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Just introducing myself (and my 280ce)

969 views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  luisg92 
#1 ·
Hi, everyone.

I'm new to the world of M-B, but not new to the world of classic German cars. I just today transacted on a '78 280CE "barn find" in my neighborhood, for 1000.00. The car fires right up with a jump start, has spent all its years in California (I'm in Orinda, in the Bay Area), and needs a serious cleaning, upholstery refresh, and a charging system repair. It passed SMOG in 2015.

Anyhow, I bought the car because I wanted a fun project to work on with the "help" of my 5 year old son, Enzo; a car that could cruise the family around in our sweet mediterranean climate here. I've always been a bit taken by pillar-less coupes, and for the price, this seemed like a good starting point.

Just stopping in to introduce myself, and thank you in advance for all of the information I'm sure I'll glean over the coming years of ownership. I've attached (I think) a few photos as it emerged from the garage in which it has been kept for the past few years.

All the best!
 

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#5 ·
161,xxx indicated. Going through pile of receipts and work orders, it appears to have stopped working about 4 years ago, and the car has seen very limited mileage since.

Got it home, and drove it around the neighborhood (on five cylinders, I believe) for a few minutes. Starts, turns and stops! It'll soon go in to the garage, where I will tear into the charging, vacuum and CIS system, replacing what's necessary.

Also, uploaded a better shot of the car...
 

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#6 ·
Welcome to the forum and congratulations with your purchase. Good to see a gasoline powered W123 around here.

Your car looks in very good shape and it seems the climate control servo was replaced by an electronic system, so you don’t have to deal with the infamous “evil servo”.
 
#9 ·
@Ten13 You can tell by looking at engine bay. Behind the right headlight, on W123s with the stock climate control systems, there is a big, black, boxy part called servo that always was troublesome and in most cases it fails and renders the system nearly useless depending on the failure.

Your car has a silver box that has many plastic vacuum lines connected to it and a heater valve instead of the servo. The silver box and the heater valve are part of a conversion kit that replaces the original servo and cost around $600.

You can research about the “Mercedes evil servo” in case you want to know more. However, because the car already was converted, you don’t have to worry about that.

The A/C compressor looks like the standard York unit fitted to those cars back in the day. Very reliable, durable unit. It takes more hp than a newer compressor, but they were built to last.
 
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