mercedesbenzs55

Thank you Benz, the journey is made easier when people are pointing you in the right direction.


Mike is good people. He's just being fatherly because he's my dads age. I wish I knew some of the mistakes he had gone through to acquire his wisdom and experience. Mike, are you Jewish?

1bad540

bahahahahah Mike is he politely calling you an old Jew?

teksurv

Thank you for this thread, it has been an entertaining read, I follow it daily. None of us have any skin in this game, but many have given very good advice. Since you mentioned this may become a sentimental project, let me say this. You have a S class, the highest expression of the brand. Either treat her as a parts cart to help others and recoup cost, or fix her in an expensive but meaningful way to show your dedication. Don't worry about what others say, I just hope you do it right. Thanks for posting.

mercedesbenzs55

Haha! I have a few old Jewish friends who speak very much like him. Even down to the style of humor. I would say mike is 48-58. Dave is over 45.

How far off am I?

I myself skipped my Baruch atah adonai's on fridays shabbat to check the fluids and batteries in my car.

mercedesbenzs55

I'm considering this option more. Because I would hate to repair it, only to later on have the money to get it done "right", and then regret not waiting to do so.

Mike5215

Pretty damn close. 54, and great grandparents on my mother's side were Russian Jews.

The interesting thing about Dad Wisdom though: we're almost always right. When I was your age I was as goofy as you. My dad used to say the problem with young people is that they oversimplify challenges and over-rationalize bad decisions.

That sound is a bell ringing. If you were my kid, married to a divorced mother of three, renting a house because his credit was too poor to buy a home, driving around with piles of wrapped dollar bills and posting pictures on Facebook, and spending $12,000 in cash to buy a wrecked Mercedes S Class so he could drive around like a big shot, we'd be having a very serious talk about how important it is to not be retarded.

mercedesbenzs55

Lol! I knew you had it in you!

Like I mentioned before, I have never had any social media. That picture is the first time its seen online. I took it quite a while ago.
For typical couple of our age, renting a home in a nice good area is just fine. I would rather have subpar credit and make decent money, than the other way around.
We are working on our credit, but as most know, these things take time. My wife and I have what it takes to save a large enough sum for a house.

As you said before Mike, "the way you repair this car will determine the way you will repair my future homes". So far my intuition and luck have been on my side(knock on wood grain).

I think it's a triumph of patience and determination to say you saved for every car you ever had, and bought outright in cash. Every one of those dollar bills you see in the picture I earn with hard, honest work and saved.

When my W221 is repaired, no one will know if it was ever hit or not, nor will they care to ask. All they will see is a beautiful, clean black on black S-class. Only my close family currently knows I have this car. Perhaps because I don't want anyone to know/see it in its wrecked state.

Didn't you do just that in your late 40's by buying a w220 and without a warranty? I figured so, because you and Dave sing the praises of warranty coverage like a church choir.

Isn't it you did about the same "mistake" as I, but at 20 years older in age?

mercedesbenzs55

I'll admit, part of me bought it so I can drive around like a big shot. The W221 is a Beautiful work of art, and I'll pay more for good art. Otherwise, I would only drive my near-luxury Acura(which too is a beautiful design inside and out).

For what reason did members of MBworld buy their car? Humble cars do the same trick of going from A-to-B.

When my car starts i'm going to slap on two tail lights and drive it around the block with my pinky up. As I drive by people are going to look at the rear and cringe.

goosesedan

lol, i dont think benz55 cares about what majority have been preaching in this thread so far. he has decided to do it his way, whether you keep repeating what he should have done or could have done wont change his decision Mike. lol Just let the poor fellow be......

and btw Benz55, good thing you were able to speak to the previous owner and they told you the car was well maintained, so you shouldn't be expecting any major engine problems when you get the key, assuming the previous owner was been truthful.

Mike5215

Wrong guy. My first S was a $42,000 CPO S500 plus $2500 for the extended warranty. My second was a flawless S430 with 30k miles
I paid $24,000 for plus 4k for a third party warranty. (Still miss that car but the warranty renewal was $8000 for two years so it had to go.)

