Shadetree, is yours turbo-ed? Do you water inject, or intercool, straight stock?
FNG in my two month love affair I have learned that in the mid south these cars can be found in decent shape for 1,000 to 3,000. At that price they will need lots of repair, but I have also learned that most mechanics don't understand the engineering behind the systems, so with knowledge of the systems, you can do a lot yourself. What I mean by that statement is the owner may think they are a lost cause, because they couldn't repair, or get them repaired. With knowledge of the systems, they are no more or less difficult than any other car. Once I got the proper wiring diagrams, vacuum diagrams, and control function trees, I was able to fix all the issues they had and only spent a few hundred dollars getting two of them right. I found that most of the issues had already been worked on, but by someone who didn't understand the proper function of the vacuum system. To be diesel engines, they rely very heavily on vacuum, through out the car.
The blue one looked like hell, and had blown fuses everywhere, non working turbo, shifted extremely hard and late, would not shut down by the key, most lights didn't work, doors locks wouldn't work, made a horrible racket at idle, no brake booster, working lights fluctuated constantly, Leaked diesel like a sieve from the IP, wandered all over the road etc etc etc....
The PO had used screws in place of fuses because he was too lazy to find the problems.
Items purchased for the Blue one
Idler belt shock 30.00 Stopped horrible idling noise.
Full struts and shocks 280.00 Stopped Wandering all over the road.
Vacuum assortment and hose and bottle of liquid rubber. 25.00 Fixed leaking vacuum issues and all locks and other vacuum controlled equipment started working.
Voltage regulator kit 29.00 fixed light fluctuating
Found three dead shorts in the wiring, and was then able to remove the screws from the fuse box the last a$$hat placed in there. Doing so also made all axillary lights and equipment start functioning.
Added 50% brighter headlights for 50.00 and now all lighting works, including the faulty light indicator. Couple new tires on it and I got 1400.00 total in the car, now all it needs is some prep work and a 300.00 Maco paint job lol.
Ordered the special 50.00 32 point socket last night and will order the 15.00 dollar delivery valve kit tonight to stop the diesel ******* all over the ground, so all in all for a proper car I got about 1500.00 in it, and about 20 hours work, and that included my lack of Mercedes knowledge. If I had payed my local Mercedes mechanic to do the same jobs, and assuming he would have used the same parts, and done it faster, I would still have less that 2500.00 in the car, and if you ask me t'ain't to bad figuring the car will most likely last another ten years easy.
I mention all that, because to me that was easy, and I still look like it only cost me 1500, cause I don't write myself checks whenever I do my own mechanic work lol