My very own barn find!

Every classic car enthusiast I know of, dreams of being the first person to stumble across a long forgotten classic, lurking behind a rusty garage door or hiding under a cover in a barn. Up until yesterday the dream of a "Barn Find" for me was exactly that; a dream.

When it comes to classic cars one never seems to be enough, so over the past two years of owning UGU, I have always been open to the idea of having a friend for her, be that a car I can work on as a tester to expand my knowledge, before trying to do any work to UGU, or just something else that appeals to me.

About a year into my ownership of UGU we were cruising around in one of the more affluent suburbs of West Perth when we turned a corner and spotted another 250C on the side of the road.  I pulled over and went for an inspection.  What I saw was nothing short of horrifying;  I have never seen a car with so much rust!  As I looked about I noticed a sprinkler head on a pole located very near to the car. Its intention was to water the adjacent lawn, not the car! It seemed clear that the car had been parked in this location for a very long time, and that the sprinkler was just pouring water onto it on a regular basis. Noting that the car still had a few good parts, I left a note for the owner and asked if he would like to pass it on to someone who could use it.

Series 1 250 C in terrible condition.  

Note the sprinkler on the pole at the edge of the driveway

The owner called me soon after I left the note and  straight away starting referring to the 250C as "his baby"! Now, if this is how he treats his so called baby, I fear for his children!

The story goes: the car was bought many years ago, following which it was taken for an inspection.  With the car up on a hoist, the mechanic warned that the car was a death trap, having a huge amount of rust in the chassis, sills and floors.  The owner took the car home, parked it up and it has sat there ever since, slowly being reclaimed by nature.

I can only imagine this car would have been stunning when new.  I really love the colour.  The cobwebs in the exhaust are another telling sign that the car has been here for a very long time.

It had been about a year since I have first offered to buy that car, and after passing by the house and seeing the car still in the same spot, but looking even worse for wear, I contacted the owner again.  Perhaps hoping to recoup some of his losses the owner still wanted thousands of dollars for the car so I just let it be.  To this day the car is still sitting there; it is so sad.

As the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens, and in that vein a few days after negotiations ended with that car a fellow Mercedes Club member called to let me know he had heard of a W114 coupe that the owner wanted rid off.

Armed with a phone number I tried to contact the owner straight away, but with no luck, I decided to get in the car a go to the provided address hoping to meet the owner when I got there.  As it turned out the address was a mechanics workshop, and I had picked the worst day ever to go looking at cars, as Perth was hit with a once in a decade storm.

This is how I found her in the pouring rain with the drivers window down

1971 250CE 4 speed manual

Standing in the pouring rain I had a look at the car and listened to what the mechanic was saying. The owner of this car had parked it in his garage 9 years ago and there she had resided, untouched and forgotten.

Six months ago the car was pulled out of the garage and of course no longer ran. This is how she ended up at the mechanics workshop. Amazingly, despite the evident rust, the owner committed to $1,500 worth of work to get the car running again.  This work included a new fuel tank, refurbishment of the injectors and replacement tail lights, as one had been smashed.

For those of you who know these cars you will note in the pictures that the tail lights are not correct. This car is a 1971 W114 250CE making her a series one, so the tail lights should be smooth. Thankfully the originals were found in the boot.

The car had been reversed into what I can only image to be a pole which smashed the original tail light and bent the chrome strip and boot lid

Original series 1 tail lights found in the boot

Having seen the car I once again called the owner and left a message saying I was interested in buying it and could he call me.  My main reasons of interest in the car were the fact that it was still registered and a manual: a rare thing in Australia. I hoped that she might be restorable giving me that test car I wanted to use as a learning tool to help me better understand how to work on UGU.

I didn't hear from the owner for a week or so, but when he called we discussed at length the condition of the car and negotiated a price agreeable to all.  Another week went by before I heard from the owner again and we tried to arrange collection.  That one week became almost 5, by which time I thought he had changed his mind and I had given up on the sale.  However, true to his word the owner stuck to the deal, and yesterday we met, exchanged details and money and the car was mine, yeehaa!

This photo has not been photoshopped, this is where she came from, complete with 9 years of dirt and grime.

Loaded up and ready to go to her new home. 

Tyro Workshop

A big thanks to Steve from Perth Tow for an excellent service.

Tel. 0458 226 088

On the road again; sort of!!

I took this video whilst waiting for the tow truck to arrive.  She was indeed in a sorry state.  Enjoy: