Project Holy Smoke - Mercedes Benz W123

[Puuha-Kape]

Hello everyone!

So, the story is that I was looking for a car last winter because I will get my driving license in November. Yeah I know, I'm a junior.. I have always been into old Volvos, BMWs and Mercedes. After months of daily searching I founded a jackpot (that's what I tought )

Mercedes Benz W123 240D from 1981. It was a rolling chassis with 5-speed manual on the back seat and two engines, 200d (om615) and 240d (om616) on the trailer. All that for 150€ or about 166 dollars.







When I bought it I knew that the car had some rust issues.









There's some pictures from the trunk. Don't worry. There's plenty of more.

The plan is to swap a 300D 24 valve om606 turbo engine with stronger 5- or 6-speed manual after bodywork. And go lower of course. Or a sleeper?

All kinds of feedback are more than welcome!

[C2_mad]

your brave... looks like you wont be driving it anytime soon... good luck with it. cant wait to see what you do with it...

[B for Brian]

Yikes.. You sure have a good bit of rust to take care of.. Best of luck to ya

[Puuha-Kape]

your brave... looks like you wont be driving it anytime soon... good luck with it. cant wait to see what you do with it...

Yikes.. You sure have a good bit of rust to take care of.. Best of luck to ya

Thank you guys for the cheers. Here in Finland these W123s gets very rusty mainly because road salt. Usually diesel W123s have been in taxi use but this hasn't and it's still the worst W123 chassis I have seen. Only driven 570 000km or 354 180 miles.

The project really started already in June. I have been very busy with other summerjobs so I it's been slow progress.

Tear down completed and what I found was just rust







Someone tried to fix passenger side's rust issues



I won't put too much rust pictures into same post so you guys don't get a heart attack

[loekaaz]

I feel lots of grinding and welding content incoming....

[Asshole Bicycle]

Doesn't seem worth it for a W123 sedan... but good luck!

[Puuha-Kape]

Doesn't seem worth it for a W123 sedan... but good luck!

Thanks!

I feel lots of grinding and welding content incoming....

You said it!

Rear end of the car was very rusty so I took my angle grinder out of the shelf and set to work.



Not a surprise that more rust was found.



More room for activities.



Almost 50cm of new rear beams.



Repaired cross-beam back in.





Not the prettiest welds but I hope they hold up.





Quick Snapchat shot from the rear. As you can see there is a whole new rust-free taillight sheet metal or whatever it's called



After all the welding I fitted taillights and trunk lid to see if there is any major bending happened due the heat. Unfortunately my phone died before that so I don't have a picture

[FearNLoathing]

$166 for a car, two engines, and a tranny. Thats a steal lmao. What are your plans for this? Seeing as how you started disecting the body it seems like you could do basically anything you wanted. Old Mercs are the shit. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

[Puuha-Kape]

$166 for a car, two engines, and a tranny. Thats a steal lmao. What are your plans for this? Seeing as how you started disecting the body it seems like you could do basically anything you wanted. Old Mercs are the shit. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

I was thinking of swapping om606 turbo engine which is a 3.0 24 valve powerhouse from 1990's Mercedes. Stronger manual tranny with it.

I don't know about suspension yet. I could do custom mounts for shocks and springs because I have to fix them anyway thanks to rust

[Puuha-Kape]

School made working on the car little more difficult because there's 160km or 100miles to drive from the school to garage.

Back to the build, I spend couple of days working on this chassis-holding-spinning thing to make my work much easier. Still needs some black paint though.



When I bought the car I was told that the chassis is "untouched"







It's even worse to clean others welds before making your own repairs.
And when you don't make your job correctly this happens...



"Repair one hole, find two more" could be my new motto