Well it all started a couple weeks ago, I was decently drunk at my computer at about 1am on a weeknight. I thought "I wonder what kind of old Mercedes are around right now, and I wonder what I can get for under $2k." Sure enough, one of the first cars I find on craigslist is this one. I talked to the PO and learned the car's story, and figured it would be worth the plunge. It was from Duluth, a city in Northern MN, so I was getting ready to figure out how to pick it up. Turns out the PO also owns a tow company and trailered it to my work the following Friday without batting an eye. It was awesome.
Here are the pics when it showed up:
So I ended up driving it straight to the shop, in the rain. I found out the hard way that the wiper arms were broken and in the trunk. The mechanical issues I noticed right away were
- Rough idle + hesitation at take off, as described by PO
- Very loose control arm or similar front suspension part
- 10 year old tires
- Front end needs a drop ^_^
So for the past couple weeks, it's been at my go-to deep discount shop (Firestone) getting looked over whenever they have the time. They adjusted the TB valve and stitched the vacuum lines back together, but told me they're done looking at the engine after dealing with that job. This week they'll finish up the control arm issue and brake inspection, and I'll drive it to the body shop. As far as cosmetic/exterior problems, it's pretty clean so I'd like to address the body right away too. This will all be done before summer:
- The car has a US front bumper now, I ordered a Euro set that will need paint.
- The AMG spoiler on the trunk has some weird damage that I'd like to take care of. Also the '560SEL' badge on the trunk is wrong for the car, so I'll have to take that off and repaint the trunk along with that.
- Right front fender has a rusty gouge. Same thing with the left quarter panel by the tail light. Both are minor, but hey, the car is black so why not fix them!
- It will also be PDRed at some point during paint/buffing
It has plenty of early maintenance history, which is good..
Updates coming soon!
Here are the pics when it showed up:
So I ended up driving it straight to the shop, in the rain. I found out the hard way that the wiper arms were broken and in the trunk. The mechanical issues I noticed right away were
- Rough idle + hesitation at take off, as described by PO
- Very loose control arm or similar front suspension part
- 10 year old tires
- Front end needs a drop ^_^
So for the past couple weeks, it's been at my go-to deep discount shop (Firestone) getting looked over whenever they have the time. They adjusted the TB valve and stitched the vacuum lines back together, but told me they're done looking at the engine after dealing with that job. This week they'll finish up the control arm issue and brake inspection, and I'll drive it to the body shop. As far as cosmetic/exterior problems, it's pretty clean so I'd like to address the body right away too. This will all be done before summer:
- The car has a US front bumper now, I ordered a Euro set that will need paint.
- The AMG spoiler on the trunk has some weird damage that I'd like to take care of. Also the '560SEL' badge on the trunk is wrong for the car, so I'll have to take that off and repaint the trunk along with that.
- Right front fender has a rusty gouge. Same thing with the left quarter panel by the tail light. Both are minor, but hey, the car is black so why not fix them!
- It will also be PDRed at some point during paint/buffing
It has plenty of early maintenance history, which is good..
Updates coming soon!
Comment