Hello everyone, I bought a Mercedes-Benz 409d. Extremely hard to find one in the US and this one popped up on craigslist outside of Albuquerque. I contacted the guy, wired him most of the agreed price on a whim at Wal-Mart, and booked a flight to Abq the next Monday which was Nov 21. I flew into Abq via an early morning United flight and the guy picked me up from the airport in his diesel Ford crewcab utility bed truck at the airport and off we went. I stopped by Autozone and got a new oil filter for a 300D car of the same year, two gallons of Rotella 15w40, an oil drain pan, a set of metric wrenches, a set of screw drivers, a standard and metric socket and ratchet set, and a small pair of pliers. I had tires ordered from the internet and shipped them to the guy's house the week before I flew in, so I drove the Benz with the guy following me 4 miles down to the tire shop with very scary tires on it. We got the old tires swapped out and disposed of for around $70. Then I drove back to the guy's place and parked the Benz. I did an oil change on it in the red dirt. By the time I was done with the oil change and getting it fired up again, it was getting dark, and when I fired it up, the plastic fan housing was rubbing on the fan making a horrible noise. I ended up going inside the guy's house, eating a can of soup, and then slept outside in an old MCI bus he had just carpeted. It was quite cold that night and I was pretty eager to get out of there so I woke up early and started to fix the fan shroud. I was able to get a hole made through one side of the shroud and use some metal wire to go through one of the vanes on the oil cooler to attach it on one side, and get a couple of tech screws in on the other side to hold it securely. I topped off the oil and started making my way towards Las Vegas, NM. When I got to Las Vegas I got insurance from my agent in Houston, but the MVD lady told me she wouldn't issue me a temp tag, so I called the Texas one and she told me how to do a one-way trip permit online so I could get the Benz back to my shop. I went to the library and used a computer and paid $0.10 to print and got my temp tag. After all that I topped off with diesel and hit the road. I took highway 104 from Las Vegas, NM to Tucumcari, NM and by that time it was getting dark so I had to stop. One of the things the guy didn't mention was that the alternator light was permanently on and there was only one headlight...no brake lights, no tail lights, no turn signals. That meant that by sundown my rig was pulling over for the night. I got super lucky and stopped at a place called the Blue Swallow Motel. It was a super cool vintage route 66 motel with cool cars everywhere!! The next morning I woke up and hit the road to Amarillo. I took route 66 until it turned into a dirt road outside of San Jon and then took a different dirt road and got on I-40. I took I-40 into Amarillo and then got on 287. By the time I got to Childress, TX I had a really bad headache from the diesel fumes. Another thing the guy failed to mention was the fact that the exhaust was rusted out underneath and was now leaking into the cabin. I found a huge soot mark comming from under the shower, so I looked underneath and noticed a huge hole for the shower drain. The main muffler had a rust hole that was spewing the fumes right through the drain hole and into the cab while I was driving. I pulled over in a Wal-mart and promptly went in and got a can of spray foam, some aluminum foil tape, and some clorox cleaning wipes. I wiped the underside of the van to get most of the soot off, put the aluminum tape over the hole from the bottom, and used the spray foam through the shower drain hole in the top to seal up the hole. By this time I noticed that my oil level was dangerously low, so I topped it off again, this time buying 2 gallons of Supertech 15w40 from Wal-mart. I also checked the coolant level since the rig had some time to cool off, level was good. I went to the diesel pump and topped it off again, the guy also forgot to mention that the gas gauge doesn't work. I hit the road again and was able to get into Vernon, Texas before sundown. I got a shady motel room and was able to take a shower to get the diesel soot off of me. Woke up in Vernon, checked the oil, had a regular breakfast at the motel, and hit the road. I stopped outside of Wichita Falls and topped off the diesel and the oil again. This time I noticed all my diesel fuel injection return lines started to leak, but everything else looked good. I hit the road again and drove through Fort Worth in Thanksgiving traffic with no brakes, the guy forgot to mention the brakes didn't really work. Made it out safely and cruised down 287 to Midlothian. I topped off the diesel and the oil and I cruised to my friend's ranch in Madisonville. When I got to Madisonville I stopped at Woody's Smokehouse and the Benz wouldn't crank over. It made it all this way with no alternator and here I was stuck. Luckily I got a jump real quick (I bought cables before I left Las Vegas, NM). I drove to my friend's ranch and chilled out for Thanksgiving and a couple days of r&r. We charged the battery up at the ranch and on Saturday morning I drove the rig to my shop in Cypress, Texas. The odometer says 898.5 miles since I reset it at the guy's place before I went to Las Vegas. Overall, the vehicle is not in the condition it was supposed to be, but I will be doing plenty of work on it...so whatever. Total cost was $85 in diesel for the whole trip. Plans are to swap in a turbo diesel motor and do a 4x4 drivetrain conversion.
Here's some pics:
Here's some pics:
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