The Classic Car

Our Classic 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230

Pictures and details to follow after we pick the car up in Portland. So the story is that a professor at the University of Oregon purchased this car in Madrid, Spain in September of 1966. He brought the car back to Oregon where he used it for many year. In the early 1990's he donated the car to a non-profit. In 1995 my brother purchased the car from the non-profit. He has owned it ever since. My brother moved to Portland after graduating and used the car for a few years. In late 2000 my brother moved to Asia for business and has lived their ever since. He stored the car in a friend's barn and it stayed there for ten and half years. At the end of July 2011 my kids and I towed a trailer all the way from Southern California to Portland to pick up the car and bring it back. I am glad the cars is staying in the family. Getting the car was an adventure and getting it running again, even more so. Updates and pictures to follow.

Newest Addition- 1985 Mercedes 380 SE

We were not looking to buy another car, this was definitely a God event. I occasionally peruse the old cars in Craig's List to see what is selling and what prices owners are asking for, mostly out of curiosity, partly for a good laugh. I had a saved search that filtered for Mercedes cars under $4,000, that were made before 1986. One evening in late October or early November of 2019 I opened that search. As usual, this returned an interesting mix of old junk and very expensive collectibles. Neither we were interested in. That evening, however, one car caught my attention. The owner was only asking $1,100 and the car had only 50K miles. I knew something was wrong. I was right. The owner explained that the car did not run and had not in many years. I was intrigued, however, and asked if I could come and see it. He agreed and we scheduled a visit for the coming Sunday afternoon. Our kind neighbor said he would go with me to pick up the trailer and we could go and see the car together.

So, we made the trip at the beginning of August 2011. It was rather epic. Since we had to be back for other reasons the trip was rather rushed. We left Friday evening at 7:30pm and we walked back into our front door on the following Tuesday at 7:30pm. The second day was the most difficult, we traveled 766 miles in one day. The picture was taken of the car on the trailer that we used to transport it back to California. I took the picture at our friend's house in Portland, Oregon on Sunday afternoon. We left later to spend the night in southern Oregon. The total miles were 2258. All this was done in four days, which I would not recommend. It was a shame to pass so many beautiful places in Oregon and not have much time to spend there. The photo on the left shows the car in the barn in Oregon, after the cover was removed.

I prayed for wisdom in this decision and sometimes even wondered what we were doing, after all, we don't really need another car. I asked God for wisdom all week and he waited to answer. Sunday morning, after the message during the service, God said, "Don't go." I was a little surprised and began countering. I responded, "But it's a great deal, it looks like..", he replied, "Don't go." Again I countered, "But I'm only going to look and...", again, "Don't go." Finally, I responded, "But...", he again spoke softly and firmly, "Don't go."

During the summer of 2012 we removed the old fuel tank to clean it and coat it with an epoxy to prevent further rusting. We replaced all of the rubber fuel lines and rebuilt the carburetors. We got the engine running.

During the summer of 2013 we replaced the rear pinion seal on the differential, removed the passenger side, half axle to replace the seals and repacked the front wheel bearings. We also replaced all of the fluids in the vehicle. We polished and waxed all of the original paint, cleaned up the interior and treated and repainted some of the rust areas inside the passenger compartment and in the trunk.

I called our neighbor and told him what God had said. He said, "Okay". I texted the owner and explained, "After much prayer I am convinced that God does not want me to do this at this time so I am not coming. If you are not able to find a buyer please feel free to contact me. I may be interested later. Thank you." The part about contacting me later was just because I was disappointed, not because that is what God wanted me to say. I was convinced that God's response of, "Don't go" meant "No". He never said, "No", I just interpreted it that way.

Interestingly enough, neither this car nor the other car ran when we picked them up. The brakes worked on both of them thought. I both cases our daughter was there, and both times she was asked to steer the car as we pushed them up, onto the trailers. She was the one who remembered that.

Summer of 2014, we replaced the throw bearing in the gearbox. We put the car up on jacks, disconnected the drive shaft and all the lines connected to the gearbox, disconnected the gearbox from the engine, and removed it! We discovered that the flex disk that connects the drive shaft to the gearbox was worn and cracked. It was replaced as well. We also need to replace the rear main seal on the engine, but since the leak is minor we will just live with it and check the oil level regularly. We also have a slight leak where the fuel pump attaches to the engine block which will be easy to repair. Lastly there is a small crack in the exhaust manifold that we will live with for a bit since removing it to repair it may cause irreparable damage on a part that is difficult to find. The work on the gearbox is done and it is all back together again! What a job. What would have cost as much as $2,000 to pay a shop to complete, cost us about $250 in parts! That is very rewarding. The car is also much smoother now and quieter. We have all missed driving the car since it was up on jacks in the garage for about three months, it is even more fun to drive now.