I joined the "Cheap Wagon Club" officially today. 1981 300TD - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

JimmyL · #1 08-15-2008, 12:53 AM

Please allow me to introduce my entry into this "Cheap wagon club" that has popped up lately: I give you Smash, the garage door destroyer!

That is my youngest daughter who not only went with me today to get Smash, but also was with me when I got China.

Is that look familiar? Ha! We both rode riding lawnmowers over there. How white trash is that! I have a folding platform on the back of mine, and I needed tools and my battery jumper.

This is the wagon that about 7 years ago first kinda landed the thought of a diesel Mercedes wagon into my consciousness. I bought this wagon from my neighbor across the street. I have been watching it come and go for about the last 7 years. He just purchased a 2008 Vette and a 2009 Harley, so the wagon was banished to their backyard under a tree. This is where I picked it up from.

We've kind of had an understanding that he would give me right of first refusal, so when I stopped by to say hello the other day and check out his Harley, the deal was agreed to. Now, it certainly wasn't as cheap as Dan or Tyler's new wagons, but it wasn't too a bad deal.....
As it turns out, good reasons for it to be a cheap wagon.

This wagon is an absolute pig!!! Dirtiest car I have ever purchased. Scar was almost spotless compared to this thing. First I had to remove about 4 SERIOUS wasp nests! Not fun!
I opened the hood to check battery voltage and connect my battery jumper, and what an awful filthy mess under the hood!

I'm telling you, Shell would have had a heart attack just looking at it! It looks way worse in person than in that pic.
As a nice surprise, it started rather quickly just off of my booster, even after a good glow cycle. Houston, we have issues. Easily the worst vibration I've ever encountered. My guess is that the engine mounts are shot and the engine is laying of the cross member. That is how my white wagon started out. It is such a mess I can't really see the engine mounts.
So, I put it in drive and waited quite a while for it to kick into drive. He told me it would do that. {haven't checked fluid yet}
Drove out of the back yard and down the driveway. Hmmm, no power steering! Great! Even though I only had about 150 yds from his driveway to mine I buzzed down the road must "because". Pulled back in front of house, stopped and prepared to back down the driveway. Hmmm, no reverse! I'm sideways in the road and here comes a truck. Great. Pulled forward finally and got on my side of road. Shifted to reverse and it engaged. Great. Backed down driveway and stopped close enough for an extension cord to reach. We have vacuuming to do!
BTW, look past the hood and across the street. You can see the red Vette parked where I got the wagon from.

That is the driveway that this wagon rolled backwards down, across the road, down my next door neighbors driveway, in between their suburban and front porch and demolished their garage door. Knocked it completely off the rails. "Smashed" it, you could say......

They had to throw it away, and to this day have two homemade swinging doors covering their garage.

JimmyL · #2 08-15-2008, 12:54 AM

Good Lord was the interior gross! Nasty! Filthy! Spider-webby too!
It has blue leather, just like my white wagon. This is going to come in handy! More on that later....

Now OCD can be a wonderful thing. I promise you this: I could not have driven this car again before a complete interior cleaning. Not a detail mind you, but a serious clean. This could not be accomplished with the front seats in the car. They had to go.

Something disturbing is that I could see the ground under the passenger front seat. Oh dear! I'm gonna have to crawl under the wagon to look under there, because it almost looks like a tear from underneath. I don't think it was a rust through. No good pic of that yet.
I pulled out all the carpet, 2 layers. The original MB carpet has cleaned up pretty well so far. I had my mini shop vac, and trash can, spider web broom, and brush and dust pan. I used them all. Probably almost burned up the shop vac!

The only real rust on the car is on the driver's side rear quarter window, and it is bad. I never looked at the car before I bought it, and this was an awful surprise! Thank goodness for Chad's post on removing the window and seal, treating the area and re-installing. I have never done ANY rust repair or body work ever, so may try and get some help from ole Dan.

Jack points are fine, as it most everywhere else I have looked so far. Paint is gone! Almost totally! Geez, also reminded me that I hate Bundts!
Interior cleaned up decently so far. I love the loop carpet compared to the later fuzzy stuff.
And wouldn't you know it: I have 4 W123's, and each one has a trailer hitch! Weird.....

