My turn for the wrecked W124 thread
 

The wife was driving home in the rain this evening and seems to have needed to stop without enough room in front of her and hit the back of an 81 Bronco. She texted me a picture of the car and it looks repairable. Thankfully she was not hurt. I'm also thankful that all I have on it is liability so the insurance company can't "total" it:rolleyes:. Time to start nosing around the pull a parts or buy a parts car. It only has 284k miles on it and has alot of new parts. The transmission was rebuilt at 250k miles. I hate to see one less 95 E300 on the road and right now (without seeing it yet) I plan on repairing it.

She is still driving the car. Nothing is leaking, the a/c is still blowing cold and it is not running hot so hopefully it will be a straight forward fix. I'll know tomorrow when I get a chance to take a look at it.

Bummer. no one hurt was a blessing. fortunately there are a lot of W124`s in the yards. at least out west.

looks like a hood, fender, healight assy, and a little sheet metal pulling.
look at it this way, she just got winged, :rifle: a flesh wound.
(As they use to say in the old Cowboy movies :cowboy: )

Charlie

Glad no one was hurt. Looks fixable.

Repair cost
 

Just as a point of reference, a deer ran in front of my '96 E300D (same engine as your '95 but W210 chassis) and the damage looked very similar. We have full coverage insurance and, after confirming the car's value with an appraiser, the insurance company paid $7800 :eek: to have the car fixed. That's a horrible amount of money but I've been paying them premiums for almost 40 years so I figure they owe me one. The front of the car now looks new -- better than before the accident, actually, since 275,000 miles of road rash was removed. Animal accidents are not "chargeable" and are covered under comprehensive so my cost was zero.


http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/n...fore-After.jpg

Hate that Jim :( At least your wife is OK.

We needed the rain but...

Ow!
 

Fixable.

extra nice she's O.K.

Animal accidents are not "chargeable" and are covered under comprehensive so my cost was zero. (quote)

So does that include Bronco`s? :rolleyes:

Charlie

lol, I'll ask:).

Thanks everyone. I have been looking around and to be honest the 95 E300 is about the only car I want to own (although I have been considering a 98/99 model diesel E class). I'll do what I can to fix as much of it myself as I can and will use a local body shop to pull/straighten out anything I can't do. Heck, this may be a good time to go with a conversion where I put a 210 front end on it.

When I see the W210 models, the headlights remind me of the "Little orphan Annie" cartoon strip. their eyes were just white with no life in them.

Maybe some of you are too young for these old cartoons.

Charlie

I remember! Personally, I much prefer the 124 for a number of reasons, but the wife likes her 210 so I have no say in the matter.

Looks like you might need a straight radiator support. Given you only smushed in the crumply part it should not be to hard to cut replacement pieces from a donor. Also a plus is just about everything cosmetic up front there is bolt-on. Swapping those fenders off and on is a breeze.

If you're not too particular about the unseen side of it you can bang/pull back the parts until they line up, rust seal where you knocked off the paint, and bolt on replacements. If you're really lucky you'll find your replacement pieces in the same original color. I'd wager your alignment is even still good.

My opinion on the W210 conversion: too much work and I don't like it as much anyway.

Is the right fender unique to the 95? I thought I read that 90-93 300D fenders are slightly different where the cladding attaches.

The inner fender might be different from gassers because of the air cleaner intake.

Sixto
87 300D

I'm going to have to haul the car back to the house. The wife finally got home (driving the gold E300 now) and indicated that after she had parked for awhile there was clear fluid dropping out from underneath it. I'll get it up here to the shop over the next few days and start a thread on repairing it.

This may give me the opportunity to pick up a parts car:).

We need another car so the wife has shown her interest in finding one this weekend for the stepdaughter. We're nosing around for used Civics and Corollas this afternoon.

Finally got a chance to take a look at the car. The wreck damaged the fan and fan clutch. It looks rebuildable from what I can tell. Time to try my hand at a little body work:). Wonder how much trouble it would be to graft a w210 front clip on it? Now to get it to the shop.

