I have an 84 300SD that I bought 10 years ago in beautiful condition with 73000 miles on it. Over the years I have kept it up with 3000 mile oil changes, annual valve adjustments and complete fluid changes every 25,000 miles. It has a Timevalve stainless exhaust! The suspension is completely rebuilt and it drives like a dream. New leather and springs on the driver's seat... great interior! One of the best 300SDs you'll ever see.

Or at least that's how I would have described it last week....Before I got a phone call from my 19 year old son telling me that he had just slammed into the back of a Jeep. Busted radiator, crunched grill, bent hood, inoperative power steering. He said where do you want them to tow it and my first response after a quick calculation of the damage was "To the junk yard!" I based that decision on the fact that the car was totaled. It had at least $5,000 worth of damage and a perfect 84 300 SD with 185,000 miles on it is only worth 4 to 5 thousand dollars on the market.

But I had a second thought. If the frame is not bent, I could probably raid a few junkyards and fix it myself and get it back on the road for a couple of grand. So I decided to have it towed to the Plaza Mercedes collision center so that I could get an estimate.

The estimator at Plaza was very good and he was sympathetic to the idea that if my son wrecked it then he should fix it. He pointed out that in the collision, the Jeep bumper was higher than my bumper and that the impact did not put any stress on the frame. It had simply crunched the grill, bent the hood and pushed the radiator support and headlight baffles back. Their estimate for a full fix (which I did not have him do) would have been for around $5,000 but he could strip it down and replace the support and headlight baffles for around $1,000 and let me do the rest.
Over the weekend I came up with a junkyard parts list and for about $1,000 I can get a grill, a hood, a fan blade, a condenser, a front bumper moulding, a radiator, a headlight door, an AC auxiliary fan, and a drier. The support brackets are coming from Caliber Motors for $200. Paint will cost $300 and the AC charge will be around $200. Based on that tentative budget, I have decided to fix it.

I have a friend in the Mercedes Club who has a mig welder so I can do the support bracket welding myself. As for the paint, I have a TP turbine HVLP rig and some (DuPont) VariPrime, UroPrime and ChromaClear left over from when I painted my 230SL so I may even do the whole car.


If you guys are interested I can make this thread a "Lazarus" chronicle. My son has a digital camera and if I can figure out how to post pictures I can take you through the whole process.

The tow truck is coming any minute now!

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Tom Hughes
St. Louis
84 300SD
92 300D
86 300SDL

If you take the time to post it we will sure read it....
Sounds like you have all your ducks in a row....

I would take the time to make absolutely certain the frame was not moved. Would be tragic to get it all fixed and have alignment problems forevermore...

...........19 year old's...........

But, you seem to have the repairs well in hand and can avoid much of the sting of the body shops. To get it all back in shape for about $2500. will be terrific.

Post some photos.

How much is the 19 year old going to pay??

I would get a chair, lemonade and nice shade to sit under and have your son do all the work while you supervise the work.


Ohh! I forgot the whip for when he says he's tired !

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87 300d Turbo 241K with original #14 head (blue)
87 300d Turbo 198K will run great again someday (silver)
84 300sd sold ( buyer drove it to Paraguay )

you get to keep your son and the car. consider if he was in a rusted honda.
I think this will bve a great tale for us to watch (read?). I hope you keep us all up to date with pictures and details. Good for you for trying to keep a fine car on the road. All you folks doing that are inspiring me to fix me old beater 300D. What the heck, it's going to have 400k before too long. Maybe it deserves some better fenders and doors.

Hey! I am 19....and I've never hit anything, even in the dreaded michigan winters....I consider myself one of the not-stupid 19 year old drivers (of which there are not too many)

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

............yeah..........Hattie's 19, and David is 19. And Brandon is almost 19.

Four out of five million.

I agree

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Well, the tow truck just arrived and the car is in the driveway. I'll try to get some pictures up in a while. It wasn't much of a wreck...its just that it doesn't take much to total a 21 year old car that has expensive parts.
As for Steve (my son) he's gonna do the work and he is going to help pay for it. He even went out and got a second job yesterday. He feels very bad about it and what the heck, everybody screws up now and then.
I feel fortunate that this is the only wreck any of my 3 kids have ever had. My whole reason for getting the car in the first place was that ten years ago they started driving and a 300SD is the perfect car for teenage drivers. Its a slow car with crumple zones and a reinforced crash cage. No drag racing, no hot dogging and if they get hit by some crazy fool or run into one they have a good chance of surviving. In addition to that their friends like to ride around in style so they spend a lot less time as passengers in death traps like open Jeeps and small rice rockets.
My kids helped me paint the 230 SL a few years ago so they know how to do bodywork. Steve helped me put a 3.27 rear axle out of a 280SE 4.5 in the SL so I think I will get lots of work out of him.
Bottom line is that he is going to learn how to do collision repair and we are going to get the old bomb back on the road before the fall semester starts at Mizzou.

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Tom Hughes
St. Louis
84 300SD
92 300D
86 300SDL

I'm 19

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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"you get to keep your son and the car. consider if he was in a rusted honda"

You said it Bob. Time to count your blessings.

Rather than buying the parts at an auto wrecker why not consider buying a clapped out car say with a bad engine or trashed interior. Probably a thousand dollars or less might give you everything you need and sell the balance. Just that 2500 sounds a little high for those parts. How do you like the turbine sprayer? Have an older but little used hvlp accufine that I have not tried out yet but the guy that sold it to me said he used about 10 lbs air from the wall into the 3/4 or I inch hose that came with the gun. The size of the accufine regulator that came with this is very large. Picked up a strong vaccum cleaner motor to build a compressor with if not happy with normal compressor air.. Sounds like you have a valid project on your hands anyways.

From what I've read of these young mens posts I have a lot of respect for them!

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1983 300-D turbo
1985 300-D turbo
1959 Harley Panhead chopper
1929 Ford coupe restored
I hang out with Boneheaddoctor at Schuman Automotive OBK#5
All liberals are mattoids but not all mattoids are liberal.

I'll be 20 in August! For the record I have only hit 1 other car! And besides she was illegaly parked! I need to fix those dents.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I take it that your insurance doesn't cover the cost? Or is it cheaper to absorb $2500 out of your own pocket, than to let the insurance co. take care of it?

'83 300D Turbo (just bought)
'84 190D 2.2 5-spd (crashed into by 15-yr old a couple yrs ago)
I loved this car for the six years I had it