Re: BIFL Car?
Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2022 11:49 pm
@jacob I have too many cars. Generally while working on them I do not like to take them out of operation for more than a day. I have this fear I’ll drop dead and leave my wife with an unassembled heap to sell. The parts are interchangeable between my cars. They all use the OM617 turbo engine with a 722 transmission. The obvious advantage is I have a hoard of parts but also I am an expert on this particular setup. When I get deals on parts I hoard them. I don’t swap parts between cars because that’s kind of a waste of time - break one car temporarily to fix another.
I also have a number of service manuals that are shared between cars.
I use the lifetime brake pad warranty from Autozone for free brakes. I’ve mentioned it here. You register one car and buy brakes for it. Then you get free replacement brakes whenever you bring a worn out set in. I just have to remember to say it’s for a car in their database I no longer own. I haven’t paid for pads in years.
My feeling is getting the knowledge is kind of an investment. The first repair is hard but once you figure it all out you can reuse your skill again and again with decreasing effort. But you need a second car of the same type to capitalize on your skill. These can be acquired cheap from people who dump them. You acquire the skill and tools to treat a particular model’s disease. memorize the disease, symptom and cure. It’s a kind of dividend. If I got into another platform I’d have to start over again with learning, acquiring parts, gaining efficiency at repairs and collecting Benz specific tools.
I learned this trick off a friend who “standardized” in Crown Victoria police cars. He was really good at finding them, hoarding parts for the common fixes and maintenance, then efficiently fixing them because he had seen and done it all multiple times…on that particular car. At his funeral there must have been seven Crown Victorias lined up because his children, step children and in-laws had been given a retired cop car for free over the years. They were durable beasts once sorted out.
We’d go to auctions when he was alive and he’d find the gem that had an issue that he knew the $1 fix for and we’d drive it out of there for $500. After he sorted it out it’d be given away free to a relative because he’d seek the rush of pulling his trick again. So I kind of emulated the guy with Mercedes diesels. He astutely pointed out that we both chose to collect taxicabs. He’d refer to our practice as “standardizing” with its obvious advantages.
@Ego. All the parts for that van can be ordered from he Mercedes dealer. They may take awhile to come but you can get them. 88 is the cutoff right now where MB has just dropped the ball on stocking old parts. I drove a 207D in Russia a long time ago. Basically a panel van version of that camper. They share engines and transmissions with the sedans of the same vintage. Many items will be available at your local Junkyard but you’ll have to know the compatibility.
The good news is those vans are bulletproof. Once you sort them out you can drive them a long time without any issues. Getting parts in Russia back in the 1990s was almost impossible but all it needed was diesel fuel. It never broke. That thing was a tank.
My big fear of owning that camper is I’ll break down in a remote spot where there no mechanics willing to work on it.
Yeah I was curious how the scooter was shaping up.
I also have a number of service manuals that are shared between cars.
I use the lifetime brake pad warranty from Autozone for free brakes. I’ve mentioned it here. You register one car and buy brakes for it. Then you get free replacement brakes whenever you bring a worn out set in. I just have to remember to say it’s for a car in their database I no longer own. I haven’t paid for pads in years.
My feeling is getting the knowledge is kind of an investment. The first repair is hard but once you figure it all out you can reuse your skill again and again with decreasing effort. But you need a second car of the same type to capitalize on your skill. These can be acquired cheap from people who dump them. You acquire the skill and tools to treat a particular model’s disease. memorize the disease, symptom and cure. It’s a kind of dividend. If I got into another platform I’d have to start over again with learning, acquiring parts, gaining efficiency at repairs and collecting Benz specific tools.
I learned this trick off a friend who “standardized” in Crown Victoria police cars. He was really good at finding them, hoarding parts for the common fixes and maintenance, then efficiently fixing them because he had seen and done it all multiple times…on that particular car. At his funeral there must have been seven Crown Victorias lined up because his children, step children and in-laws had been given a retired cop car for free over the years. They were durable beasts once sorted out.
We’d go to auctions when he was alive and he’d find the gem that had an issue that he knew the $1 fix for and we’d drive it out of there for $500. After he sorted it out it’d be given away free to a relative because he’d seek the rush of pulling his trick again. So I kind of emulated the guy with Mercedes diesels. He astutely pointed out that we both chose to collect taxicabs. He’d refer to our practice as “standardizing” with its obvious advantages.
@Ego. All the parts for that van can be ordered from he Mercedes dealer. They may take awhile to come but you can get them. 88 is the cutoff right now where MB has just dropped the ball on stocking old parts. I drove a 207D in Russia a long time ago. Basically a panel van version of that camper. They share engines and transmissions with the sedans of the same vintage. Many items will be available at your local Junkyard but you’ll have to know the compatibility.
The good news is those vans are bulletproof. Once you sort them out you can drive them a long time without any issues. Getting parts in Russia back in the 1990s was almost impossible but all it needed was diesel fuel. It never broke. That thing was a tank.
My big fear of owning that camper is I’ll break down in a remote spot where there no mechanics willing to work on it.
Yeah I was curious how the scooter was shaping up.