[Fonzi]

In case you aren't familiar with my escapades, I've got quite an addiction. Here's a listing of the MB I've purchased in the last ~6 years since my addiction began: http://www.benzworld.org/forums/showpost.php?p=14451665

This one was honestly a tough call.

The listing was listed on a Saturday when most people are enjoying themselves, but me, instead of sleeping I say "ah, let's see the new ebay/CL local listings."

Running car for $1250 ? And it looks good? I've got to check this one out. After the morning with the kids and then church and everything, I got in the truck with @rwd4evr and we took a ride. He had to return a trailer with my truck nearby. If he hadn't, we would have brought the tow dolly.

The owner had texted me that the car will run, but is not drivable and it has rust. Ok. That's reasonable.

As you can see from the pictures, it looks much nicer than a $1250 car, but when we got up on it, rust, broken exhaust manifold, trashed soft top, repaint from brown with no door jamb or radiator support paint, and a hole in one tail light among lots of other issues. The (shop) owner said with a battery it starts right up, but the throttle linkage "cable" is disconnected. It turns out the ball that's supposed to be on the firewall is totally gone and the sticky linkage made if feel like zero was happening when mostly nothing was happening. Sure enough, with just a jump box, it did start right up and it was very responsive to throttle action in the engine by. But the passenger manifold is completely broken off at the downpipe section. Lots of smoke there. I'm not sure if that's going to blow out, or if it could have a stuck ring. Hmm...

I really almost just walked away. But the owner had a piece of paper taped to the refrigerator in the garage. When we started talking numbers, he said "just go flip over that piece of paper", as it was the paper he left for his business partner to know the bottom line number on the car. It said $800 on it. We all laughed and said we are going to have to crunch some numbers.

Knowing the number, we went out and investigated. Rot hole under the undercoating on the passenger seat frame box. Driver side was worse. I touched it and my finger went through. The driver whole floorpan would need replacement. I have one from my 280slc I bought new from MB but never installed. Hmm... Then we pulled up the parcel shelf. Damn, just like @JN74SL 's BrownHilda, there's a huge rot hole under the parcel shelf. Lots of flaking in the trunk but I don't recall pulling up the spare tire well. Definitely a mess back there.

We hemmed and hawed. It wasn't a no-brainer at $800. Fortunately @rwd4evr has the shop space to store it. I've got some better parts I can put on from the other cars and stashed parts. So maybe we could fix it up and flip it, but it's not really worth the time. Hmm... Well, it runs. Ok. Screw it let's buy it.

We went inside and sat on the sofa in the office and shot the shit for a while after I walked in and said, "well this is going to be the most expensive parts car I've ever bought". We all have lived around here for several decades and talked about biker gang stories and living in garages and warehouses, etc. and kind of out of nowhere, before I made a comment if planned to make that "I will buy it, but I'd feel a lot better if I was getting it for $500." I didn't even have to make the comment. Kind of out of nowhere he said he'd give us the car for $600.

So I'm feeling good about a $600 purchase on this car. That's good parts car pricing and we might even use it as a beater if we can replace that passenger manifold. If not, I'm sure the parts will come in handy.

I love when a great deal falls in your lap. I've worked a lot harder for potential real crap deals before, and thank God I had the sense to walk away. This one doesn't pass my "2 of 3" rule on bringing a car back from the dead. Gotta have 2 of the following: mostly rust free (nope), mechanically sound and running well (nope, but maybe with a little work), and good looking (it has that IMO).

Always fun!

Rwd4evr has another car coming into his warehouse now.

 

[nobby]

Good story, Fonzi.

 

[Fonzi]

Good story, Fonzi.

I hope you get to meet rwd4evr . Here's a panoramic shot of his warehouse space from a few weeks ago. It's filling up fast and he's going to need to start dumping some chassis.

 

[Walt Williams]

Nice find.

I noticed you didn't include the Ponton you rescued a couple of months back on your list.

 

[Fonzi]

Nice find.



I noticed you didn't include the Ponton you rescued a couple of months back on your list.

It's at the bottom of the last post in that test forum thread. It's not technically my purchase, but @rwd4evr 's even though I found it, it only cost $200, and I stored it for about a month. We haven't done anything to that yet other than get it into the shop. It's got a locked up rear wheel so it's on rear wheel dollies. So many cars. So little time.

 

[VON]

Only thing I have to ask about is why the tow dolly, and not a trailer? Most of the cars I seem to drag home, would fall apart on a dolly! And I sure would not trust most of the tires on some of them.

 

[Fonzi]

Only thing I have to ask about is why the tow dolly, and not a trailer? Most of the cars I seem to drag home, would fall apart on a dolly! And I sure would not trust most of the tires on some of them.

