What do you think? 1983 Mercedes 300D

[CoffeeGuy]

Hi,

I have been a long time oogler of this forum, made a few posts a while back. about three years ago I bought a 1983 Mercedes 300DT for $900.00 out of necessity, plus ttl it came to $1100.00. All I can say is it ran, right front tire wobbled a bit, worn out ball joint, A/C kinda worked with some proding, drove it for 3 months, only changed the oil, and fuel filters. Oh and it had 390,000 miles on it, bald tires, cracked paint, the windshield wiper arm gave, oh and with all the vacum leaks I had to pop the hood and press the shutoff lever to turn off the engine.

First thing I learned from the site was the vacum actuator to turn off the engine. After replacing this, I realized it was a vacum leak and not a bad actuator, so lessoned learned and a new vacum actuator anyway. Next was shocks, went with AutoZone brand, not bad for the price $19.99 each.

Then after 3 months was given a Izuzu Rodeo and parked the Mercedes in the back yard right after primering it in black paint where it sat for the next 2 years aside from an occasional start and forward reverse for 20 or 30 feet. Over the next couple of years collected parts at pick-a-part hoping to fix it up. Got the windshield wiper mechanism, got a A/C vacum actuator, a A/C dampner. Note the advice to stick a screw driver in the vent, push the dampner in and hold it with a screw, well works if you push the dampner the right way. For the oil and transmission as well as the grease went Mobil One synthetic with all, have been very happy. BTW O'Reilly had Mobile One Synthetic 20w50 on sale for $4.99 a quart had to do it, I know its a little thick, but I am in Houston, and it should be fine.

So fast forward to now, I fixed a few dents, used Diesel Giants directions for the diesel purge, changed my oil again, and filters, cleaned it up, and painted it. Oh put on one of those suspension kits, all new ball joints control arms. Plugged alot of vacum leaks, repaced the bushings on the shifter, fixed the dash lights (soldered a wire on the back of reistat don't think that is spelled correctly). Replaced the low and high tone horns, cleaned up the horn ring. Repacted the front outer bearings (will do the inner when upgrading the breaks to 1st gen W126) and the rear when the CV boots are replaced.

The body work and paint were by me. Did a so so job on the body work, filled a few dents, the holes from the ding strip and a new to me hood, did the paint in my garage at home. I used the Dupli Color base coat clear coat from O'Reilly's come's pre-mixed in quart cans, sprayed it with 155psi Husky compressor and $14.99 gravity fed spray gun from Harbor Freight. Gloss is a little low, it was under 70 degrees when I painted, I put enough clear on to buff though, and it will get better.

Two tone, white on top, silver on bottom, removed ding strips. I saw a two tone Mercedes W123 brown and tan and liked it, it was a pic from Russia or something (speaking of which prayers to those affected by the bombing, I was in that airport and terminal a little over 30 days ago). I saw someone remove the ding strips and liked that too. So without further ah-doo



Thank you to everyone who posts here, I have done more work than listed and will do more work still. All your posts and information is awesome God bless all of you.