pnp Disgust

[MB140300SD]

I am was at the pnp and there is a 80 300SD sitting here that just arrived. Totally rust free, interior except for being taken apart is beautiful and front and rear seats appear to have had the padding replaced not too long ago. In the back seat is a full set of books and records in a huge folder appearing to go back to when the car was new. Unbelievable. Had lots of work done at the local Indy here. I wonder where this car turned up from?

[vwnate1]

That sad truth is : W116's are getting *very* old and only a select few want them and older Mercedes DieselHeads rend to be tight fi$ted in basic nature.....

I've been going to Pick-A-Part since 1973 or so and know you'll yank your self hankless if you're not careful .

So many good vehicles junked by uncaring family members after some old guy dies or gets imprisoned and no one wants to hassle getting keys and title, just make it go away .

Sad, very sad .

[my83300cd]

My son and I saw a volvo 240 wagon manual, low miles, all records in car, that was driven in and sold for scrap, basic divorce story. Because it was scrap, no way to buy as a whole. Sure, we pull engine, sell it to you. We pull transmission, sell it to you. You can then buy carcass and put it all back together. Oh, it's a salvage vehicle at that point, so sorry.

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by MB140300SD

I am was at the pnp and there is a 80 300SD sitting here that just arrived. Totally rust free, interior except for being taken apart is beautiful and front and rear seats appear to have had the padding replaced not too long ago. In the back seat is a full set of books and records in a huge folder appearing to go back to when the car was new. Unbelievable. Had lots of work done at the local Indy here. I wonder where this car turned up from?

You should check out the JYs in LA some time lol.

[vwnate1]

"You should check out the JYs in LA some time lol. "

Only if you really like to be depressed .

I came to California in the Summer of 1969 and was amazed by the acres of rust free vintage cars piles up every where, especially in the Desert East of Los Angeles ~ growing up in rust country and loving old cars this was a real eye opener ~ most of them simply needed $300 worth of work and at that time were difficult to sell so off to the scrapper they went .

For decades I'd buy a $25 vehicle and drive it whilst I tinkered it back to proper health, then I'd get an offer to sell it for maybe $50 profit and off it went, I'd begin anew .

In this manner I was able to own and enjoy a bewildering variety of vintage cars that were at that time just interesting to most at the very best .

Remember : Tom Mix's convertible was left at a service station for a simple valve job and pushed down a gully for many years before being re discovered and thankfully saved .

When I ran a junkyard I made decent $ and sold a load of old cars, I never had unsold parts stacked up like modern yards do ~ I _SOLD_PARTS_ as that's what a profitable business does : SELLS .

[ykobayashi]

While I’m shocked at the low resale value of mb diesels, I’m happy I can afford one.

I’ve sunk more money into my cars that I’ll be able to sell them for, but I can certainly drive the value out of them.

Craigslist is full of cars being sold off by some dead guys family. I told my wife and kids to just sell my cars off cheap to an enthusiast if I kick off. They don’t want to repair them and I sure don’t want them burning money trying to keep daddy’s Benz on the road.

[Father Of Giants]

Originally Posted by ykobayashi

While I’m shocked at the low resale value of mb diesels, I’m happy I can afford one.

I’ve sunk more money into my cars that I’ll be able to sell them for, but I can certainly drive the value out of them.

Craigslist is full of cars being sold off by some dead guys family. I told my wife and kids to just sell my cars off cheap to an enthusiast if I kick off. They don’t want to repair them and I sure don’t want them burning money trying to keep daddy’s Benz on the road.

Sad but true, this is how I got my E300 for $400, the owner's wife passed. I'm pretty sure people ran from it because it had NASTIEST injector knock I've ever heard. It scared the **** out of me, an untrained ear would think it's rod knock, I thought it was too for split second but came to my senses.

My brother was adamant it was rod knock saying "You can buy a car with rod knock if you want too"
Ever since driving it, it's disappeared.