Current car was a $58,000 CPO, plus $4400 for the extended CPO warranty. I hung onto the first one after 100k miles when the warranty expired and had to eat a tranny a month later. The following 220 I dumped before the warranty expired, and the 221 will go before CPO expires.

Wisdom is not conferred simply by aging. It's an ongoing process. Some people learn from their mistakes and some unfortunately never do. They just become older people with the same crappy judgment, making the same immature decisions with the same obvious bad outcomes. They eventually can no longer blame it on youth. Then they become bitter f-ups and blame everyone else.

I also never made any reference to you fixing houses. So what job exactly pays you entirely in one dollar bills? Are you a Chippendale?

mercedesbenzs55

Oops, I read it wrong then.
-------------------------------
Post #181 - Early onset dementia?

I preordered 17.7k from the Fed in $1 bills for that take that pic. If it came to it, I could become a chippendale.

Powerful.

Mike5215

Why did you order $17,700 in wrapped dollar bills from the fed?

(Post 181 was sarcasm directed at NYCPhotography. You knew that, right?)

mercedesbenzs55

So I could do goofy things with it like take that picture. I have 3 tailored Armani(Black label) suits, but I had never seen a picture of anyone with a suit of money before(literally speaking).

Mike5215

Did somebody bet you that you'd never take a picture of yourself covered in $17,700 worth of one dollar bills? You also drove around with it in your car for fun, right? That just seems to be really poor judgment on a bunch of levels.

Obviously there's the real risk of theft, or worse. Plus in most jurisdictions cops can and do seize cash like that and keep it even if no charges are ever filed.

It seems reckless, you would agree? Or am I missing part of the story?

mercedesbenzs55

Could just be my dyslexia.

mercedesbenzs55

I'm thinking of getting paintless auto repair done, due to there being no compromise the paint.

This way I can get the dents quarter panel dents repaired cheap.

DaveW68

That's for door dings, not bent quarter panels. Your car will need extensive body work, including bondo, primer, & paint. And you need to hope and pray that those panels can be saved after the pull. Otherwise it will get a lot pricier if new panels need to be patched in.

Mike5215

Yeah, by the numbers those quarters both need to be replaced. The general rule is anything over 33% of the panel's surface area would call for replacement.

The problem is, once they've hand worked the dent out they have to use body filler to both level and then blend the repair area into the panel. That can swell the size of the original repair by 100%. You don't want a panel that is essentially all filler.

On those quarters I'd wait to see how they react to the pull. Replacing the quarters would be astronomical. Double digit labor hours, paint hours and of course the cost of the new quarters themselves.

That's why State Farm totaled the car without a tear down. The quarters alone did it. The 33% rule doesn't mean the quarter can't be fixed, just that the likelihood of it looking unacceptable to the owner if repaired is high.

State Farm, if it's using an affiliate shop, has to guarantee the workmanship. They're not going to slather up two quarters with bondo on an S Class and then deal with an irate owner, who's expecting the car to look like it did before the accident.

In Benz55's case, he can take that risk because the repair only needs to look good to him. It depends on how much time, patience and craftsmanship the guy doing the pull, hand work and paint work is willing to put into it. For $400, it doesn't sound like much. We'll have to wait and see.

mercedesbenzs55

Are you sure? My dents are similar to these.

http://www.affordabledentrepair.com/pictures.html

Mike5215

I have a mobile PDR guy who comes out every six months or so and takes out small stuff. The process is amazing to watch. Those quarters are in my estimation outside the scope of PDR. But once the pull is done, get a PDR guy out to see what he thinks. Can't hurt.

mercedesbenzs55

Ok, Tuesday i'll get a 20 day temp. plate to get a quote for the pull at Vlad's auto body. Provided the car runs and drives. Maybe they can do the work the same week. The guy that does his unibody pulls is experienced.

DaveW68

If they can get the car in right away, I'd be a little nervous. Most body shops need at least a couple of weeks of lead time for scheduling...if they're any good.

mercedesbenzs55

I'm only guessing that they will take the car soon..

Mike5215

Don't forget to mount the old rebar so they have something to pull on, and tail lamps for...well you need tail lamps.

mercedesbenzs55

Good call

Its going to be tougher to put the bar back on than it was taking it off. Cause I wrenched the bolt tabs out of the way.