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<Project> Mortimer

19K views 184 replies 56 participants last post by  84blaze 
#1 · (Edited)
1967 Mercedes Benz 200D. 2.0L 4cyl diesel. Car belonged to my Grandfather who lives in Phoenix. About 15 years ago he backed into someone in the parking lot of the grocery store and broke the left rear taillight. At the time it was about $350 from the Mercedes dealership and he refused to pay that much for a new taillight. So he parked the car in his backyard where it has been sitting for the last 15+ years (tags expired in Oct 93).

A few years ago I was out visiting them and was lookin at the car when he told me that I could have it for free if I came and got it. Got home, asked if I could borrow my parents truck and flatbed, but ended up not being able to get off from work long enough to go out and pick it up and I ended up forgetting about it.

Skip ahead a couple years and I am telling Toni (g/f) about the car and she smacks me a couple times and asks why the hell haven't I gone and picked up the car yet? So I give my grandparents a call and see if they still have the car, which they do. Talking to my grandpa and he tells me that he could let the car go for $1500 :rant: should have picked up the car for free when I had the chance lol... but my grandparents could use the money, so not a big deal. Call my grandparents back after talking to Toni a little bit and to tell my grandparents that it would be a couple months to get the money together before I could come out and pick it up. My grandma calls me back the next day and tells me that they have a friend coming through Albuquerque to pick up a truck he just bought and offered to bring the Mercedes out here for the price of a tank of gas ~$75.

So the car was dropped off Saturday night. Toni and I started stripping the car down today and getting a game plan together as far as what we are going to do to it. Current ideas include: Black paint, redo the chrome, shave the door handles, suicide the rear doors, wide white wall tires on factory rims (most likely), redo interior (either red or a dark green), replace all the weather stripping (any suggestions on after market dealers?), custom grille, black out the windows, turbo the motor (long term plan), dynomat the interior, stereo (cd player in the glovebox) and some other small odds and ends to give it some detail/character. AND depending on who wins the debate: air suspension. I want air, Toni doesn't, lol.

All original glass and under seat covers is the original interior (60's green) which is in really good shape. Forgot to take pics before it got dark out, but after stripping the interior there is some cancer in the floor board. The car has been sitting in a backyard that gets irrigation on a regular basis so the floor is shot, but other then that the body is completely straight without any body damage. This will be worked on a fairly routine basis along side the s10 project.

Onto the pics.









 
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#3 ·
$246 for a pair of new taillights online, compared to $350 for one taillight 15 years ago from the dealer.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Haven't been able to find anything to compare the car to. Kelly Blue Book doesn't go back far enough. Looked on some antique car appraisal sites, but haven't had any luck.

Woof! That battery almost looks bigger than the motor!
haha, no kidding! That's deffinetly going to come out for a lighter one.

hell yes, restore and bag it
I agree!

hell yes, restore and bag it
:D

your tires are flat.
lol, yeah... the tires are shot to say the least. Sad part is the tires still have the little nobby things on them from when they are new. Receipt in the glove box from when they were bought new shortly before the car was parked.

:D

can't wait to see this thing restored and modified.
x2!
 
#7 ·
nice dude!
 
#19 ·
Hope you don't mind, but I messed around with one of your pics in photoshop. I think this could be a cool ass project.



This was just a quickie, since pic is small. If you got a bigger one, I could soup it up for ya.
That's badass man!!! By chance can you make it black or will it not come out right in the rendering? I can't wait to start on the Benz, as soon as the truck is drivable it'll get some attention!!
 
#27 ·


You've been sweeded.

[/off topic]
I love outside-the-box builds. Consider one of the late model superchaged 4 clys in the newer benzes... Or just piss everyone off and drop an ecotech in it:rotf:
 
#20 ·
i think it looks cleaner in white
 
#24 ·
I've been looking at a daily to bomb when I get a job so I can work on one or both of my trucks and I was really looking at a VW or Audi Tdi, now I might actually look at a Mercedes diesel, keep us posted I might need help bagging on, its that or the almight small block just to piss off someone.
 
#26 ·
I still have the benz, only thing I'm waiting on is to get the S10 running before I dive into another project. So for right now the mercedes is under a car cover in the driveway. I'll deffinetly be posting pics once the build begins.
 
#28 ·
lol, not a 100% sure which motor I'm going to use, probably just get the one that's in it up and running for now since it has less than 15k miles on it. It's a non-turbo diesel so it might get a turbo or throwin around the idea of a performance diesel? We'll see once we get that far!
 
#31 ·
Small update, car is finally at my new house! Original pictures I posted were taken at the house I was renting from my parents. House had a huge backyard so I asked my parents if I could keep the Mercedes there with the new tenants until I was able to get it moved to the new place. Uncle Sam paid me back $5k this year, so first stop for the car is going to be a mechanic here in town that specializes in older diesel Mercedes motors. Plan is to get it running under it's own power, then exterior/paint, most likely going to do a simple 1 pump/5 dump juice set up, and then interior.

 
#33 ·
Being that bushings/seals and what not need replaced, I don't want to pay for all new parts, just to toss some of them out when I juice it. So once the motor/transmission are good to go, I'll start doing the suspension? Don't want to do any bodywork/paint before suspension work in the chance that I have to cut into any visible surfaces. Talking with Toni, it's going to be somewhat of a daily driver, but I want it to be a sleeper. Doing some research on Cummins 4bt swaps being that the factory motor is a non-turbo disiel. Only problem with the swap I have is how little miles are on the motor that's in the car (10-15k). My grandma ran over one of the parking stop things, tearing the oil pan off and killed the motor. My grandpa went to the Mercedes dealership and had a brand new motor put in. Based on the receipts from that, receipts from the new tires, it's in the 10-15k ballpark. But being that it's an older Mercedes motor, trying to find all the parts needed is going to be an expensive adventure.

-4bt cummins swap
-small block
-re-do factory motor for shits and giggles till the car is completely done and a couple years down the road upgrade the motor?
-any other suggestions?
 
#34 ·
there was one of these on my local craigslist for 625$ it was mint and ran and drove..i called and he was scraping it the next day but i couldnt come up with the cash...really bummed me out..but anyways glad to see its getting some sort of adjustable supension...not a fan of juice but thats cooler than stock..cant wait to see you tear into this
 
#35 ·
I'd love to see a 4bt swap, and you could honestly probably claim first title for that swap in your rig. I'd say get the original engine running. They are pretty stout, and put a turbo set up on it. Help boost the power and efficiency.
 
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