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You’ll soon realize that I’m overly excited about this but that’s because I’ve been waiting for it for almost a decade.
I’ll tell you one thing. If you truly want something and know you can own it, it will present itself to you and you must ACT on it. Word act is the key and I’ll explain why later. Another key thing that helps is if someone wants it for you too, someone with same interest and passion for that same thing you want.
Well get back to that later but for now let me tell you how I fell in love with a w202.
Both my sister and brother drove w202s before I even owned a car, a 98 c230 and a 99 c280 sport. Great cars but at the time neither of us knew about the 90s AMG gems that are c36 and c43. Not that my sister or brother would care about such things, they just needed a means of transportation and a w202 is such a great reliable little sedan......I was the only one who turned out to be a car enthusiast in the family.
One day I accidentally stumbled upon a red c36 amg on eBay and I was immediately intrigued.
Imagine someone who loves the standard w202s suddenly finding out about this rare "exclusive" version of the same car and it happened to be red too. Mercedes are not usually red. It’s an odd thing when you see one but usually in a good way especially when its already a very rare example. That red w202 "amg" forever engraved itself into my brain. The way I see a rare old school Porsche, or an 80s hammer is how I naturally reacted to and saw that red c36, yet I didn’t have any clue about its background or history. It had something about it that made it cool without trying so hard. If it was a person, it would be a laid-back dude wearing a tuxedo with converse shoes on. I don’t think I cared or knew much about AMG cars prior to this. Realizing that this is how I fell in love with them is in a way special to me. At the time the w202 chassis amgs were already older cars. Many newer amg models were already on the road. I was a kid in my early 20s.
Shortly after I learned about the c43 and I knew that one day I wanted to own one. A sheep in wolfs clothing, there’s no other way to describe this car. Any color was going to do at the time because I was way too excited to drive one and I wasn’t really in a situation to choose.
My day came, and I bought my self an Obsidian black c43. Prior to this I had settled for a 1994 c280 which I owned for a few years. W202 amg models at the time were out of my budget. I still own this c43 and I’ve put it through hell and back, mostly because I was young and didn’t know better. At one point I sold it just to buy it back a few years later after it got wrecked and fixed and vandalized. I bought it to bring it back to life because it was headed to an insurance auction to be totaled.
The whole time however I kept going in and out of fantasies about a perfect red w202. Best of what a w202 chassis can offer in color red.....it just had to be red. A c36 is special in its way but the c43 is the cream of the crop when it comes to this chassis as all w202 enthusiasts know. Unless you are lucky enough to own one of few dozen factory converted w202 c55s which are not available on the US market.
Over the past ten years or so of my c43 ownership, a few red c36s have come by and gone away mostly because I was not in a situation to buy them or if I was someone would beat me to them since they were rarely local to me. Honestly, I can probably count these scenarios on my fingers since these cars are so rare. C43 on the other hand rarely came up for sale in red..... but I wanted one this whole time. Black or silver would pop up occasionally, sometime white. Red, in my area.... never seen one.
Fast forward to nowadays. I’m still active in what’s remaining of the w202 community and I meet people here and there with same interest. I met a member on here recently through some potential wheels deal or I think I was thinking of selling my car and he was interested.... honestly, I don’t remember. Huge w202 fanatic that guy.... I mean he owns three c43s. He lives in New York and I am the opposite side of the continent in California, we exchange texts almost daily.... mostly w202 related topics. Obviously, my new friend has learned of my w202 plans and I’ve learned about his and it was clear as day that he wanted this for me to happen. I would take time out of my day to help him find something he needed, and he’s been keeping an eye out for a red c43 for me.
The other day.... randomly for no reason, I decided to go online and check local craigslist for any c43 listings. It’s been a few days since I’ve done this. This ad shows up almost as intentionally under cover just for me. With minimum yet questionable content, it would most likely scare away any potential w202 buyer, but I had to give it a shot. It said something along the lines like this:
"1998 c43 selling for parts or as whole. Need gone asap car sat for six years. Approximately 60k miles"
No other info about the car. No color or any information regarding the condition or title status. The 60k mileage part caught my attention however so I had to email the person. No phone either so the email response anticipation was killing me to.
I emailed the following......acting as if I’m not so interested and I just needed some parts.
"What color is the car? I might be interested in some parts"
Finally got a response the next day and the first thing the email said was: "car is red....and only selling as whole".
I put the few facts together and quickly realized....holy crap this could be it. I’m thinking even if it doesn’t run, I’m not too concerned. "Need gone asap, low mileage, red", potentially selling for cheap, and needs some work. Just what I wanted, a c43 I can make my own. I didn’t really need a mint example selling for more than its worth. I’m a sucker for a good deal and I’m good at finding one I like to think. But I owe this one to my friend from New York and this is why. If it wasn’t for him it would have literally slipped through my fingers.
I told him about it immediately and in an effort to help me secure it he also emailed the person. We usually do this figuring one of us can get the seller to talk. We have tried buying some rare wheels before for him and wed both contact the person. It proved to be effective. Sure enough even though I emailed the person first, my friend was the one who got him to talk.
Its 8:05 PM and we are chatting while both hoping for any more details from the seller. The only email I got was them saying "sorry I have two people coming to see it tonight”. My friend emails me saying:
"Ok kid get ready, you are going as me, just tell them your name is Anthony".
