Hey y'all, I find myself in an interesting situation. I could use some advice...

I was in the position to help a friend this past weekend. I was happy to do it too. I didn't want anything in return. He's shared enough with me. However he's insisting that he gift me something... his bulletproof Euro 1978 W116 450SEL 6.9. It's an unbelievable offer and I'm truly honored. I didn't really know how to respond. I turned him down a few times, but he wouldn't stop haha He knows how much I love tinkering with and driving my W123 and he wants his car to go to a loving home. I won't take the car as payment for a favor, no thank you, but I do want to help him bring life back into his car...

See, my friend is in his 70s now and the car needs some work. He's not in the position to do it anymore. It's got 160k and it's been parked outside in his driveway for the past few years. The paint is rough. The driver's door doesn't look aligned towards the fender. The cloth interior has moisture trapped I'm sure it's been growing something wild in there. No rust problems though! The hydro suspension is slammed to the ground. Apparently leaves and debris got caught under the car recently and it caught fire temporarily the last time we went to start it. No bueno. It gets more interesting though... Somewhere along the lines, it's been both rear-ended and shot at. The bulletproof window held up great with just some small chipping on the rear windshield where the driver's head was. The car's rear bumper and trunk area was repaired and you wouldn't know a hit ever happened, but unfortunately because of insurance reasons, the car had been given a rebuilt salvage title many years ago.

If I don't accept my friend's kind offer and do something with this sentimental piece of history, it'll turn to dust or get crunched by some CA recycling program. I bet nothing would make him happier than if I brought his favorite car back to life and took him for a ride. I want to take that adventure on. It's not about the money with him. He wants to see it go to a good home and maybe have its story continue. Here's my dilemma though.... I definitely don't have the time money skills or space to do this "properly" haha If I do this, it'll have to be a compromise from the beginning. Purists beware.

I have a basic roadmap in my head. Keep in mind that this would be a free salvage titled gift. My priority would be to get it operational and somewhat reliable. There is a fun upside to this though. The damaged structure gives me the opportunity to make something unusual, unique, maybe even sacrilegiously fun that this forum has never seen before.... 1) Remove all hydro and replace it with shocks/springs in the rear, plus coilers up front. This is cheap, flawed, and effective way for getting an operational suspension. Spending thousands of dollars on repairing the hydro system on a salvage title example makes no sense to me 2) Minimize all other unnecessary items to lower weight, limit liabilities, and to fund further restorations. I'll be able to sleep well knowing the parts will go to help a healthy w116 that's in active need of help. This includes the hydro suspension, A/C, cruise control, who knows what else random 3) Fix all items relative to safety. The car was running great in 2015 and very safe. So it can't be too too bad? 4) Either make it look purposely even more worn out on the outside, or perhaps using plastidip. Im leaning towards doing a MadMax or safari theme. Something aggressive. 5) Loud exhaust to show off the 6.9 as the muscle car that it is. Gas prices are insane and I would never daily drive something like this. So if I'm gonna work on a car for weekend fun, I want something bananas. And something like this would be an especially fun counterbalance my daily driven 240D haha

So how insane does all this sound? Wanna help? What would you do?