[tbomachines]

You still get situations where someone is handed these in an estate and it is appraised at nothing...or they get tapped in a parking lot and the insurance company totals it with 500 bucks of damage. I was looking at a car recently that would full total at 350 bucks but selling at 12k, all because insurance is not market value. Bit of an assumption it's the case here, but it def happens.

[Squiggle Dog]

Meanwhile, probably some guy who has been wanting a W116 300SD for years finally works out a deal on a rusty one with high miles and a trashed interior that was for sale by a guy who wants some outrageously high price for it.

So now he spends a bunch of money replacing the interior with parts on eBay and welding in new patch panels and has a fortune into the car, and it's still not much of any good, plus it needs paint.

It seems that only the rustiest, roughest cars ever go up for sale (except the ones that are listed at high bluebook prices) and the sellers want way too much money for them. And then the really nice examples like this get scrapped.

[tjts1]

I never understood why people in the rust belt take on insane restorations while perfectly rust free examples are going to the JY just a 3 hour flight away. Even shopping a non running car is far cheaper than rust and paint repairs.

[barry12345]

Originally Posted by tjts1

I never understood why people in the rust belt take on insane restorations while perfectly rust free examples are going to the JY just a 3 hour flight away. Even shopping a non running car is far cheaper than rust and paint repairs.

Risk of locating it plus the time factor primarily. I live in the rustbelt. I agree it is almost pointless to do major rust repair on these particular unibodies. So you need someone to source the car for you far away. If it is not a driver you also will have to ship it home somehow. There are cars in the salvage yards in the southern states. That are really far better than the cars on the roads here.

As my departed father used to say you can repair the mechanical aspects of any car usually. Serious rust in comparison is another story. I am sitting on a very nice running 240d with fairly low millage. That I will probably part out rather than repair the rust. What southerners call rust is a real lack of understanding. You have to have really dealt with it here at one time to really comprehend the problems. Plus if you do not have serious heat available forget even working on them mechanically. Cancer is a feared term . Yet when using it as a description of the rust problems here it is not an understatement. It kills cars with little to no mercy.

[MB140300SD]

Originally Posted by Squiggle Dog

Meanwhile, probably some guy who has been wanting a W116 300SD for years finally works out a deal on a rusty one with high miles and a trashed interior that was for sale by a guy who wants some outrageously high price for it.

So now he spends a bunch of money replacing the interior with parts on eBay and welding in new patch panels and has a fortune into the car, and it's still not much of any good, plus it needs paint.

It seems that only the rustiest, roughest cars ever go up for sale (except the ones that are listed at high bluebook prices) and the sellers want way too much money for them. And then the really nice examples like this get scrapped.

Wow this sort of sounds like my story. I have been wanting a last year W116 diesel for a while and they never seem to come up. I came across one that looked decent in the crappy photos at an auction and ended up with it for $200. When I picked it up it had a little more rust than I had hopped it had, worst of it behind in the corners of the front and rear windshield. I am afraid of how involved that will be to fix. Anyway it should be repairable but is right on the fence on if it makes sense to do so or not. The $200 car has been repainted in the past and paint is OK, but it will end up needing the rust fixed then painted again. Then this one shows up at LKQ in MUCH better shape than mine. In fact, if you replaced some cracked wood and a couple of other small things, somebody could probably have dropped in on BAT and sold it for $5-6k or more. Instead, it gets parted out

[MB140300SD]

I went back this morning and finished stripping the car. It is pretty much a shell at this point. If the car is still there next time they have one of their half price sales I may try to grab the engine. I did not pull the door panels and window regulators but probably should have. Some of the goodies I got were what appeared to be a recent aluminum acc servo, a rebuilt acc amp with a 2017 date on it, newer looking Hirshmann antenna, and of course those great looking seats.

[HarvAMG]

Go get those window regulators if they are OEM. They are NLA and aftermarket ones are trash.

[MB140300SD]

yea I might try to do that. It has been years since I pulled regulators out of a 116 but I seem to recall either the fronts or the rears were a real bear to get out due to clearance issues with those big old window motors.