Well, after spending a few months reading through a ton of posts on this site, I decided to buy a Benz. A 93 300e in Dark Blue w/cream interior. Its a really pretty car. Picked it up w/161k miles for about 3k and figured it would be a minor project car. Overall its in really nice shape the interior is really clean and the exterior is free of dings and scratches. Just a few mechanical issues that I knew about when I picked her up.

The door lock plunger on the driver's side is hard to move up and down. When I lift it, it doesn't seem to lift all the way up. When I press it down, it doesn't seem to go all the way down. Intermittendly it will work as it is supposed to and lock/unlock the other doors. But as of today it hardly ever works. I can lock/unlock my door and it has no effect on the others. I've read that it's probably a vacuum problem.
Along those lines, I've also noticed that the transmission surges slightly before it switches gears but it is hardly noticeable. I also don't notice any increased brake effort.
The car is very hard to start whether cold or warm. I have to hold the key in the start position for quite sometime while stepping on the throttle. It seems to start at first but then die and when you do get it started you have to give it some gas or else the RPMs drop too low and it stalls. It gets up and runs pretty well once started though.
The final problem is that the car vibrates harshsly and the wheel shakes right around 55 MPH and gets progressively worse as speed increases. I decided to throw it in neutral after reading a few posts regarding engine mounts, and rev the engine to around 4k. In doing so the car began to vibrate. I've had experiences with the wheel shake and vibration being related to tire damage caused by bad shocks and on a seperate occasion, warped rotors. However, when braking, the wheel doesn't feel the same way.
With these issues, is it possible to fix them myself or at least track down the most likely cause? I'm pretty mechanically inclined but have never worked on an import before (owned a 300M, 99 Bravada, 96 Sebring, 90 Lebaron, 88 Crown Vic).
Thanks for any input, I'd gain a huge sense of pride working on this car myself and I'm very excited to try after reading so much on here. I'll post pics of my car and such soon if anyone is interested.

John