Quick update on this thread to confirm that after almost a year of futzing around with my om617a engine upgrades I finally completed the air conditioning install on the pnzwgn:
It blows super cold and the wife can even control her side of things independently from me. This is helpful as the wife is chronically cold
Seriously, after I completed my super duper turbo diesel project earlier this year there was no room left for a condenser or drier so I just shelved it for the time being. Around the same time as this we decided to put the wife's X5 up for sale as well as my E350 as I was hardly driving at all during the height of the china virus hysteria. My goal was to unload them both by the end of the year but we ended up selling both cars in a little over a week or so as I recall.
- jyimr6.gif (2.81 MiB) Viewed 95 times
Well the wife decided to get back into a sedan so long as I got another G that she could drive (automatic), was gas, had AC, was black, had four doors/long wheelbase, had a ladder on the back and a roof rack. The last two requests really caught me off guard as I didn't even know she knew what they were. But after years of plotting for a second G if that is what it takes for your spouse to buy in you go with it. We searched hard for about three months and must have looked at around 15 G's in person or through our G affiliates across the country... what an odyssey. (Now would be a good time to pop some popcorn.)
I really wanted a south of the mason dixon line 2005 with the M113 and a 722.6 for all the obvious reasons and because we planned to keep this truck for the long haul. At least until the kids are off to college or whatever. However, we made a fatal error on Memorial Day when we drove to Charlotte to drive a white G550 that was not what we were thinking of but was in our "budget"... that was a mistake. The minute we started up that M273 it was pretty much over. Plus she really liked all of the creature comforts and I frankly liked this interior as well as any. After discussing with many club G elders and super users our searched broadened to a '04, '05, '10, '11 G5XX with less than 80K miles and no more than $40K.
Well, I was shocked to find how nasty many of the W463's of this vintage with such "low" mileage were. (I mean between gross negligence, appreciable rust, worn out interiors, CARFAX reports with 10 year gaps in "Germany", etc.) We basically came to the conclusion that a clean G did not exist and I was definitely not looking for another project G. It was getting hot and humid here and I needed another car to drive because the 300GD was not taking to the heat so well at the time, so I was running out of time. I planned one last work trip in and around Northern Virginia (the east coast capital of Gwagen owners) coupled with looking at four more W463's. All but one was in rough shape but it was an '03 AMG with 100K+ miles and I just didn't want an AMG with that many miles. But it gave me hope that there were "clean" G's of this mileage and vintage still out there.
- 200_d.gif (146.81 KiB) Viewed 95 times
Inspired, I then drove to Delaware the next morning to look at one more '05 that only had 50K miles... only to find it too was totally ragged out. And I was defeated. I felt everything in the cosmos was telling me to let this go, it's not meant to be, you don't have the budget for what you want, blah, blah, blah. But, if I haven't lost you already, this is where it get's mildly entertaining. There was one last G that we had bookmarked in our searching... a 2011 G550... with 71,XXX miles... for $41,XXX... in black... in TEXAS. Could it be..?
- tenor2.gif (916.08 KiB) Viewed 95 times
While leaving Rehoboth Beach in my rental (totally defeated) I was contacted by both my best eFriend (ATL-wagen) and the wife to see if what luck I'd had. I confessed that I was done with all of this and driving home. They both asked about the one in TX and was I going to look at it but I figured it was a fruitless exercise. The wife then said very clearly, "thou shall go forth unto Texas and not return until you bring hither the mechanical chariot of which we hath endeavored these past months before the succeeding fortnight..." I had been in communication with the dealership in TX for several weeks and the pictures they had sent looked promising but you never know. So I Facetime'd with the internet manager (while driving across Delaware) and to my surprise the truck looked good... even for black. I asked a lot of qualifying questions... and they qualified it. No break in service/owner records and all service done at the local MB dealer(s). By the time I got off of THAT call ATL-wagen had secured me a super cheap COVID flight from BWI to IAH via good ole Southwest. I literally had just enough time to drop off my rental car, get through TSA, order some Chic fil A and make it to the gate.
- tenor` (1).gif (669.49 KiB) Viewed 95 times
It was the most stressful flight of my life and I've done some stressful flying. It got really bad on the 45 minute Uber ride to the airport... I was convinced it was not going to pan out and this was all a colossal waste of time... I will never forget that ride. Well, I got to the dealership and had the zero conversational Uber driver drop me off around back and slithered my way up to the front of the used car house where the G550 was parked right out front. I must have crawled all over for about 10 minutes until I finally heard the distinctive sound of the doors unlocking. I didn't break character and just kept going over every inch of the car. (I know within 10 seconds if I'm not going to buy a car... takes me a bit longer to decide if I am going to buy a car.) Finally the doors locked and unlocked again and I realized they were messing with me inside. It was time for a test drive...
Part II will continued after this quick commercial break.