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Project Baggin' Wagon stage 0, canvas acquired
Some time ago I put my 1985 Mercedes 300D up for sale on Craigslist. I figured if someone is willing to pay my price I can turn around and buy a wagon of the same generation. Project Baggin' Wagon has been something I've wanted to do for a while now. The plan is pretty clear, but I didn't have the wagon yet so I couldn't start. To say I loved my sedan would be an understatement depending on who you ask.
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| Me and Wilhelm shared many good times together, doing things most Mercedes owners don't. Like rallycross! |
Time went by and I started getting things together to prep Wilhelm for winter because the Miata hibernates. Silly southern cars. I get an out of the blue email about my 300D and later that night Wilhelm went to a good home. I was most excited. It was like someone had just declared open season on wagons. I started to scour the net for a suitable starting point. The Mercedes W123 was a high production car. Over it's nine year production run ('76-'85) over seven million cars were built on this chassis. The wagons are one of the rarer breeds. The diesels seem to be prevalent enough. Then I learned that only '81 and up wagons had turbos. so began the search for an '81-'85 300TD (the T is for touring, not turbo).
Eventually I went digging through old CL posts and found this nice wagon in Alabama. An '82 300TD in Light Ivory with Palomino interior (just like Wilhelm). After grilling the seller for all sorts of pictures and videos and information I decided it was a contender. The Carfax showed 2 big accidents but the pictures looked good. The car had been repainted in 2009 with the factory color. The motor had been replaced in 2007 from what I could tell with my detective work so the motor was fresh and only had 130k miles on it. The odometer didn't work but like many things on these cars it's an at home fix. Lots of things had been replaced as needed and the SLS worked. The Self-Leveling Suspensions on these wagons are notorious for failing after 20 some years and being costly to fix. With all this in mind I decided to set off for Birmingham
Luckily Kevin will drive anywhere with you if you pay for gas and buy him some food now and again. So off we went in Momo (my 1991 Miata). We road tripped through the night Friday night and arrived in Birmingham in the early morning. Weary from the drive but excited, we made contact and drove to the seller's house.
After meeting the seller and going through the car very thoroughly, it was time for the test drive. I needed to make sure I could drive over 700 miles home. The front motor mounts didn't look too great and I learned that this southern car didn't have a block heater. The drive brought to the front some other issues that I noted to the seller and we quickly reached agreement on a price.
I'm not a big haggler but I feel like I got a very fair price and everyone was happy as I started to take my new acquisition home.
After not sleeping all of Friday night and Saturday day me and Kevin stopped in Nashville. The plan was to nap and then go see the town, but napping quickly turned into sleeping through the night. I'm glad I did because I needed the rest.
The next morning we awoke and drove the rest of the way back to good ol' Michigan. Once there I had to resist the temptation to drive the wagon everywhere. I sat down a few days later and started my gripe list as I've been calling it. Next thing you know the extra money I had from selling Wilhelm disappeared and started being replaced by boxes of parts.
A listing put up on a whim turned into an adventure down to Alabama and a clean wagon being brought into the collection. And so can begin Project Baggin' Wagon.
Want to keep up with Project Baggin' Wagon? Check back periodically and check the link on the right sidebar. Updates will be posted as work gets completed.
Luckily Kevin will drive anywhere with you if you pay for gas and buy him some food now and again. So off we went in Momo (my 1991 Miata). We road tripped through the night Friday night and arrived in Birmingham in the early morning. Weary from the drive but excited, we made contact and drove to the seller's house.
After meeting the seller and going through the car very thoroughly, it was time for the test drive. I needed to make sure I could drive over 700 miles home. The front motor mounts didn't look too great and I learned that this southern car didn't have a block heater. The drive brought to the front some other issues that I noted to the seller and we quickly reached agreement on a price.
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| He shall be called Otto. |
I'm not a big haggler but I feel like I got a very fair price and everyone was happy as I started to take my new acquisition home.
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| Needless to say I was... excited. |
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| Caravan style. It was nice to have both my cars there. I'm pretty happy with my selection. The wagon has 5 more hp if the factory numbers are to be believed. |
A listing put up on a whim turned into an adventure down to Alabama and a clean wagon being brought into the collection. And so can begin Project Baggin' Wagon.
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| Until next time, keep it classy. |
Want to keep up with Project Baggin' Wagon? Check back periodically and check the link on the right sidebar. Updates will be posted as work gets completed.
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