One of those two people turned out to be my friend. He also said the seller told him they have another person coming at 9 pm. I am 20 minutes away, its past 8pm and I am going as Anthony from New York who is thousands of miles away. Without any thinking, I hop in the car and fly down the freeway to narrow streets of downtown. Pretty sure I got away with a few speeding tickets and some reckless driving. Got there finally and didn’t know what to expect. I call the seller on the phone number which my friend acquired. I acted on this opportunity right away.
"Hi I am here to see your red car"
Oh hi, is this Anthony?
........uh yea".
A mid aged lady leads me to her backyard in the outskirts suburban area of downtown. Her back yard is the size of maybe two basketball fields overgrown with trees, grass, and bushes and in it buried are a few old vans, some truck and a trailer, bunch of old vintage stuff, a few bicycles, and a whole freaking red c43 amg. It sat there for six years. It felt like it was more black than red at the moment. I thought to myself "this is a barn find.... except there’s no barn". It was a whole car; it didn’t miss anything. Things looked promising right off the start.
It didn’t take more than ten minutes before I told the seller "you can tell the other person not to come, I want this car and I will buy it". I was never a negotiator but this one negotiated itself for me, it was just meant to be. I learned from my friend Anthony that she wanted $2600 originally based off her Blue Book estimate. I offered $2400 for it but eventually she even knocked it down to $2200 herself because she felt bad about backed up DMV fees and towing expenses......what a nice person. She said she needed money to clean up the yard. The car was her ex-husband’s and was too expensive to maintain. Leaving it on the streets of downtown where parking was very limited was an issue for the neighbors and city parking enforcement, so she was forced to park it in the backyard. $2200......a bargain for any clean title straight unmolested rare color c43. All doors, trunk, and hood take minimum effort to close. This car feels very solid. It didn’t take too long to realize that under layers of dirt and pounds of nuts and rat poop under the hood that this car had good bones and its absolutely worth saving. It even had clear bra all over it which will be sort of painful to remove but it’s a blessing in disguise because the paint underneath had protection all this time.
Next day I got the car towed home and I still wasn’t believing the fact that this just happened. All these years and all this hassle over a two-thousand-dollar car. People have different dreams. This was one of mine and its settling in that it’s a reality.
The car will need some work but she’s a tough bird. After six years, it starts up with some help of starter fluid. Tires were flat but I inflated them, and they hold air. Its good enough for now until I get the car all new fluids and whatever else it’ll need. It turned out the car has 82 thousand miles......still very low. It’s very rare to see one with under hundred thousand miles nowadays, especially red. Its settling in that I got the right car and I am so excited.
The interior looked well preserved and after some tlc it should look good as new. The familiar look and smell of a w202 cabin.... I could still catch a hint of it through what smelled like mold and dirt, but I wasn’t concerned. The notorious roof liner sag and worn out steering wheel were just about the only damage on the interior.
Quick wash and rinse and the bright red color started to pop. It mostly looked good, but some areas showed oxidation and small spots of clear coat peeling, typical of any older red car. I will follow with paint correction, but long-term plan is a full respray. Exterior wise, bottom of front bumper had a crack, some minor dents on one or two doors, and aged rubber is about all I could find. Typical curb rash on the 17-inch Monoblocks is unavoidable on these cars at this point. Front bumper was taken off to prevent further damage during towing.
Oh and best of all I am restoring a special set of wheels for this car and am thinking whether I should swap a 5.4 engine. Here is a picture of the wheels next to the car.
So far I am extremely happy and I will share progress as it happens. There is a lot to do but I enjoy every second of it. Its just more satisfying this way
I hope you enjoyed the read, I wanted this to be sort of a blog.
Edit:
Recent discovery. I remember seeing a red c43 in town and snapping a picture of it a long time ago. The picture is dated 2009 which was ten years ago.
I was able to dig up the pictures since I usually save most pictures I take with my camera.
Well turns out its this same red c43 that I bought and the owner was still the same back then. I confirmed with her and she said she was out getting breakfast downtown. Small world and this car sure was meant to be.
i am so jealous right now... you text this guy from new york everyday? what about me man, i'm the quintessential new yorker on the board! WTF. haha, congrats on the car, she looks like a beauty.
i am so jealous right now... you text this guy from new york everyday? what about me man, i'm the quintessential new yorker on the board! WTF. haha, congrats on the car, she looks like a beauty.
you know what we need to do.....if everyone has instagram.
We can create a chat group and invite everyone in. We do this for local amg guys around my area. There are about dozen people in there
Ill create a chat group a bit later today, Im off to DMV to take care of the paper work. Also I misplaced the keys to this car, looks like Ill need to go to the stealership. I cant find them since sunday :/
Got a good quote to repair and repaint the front bumper yesterday, ill be dropping it off in a week or two.
For now working on removing the clear bra. Paint looks good underneath. Cant wait to hitnitnwith some compound and bring it back to life
Interesting fact. This car comes from Miami, FL. On the carfax it shows that it was stolen in 2000 and recovered a week later. Obviously everything is legit about it and the title is clean.
Im just hoping I run into bags of cash behind door panels when I start tearing into it.
Still has some sort of sticker from Miami under the tail light
Miami = hot, humid and salty atmosphere. Hope there's not any rust underneath. Would recommend a good dig under, considering also the car was for years in a backyard on a soil surface.
Just seen the IG chat test
Miami = hot, humid and salty atmosphere. Hope there's not any rust underneath. Would recommend a good dig under, considering also the car was for years in a backyard on a soil surface.
Just seen the IG chat test
Well didnt spend too much time in miami. came to California in 2001
07-22-2019, 12:13 PM
