1979 Mercedes-Benz 300-Series

Wagon

diesel

Automatic

Clear

Diesel

1979 Mercedes 300D station wagon in original condition with 84,343 miles and in excellent running and driving condition, with lots of recent work completed. Its not perfect but a VERY nice survivor car- not restored. About half a year ago I rescued this wagon out in the Mojave desert from a private wrecking yard. It has been sitting for many years because of an injection pump failure, so as the years went by, the owner of the yard slowly pulled parts off of it until I dug it out. It is a low mile, original paint wagon but the windows were partially open and hood wide open for years, so there was a lot of dirt and filth all throughout. I have photos, but the ebay auction will only allow such a few, I thought it best to put up photos of how it is now. So in the last 6 months, I spent hundreds of hours working on it to get it running and driving properly and cosmetically make it as nice as possible. This car is now highly detailed, especially the engine bay and the entire undercarriage and under the fenders. Yes, I even spent time hand cleaning under the fenders as can be seen in the photos. There is always more to be done on an old car, especially one that has sat for so long, but it needs to find a new home so I can fix my other car now. ... and frankly its never good enough, so come take it from me now. ( On a separate note, I am thrilled to mention that the NY Times published a story about me and classic cars just yesterday, so if you want some light entertainment.... type in google: Blue Nelson NY Times EXTERIOR Since the wagon sat outside in the sun for all these years, it was very oxidized. I have polished and waxed this car 3 times now and the paint is still dry so it slowly begins to haze in a few months and may need polishing again. But since it is single stage paint with no clear coat, you will be able to continue to polish and wax the paint to make it look better and better the more you tend to it. The hood has small cracks all over it and since the rest of the car does not, this may mean that the hood was repainted at one time. I used a paint gauge and its the right thickness so I cant say for sure but its the same color as the rest of the car, there is no color mis-match at all. I had a paintless dent tech come out for nearly 6 hours and remove small dings throughout the car. If you have never watched one of these guys remove dents personally, you would think a magician visited your car. There was one actual dent in the right rear door which he removed most of but there is still some of the dent left under the moulding as seen in the photo. There is also a small ding on the roof by the rear right corner which could not be removed because it had a double wall of sheet metal and was right above the hinge. Over all this car is very, very nice but not perfect. Whats important to remember is that this wagon is still original with all the trim and bumpers and rubber seals having never been replaced from new. All the glass is original to the car except for the windshield. It had a couple cracks, so I replaced it, but I also replaced the windshield seal with a fresh, new German one. The car had only two wheels on it and they were the wrong rims so I found a set of 5 matching hub cap style rims, sanded them down and painted them semi-gloss black as per original. It has new white wall radials- all 5. One at a time, I bought 4 very straight hub caps then had them professionally sanded and polished so they look like new chrome event though they are stainless steel so they will not fade or tarnish. I then had the licensed MBZ paint shop re-spray the centers the original color 470H. They use the factory stencil so there are no tape lines. These hubcaps look concours perfect. I often restore then paint these hubcaps for other Mercedes owners who are fully restoring their cars. The hub caps cost me $30 each plus $85 each for sanding and polishing then $75 per hub cap to paint- thats $760 just for the caps alone. The plastic headlight doors were cracked and damaged from the sun so I replaced them with new ones. I replaced the headlights with NEW, correct General Electric Halogen bulbs. The bumpers both front and rear are original to the car, have never been removed and still have their ink inspection marks on the bolts and brackets underneath. The original yellow cad plating is still in good condition. The center front apron metal piece was missing so I found another one and painted it yellow to match, this is the only thing I painted since I could not find an original yellow one. The windshield wipers were faded so I removed them sanded them down and painted them back to Semi-gloss black, both front and rear wipers. No I didnt paint over the chrome rivets. All the anodized aluminum trim is in good shape and some of it is oxidized from the sun. Remarkably none of it is dented or bent. The edges around the sunroof had paint loss so I tried to touch it up with some matched paint. The rear hatch window seal is still original and it not cracked nor does it leak. Since the car came out