JimmyL · #3 08-15-2008, 12:54 AM

Now, I know for a fact that this wagon will never be close to Tylers or Dans, but it did come with a couple of cool bullet points.
First, as mentioned earlier, some of this wagon will meld with my white wagon. I think it is going to be quite an undertaking, but I think pretty much everything behind the drivers seats is gonna be swapped.
My '85 wagon has a 3rd seat, but it was added and is "different". Didn't have the head rests and the seat and carpeting are done quite differently.
Here is the '85 wagon rear area:

And the back of Smash:

The '85 was an add on, and only has lap belts. No shoulder belts or head rests.
So, I will have to decide how much of the loop carpet pieces to swap over. I imagine I will have to swap over all the back pieces, because, my neighbor later brought me over a very very unexpected bullet point:

Tada.......

It takes special pieces up on the headliner and also the outside wheel wells for the rear seat belts. Also the rear hatch door cover as it has the eyelets for the cargo cover pullout piece.
Was a nice surprise.
I know I will have a ton of less pleasant surprises, so I will try and enjoy this one in the mean time.....

turbobenz · #4 08-15-2008, 01:09 AM

Hey you were telling me about how you wanted that wagon! congrats

TylerH860 · #5 08-15-2008, 01:17 AM

As the self proclaimed reigning king of the cheap wagon club

, welcome!

Now... Get to work.

I had mine close to new spec within 2 weeks.

Was there any damage to the back end of the car after its run in with the garage door?

Oh... and if you need to get rid of that frivolous third row, let me know.

We need more pictures, dammit. Surely you know better. Oh, and perhaps how much you paid for it?

*edit* I see you're loading more. Good, good.

TylerH860 · #6 08-15-2008, 01:24 AM

If its sitting next to a barn, err...shed... does that make it a barn find?

Our wagons have something in common. Both were used as breeding grounds for wasps.

Mine had some serious wasps nests in it from sitting in the barn... Hint: Look behind the corner lights.

These were the nests in the corners.

and some more.

bgkast · #7 08-15-2008, 01:25 AM

That's quite a collection you have now! So you are relegating it to parts car status?

TylerH860 · #8 08-15-2008, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgkast

That's quite a collection you have now! So you are relegating it to parts car status?

Disregard bgkast's post Jimmy. Clearly he's lost his mind.

bgkast · #9 08-15-2008, 01:36 AM

I'm just mad he has more that I do now!

JimmyL · #10 08-15-2008, 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerH860

If its sitting next to a barn, err...shed... does that make it a barn find?

Our wagons have something in common. Both were used as breeding grounds for wasps.

Mine had some serious wasps nests in it from sitting in the barn... Hint: Look behind the corner lights.

These were the nests in the corners.

and some more.

Those aren't wasp nests city boy! Those are dirt dauber enclosures full of spiders. I guess they lay eggs in them and provide spiders for food. Everything I pull out of my garage is loaded with them, and I find them in my cars everywhere too. They like to put them in between the IP and the block for some reason.
There was a big red wasp nest right in front of the driver's side rear door, pretty much where your butt brushes past to get in the car. Several of them were all of a sudden bumping into the windshield {from the inside!} so of course I bailed out and took off running......

Um, not a parts car!

derburger · #11 08-15-2008, 01:39 AM

I almost joined the Cheap Wagon club one day. I went to the estate sale of a MB dieseler, just about every MB diesel accessory was there, and so was his wagon. I think he was in military service, he wasn't very old. The wagon had been started each month for about 2 years, with the dates started scrawled in dust on the hood. The brother of the deceased sold it to the first person who chatted him up about it, for around $500. I pulled up to the sale as they were talking.

It was a blue (not china) 1983, with a back wagon-load full of spare parts, slight rust in quarters. About 180k miles. Almost mint interior, no cracks in anything. Running great when I got there. The brother knew he'd sold it for much too little when I talked to him after the sale about it, he wouldn't even say the price he sold it for. Definitely under 1k, the wagon was worth more. Needed tires though and SLS work. The sunshade in my car was bought from there.