1979 Mercedes Diesel Station Wagon

GENERAL

1979 Mercedes 300TD station wagon in original condition with 85,250 miles and in excellent running and driving condition, with lots of recent work completed. The color is “Colorado Beige” and the interior is “Bamboo”. It’s not perfect but a very nice survivor car.

This is a very, very early 79’ diesel wagon. One of the very first to come into the country. Note the last 6 digits of the vin. number. The 79’ diesel wagon was first released to the public in March of 1979. This car was produced in January of 1979.

This is a California car that I purchased about 2 years ago. I had to have a diesel wagon since I already had a great 85’ 300D sedan and 85’ 300D coupe. I have spent many thousands of dollars replacing SLS parts, rotors, calipers, control arms, bushings, center link, engine mounts, servo, timing chain, fluids, tune-up, etc. I also had surface rust on the hood in a few spots and around the sunroof professionally repaired.

This car is now highly detailed, especially the engine bay and the entire undercarriage and under the fenders. Time was spent hand cleaning under the fenders as can be seen in the photos. There is always more to be done on an old car. I have lost interest because I have my eye on a nice 91’ 560 SEC. Someone else can enjoy taking it to the next level and take care of the few things it needs.

EXTERIOR

This is a single stage paint with no clear coat, you will be able to continue to polish and wax the paint to make it look better and better the more you tend to it. I had a professional painter specializing in high end cars repaint the hood and around the sunroof to repair some surface rust spots. It all looks great.

There is a very small 1 inch dent in the right rear door under the moulding. There is also a small 1 inch ding on the roof by the rear right corner of the rear hatch door which could not be removed because it had a double wall of sheet metal and was right above the hinge. Over all this car is very, very nice but not perfect.

All the glass is original to the car except for the front windshield which was replaced. The windshield seal was replaced with a fresh, new German one.

The plastic headlight surrounds were cracked and damaged from the sun so I replaced them with new ones. I replaced the headlights with NEW, correct General Electric Halogen bulbs.

The bumpers both front and rear are original to the car, have never been removed and still have their ink inspection marks on the bolts and brackets underneath. The original yellow cad plating is still in good condition.

All the anodized aluminum trim is in good shape and some of it is oxidized from the sun. Remarkably none of it is dented or bent.

The rear hatch window seal is still original and it not cracked nor does it leak.

Since the car is so nice, there are still a couple things I think should be replaced to match the quality of the rest of the car, such as the tail light lenses. One side is pretty nice but one side has a small crack/ hole on the underside of the lense which is hard to see. They make reproductions of the wagon tail lights but I wouldn't put in a pair since this car is sooriginal. You could buy a pair of matched original Hella ones.

All 4 door seals were original from 1979 and do not leak. I did however replace the driver’s door seal. They look dry but I liked the fact that they were never removed which is a testimony to an original car. You might want to replace them if you live in a climate with rain, but since I never drove the car in the rain, these seals are fine. Kind of cool to see the tiny Mercedes logo on each seal too.

The front grille was completely baked from the sun so it was replaced .

INTERIOR

The interior of the car is all original Mercedes. Another donor 1979 Mercedes was used for some misc. parts since this wagon was missing some.

There was window tint in all the windows which is why the interior survived the California sun so well. The dash has a very tiny crack but not visible from the drivers seat. It did not show up when I tried to take a picture. The wood on the dash is all in very nice condition and all matches too, and no its not coming unglued either. It’s kind of a geeky thing to be able to show other W123 owners your "un-cracked" dash, but you'll get it once you own one.

The steering wheel is nice and tight like a low mile car would have.

The center console is in excellent condition and the shifter piece was restored and both chrome window switches replaced with German ones. The hazzard switch works too.

The gauge cluster was removed and sent to Redline Gauge Works in LA to have all the gauges calibrated and replace any dried out pieces, have the needles re-painted then the plastic lens buffed and polished. The whole cluster looks incredible, and it all works, including the original clock.

All the carpets are original and are thoroughly cleaned. A set of vintage- looking coco mats compliment the Bamboo interior. Someone spilled some paint in the trunk area and I tried to remove the paint but it began to dissolve the carpet so I stopped. The rear coco mat nearly covers it too. That carpet beneath it is very thin and if you could find a better piece I would recommend replacing it, but the coco mat does protect it nicely.

