Over the past three months, I have been more and more pleased with my 84' 300D. I need a few mechanical things, but im beginning to see the light, as 500 bucks got me a long way with body work. The question now is should I respray the car? There are quite a few different coats of painton different areas of the car now but there are also numerous areas with factory original. This is a tough call. If I respray, paint is no longer original, If I dont, then car remains patchwork.

I will have a Mercedes resto specialist paint it, but will I decrease the value alot? And on that note, If I enjoy the car so much, shouldn't I just make it how I want it with lots of mods?
The only problem is, is that the interior and engine are sooooo clean that modding it up and painting it will seriously decrease value, to a collector. (I presume)

So, what would you do?

Mod

Not Mod

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1984 300D

Unless the car is going into a museum, stop wasting your time thinking about depreciation. Make the car into what you want it to be and enjoy...

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#dieselFLEET
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'97 E300
'99 E300

except for that horrible W123 with the 20" wheels on it...

If the car is already partially re-painted, no reason not to do a good job getting the body ready (prep is 90% of good paint, of course) and respray. Always better to use the original color but that's your decision.

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

A 300D is highly unlikely to be something you'd ever see at, say, Barrett-Jackson, so don't be concerned too much about decreasing value (which is probably at the low point in the curve anyhow). A properly done paint job in tasteful colors (i.e. no ghetto or ricer colors) will increase the value, as would tasteful mods.

I've gotten the impression that many denizens of this Mercedes Benz forum take a dim view of any sort of mods, with reasoning along the lines of "Mercedes didn't design it that way and they know best" or "That isn't traditional" -- I'd expect you'll stir up a hornet's nest if you discuss mods. Heck, some folks are against fuel additives like Diesel Kleen because Mercedes didn't endorse them 25 years ago! Time, products, and situations change and it's appropriate to adjust things to meet the times.

FWIW, I got some flak when I mentioned I'd be replacing my 300td's roof rack with a Yakima and replacing the fog lights with H1 high beams.

I hate that gray color because it looks like shiny primer to me, but I am also not crazy about the color of either of my W123s. I like Silberdistal which is a very light green metallic.

Do the disassembly and reassembly yourself. Painters are notorious for masking things rather than removing them, or if they remove them, losing parts while the car is apart. Take as much off as you can so there will be minmal masking. Consider that the ultimate paint job was at the factory because they shot it when nothing was attached. If you can get close to that by removing the two layers of body side moulding, door handles, lights, grille, bumpers and the tougher items which are the trim around the windows and sills and the front and rear glass, then you can get a really clean paint job.

A trick to not removing the front and rear glass is to raise the outside lip of the rubber gasket and wedge sash cord underneath. This will leave the outside lip of the weatherstrip off of the body and you can shoot underneath it. When it is time to pull of the masking, you just pull out the sash cord and the outside lip of the gasket is now sitting on new paint.

By the way, a good paint job would not be considered a modification. The Silberdistal will not work for you because it was not used with blue interior. Look at the chart.



You can see the colors here.

http://www.astralsilber.de/

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Doug

1987 300TD x 3
2005 E320CDI

I only like tasteful, from the original manufacturer mods usually. There's always exceptions, but for the most part that's how I feel.

For example a mod I want to do on my 87 300TD is get some side skirts off an E320 wagon.

I like original rims, or manufacturer performance rims, original paint, original interior, etc..

This is kind of a trick question.

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

I think you hit the nail on the head. Updating and adding aftermarket items that were made by a legitimate tuner are all good. Changing tire circumference by more than 4 or 5% and some of the other trash you can buy for our cars makes them look like some American Iron pimp wagon. Mercedes are way too good for that.

I want the side skirts for my 87 wagon too, and some first generation monobloks. It will update the car nicely.

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Doug

1987 300TD x 3
2005 E320CDI

They don't endorse them today either.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Sure, but today's cars are designed to work with today's fuels, so that's not surprising. Or, are you saying that Mercedes still says older models such as W123s running on today's fuels don't need or shouldn't use additives?

I haven't seen anything from MB endorsing additives for any of their cars, old or new.

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Car manufacturers are generally not ones to endorse additives period. This would in theory hurt their reputation because their motors needs something extra to stay in good condition. It would also take away from trips to their service department.

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

'Course not. They'd be admitting fallibility of their engines otherwise

They are right too for the most part. If your engine is in decent shape you shouldn't need additives. I keep cetane booster in the trunk in case I get a junk batch of diesel.

As far as mods, I say mod away. It's your car... at least it's refreshing to see something different.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I haven't looked at the thread in a couple of days due to finals....but I think that the diesel additive had been addressed in many other threads, so, guys- can we please keep that argument out of this thread? Thanks.

I am contemplating some tasteful mods to the vehicle- 2 tone paint job, metallic- with the original paint tone- Let me detail this idea-

The lower portion of the car will have a slightly deeper blue/grey tone with metallic flake and nice 15" painted, matching rims. I want to find some side skirts that will enhance/add to the classy look of the car.
The top tone will be tha same tone as original but with metallic flake.

How does this paint tone\scheme sound to you guys?

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1984 300D

Here's what I think: its your car do as you please. You drive it and you look at it more than anyone else. So do what you want.

I personally like the 123's the way they came from the factory.

The paint scheme. I think the two tone on the 123 would be hard to make look good. You going to run into a problem in the front of the car. You may have a few spots where the two colors butt up against each other.
I have pondered the white top look a few times, but I don't think I would work.

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