It will be nice to have 24-hour access to a trailer like that, but all we've got available 24/7 is @SheppyMach 's tow dolly. Boy has that thing done some work... Where do I start? Red4evr dragged a BMW stick shift to Al Taylor in NC and dragged back the 72 350sl stick. I think that was the longest.

For short trips like this 1979, the dolly should be fine. The tires actually look pretty decent on it and we always bring spares and lugs.

Some day we will get a real trailer.

 

[VON]

It will be nice to have 24-hour access to a trailer like that, but all we've got available 24/7 is @SheppyMach 's tow dolly. Boy has that thing done some work... Where do I start? Red4evr dragged a BMW stick shift to Al Taylor in NC and dragged back the 72 350sl stick. I think that was the longest.

For short trips like this 1979, the dolly should be fine. The tires actually look pretty decent on it and we always bring spares and lugs.

Some day we will get a real trailer.

I got mine about 16 years ago, and it was the best $1000 I have spent in awhile! I have had so many cars on it, as well as the Zamboni someone gave me for my ice rink. And so many loads of mulch for the gardens, and haul so many loads of scrap metal after parting out a car. After having one for so long, I can't imagine not having one!

 

[Fonzi]

I got mine about 16 years ago, and it was the best $1000 I have spent in awhile! I have had so many cars on it, as well as the Zamboni someone gave me for my ice rink. And so many loads of mulch for the gardens, and haul so many loads of scrap metal after parting out a car. After having one for so long, I can't imagine not having one!

That's what we need for this hobby/venture. The closest thing to that I can find now are these new trailers. I need to get my hands on a used one.
New 16' Car Hauler Trailer $2095
http://lancaster.craigslist.org/grq/5593919670.html

 

[SheppyMach]

look what I just acquired

Hauls a 8,000 lb transformer nicely

 

[Fonzi]

look what I just acquired

View attachment 1902594
Hauls a 8,000 lb transformer nicely

View attachment 1902602

Oh boy! I was trying to get my roofer to bring his trailer from ~Lancaster, PA today, but @rwd4evr had to rent a uhaul to deliver a cushman and pickup tire mounter and balancer machines. He should be buying them right now and hopefully on his way back with them and my truck soon.

I think fetching the 560sl cars could be ok with your dolly, but that always ads uncertainty of possibly ruining the trans, but fluid coupled MB trans are usually fine.

 

[Fonzi]

So this 1979 450sl looks good from afar, and has rust, but ran the day before I picked it up. It was just so slightly nose up. Rwd4evr tried to start it to get it off the dolly (after I pulled it up with a come along / massdam) and had no luck. Once we got it level, it seems to want to start. Te reserve light is on, but it's not showing empty, just low. I hope we didn't suck some sludge in from the tank. Eek!
We've got to check into that!

The broken exhaust manifold seems to be the biggest problem, but the exhaust that comes out of it is very smokey, and I haven't determined if it is oil or fuel, but I think it was dark, so fuel maybe. It got me thinking. I wonder if the exhaust manifold cracked due to overheating from burning fuel in the exhaust. Hmm...

 

[Fonzi]

I don't know what I've documented about this car so far, so I think I might as well start, focusing on condition and mechanicals.

Major problems at time of purchase:
- passenger exhaust manifold snapped in half behind cyl 4.
- smokey running
- no action from throttle pedal
- rusty mess with the standard rodent nest in the trunk and filth from being a neglected turd.

The car did run with a battery/jump box (because it came w no battery) prior to the purchase with just a turn of the key, but once it was dragged to the warehouse it wouldn't start. It was dollied home and a massdam was used to get it on the dolly. @rockcrusher was on the phone with me nearly the entire ~5-10 mile trip except for the loading and unloading. The rear tires did need a little air (and @rwd4evr last night noticed that all the bundts don't match and three of the ones on the car probably aren't original to the car).

Adding 2-3 gallons of gas in the warehouse got the car running enough to drive the car out of the warehouse for a pressure wash and vacuuming this past Sunday. (Only one stainless wiper blade was found in the rusty trunk.) Carpets were pressure washed. With the nose down, the car wouldn't start to pull it back into the warehouse. Since we'd dumped all the gas can fuel we had into the 1989 300te wagon @Red4evr brought back from the dead (last Sunday in July 2016), we just pulled the car back in. Once on level ground it started again. It might not have had enough power at idle to make it back in anyway.