I was thinking about getting a wild hair and put the engine/tranny out of it into a full size Ford truck, 1997. Wonder how that would work out?

She ended up getting a good, used Honda Element.

Got the car to the shop and have finally gotten an opportunity to start on it. Pulled the fender off, cleaned all the broken bits out, removed the fan and fan clutch and pulled the radiator support out with the tractor. The radiator has a small leak where it tried to take up some of the same space as the fan clutch but will hold coolant enough to yard drive. In addition the water pump shaft looks like it may be slightly bent. Car starts just as good as always and the a/c system is still charged and operates:).

I've found a parts car in north Georgia and will probably head up there over the next week or so to pick them up.

I'll keep ya'll posted.

Awesome, get her back on the road soon! Looks like a beautiful car overall.

You must have some fine clutch control .... LOL

Wire strainers are great for fine controlled pulling. Have used them for everything from cow birth assistance to motor removal. Not to mention unbogging the 124. :eek:

' Wire Strainers' = Aussie for Fence Pullers....
But Jim is a man's man...no sissy little hand implements for him... works with Band Saw Blades bigger than your house... literally...

I got the sissy hydrostatic four wheel drive Kubota:):).

I did make the mistake of trying to use the bucket to support the porch of the house while replacing the porch (removing/replacing the columns). That did not work out as well as pulling the fender out.

I'm just glad the engine still starts/runs:). After she wrecked it she drove it home for ~1.5 miles in the rain. The fan/fan clutch was not moving but it looked like the belt drive system had continued to run kinda melting the belt where the fan clutch was stuck at. I did not crank it up to see what was going on.

Should have mentioned that I did not try to start it before pulling the radiator out from against the fan.

Anyway, got it torn down this weekend and have attached a pic of the work I am going to hire out. I've got a handle on the replacement parts but I've got to go to north Ga to get them. Hopefully, I'll get up there this week.

Smart move to let some one with plenty of experience straighten that.
Having the replacement parts will make it easy, should end up as good as new.

Just a little work to hire out
 

I've watched those guys on tv replace stuff bigger than this and then get it painted within 30 minutes;). I don't move that fast. I was able to get the sheet metal section that needs to be restored from the parts car which will make things alot easier:).

Unfortunately, the new hood and fender are not brilliant silver like the original car but it is close enough for me. The wife has not seen it yet. I may try to paint the whole car. I'll see what else it is going to take.

Oh yea, I was pleasantly surprised to see the hole already in the inner fender for the air intake on the diesel. Now all I need is the louvers cut into the new fender. I may rice it up and go with one of those fancy inlet ducts like you see on F1 cars. I don't remember what you call them. I've got plenty of bent hood that I'm going to use to get more proficient with my welding ability.

You don't need to cut louvers in the fender, it can breath from within the space.

This hit is exactly the same hit and damage one of my parts cars has sitting outside. I started to pull sheet metal and stuff, and have a good hood sitting on it, but ... it has started donating parts to the cause of keeping my best 124 on the road so it will probably never see the job finished.

Fun to watch here what coulda been happening in my front yard.

NACA duct.

Folks either love or hate the Element. I tried to get my daughter to get one when she finally decided to unload her pos Jeep Liberty. She ended up with husbands Camry, he got a newish truck!
You can't beat the Element for utilitarian functionality. If anything ever happens to the TL, I'll either get another TL or an Element. Would be perfect to work out of......

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ff/Ricebag.jpg
:o:o:o

Glad you are getting the '95 back on the road. Of course, my favorite MB!!!

Jim,

I saw this thread after I posted about my wreck. At least it looks like you can pretty much fix her with bolt-on parts, which is great! Good luck with your project.

What is it about 124's, anyway? Seems there's a rash of crashes lately...

Dave

Any more progress lately??

The car is still at the body shop having the metal pulled out. I should get it back by the end of the week.

