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Turning stupid into fun - W123 300D
Hello S|W! I'll start by saying that I have little history with anything related to cars apart from the fact that I've always loved and been fascinated by them. I make my living as a cabinetmaker, so getting my hands dirty is the only real link between my work and my passion. Everything I do is a huge learning curve and is pretty much figured out on the fly. Thank f**k for the internet 
Anyway, I'll cut the personal introduction short and skip right to the good shit.
Just 2 weeks ago one of my friends told me about a W123 just sitting in a driveway, waiting to end its life as a rotting carcass... So we went knocking and talked to the guy. Fantasy quickly became reality as I sold my one and only car, an '02 Jetta TDI to get the funds needed to buy the W123 and get it road worthy again.
Here is what I drove up until a few days ago :
The Jetta started it's life with me as a poorly maintained bone-stock boring daily driver. So I did a couple things to it, including Koni coilovers and some cheap wheels, the rest of the mods pretty much pointless to mention here
I was at the point where I was pretty happy with what I'd done to it and I felt I needed something a little more special, a new challenge, something that connected to me more than the Jetta did. And as my dad had always had Mercedes' when I was a kid, I just needed that W123.
This is how it was sitting in the guys's driveway :
The interior is pretty mint, the exterior needs some work (2 fenders, a door, and a respray when I can muster up the cash) but it hadn't even started in 6 years. So my buddy and I went over, swapped the battery from the TDI to see if it would start. Surprise! It didn't even hesitate, fired right up on all 5 with 6 year-old diesel in the tank and jelly for oil! I even have the guy's full service record, which is pretty immaculate, 4 keys plus a vallet, all the original paperwork that came with the car, all the manuals and shit.
...So I traded paper for money and had it towed to my place on friday after having sold the Jetta on thursday night. I then went to the dealer to get some parts.
It needed a brake line for the front passenger side, so I got that sorted today, also put in a brand new OEM battery, new oil filter and oil, fuses, got a head gasket and air filter and took out the front calipers to have them rebuilt some time this week. Will also be ordering some rotors and pads to replace the pretty rotten ones (even though they were probably never even broken in).
As for the lows, I plan to cut a couple of coils off of the stock springs before the winter hits, and probably a few more when spring comes back around
As of yet, I have no intention of getting it bagged, but that might change some day with the never ending quest to go lower 
I've been searching for wheels for a couple of days but nothing of interest came up, so I'll have to keep an eye on the classifieds for a while. I saw a couple sets of Aeros for sale, but way out of my price range. I'm going to keep my focus on maintenance and getting my plates before winter hits, as this thing is going to be my daily
Now this thread also serves as a logbook of sorts and a source of motivation and feedback/ideas. Any and all advice or pointers will be appreciated, I've only worked on VWs before.
Oh, and a quick question to any W123 owners on here, how wide of a wheel can I fit under those huge arches?
Anyway, I'll cut the personal introduction short and skip right to the good shit.
Just 2 weeks ago one of my friends told me about a W123 just sitting in a driveway, waiting to end its life as a rotting carcass... So we went knocking and talked to the guy. Fantasy quickly became reality as I sold my one and only car, an '02 Jetta TDI to get the funds needed to buy the W123 and get it road worthy again.
Here is what I drove up until a few days ago :
The Jetta started it's life with me as a poorly maintained bone-stock boring daily driver. So I did a couple things to it, including Koni coilovers and some cheap wheels, the rest of the mods pretty much pointless to mention here
I was at the point where I was pretty happy with what I'd done to it and I felt I needed something a little more special, a new challenge, something that connected to me more than the Jetta did. And as my dad had always had Mercedes' when I was a kid, I just needed that W123.
This is how it was sitting in the guys's driveway :
The interior is pretty mint, the exterior needs some work (2 fenders, a door, and a respray when I can muster up the cash) but it hadn't even started in 6 years. So my buddy and I went over, swapped the battery from the TDI to see if it would start. Surprise! It didn't even hesitate, fired right up on all 5 with 6 year-old diesel in the tank and jelly for oil! I even have the guy's full service record, which is pretty immaculate, 4 keys plus a vallet, all the original paperwork that came with the car, all the manuals and shit.
...So I traded paper for money and had it towed to my place on friday after having sold the Jetta on thursday night. I then went to the dealer to get some parts.
It needed a brake line for the front passenger side, so I got that sorted today, also put in a brand new OEM battery, new oil filter and oil, fuses, got a head gasket and air filter and took out the front calipers to have them rebuilt some time this week. Will also be ordering some rotors and pads to replace the pretty rotten ones (even though they were probably never even broken in).
As for the lows, I plan to cut a couple of coils off of the stock springs before the winter hits, and probably a few more when spring comes back around
As of yet, I have no intention of getting it bagged, but that might change some day with the never ending quest to go lower I've been searching for wheels for a couple of days but nothing of interest came up, so I'll have to keep an eye on the classifieds for a while. I saw a couple sets of Aeros for sale, but way out of my price range. I'm going to keep my focus on maintenance and getting my plates before winter hits, as this thing is going to be my daily
Now this thread also serves as a logbook of sorts and a source of motivation and feedback/ideas. Any and all advice or pointers will be appreciated, I've only worked on VWs before.
Oh, and a quick question to any W123 owners on here, how wide of a wheel can I fit under those huge arches?
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