Hello!
My driveway is beginning to look like a used car lot
I hinted at this briefly a few times late last year, but I didn't think anything was actually going to happen until a couple of weeks ago...but, surely enough, I now own three IDI's.
In addition to the 6.9l and the W123 300D that serves as my daily driver, I picked up a '79 W116 300SD this weekend. It needs a starter, some electrical work, and new wheels (I have a set of bundt cakes in the back of the truck that I just need to get tires for; they came with the car), and other things will probably crop up after I get it on the road, but the body and interior are both in far better shape than my 123. The car could stand to be repainted; someone did a cheap paint job at some point in the game and the paint is starting to flake off...but the car's almost completely rust-free (a very rare thing for any 116 chassis) and the body's straight.
The best thing is, the price was right. The car belonged to my friend's dad, and he gave it to my friend to "get rid of"...so, because he didn't want to deal with selling it, my friend decided to give it to me. I was actually originally going to pay $650 for the car back in October, but the front suspension issue (an almost violent shaking above 55mph) scared me away at first. A few people have since told me that that was probably simply a wheel out of balance, and since the tires and wheels came from a junkyard (my friend's dad was the consumate cheapskate
) and are a mixture of steel and aluminum wheels with 4 different brands of tires (not even sure if they're the same size, and I don't know if there are even any weights still on them), it's certainly a place to start. And, if I find out that there's a major problem, the only $$ I've put into the car was for a starter (the rebuilt starter is bad; that's why I need to replace it again...but, because of that rebuild, I know the engine runs well other than needing a water pump), fuel and a trailer rental to get it up here from L.A., and the registration fees...heck, even if it needed a complete rebuild, if I wanted to tow the car to the Northeast, I could probably almost break even due to the lack of rust.
So, here are some pictures The first three were taken at a truck stop along the I-5 (in Kettleman City, where the I-5 and the 41 meet, for those of you who know the I-5 corridor through the San Joaquin Valley). The last two were taken by my mom as I backed the trailer into the driveway at the house, getting ready to unload.
Someone, please lie to me and tell me I'm not insane
In my tradition of "naming" cars after warships, and the fact that this 116 is so bloody big, I think I'm going to call her Bismarck
My driveway is beginning to look like a used car lot
I hinted at this briefly a few times late last year, but I didn't think anything was actually going to happen until a couple of weeks ago...but, surely enough, I now own three IDI's.
In addition to the 6.9l and the W123 300D that serves as my daily driver, I picked up a '79 W116 300SD this weekend. It needs a starter, some electrical work, and new wheels (I have a set of bundt cakes in the back of the truck that I just need to get tires for; they came with the car), and other things will probably crop up after I get it on the road, but the body and interior are both in far better shape than my 123. The car could stand to be repainted; someone did a cheap paint job at some point in the game and the paint is starting to flake off...but the car's almost completely rust-free (a very rare thing for any 116 chassis) and the body's straight.The best thing is, the price was right. The car belonged to my friend's dad, and he gave it to my friend to "get rid of"...so, because he didn't want to deal with selling it, my friend decided to give it to me. I was actually originally going to pay $650 for the car back in October, but the front suspension issue (an almost violent shaking above 55mph) scared me away at first. A few people have since told me that that was probably simply a wheel out of balance, and since the tires and wheels came from a junkyard (my friend's dad was the consumate cheapskate
) and are a mixture of steel and aluminum wheels with 4 different brands of tires (not even sure if they're the same size, and I don't know if there are even any weights still on them), it's certainly a place to start. And, if I find out that there's a major problem, the only $$ I've put into the car was for a starter (the rebuilt starter is bad; that's why I need to replace it again...but, because of that rebuild, I know the engine runs well other than needing a water pump), fuel and a trailer rental to get it up here from L.A., and the registration fees...heck, even if it needed a complete rebuild, if I wanted to tow the car to the Northeast, I could probably almost break even due to the lack of rust.So, here are some pictures
The first three were taken at a truck stop along the I-5 (in Kettleman City, where the I-5 and the 41 meet, for those of you who know the I-5 corridor through the San Joaquin Valley). The last two were taken by my mom as I backed the trailer into the driveway at the house, getting ready to unload.Someone, please lie to me and tell me I'm not insane
In my tradition of "naming" cars after warships, and the fact that this 116 is so bloody big, I think I'm going to call her Bismarck
been out of business for two years now and still get hulls to pick clean 
