The $10 benz

[Zaphod]

This is my latest benz, the 7th to day.  I sadly had to sell the last one to keep my house.  The plan on this one, if I can get it home in the next couple weeks, is to try and slowly bring it back to life.  It has been setting on someone's property for 2 years according to the current owner but the tags on it show 2011, so more like 5 years.  It is all kinds of nasty.  The dash is shot, the front drives seat and back are shot.  The wood is shot but it look fairly rust free with the exemption of a golf ball sized hold in the drivers floor board and a smaller sized hole in the front fender behind turn signal.  I haven't found any rust around fender wells, rocker or under doors yet.  I opened the trunk a couple days ago when I grabbed the battery to try and charge it (it's charging believe it or not, an in said trunk is looks like a bird was living there at some point as it's covered in feathers and sunflower seed shells.  so it was home to critters of some kind and what I suspect is a rather large hornets nest somewhere underneath.  Quite frankly this is probably a stupid undertaking but I've always loved my benzes and have been without one for 2 years nearly.  I refuse to go back into debt for another car and I hope I can manage to piece this one together so I can once and for all return the old lexus that I have on loan from family.  Anyway, I'm attaching the first round of pictures.  I plan to take the charged battery back this week to see what happens when I try to start it to drive it closer to the front entrance of the property.  IT was a nice little workout carting the 50 lbs battery some 500 feet in the 100 degree heat a couple days ago though.  Odometer shows 210K miles.

[daantjie]

Could make  a nice daily driver.  As long as you think safety and make sure your brakes are good you should be ahead of the game.  In time you can tackle all the rubber bushes and such which will surely be shot as well.  It makes a huge difference to the ride quality.  Check out mercedessource.com for a lot of diesel Benz tips.

[Zaphod]

Will for sure look at brakes before I put it on the road.  It's funny, I hadn't been to mercedessource.com in eons, used them a bunch years ago when I had my W123's, but have been going through a bunch on their site over the past week or so.  Great site with tons of helpful info, thanks for recommending in case I didn't know about it.  The funny thing is I hadn't seen/been around a w116 in eons, and for some reason I thought they were land barge huge compared to the W123, but they really aren't that much larger.  I think they're nicer looking though.  This will not be a small job, especially the first cleaning when I first get it home, it's nasty inside but everything still feels pretty solid.  Even put my weight on the floor board near the one rust hold i found and it didn't flex at all.  The car has sunk into the ground about 3-4 inches but it's not resting on the frame/body or anything and there's still some air in the tires though I'm sure they're all low.  One thing I don't have is a mobile air tank but I'll be towing it to my house, it's about 30 miles away.  Anyway, thanks for your kind words.  I look forward to using this site to pull more information about the car.  Never thought I'd have another one of the old benz diesels but life has a way of changing the best laid plans of us all.  Should be fun though, I think they're really kind of cool looking.

[Harv]

Check the oil and coolant level. Top off if necessary. Then go get a bottle of diesel purge and make yourself a little fuel tank out of a jug. Unhook the fuel in and out lines and put them in jug. Give the primer pump a few pumps then try firing the motor up. You might be able to drive it out of there if you can pump up those tires.

[UTn_boy]

What an odd place to hide a car.....are you sure it wasn't used in a murder or something?   

[Zaphod]

LOL, I did check the trunk but so far no blood, body or cadaver smell. The property is owned by the woman who owns the car.  She had two at one point and has sold the other.  This one stopped shutting off (vac leaks) and I'd guess the A/C didn't work along with the front seat being totally trashed so she said it was uncomfortable to drive.  After looking the seat I see why.  She said she lent it to friends who needed a car a couple times for 2-3 weeks at a time but never got around to fixing it, A few things on the car would lead me to believe it was well taken care of at some point in it's life but was left to rot out on her property more or less.  IF I try to start it this week and hear rod knock I'll call the deal off and give her the key back.  I'll post update once I've tried to do that at some point this week.

[Jed]

LMAO.....'a murder or something'

[nostat]

What were the bolt cutters for?

[karmann_20v]

Oh wow! That looks like a scene from a movie.

Anyways, good luck with the revival! Alot of unpleasant surprises can lurk in a running car, a non runner may take a good bit of effort to bring back.

[Zaphod]

What were the bolt cutters for?

Not bolt cutters, limb cutters.  Small mesquite trees had grown up around the back and side, they have 1 inch thorns, so I had trimmed them back a little bit.

[Zaphod]

Oh wow! That looks like a scene from a movie.

Anyways, good luck with the revival! Alot of unpleasant surprises can lurk in a running car, a non runner may take a good bit of effort to bring back.

LOL, amazing what a dirty lens on an old iPhone can do.  I know what you mean.  I've at least got a charged battery to go by sometime this week to make some attempt to start and move it.  I'll report back what happens.

Thanks, i'm gonna need all the luck I can get.

[daantjie]

Yup those trunks were huge for a reason

I am sure you will have success. Fresh oil/filter and a diesel purge as suggested can work wonders. As well check all vacuum lines and rubber connectors very closely. Down the line you'll have to drop the transmission pan and pray you don't see a metal "stew" in there

[Malaysian]

Yup...really looks like a scene out of a movie where the body was just taken from the trunk and dumped.

The 116 makes a good mafioso/underworld vehicle.

Its got both a classic and sinister stance, put in its part it can play a role as good guy or bad guy...lol

[floyd111]

Zaphod?

[floyd111]

Zaphod? Is that from the Hitchhikers Guide?
In Dutch, he's called Zaphod Bijsterbuil