Great News
 

Hello everyone,

I hereby proudly announce that my car has been repaired and for the most part, is functionally better than it was prior to the accident.

I took this one deeply in the rear. Total cost was $4,496.70!! Complete itemization is located here: http://r.students.umkc.edu/rcofz9/Deerrepair.html

Some major points:

-There is a great guy located about 50 miles from Kansas City that owns what I'd like to call a Mercedes junk yard! Yes indeed. He owns a mansion that sits on 33 acres of land - the house truly does look like a mansion, complete with massive pillars in the front that serve both as structural supports and for design purposes as well as a 200 foot long driveway. In the same piece of land is a small junk yard that contains various different Benzes. I counted 12 W126s, 6 W124s, 8 W123 (all including coupes, which I guess aren't really "W"s but "C"s). Amongst the W126s were four 300SDs and one 300SDL. His daily driver is a 1991 350SDL. Then he has several storage rooms, one of which contained 34 W126 trunk lids. He said he started collecting these cars for salvage parts as a hobby about 10 years ago and now it has developed into a full business.

I purchased all the body parts required for my car's repair from him. This guy can even get brand new parts cheaply. Just check out my itemization page. He got me a brand new OEM Behr radiator for $200 and a brand new auxiliary fan for $120. No one could match that online or otherwise. Had I known of this guy's existence a long time ago I would have purchased many parts from him. His day job is operating a small Mercedes repair shop. Over at his shop he had four OM617.951's hanging on stands. In astonishment I said, "you have too many of these diesels man." To that he said, "can never have too many Mercedes big Rich." Cool guy!

-While the repair cost me a lot of money, I am very happy with the job done. The guy that did the job apparently was certified on the 126 chassis in 1986 when he was working for a Mercedes dealership. He worked there for five years in Dallas, Texas and was even certified on the R129 and the 124 chassis. He had to move back to Kansas to support his mother after his father passed away, just before he was scheduled to get certified for the 140 chassis. He truly cared for my car. He noticed a lot of wrong screws, nuts and bolts that had been used on many parts of the car sometime in the past and he replaced them all with the correct ones. He even solved the problem I was having with suspension noises. He saw that my front right upper ball joint had worn out and replaced it for no additional charge. That took care of the noises - the Mercedes dealership had told me that the noises were coming from my worn out shocks, even though my shocks are fine. The guy also found the source of my steering issue - pulling to the right - he said I need to replace my strut rod bushing or something like that. It is a $70 part online and he will replace it for free. He even sanded down the entire left side of my car and repainted it. My clear coat was beginning to peel off on that side of the car. He fixed tiny dents here and there. He did all this secretly as they weren't part of the cost of repairing the damage that the owner of the body shop had calculated - basically, what I ended up paying. He was so attentive to detail that in the process of painting my car, he removed everything that was on the body (well, this is the proper way of performing such a paint job) and even saw that two of my window regulator sliding jaws were broken and replaced them with new ones for free. And he has promised to replace all four of my shocks for free if I get the shocks! What can I say? I waited long for my car to be repaired but the repair was done well.

Unfortunately right now all the pics I took are at home and I'm quite far away from home. I'll post them all as soon as I get the chance.

Sounds like when I work on my friends cars and really like them...I do all sorts of stuff like this guy did.
I always like making the cars look nice...but only if I know the owners REALLY care about them :)

Deer are nothing. Just north of Los Angeles there was a 3 car accident with injuries (no seatbelt) because of a bear. Although I think it was more the disbelief of seeing a bear :eek:

I Hit 2 Deer At The Same Time
 

I live in Charlotte, NC. Last year, around autumn, I was driving home at about 6:30Pm. I was in a line of traffic doing about 70mph with cars zooming by me at greater speeds. I blinked, and out from nowhere jumped 2 adult deer at the same. I hit both of them almost simultaneously. The airbags deployed, my car filled with this fricking powder and it was all I could do to get the car under control. The grill was non-existent, windshield broken, dash board sticking thru the windshield. Blood and crap all over the car. The crap smell was strong in the car. The doors wouldnt open, so I managed to break the window and crawl out. Immediately after getting to the side of the car, I heard what seemed like the voice of God. "Are you alright?" I thought, oh hell, I have died and God is looking for me. Thank God it was Onstar. They sent a cop and a tow truck. We couldnt tow it to the dealership so we towed it to my home. Next morning, neighbors started strolling by and as nosey as neighbors are they began asking what happened. I told them I had accidentally hit a pedestrian. It worked. They now stay the hell away from me and wont speak to me. Well, the insurance company declared the car totaled. Believe this, it only had 2200 miles on it. And as for that rancid crap smell in the car...I crapped the seat.

That is exactly what I would tell them :D :D

I haven't soiled myself yet and I am guessing I won't considering I've done about the worst/most exciting trick you can do in a car....roll over...

Rich finaly I am glad to hear some good news! I wish this guy was closer to me I would have him repaint my car next year.

Thanks man. Right now I'm ordering two brand new brake strut rod bushing kits (part # 126 330 13 35) for my car. He identified the right one as the culprit for the pull experienced in my car under heavy braking (he drove the car for 150 miles before he gave it back to me) and that is also the reason why my front tires seem to need balancing every six months or so. The MB stealer wants $140 for each kit. An independent MB shop wants $104 for each kit. I found it on eBay for $70 shipped for each kit. I really only need to replace the right one but he advised me to replace both together. This guy is amazing. He has asked me to bring in my car at 5am on Monday so he can do the work for free! Incredible! I'm working on a gift for him right now. The guy really likes me and wants to help me as much as he can. I must have made an impression somehow. :D I'll have the pics up soon to show you the quality of his work. Trust me, if you really want to get your car repainted next year, it would be worth it to plan to come here for a short visit just to get the job done. His prices are fair, his work is excellent and more importantly, he truly cares for your car if he sees that you care for it yourself, so you can be guaranteed that he will do plenty of free work for you as well while he is at it.