Reflection: Preparing for C2C 2019

Aug 31

This may be a bit long for a blog post, but I want to capture the tale of gambling I mean cannonballing a 1981 Mercedes 300SD from New York to California. It all started with this email:

Chris L Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 10:11 AM

To: Michael Detmers , Ian Osgood

Yo,
Intros:

Michael is the guy from the blue WRX wagon on Coastal Rally and my co-pilot on Rallye California.

Ian is the guy from the greyish Volvo wagon on Coastal Rally and the guy in the white Jeep Gladiator on Rallye California.
Intros: Over.
You two are the only people I’ve met who are legitimately into doing a cross-country run. I am bored, so I started looking into the two events I know about. The 2904 is no longer running, and the organizers aren't returning my FB messages. The C2C Express is running this year, and it's supposed to be the last year it’s going to run. I am trying to reach out to the organizers to see if I can take it over so the event can continue, but haven’t heard back yet.
Basically what I am getting at is if we want to do a run, it'll probably be in fall of this year. The C2C only allows pre 1980 vehicles purchased for under $3,000. Factoring in upgrades, travel, vehicle shipment to NY, etc., I think it's a solid $3k investment each.
Are you guys in for this?
Thanks, Chris

From this moment forward it was a rollercoaster. First activity involved finding a car and figuring out what was in fact wrong with it. Chris was all over this and keeping us on point.

Chris L Thu, Jul 11, 2019 at 10:54 AM

PLEASE REPLY SAYING YOU'RE 100% IN ON THIS, AND I WILL START PROCURING THE CAR!!!

Chris L Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 7:51 AM

I test drove a 1981 300SD yesterday, and it was not too bad. Owner has service records back to new (car now has 270k), including rebuilt trans and top end in the not too distant past. Tach doesn't work, A/C doesn't really work, but the rest is pretty solid. He replaced the shocks a year ago, so those are good. Says it burns oil at a rate of about 1/2qt per tank (about 400miles of driving). So we'd need to have a few gallons of oil in the trunk.

My biggest concerns are as follows:

- Tires only have 50k on them and have an 80k warranty. They are 7 years old, and show some small cracks. Tires are Michelin X Radial 195/70R14.

- Top speed is said to be 103MPH online. To hit 35 hours, we need around 83MPH average. Speedo goes to 85, and since the tach wasn't working, I am not sure where the engine was when i was doing 80 on the test drive

Other than that, I think it would be a decent car to take to the event and then buys us 12 months to get a better car (Fingers crossed for a 450SEL 6.9).

For the route, we will decide that beforehand, and can make a Google sheet for all the inputs. having live traffic on the fly will be key as well. Should we get a WIFI hotspot for the car?

I am going to get back to the owner of the Merc today and offer $1,900 cash and see if he bites. Then we're off to the races.

We had our chariot… Time to start looking at fitting it out.

Tasks:

Navigation (Kindle w/Bluetooth GPS, cell phones) <- before I had my Galaxy S7
Fuel Cell
Police Avoidance Gear
Check out car status (tires, brakes, suspension and steering)

Chris L Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 7:54 AM

OK, since Ian doesn't do email apparently, here is the results of the Mercedes tech's inspection: shits fucked up.

Not so badly that we can't make the trip, but badly enough that we should sell the car immediately afterward and keep our eyes peeled for another diesel Merc over the coming year.

The car wasn’t great, but we had planned on an adventure so no big deal. Let’s just add a fourth member, that should solve all the issues right? At least I had the fuel cell ready at this time. Giant plastic fuel cell with a low pressure fuel pump epoxied to the side. Keeping it simple.

Also acquired strap material in case we needed to actually secure the tank…Never used it.

Chris L Mon, Jul 29, 2019 at 8:06 AM

Adding Chad, our 4th member.
Chad, Michael is my co-pilot for the Gambler 500's we've done, and Ian is the best auto detailer in the world and an avid car enthusiast.

