'73 220/S8 Accident & Repair

[daidnik]

This 220 was my wife's car for around 10 years until fate got me hooked up into Volvo 960's. I got this car for her just after our first daughter was born. She said she needed a more durable car than her '76 Corolla that she had owned since it was new. Since I was into Mercedes, and owned a W111 220Sb, I found this 220 and I served her well until she wanted the luxury of the Volvo. I couldn't bear to sell the 220 because it wasn't worth but maybe $2k, so I just kept it as a third car. Now, the first daughter is 15 1/2 and talking about driving, so I get focussed again on the 220.

Over the years, I had also owned a very nice W108 for around 13 years and became friends with a retired master Mercedes mechanic and learned many things about working on these cars. When I started prepping the 220 for a first time driver, I worked on the suspension, putting in all new Bilsteins, all Spring Pads, Diff Mount, F & R Subframe Mounts, all Tie Rod Ends, Drag Link, Frnt Sway Bar kit, Bilstein Steering Shock. Then fixed air & water leaks with new R & L Vent Window Seals, Window Channeling, Fuzz Strips, Rear Window Seal, Windshield Seal, R & L Frnt Door Seals.

I also needed to repair some rust on the front fenders at the bottom as well as a spot on the driver's door, so I got a couple of rust free fender parts and replaced the bottom section of the R & L Frnt Fenders and fixed two holes in the drivers door, one on the inner panel and one on the outer panel, both up near the front bottom corner.

At about this stage of of the work, just about ready to paint the repairs on the fenders and door, I get hit by a 19 yr old girl who, stopped in a line of cars awaiting a left turning vehicle, turns into the side of the car from the left lane while holding her cellphone to her right ear. She doesn't even bother looking to the right, she just turns into the other lane and hits the 220 just behind the front bumper and sweeps about 7-8 ft along the side of the car while I am skidding to a stop.

I have full coverage on the 220, but the girl is insured. Almost two weeks later, she still hasn't called her insurance (Geico); she says "she's a busy person and she'll call them when she gets the time". . . . I finally get a nice person at Geico and share with her what a 'nitwit' Paris Hilton wannabe their client is and give them her cellphone number and ask them to try her there as she seems to have it with her regularly. Twenty minutes later, I get a callback message saying they have found fault with their insured party. Then the fun of fixing a 34 year old car begins.

Pictures of the damage:

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Pictures of repair in progress:

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This last one of the Rt Frnt Fender shows the repair I had made before the accident.

The latest surprise inconvenience was the Mercedes recyclers sending a nice Rt Frnt fender instead of a Left. Since I had already fixed that Rt Fender nicely, I wanted to get his matter resolved with a good part, so I drove the wrong fender down to L.A. (~100 miles) myself to try to find a good left one. Spent several hours there browsing the "stacks" and waiting for one of the guys to go visit another storage area for a good Left Frnt. End result was that there were no undamaged, reasonably rust free W114/115 Left Frnt Fenders. I brought back one that was pretty much rust free, but had damage to the flat area next to the door. Had a nice crappy drive back to Santa Barbara on 101 on a Friday afternoon. Went straight to the body shop and showed the results to the bodywork guy. Now we're thinking more about reworking the one I had. I've already fixed the rust; it's off the car, so working it is a lot easier that way. We'll figure out the strategy Mon morning.

The good news in the whole saga that I keep holding on to is that I won't have to paint those fenders & door, the body shop is going to do that. I'm disassembling & reassembling all the body trim etc to offset the cost of the extra paintwork. The car is going to look absolutely beautiful when it's done in a week or two.

[t walgamuth]

During the first part of your post I was cojuring a picture of your car and thinking you were spending an awful lot on ancillary parts on a car that didnt sound that nice.

Then I opened your pictures, and saw the light.

That is one nice clean looking car.

I had mostly 240 d s for my kids to drive while they were living with us. High quality, mechanic friendly and not very fast.....oh what the hell.....slow!

Keep up the good work.

