No … not what you think. I have not gone down the Doomsday rabbit hole … just yet, but for years I’ve been interesting in self-sufficient living and do my share of reading. I enjoy reading both fictional thrillers about EMPs (ie. One Second After) and books oriented towards self-sufficiency. I’ve spent a few hours […]
While watching Kent Bergsma’s latest video on a smooth shifting W108 280SEL Mercedes Benz, I stumbled on a video clip of old Mercedes photos set to The 5th Dimension’s Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In music. Although the era was slightly before my time (and a decade before my MB 300D Turbodiesel), I admired and […]
My dad and I enjoyed the day together doing something we both enjoy – looking at cars and being together. As usual, he took his 1958 Packard Hawk to the Shelby County Applefest in downtown Sidney Ohio on Saturday and wondered if I was going to enter my Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel this year. I […]
Labor Day was great! I was home alone and able to work around the house, although accomplished very little. Most of my time was spent in the garage sanding and adding body filter to the Mercedes Benz 300D. Since the temps were warm, I regularly cooled off in the pool and pretended to be cleaning […]
I had one of those “knight in shining armor” moments this weekend after a call for help request came in from my wife Brenda. She planned a weekend trip with her mother with a stop to visit our daughter in Columbus then to the farmhouse in New York. The primary goal is to begin taking […]
Thanks to Facebook, I had a chance to meet up with a friend from high school (and grad school) that I haven’t seen in 30+ years. We had a mutual love for photography and both headed in different directions after school. She married and moved to Cincinnati and I married and started life in Cleveland. […]
Most car guys (and gals) know that the Mercedes Benz nameplate represents a high quality vehicle, but also a higher price. Some might argue that there is worth in a vehicle designed for longevity and safety and that it makes for repeat customers? I sold my first Mercedes, a 560 SEL, back in the late […]
I purchased a new latch opener for the driver’s side door of the Mercedes Benz 300D and was depressed to see how poor the quality of the aftermarket part was. The castings of the new part is so poor that I’m embarrassed to put in on the car.
Having July 4th fall on a Thursday this week is creating chaos with my travel schedule. Each appointment scheduling call I’ve made is finding everyone taking a few days off … I should have done the same? Anyway, spending time in town gave me a chance to dust off my TIG welding skills or lack […]
Click for larger panarama at Aaron’s (Growler) VW TDIClub GTG on Saturday Owning a diesel car again after a couple year hiatus (Katelyn’s doesn’t count) was a weak excuse to go to a TDIClub GTG in Millersport, Ohio on Saturday, but took the Mercedes Benz 300D to the Volkswagen diesel gathering just the same – […]
Is that the way it is … once you own a certain make and model of car and then your eyes are automatically attracted to others that are of a similar nameplate? In the case of my recent Mercedes 300D project, its other Mercedes Benz cars … and the one below is a beauty (the […]
Besides spending the day at home catching up on pool cleaning and some minor yard work, I spent the day in the garage working on the Mercedes 300D’s valve adjustment and glow plugs (more on this tomorrow). The more obvious update was installing new Bosch headlight doors I found on Ebay. They look just like […]
Eddie Alterman of Car and Driver talks about his 1983 Mercedes Benz 300D and closes with, “it’s solid, reliable, robust, well made, it’s got a lot of integrity … and I hope that I represent those values.”
In keeping with a slow once-over on the new to me 1982 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel, it looked as if the previous oil change was not a diesel specific oil … meaning that it wasn’t designed for the additional soot carrying and lubricating characteristics often associated with compression ignition engines. Along with needing EIGHT quarts […]
EDIT: Still working the bugs out of the WordPress plug-in Postie (missing the text?) when it comes to including images and video via email from my iPhone and iPad. The above is a short test video demonstrating shutting down an idling 1982 Mercedes Benz 300DT 5-cylinder diesel using the manual shutoff under the hood.
I was up late Tuesday night taking apart the well crusted rear brakes on the new to me 31 year old Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel. It was a slower than usual process as the quality brakes were nearly down to metal to metal contact and so will require new rotor/drums as well as hoses and […]
Hmm … it looks like some kind of ancient diesel is parking in my garage? It has been a long time since I’ve looked at one of these beastly relics. (our last was an ‘87 MB 560SEL) The overall condition looks pretty good considering the old Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel is over 30 years old […]
YourFonts.com makes it easy to create a personalized font based on your own handwriting. I created one in about 15 minutes, including the scanning and uploading — very cool. After printing out the PDF template , I used a fine tip ‘Sharpie‘ to scribble in the letters and numbers as the very easy instructions describe. […]