The area behind the first aid kit is immaculate and the jack is in perfect workingcondition and not scratched up or rusted. The original first aid kit is in great shape but there is no warning triangle.

The spare tire area is also immaculate and all the hardware inside was cleaned and polished. The spare is new and the paint on the rim is also new, so should you get a flat, you will not get filthy changing the tire. The spare tire cover did not have carpet on it nor any remnants of carpet just a textured black finish. I dyed this cover to match the rest of the interior. I’ve been told that most wagons had carpet on this cover but some early production 1979 factory photos show this cover to be black with no carpet and a nice original first year 1979 wagon at a MBZ show in Germany where the spare tire cover was also blacktextured, so that’s why I stayed with this cover. This may be original with the very, very early wagons? This wagon was built within the first couple weeks of the 7 year production run. Its a very early serial number.

The headliner is perfect with no sags or rips.

I replaced the rear hatch shocks with original German ones so the hatch stays up as it should.

There is installed a newstereo CD player with USB port andiPhone connection. The original Hirschmann antenna was rebuilt and was not replaced with an aftermarket Hirschmann replacement- this is the original working antenna from 1979, which if you know these cars is nearly unheard of. They always strip out or break. The antenna is another nerdy bragging right on one of these cars.

All 4 door panels are original and have no rips or wrinkles.These door panels ALWAYS wrinkle and shrink. This is one aspect of this car which makes it look terrific! No door panel wrinkles.

Since the rear window had tint, the rear upholstery is in very nicecondition.The thin plastic rear interior window side trim was removed because of the excessive wrinkles and the frame painted.

The the rear stainless sill plate and the latch were removed and wire wheeled and polished. Then re-installed. This is a part of these wagons which ALWAYS looks terrible due to the poor zinc plating on the latch. This part looks great now. You can see it below the brochure in the photo.

MECHANICAL

There has been a LOT of work done to this car to get it up and running properly. Thousands spent and many, many hours.

Here is a list of what’s been done:

- removed and clean fuel tank

- replace fuel hoses with correct Metric German one- not SAE US size

- replace both fuel filters

- replace tail light bulbs, cleaned sockets

- clean oildistro tube on top of rockers

- adjust valves

- replace timing chain

- replace injectors

- replace glow plugs and clean - properly - the pre-chambers

- replace water pump

- back flush engine block

- replace radiator

- replace radiator hoses

- replace all belts

- replace both engine mounts

- full service on transmission including replace filter and adjust shift points

- replace throttle linkage bushings

- re-seal power steering pump

- replace brake booster

- replace master cylinder

- clean original brakereservoir and flush all brake lines

- replace front and rear brake pads, calipers and rotors

- replace rear brake hoses

- replace both rear axles

- drain, flush and replace rear differential oil/ re-seal cover

- replace all exhaust hangars

- replace battery with Genuine Mercedes battery ( $200)

- flush, replace hydraulic suspension fluid and replace the soft line underneath the bottle

- replace both SLS suspension accumulators

- replace the SLS pump on the front of the head

- this car did come with A/C but I have not touched it. Perhaps just a new compressor will fix.

- new tires

- new air cleaner rubber mounts

- new air filter

- replaced and cleaned all the fuses and contact points

- rebuilt all gauges and cluster lens

- replaced both front and rear dome lights

- replaced alternator

- rebuilt or cleaned/ regreased and serviced all 4 window regulators and their motors- this took a while and is always overlooked on these diesels
- replaced the always-broken manual throttle cable
- replaced the upper control arms and bushings
- adjusted the steering box
- replaced both original rear sway bar links- you can't get these metal ones any more and these were original form 1979, which show low miles.

Conclusion

Even though the car looks and is very nice, there are still some things to do, but the heavy lifting has been done. This is a great car ready for another hobbiest to putter some more. I have a 560 SEC calling me. It comes with its original 1979 wagon sales brochure and owner’s manual. The car has its original jack and Mercedes lug wrench and original tool kit.