Tom W

[meltedpanda]

just sold my rebuilt 220 and miss her so, but...
Nice work, I may have some of the trim if you need it, not sure what I got in the pile out back

[daidnik]

I've pretty much finished up this one. It's not perfect, but it is quite nice and drives beautifully.

As these things most often go, it did get rather more involved than anticipated. One can never know quite where that most meaningful balance will fall on 'how far to go with this' until it's pretty much done.

All in all, I put probably close to $3k into it, not counting the 'free labor' I put into it for my own personal enrichment.

The body shop repairs were another $3k, but that was the 19 yr old girl's insurance.

The list of repairs:

New Bilstein shocks
New Bilstein steering shock
New Differential Mount
New Frnt Subframe Mounts; Febi
New Rear Subframe Mounts; Meyle
All new spring pads, adjust F/R height to balance stance
All new Front Tie Rod Ends
All New Frnt Control Arm Bushings; Upper & Lower
All New Frnt Steering (Kingpin) Ball Joints; Upper & Lower
Repair R & L Frnt Fender Rust via Splice/Weld 'new' pieces
New Undercoating (Shutz) R & L Frnt Fenders & Mudguards
New Frnt Fender Mudguard Seals R & L
Repair frozen/stuck Heater/Vent Fan
All New Window Channeling
All New Window Fuzz Strips
New R & L Vent Window Seals
New R & L Frnt Door Seals
New Rear Glass Seal
New Windshield & Seal
New Hirschmann Antenna
New Sheepskins on Frnt Seats
Replace Radio w/ Stereo Unit
Replace F & R Speakers w/ 2 way 4x6 units
Replace/Repair Sunvisors w/ used W108 parts
New Hood Pad
Replace Turn Signal Flasher Relay
Repainting of Exterior Repairs
New Chrome Fender Trim added
All New Tires; Yokohama Avid T-4's; 205-70-14
Front End Alignment
New Seatbelts; Replace w/ better used model from W114/115 series
Zymol HD Cleanse & Zymol Wax
Rebuild Air Cleaner Assy; Make parts for Preheater Flap Assy, Strip Repaint
Add missing Air Intake Scoop & Rubber fittings (New Parts)
Replace old rubber Vacuum lines w/ Silicone
Replace bad hard vacuum lines w/ new
Replace Vacuum Advance Switchover Valve
Tune Carb to gas analyzer meas data; 1.5%CO
Rebuild Instrument Cluster
Overhaul Speedo; Fix non-functional Odometer
Rebuild Trans Shift Indicator; Replace broken Cable
Replace non-funtional VDO Quartz Clock w/ overhauled Kinzle mech clock
New Speedo Cable
Re-bush Trans Shift Linkage Bellcrank at firewall; exessive play/vibration
New Front Brake Pads; Textar

Pictures of the finished car:

[300SDog]

All in all, I put probably close to $3k into it, not counting the 'free labor' I put into it for my own personal enrichment.

Absolutely worth every penny!! These are NOT disposable cars but classics. Am in the same boat with damned fine 116 SD only imported at 79/80, just a few thousand were even built. Without hesitation I'll throw thousands into it, knowing my money aint bein thrown away. Wheel allignment and tie-rod ends tomorrow, then bilsteins arrive next week.

The body shop repairs were another $3k, but that was the 19 yr old girl's insurance.

Careful ther, i think what you need do now is obtain classic car appraisal that puts value of 1972 220/8 in same realm slightly higher. Geico are nasty sons of *****es that will sandbag/litigate you to death on this. Caint ye hear em claiming repairs were "unauthorized" and exceed value of the vehicle?

Somewhere in the links folder we oughta have Appraisal Links for classic cars. If not, i hope somebody smarter than me more computer search savvy can find a few and post em ther. Respectfully, our Vintage Links Folder been recently called by European Croatian visitor the most valuable collection of Vintage MB links available online. Do us the honor Daidnik since you'll probly be searchin classic car appraisal anyhow as due diligence on yer insurance case. $2000 car my ass!! The 4cyl 115 oughta start at $2500 minimum with decent cosmetics say if needin valve guide seals and timing chain - more like $3500 from the way you've described yours.

[meltedpanda]

very nice daidnik, job well done!