so nice, there are still a couple things I think should be replaced to match the quality of the rest of the car, such as the tail light lenses. One side is pretty nice but one side has a small crack/ hole in it. They make reproductions of the wagon tail lights but I wouldn't put in a pair since this car is so original. I would recommend buying a pair of matched original Hella ones, however, as you can probably tell by now, I am a little picky. All 4 door seals are original from 1979 and do not leak. They look dry but I liked the fact that they were never removed which is a testimony to an original car. You might want to replace them if you live in a climate with rain, but since it never rains where I live, these seals are fine. Kind of cool to see the tiny Mercedes logo on each seal too. The front grille was completely baked from the sun so I replaced it. I have the original if you want it. INTERIOR The interior of the car is all original from this car or another donor 1979 Mercedes which I used for parts since the wagon was missing some. There was window tint in all the windows which is why the interior survived.... except the dash. The dash had a thousand cracks in it. I had removed a nearly perfect dash from another early Diesel for a project and decided that this wagon needed that dash. I remove the dash from the wagon and while it was out thoroughly cleaned all the years of dirt and dust which blew in the open windows. I replace a couple cracked rubber seals and the bellows on the center vents. I also replace the speakers with perfect original ones and the speaker covers with nice black original ones too. The dash in it now has a couple VERY tiny cracks but not visible from the drivers seat. If you know these cars, this is the achilles heel- the dash. They simply crack with exposure to heat and direct sun, so a crack-free dash is nearly impossible to find. The wood on the dash is all in very nice condition and all matches too, and no its not coming unglued either. Its kind of a geeky thing to be able to show other W123 owners your "un-cracked" dash, but you'll get it once you own one. Yes the never closing glove box actually closes and latches. The steering wheel is nice and tight like a low mile car would have. I dyed the top side of the steering boss since it was faded from the sun. The center console is in excellent condition and I restored the shifter piece as well as replaced both chrome window switches with German ones. The hazzard switch works too. I removed the gauge cluster and sent it to Redline Gauge Works here in LA to have all the gauges calibrated and replace any dried out pieces, have the needles re-painted then the plastic lens buffed and polished. The whole cluster looks incredible, and it all works, including the original clock. When I removed the seats, I cleaned them all top to bottom and underneath. They are not restored nor rebuilt. I did replace the driver's side seat spring cage because it had two broken springs. It feels very tight and not sagging or leaning. I need to further clean the center section since it is still a little too dirty. All the carpets are original and are now thoroughly cleaned. I had a set of vintage- looking coco mats custom made and there is a large one in the back as well. Someone spilled some paint in the trunk area and I tried to remove the paint but it began to dissolve the carpet so I stopped. The rear coco mat nearly covers it too. That carpet beneath it is very thin and if you could find a better piece I would recommend replacing it, but the coco mat does protect it nicely. The area behind the first aid kit is immaculate and the jack is in perfect working condition and not scratched up or rusted. The original first aid kit is in great shape but there is no warning triangle. The spare tire area is also immaculate and I detailed and polished all the hardware inside. The spare is new and the paint on the rim is also new, so should you get a flat, you will not get filthy changing the tire. The spare tire cover did not have carpet on it nor any remnants of carpet just a textured black finish, so I took the spare tire cover to a Line-X undercoating specialist and had them re-coat it. It looks fantastic. Most every other wagon I have seen has carpet on this cover but I did see some early production 1979 factory photos which showed this cover to be black with no carpet, and I remember seeing a nice original first year 1979 wagon at a MBZ show in Germany where the spare tire cover was also black textured, so thats what I stayed with on my car. This may be original with the very early wagons? This wagon was built within the first couple months of the 7 year production run- its a very early serial number. The headliner is perfect with no sags or rips. I replaced the rear hatch shocks with original German ones so the hatch stays up as it should... but rarely does. I installed a new stereo CD player with USB port and iPhone connection. I also had the original Hirschmann antenna rebuilt and did not replace it with the aftermarket Hirschmann replacement- this is the original working antenna from 1979, which