastrophic flex disc fail on the freeway, causing the drive shaft to become disconnected, and flail away on the tunnel above it, and setting off the air bag sensor.

He spent a lot of time rebuilding this car and getting it back on the road. I think he ended up selling it.

The guy who has the early W124 300E with the Sportline conversion is John Elliot (JCE). He is a retired Chemistry professor who taught at Cal State Fullerton, and he was a really nice, thoughtful, soft spoken guy who has disappeared from the site. I miss him, too.

What is strange to me is the antagonism shown toward Larry from some members of the forum, but if they met him in person, they'd find him to be the most amiable, easy-to-get along with person they ever met. Larry strikes me as straight-forward, good natured, and honest as the day is long.

It's strange how different things are on an anonymous forum as opposed to meeting someone face to face.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

YES! JCE, John Elliott! Thanks Paul! Great to hear from you!

John is the one that upon reading that I was pulling the dash on my 300E sent me this great set of speakers to put in. How thoughtful can one person be?

Yes, Mike Tangas earlyier big car was brown. I was thinking it was a 116, but now you mention it, I remember that it was an earlier car. I remember him in front of me after having breakfast in Temeculah and when he came to his ramp, that great big car whipped through that hard turn and onto the ramp like it was a Porsche. It was an odd thing to see.

Another member, maybe not quite as early as the other ones in this thread, was Jcyuhn. He did somewhat similar work as I did back in those days and worked right down the freeway in the Plano area. This guy was like most of the others I've mentioned in that he would tear DEEP down into his Benz. He tore the COMPLETE a/c system down on a 124 car, I think a station wagon, and replaced EVERYTHING. He turned into the end all 124 climate control expert with info on the most subtle of details. Super nice guy and as helpful as they come.

All true.

I wasn't here in the early days, but like Larry, have been working on my own Mercedes' for almost 20 years now. There's no substitute for hands on instruction, but that is not always able to be accomplished. So the Internet connections are really a plus in DIYing on my vehicles.

I find it strange as well - the threatening on the forum by people that have no idea who they are threatening. I just chalk 'em up to being fruitcakes 'n loons - and there's several of those - but basically no worries here.

Mike Tangas used to come through Austin annually to shoot competitively out at the DPS range. He'd come over to the hut and we'd have a beer or two.

One night when he was here in town, his Border Patrol Tahoe was tagged by a gang while it sat at the motel. They painted 'la Migra' all over it...as if we didn't know already.

2X on Larry...met him at a N TX GTG in 2007. Great guy.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I wonder what ever happened to Tom Pindelski (sp?) I think that was his name. I remember he started a VERY thorough DIY site that was free to everyone on the forum. Eventually I know that he started charging to see his articles. If I had a 126 I'd definitely have paid the $30 or so a year he charged. I have seen a lot of illustrated DIY articles, and they all pale in comparison to the detail he showed. He also was an engineer and took meticulous care of his cars.

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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Wow, what a trip down memory lane. Mike Tangas was later posted to Port Huron Mi. and that's quite a change from the hot desert where was stationed and is probably now stationed.

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Regards

Warren

Currently 1965 220Sb, 2002 FORD Crown Vic Police Interceptor

Had 1965 220SEb, 1967 230S, 280SE 4.5, 300SE (W126), 420SEL

ENTER > = (HP RPN)

Not part of the in-crowd since 1952.

Yes, when he was driving to Port Huron on the way to his new assignment, my wife and I met him in Sulpher Springs for Dinner. He gave me as a gift a Mercedesshop Static Window sticker. It is still on the windshield of my 300E.

He spent a couple of years in Port Huron before moving back to Ca. While he was there he bought a small house and fixed it up for a way to pass the time since his family were not with him. Then he sold the house for a profit when he moved back home. If that's not energy and industriousness I don't know what is. Gives you glimpse into his character as well.