Last night I put another 5 gallons into it and took the ball from the throttle linkage on the 380slc parts car to fix the throttle linkage on this car. It was interesting to note that the nut that attaches the firewall trans linkage was very very very loose. I centered it and tightened it up. I also noted that the last visible piece of throttle linkage at the front of the fuel distributor was not bouncing back when pushed all the way forward. This might have been due to the lack of fuel pressure since the car wasn't running, but I really didn't like it too much. Once the car was running, we tested pedal to the floor, and it comes right back. Still, it's something I will keep an eye on.

So with the heavy smoke, we got the car out of the warehouse ASAP. It drove down the private street of warehouses and JY yards without issue. It's possible that some brakes might be dragging a bit, but it doesn't feel like it's got max power.

We put the timing light loop on each spark plug wire as I'd assumed I would find some plugs not sparking but that test was inconclusive as every wire showed consistently flashing light with the timing light. That's a good sign I guess.

There is definitely fuel in the exhaust, and last night we were thinking that there must be leaky injectors if there's enough fuel to cause a rare fireball. That's always exciting, and keeps us aware of where the fire extinguishers are at all time.

As I'm writing this, I'm kicking myself for not even thinking of taking a look at the mixture screw. It's really possible that all cylinders are dumping fuel from an excessively rich mixture. We can see that someone has been messing around with the nearly disconnected trans linkage.

Well, that will be next time. It's really tempting to try and mess with the mixture before 4th of July weekend, but I don't think I've got the time. @yka has been patiently asking me for some door checks and I really need to gather up what I've got and mail them to Flip. Maybe right after I finish (no pun intended YKA ) this note.

Anyway, it's good to have the $600 1979 450sl drivable.

I still don't know if we should part this car out or flip it. My gut says to make it run, and maybe enjoy it for a bit, maybe have @rwd4evr drive it around as a beater for the summer if he is interested, but the exhaust manifold job looks like a hassle, and I have yet to find a reasonably priced manifold. I was very happy to sell both sets of 1972-73 manifolds I'd had just a few months ago, but now I'm wishing I had some. Nobody has a crystal ball.

 

[Digmenow]

I don't know what I've documented about this car so far, so I think I might as well start, focusing on condition and mechanicals....I still don't know if we should part this car out or flip it. ..l.

I feel pretty certain that the window switches in that car are the same as mine. If you decide to part it, I'd call dibs on them both.

 

[Fonzi]

I feel pretty certain that the window switches in that car are the same as mine. If you decide to part it, I'd call dibs on them both.

One thing I noticed about these switches is that they roll too far forward or back and get stuck. I don't know if that's an "auto up/auto down" feature, but after having several other cars, they sure don't feel right.

 

[Walt Williams]

The floor pan sounds pretty far gone. That level of re-constructive surgery is a lot of work. Sounds like a parts car to me.

 

[Digmenow]

One thing I noticed about these switches is that they roll too far forward or back and get stuck. I don't know if that's an "auto up/auto down" feature, but after having several other cars, they sure don't feel right.

Bah! They're roached. Thanks anyway.

 

[yka]

@yka, no problem. Just asking and trying to combine all used parts into one shipping because of finnish import taxes and VAT, Thank you in advance.

Thank you for writing these adventures, very interesting.

 

[Fonzi]

So I couldn't figure out why the car was running so rich in the exhaust after I twisted the mixture screw to a point where it wouldn't start up, and things weren't sounding right when it was running that way.

We haven't run the car very much, basically just enough to let it warm up 2-4 times. Flames and fireballs would come out of the cracked and broken exhaust manifold. That ain't right!

I put the timing light loop on each spark plug wire and the flashes were all nice and consistent despite the lumpy and weak running. And obviously some cylinders on the passenger side are dumping Unburnt fuel into the exhaust. The timing at idle is TDC on the harmonic balancer.

Hmm... Must be leaky injectors.

I pulled the car back into the warehouse and started sifting through the paperwork. I can see that this car was a single owner car since new and the data plate shows the name of the guy and his landscaping company. I see notes about the number of gallons of fuel put into the car and it looks like the guy was getting 6 mpg, and was shooting for only 8 mpg for some reason. Wow. That's not good.

Then I was looking around and I checked the trans fluid. Ok. Not great, but ok. Then I checked the oil. It looks like it's about 2+ quarts over full and is liquidy and smells like gas. I didn't remember that when we went to look at the car. But hey, it was $600. We didn't expect too much.

So I figure we have leaky injectors, maybe stuck rings too. This thing is looking more and more like a parts car every day. It will be the best looking parts car I've ever torn apart. If I can get my money back in a single sale, like maybe the seats, it should be worth it though.

 

[Walt Williams]

@Fonzi sir. Are you spark plug wires in the right order on the distributor cap?