She's HOME Again - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

NoSparkNeeded · #1 07-08-2008, 08:35 PM

300TD back from the paintshop. No more rust. If you want to keep your
old Benz rust free, I would suggest that folks take ALL the trim off the
car and clean behind it every few years. The very fine deposit of dust/
dirt/silty stuff the consistency of flour,that collects and eventually fills the spaces behind the trim strips to ulimately cause moisture to be trapped around the mounting holes for long periods of time...causes rust to begin. I'm going to take the trim off every couple years and wash it out. I don't live in a dusty area, but I am about a mile from the ocean and the little TD
has to live outside. Mechanical problems are a lot easier to deal with than
bodywork, unless you have a paint booth.
I have to redrill a couple trim clip holes in the metal I welded in. They will be coated with POR-15 before the clips get riveted back.
This weekend all the trim, the window and interior stuff goes back on.
A/C compressor gets swapped out with a 4seasons rebuilt, as the old compressor seal must be leaking. I replaced all the orings and still have an
overnight drop from 29 to 6-7. Gotta be the comp seal.
THEN I have to get a swordtail and some 1Shot and try to replace the pinstripes I had to sand off for the rust repair. Perhaps I SHOULD have spent 9 grand on that one I saw

.

Matt L · #2 07-08-2008, 08:41 PM

Ensure that the drop isn't your gauge set before you go further.

Chad300tdt · #3 07-08-2008, 08:48 PM

Have fun this weekend Michael.

Reassembly is the fun part IMO. I look forward to seeing some "after" pics.

One day I'll get around to MY air conditioning ... at least the heat and all the vents work great.

NoSparkNeeded · #4 07-08-2008, 09:16 PM

Hey Bud,
Reading your posts have allowed me to accomplish a years worth of work
in just a few weeks. I've never had a car project go so fast. Of course this forum is invaluable, but since you had faced and solved so many of
the things I needed to do, well you know

,Thanks.
I have to keep my obessive tendencies in check ( this ain't a showcar!!! ).
My wife comes out with a stick, stoppit..we need to USE this car.
Oh, I'm even going to suck out HER SD powersteering fluid and mine as well and change THAT FILTER!? Power steering filter,wtf? Never woulda
found that on my own. I took out the headlight doors to sand and paint
the strips under them and found my headlights were cracked and the doors were not that good. Found Taiwan "euros" for an OK price, are they
acceptable? Okay let this be a lesson to folks buying a fixer. NOT counting
hours (I NEVER do. These projects are invaulable for knowledge). I'm approaching, moneywise, a level that I would not have considered paying
for a TD. I suspect before my mental feeding frenzy has subsided I'll have 5500.00 in this car. At the present time, everthing works fine, save that damn plastic slider thing I found in the sunroof track, and the A/C.
Rust is controlled. Headlights need some help, I need to do a valve adjustment. I could stop now and have exactly what I wanted for a cost
of 4900.00. If I did nothing else I would have a superb "beater" for the rest of my life. Anything else I can chock up to "it's my hobby". I never
make money directly from "hobbies". But now I have a great job because
I wasted money and time on computers in 1999. Never thought for a second THAT would be worth anything,heh

Chad300tdt · #5 07-08-2008, 09:58 PM

Us wagon guys gotta stick together.

I made the mistake of telling my wife that I just wanted a diesel wagon for hauling stuff since it would be more economical than the Blazer I sold. Every time I took on another project she would remind me that it was just supposed to be cheap transportation. I got to learn first hand that there is no such thing as a cheap old Mercedes unless you can keep it from becoming an obsession (which I didn't do).

Through it all my wife has gotten interested in getting an MB diesel herself ... they are VERY addictive.

When I flushed my PS fluid, I had my wife help by starting the car, turning the wheel lock to lock while I kept the fluid level up, and shutting down. She took it very seriously and I had to keep telling her to relax.

Luckily my wagon came with the Euros, so I haven't looked into them to know if the Taiwan made ones are OK. When I took the lenses off to paint the fins black, the driver side fins fell apart into about 12 pieces that I epoxied back together before painting. So I managed to avoid need to replace them.

... although the lenses look like they have been sandblasted a bit.