Elegant Thirsty Dinosaur gets a friend.
Hi all
Well I ended buying another project. Now its not a Rover, but given our clear penchant for well engineered executive cruisers I have spent the princely sum of NZ$1000 on the following - a 1982 Mercedes 230 CE:
I`m hoping the 230 CE is a good compromise between complexity and maintainability. 95K miles on the clock. It`s originally from Hong Kong, imported to NZ in 1988.
The good.
Excellent interior
Excellent chrome / trim
Driveline , suspension , brakes all seem fine.
Factory alloys.
Body is very straight. No sign of rust around the jacking points / suspension mounts as is common on these things Doors / bonnet / boot / roof rust free.
Factory tinted windows.
The not-so-good.
Blown head gasket. Possible overheat damage. I believe rest of the engine (assuming the overheat wasn`t too bad) to be sound and the auto box also.
Rust in the rear pass side wing . I can see light through it
Rust on the front drivers wing to valance join. Not so bad but needs to be excised as well.
Various bubbles in other places, one on the windscreen rubber so the screen will have to come out..
Aircon system has gone from engine bay leaving natty looking but useless controls on the dash. Some rather clumsy blanking off of radiator hoses as well - I think that`s how the head gasket got cooked.
Steering box. I`m hoping I can adjust some of the play out but they are a notorious weak link on these cars. That may cost me dearly.
Electric rear windows, winders on the doors. 4 window switches on the console - something has been tinkered with somewhere..
The plan is to do a proper job on this one - I`ll probably do all the welding / prep and have the metallic "silbergruen" topcoat done professionally. I think I could realise $10K if I make an effort. According to Practical Classics Sep 12 article, a top Coupe can be worth up to 25k pounds. Obviously this won`t be near that but there aren`t too many in NZ and its a Merc, right? I think it`ll take 6 months if I put my mind to it. Getting parts is not trivial. Apparently any good W123 bodied cars get exported to the Middle East to be parted out. The old gag about Beirut taxis has a ring of truth to it.
I`ve never worked on a car that has vacuum operated seat back releases and central locking before. It has a bizarre bladder under the parcel shelf that stores manifold vacuum after the engine is off in order to provide for it. Should be entertaining..
The ETD is scowling at me from under a cover on the drive. "Daddy just got a new mistress"! I suspect she know things were afoot because she has been idling roughly lately. Time to break out the "Gunson Gadgets" again..
Cheers
James