DateTimeDescription
August 3rd8:00-5:00Car work day
August 14th Apply for car shipment
September 9thMorningChris arrives in NYC
September 11th Car arrives in NY
September 12thMorningIan arrives in CT
September 12thEveningUnknown C2C event in NYC
September 13th3:00Check in to CT hotel
September 14thOur choiceC2C Begins
September 16thDependsC2C Ends
September 15-17 Portofino Inn Reservations
September 17th9:00 AMDrive back to SJ

Chris was finally getting some details on the actual dates and event schedule. Very helpful when planning to ship a car across the country.

This was the end of July.

Shipment of the car would have to be early August.

We will hadn’t worked on the car aside from Chris’s general inspection and maintenance. Its fine…we have plenty of time.

We were so not ready and the car was going to take us for a new twist….

***Chris L*** Monday, August 5, 2019 8:40 AM

*Also forgot to ask about the star plug on top of the grill. I think it'd be sick to add a simple "C2C" text on top of it, very low profile. Or we could write it. Idk.*
*Ask and you shall receive!*
*Fired up my CAD skills and warmed the 3d printer to whip out this hotness for the front of our chariot.*
*Back side matches the OEM keyway and rotates into place just like the Merc’s original one.*

Disaster (Or Opportunity?) Strikes

Chris L Tue, Aug 20, 2019 at 8:15 PM

To: Michael Detmers, Chad Mosier, Ian Osgood

Hi Team,
Good news and bad news. The good news is that we will not be driving a ticking time bomb across the country.The bad news is that I only know that because it detonated on the way back from work today in the form of a cracked or otherwise damaged piston. Nick the Mercedes mechanic said it is "most likely something major related to the piston."

So here are our options:

1. Quit (lame). Pretty sure we won't get our deposits back, won't have any cool stories, etc

2. Buy a different 300SD and swap out all of the parts (tires, brakes, electronics) into it. This invites unknown problems. We also need to sell two cars afterward, and fix the engine anyway.

3. Buy a new engine and swap it into the car this weekend. Possibly upgrade the diesel engine

4. Buy a completely different car and ship it. Also invites unknown problems, and gives no advantage of the custom work we've done.

Let me know your guys thoughts.

At the least I would like to tear the head off the engine this week and verify the piston damage.
Thanks, Chris

Chad Mosier Wed, Aug 21, 2019 at 8:41 AM

To: Chris L, Michael Detmers, Ian Osgood

And just for the record. Quitting is NOT an option! Of course failure always is. ABG!

This is the week before we needed to ship the car to NY.

Chad pulled out some crap car finding magic and found this beauty

Woodland Car – 1981 SD with 486,000 miles but supposedly rebuilt at 400k, clean title and non-oped. Sounds like it is descent condition, probably similar to what we have now. The rear windows are not working well although he said they did work before he parked it, may just need to be cleaned up. He is at $850.

Chad Mosier Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 8:36 PM

To: Michael Detmers, Chris L, Ian Osgood

The deed is done. We are now the proud owners of another '81 300SD scheisse box.

No Breaks Allowed

Chad and I ran up to Woodside to pick up the car on Friday afternoon (August 23rd). Everything went smoothly with the seller, ran over the DMV to finish the title transfer. From there the plan was a smooth ride down to SJ with some minor speed/stability/drivability tests.

This was all cut short when the car mysteriously lost forward acceleration. My heart sunk, I was driving it at the time. We just scrambled and found another identical car to just have it also fail? No way. This can’t be our luck back-to-back. Call in AAA…

We had them drag to my house in Concord where we could diagnose it better.

Difficult to see, but apparently the transmission output shaft nut had backed itself off. I have no idea how that even happens.

We did have a bit of good luck though…the guibo retained the nut so we didn’t have to find a new one. Just figure out how to tighten it.

For a German car mechanic or reputable shop this likely would have been simple. It was dark on the Friday before we needed to load her up. So we went to the hardware store and I broke out my angle grinder.