W124 Wagon Build (The War Wagon)

[Azrial89]

Just a photo freshly washed and to show off the new tint. So much nicer than the fishbowl windows it had, also cuts down on the 110 degree weather we are having

[duncan89]

Lovely car! Will closely watch this build

[Azrial89]

Not much of an update, but it was a big enough pain in the ass to mention. Switching out the license plate sounds easy enough right? WRONG!!! Mercedes used a sweet aluminum spacer and fixed nut set up which would be fine as long as you don't let the plate hardware corrode beyond recognition. All four attaching screws were so corroded I couldn't even get a turn on them. So I blasted it with some PB and tried again the next day, just ended stripping them all out and getting pissed. so with some help from my buddy, we tried easy out and drilling the threads... nothing worked. I had to dismantle the tailgate



Then got to the fixed nuts on the inside of the tailgate and put a ratchet on and just twisted them off and this is the crap that came out... biggest pain!!



Also this weekend I got the fish bowl windows tinted. I forgot to take a photo, so I will post one tomorrow.

[Azrial89]

God, we are picking up a lot of W124s lately. Starting to get crowded in here

Dig through the records you can find and make sure the engine bay wiring harness has been taken care of. '95 is right smack in the middle of Eco-wiring.

Yep, wiring was done along with head gasket not long ago. It has been taken care of quite well for the last 11 years.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

God, we are picking up a lot of W124s lately. Starting to get crowded in here

Dig through the records you can find and make sure the engine bay wiring harness has been taken care of. '95 is right smack in the middle of Eco-wiring.

[StayONE]

Man that is sweet. I love the wagons!
The heat is no joke, that's what's keeping me from doing my rear diff bushings here in Phoenix..

I'm subbed!

[Azrial89]

Not much to update on, but I installed this today



Progress is slow due to the immense heat we are already experiencing here in Tucson and I am taking the girlfriend to San Diego this weekend for her birthday so not alot of money to put towards either project until after our trip.

[slow old man]

Thanks! I hope to get some more things done in the next few weeks. More than likely routine maintenance and then putting my own touch to her.

Again, can't wait!

GOD it's so CHUBBY! I love it. Love everything about it. HNNGGG.

[Azrial89]

Beautiful wagon, can't wait for updates!

Thanks! I hope to get some more things done in the next few weeks. More than likely routine maintenance and then putting my own touch to her.

[slow old man]

Beautiful wagon, can't wait for updates!

[Azrial89]

So I have been daily driving my 1987 Buick Grand National for far too long and putting far too many miles on it, so I decided I needed to get something just a bit more practical... Plus my girlfriend and I are planning a cross country road trip with our two dogs and I don't know how well that would work with the Buick haha. So my thoughts turned to a nice reliable touring vehicle, I searched and searched for wagons of all sorts, but i kept being drawn to the W124 wagon, it just looks so tank like and comes with the Mercedes reliability. With all my searching, I found only one that fit my criteria and price range. the only problem? it was 921 miles away in Boulder Colorado.





As you can see, it is a 1995 E320 Wagon in silver with 119k on the clock, owned by a mechanical engineering professor who was so german you could hear the bratwurst in his voice. He had boughten it from the original owners 11 years ago and has kept up with the maintenance quite diligently. But with me being so far away and in the military, its really hard to get away on such short notice. He had already had quite a bit of interest from other buyers in colorado, so I sweetened the deal and offered him $200 over his asking price for him to hold up and let me coordinate something. What I came up with was sketchy at best, with out even seeing the car in person I sent the money to a friends sister who lives in denver and trusted the old german man on his word that the car was as good as he had said. She went to him, forked over the cash (He didn't even want the $200 extra and said that he only wanted what he had posted it for) and drove it to her house and waited for me to get an opportunity to come up and get it. So last weekend was it, me and a buddy loaded up in a rental Mazda 2 hatch and headed for colorado. Needless to say the Mazda was a gutless piece of shit, but it did get great gas mileage on flat land. Picked up the Merc and dropped off the Mazda.

Me and my buddy with the new wagon!!





Well, the old german man was right, she ran like a top, not even a hiccup the entire 1000 mile journey home. The weather was beautiful the whole way and I didn't get a chance to use the sweet uni wiper on the way back





My plans for this car is simple, not super low (So the girlfriend can still drive it) Some new wheels and tires, just basically I want to make it a reliable, sick looking highway monster that just puts away miles.

Right away, I freshened up the front grill





Took off the horrendous stickers on the lift gate (which i **** to admit but took me the better part of 2 hours, yuck!!)





I also just gave it a nice wash which i could tell had not been done in any amount of detail for quite some time.

I will be doing more to this car as time goes on, but it will not be an extreme build do to the fact of the reason I bought this car and wanting to finish my other project the 87' Grand National. Thanks for reading!