if you know these cars is nearly unheard of. They always strip out or break. The antenna is another nerdy bragging right on one of these cars. I removed all 4 door panels the re-stretched and re-glued the vinyl on the door panels, so as to have no wrinkles. This, I must say, will set this car apart from nearly all the other wagons. These door panels ALWAYS wrinkle and shrink. This is one aspect of this car which makes it look terrific! No door panel wrinkles- I love this! Since the rear window had tint, the rear upholstery is in very nice condition. There is a wrinkle on the left upright vinyl piece where the hood closes. I removed the rear stainless sill plate and the latch and wire wheeled and polished them and the screws then re-installed it all. This is a part of these wagons which ALWAYS looks terrible due to the poor zinc plating on the latch. This part looks great now. You can see it below the brochure in the photo. MECHANICAL There has been a LOT of work done to this car to get it up and running properly, thousands spent and many, many hours. Even after the mechanical work was done, I have also polished and detailed quite a bit of the mechanicals as well and have been hyper conscious to not having any leaks, which can be a constant battle with these diesels. Here is a list of whats been done with receipts and/ or photos: - removed and clean fuel tank - replace fuel hoses with correct Metric German one- not SAE US size - replace both fuel filters - replace tail light bulbs, cleaned sockets - clean oil distro tube on top of rockers - adjust valves - replace injectors - replace glow plugs and clean - properly - the pre-chambers - replace water pump - back flush engine block - replace radiator - replace radiator hoses - replace all belts - full service on transmission including replace filter and adjust shift points - modify throttle linkage/ stop points to have increased power - re-seal power steering pump - replace brake booster - replace master cylinder - clean original brake reservoir and flush all brake lines - replace brake pads. rotors are good - replace rear brake hoses - replace both rear axles - drain, flush and replace rear differential oil/ re-seal cover - replace all exhaust hangars - replace battery with Genuine Mercedes battery ( $200) - flush, replace hydrolic suspension fluid and replace the soft line underneath the bottle - replace both SLS suspension accumulators - replace the SLS pump on the front of the head - this car did come with A/C but I have not touched it - new tires - fresh oil change - new air cleaner rubber mounts - new air filter - replaced and cleaned all the fuses and contact points - rebuilt all gauges and cluster lens - replaced both front and rear dome lights - replaced alternator - rebuilt or cleaned/ regreased and serviced all 4 window regulators and their motors- this took a while and is always overlooked on these diesels - replaced the always-broken manual throttle cable - replaced the upper control arms and bushings - adjusted the steering box - replaced both original rear sway bar links- you can't get these metal ones any more and these were original form 1979, which show low miles. I will include them in the sale just to show they were original. - the brake calipers are dragging a bit and you may want to replace them down the road a bit. "FINAL ANSWER" Even though the car looks very nice, the real strength of the car is how it drives and handles. Its a terrific car to drive and is very tight with NO rattles and cruises down the road nicely. It comes with its original 1979 wagon sales brochure and owners manual. The car has its original jack and Mercedes lug wrench and original tool kit. I have the lien sale papers and bill of sale thats what you will get. The car is available for inspection and test drive in the San Fernando Valley, @ 30 minutes north of Downtown Los Angeles. I recommend you come take a look or send a friend even though you suffered through this lengthy description, ask me questions now before the end of the auction. The car is sold as is, where is. You could fly in and drive it home, yes. I could also help you load it on to a transport truck of your choice to ship it. On Sep-30-14 at 19:09:53 PDT, seller added the following information: I was asked why stop at the A/C not being fixed/addressed? I didn't want to spend the money to fix it. There is a great R134 conversion, which I just did on my own daily driver wagon, which; although it works great, it was expensive. I just reached my stopping point with the yellow wagon and need to sell it. If the new owner would like the A/C conversion info or help as to how to get it installed- I can help with that no problem. Be prepared to wear a sweater on a hot day, not kidding... I love my new A/C! There is always something more to do on an old car, if you are at 50% why not finish the other 50? If you are at 99% why not finish the remaining 1%? Is it really possible to be "all done" with one of these cars? Of course not, but I am happy with what it is now and the new owner will be too, if not I will make it so. I love these old Diesels!