It's back in my shop now
 

Body shop bill came in at $400:). Now all I've got to do it put everything back together.

Doesn't sound that bad. Are you serious about changing the filter setup?

I'm considering making some mods while it is apart.

going back together
 

Now I need help. As you can see on the attached pictures the gap between the hood and the fender is wider on the passenger side versus the drivers side. The hood needs to go towards the passenger side a couple mm. How do I install the hood where it is a couple/few mm towards the passenger side?

I've still got to finish putting the condenser, radiator and fan stuff in.

tia

Are the rubber locators both good ?
If its only uneven at the front, probably it needs the catch bending/moving slightly sideways.

Looks much better than it did :D Isn't that the side that had the welding done on it? The drivers side looks good but the passenger side is a bit wide.

Shift the hood and split the difference?

in addition to the gap, the hood sticks out further on the driver's side... perhaps it needs to be shifted back a schoch on the driver's side...

The gap is the same front to back on both sides (and I do notice there is some front to back movement needed too). The side with the wide gap is the side that was involved in the wreck.

On a casual check I do not really see any way to shift the hood over.

The bolt holes in the hood hinges are normally bigger than the bolts to allow some adjustment.

Measure and measure and measure I'm afraid.

Check the diagonal dimensions of the hood and the engine bay...

Oh hang about (I haven't read all the thread) but are you by any chance using the old hinges?

I agree with outback. Loosten the bolts holding the hood to the hinges (is it like a 123 hood mounting?) and slide the passenger side of the hood back a skosh then tighten it up a bit. Take your time, it is easy to get turned around when doing this.

Really looks pretty good to me. Hood alignment can be tricky.;)

For the most part the hinge is similar to the 123. I'll plan on spending a little time on it later this week.
Thanks

If the gap is equal on the undamaged side. Sounds like the fender on the damaged side may need to be repositioned a very little. As already mentioned there might be some slack in the bolt holes to allow this. Or their bolt hole size may need to be marginally increased. Sounds like that fender has to go a little further ahead. Otherwise you have a comprimise situation if I understand the posts properly.

On the otherhand I am not a highly experienced bodyman. Just doing the occassional car disqualifies me from any opinion having any weight. Plus needless to say I am not there. At least it sounds like the elevation of the fender is really close if not dead on.

I have a car we purchased back from the insurance company waiting. My wife managed to re sculpture the front end on it. Have not found a donar car for sheet metal parts, headlights, plasti bumper,and rad support cheap enough yet. I never realised a radiator could bend as much as this one has and not leak.

At least the strut tower seems to not have been moved as far as I can tell. I was going to try to hold out for a black donar car so I could avoid paintwork. At this point I am finding it hard to locate a simular model so any color is now fine at the right price.

Yea, I'm going to get a body shop guy to help me with it once I get it running.

Finished putting it together today and drove it for the first time. Started and drove out as well as it always has. I'll post some pictures later. There are a couple bits I need for the body and there are a few items to sort and it will be good to go:).

Need to pick up the fan, fan clutch and shroud or I may just go with an electric fan if I can find one that will fit.

X2 on the electric fan - even though I know this might cause some adverse comments...

Iam using a Spal (SP) 16" electric fan on my 85 300D, never had a problem with over heating with it. have a switch to activate it, and a toggle to turn it on as an over ride.

eng always stays at the same temp, a little above 80. even driving around town it never comes on. (Yes it does work).

Charlie

Here are some pics. I resolved the hood alignment issue by adjusting the latch over:).

Got a cooling fan/clutch coming for it. I've been driving it around without one and since there is a real slight leak from the radiator it barely gets to around 82dC.

Vacuuming the a/c system as this is being typed. The blinkers don't work for some reason so I'll have to sort that later.

If anyone has the plastic body piece that is attached at the lower right behind the passenger side front tire I'd appreciate being able to purchase it as long as it is the correct color. I've already got one that is not the right color.

Check out the custom intake. The old one got taken out in the wreck. I'm going to install a sheet metal compartment for the filter.