Quick Update in the life of Hunter and his obsession for G Wagens

Well it has been a long time since my first G Wagen and I miss it dearly. As many know I converted that 1981 300GD to run on waste vegetable oil for my high school senior project. It turned out great with the help of some loyal friends, but the rust on the body was cost prohibitive for me to keep. I sold it to a guy in North Carolina. He has since restored it (so I've heard, no pictures). I then bought a 1984 280GE in Colorado, but that engine failed a month later. We did a turbo diesel swap and after spending $10,000 too much on that vehicle I sold that for an 88 BMW M3. I sold that a month later and stopped buying impulsively. In December I made another impulsive buy for a Right Hand Drive 1982 Mercedes 300GD Long wheel base. (See post below)

I sold that vehicle after three months of ownership to my mechanic, Den Burhans in Ijamsville, MD in exchange for $5000 and his lovely 1985 BMW 735i. I've been driving this lovely vehicle problem free since early March, but I am deciding on which G Wagen I'll get next. This time I'm going to plan it out and make sure I am financially stable enough to purchase one and maintain one - I'd like to keep this G Wagen until I graduate or until I can afford a 463 when I am well off and working full time. I have my eye on a lovely 1986 230GE in Oklahoma, but it has rust. I am assuming around 5-6k to have those rusty panels replaced properly.

Here is a picture of that G Wagen. I'll be sure to be a little more faithful to updating this blog in the future. Thanks everyone!


Hunter

1 Year Update

Hello everyone,

It has been quite some time since I have updated this. Well, the white G Wagen is gone. I sold it to a man in North Carolina in March 2009 because the rust got to be just too much. I am waiting for him to send me some pictures of his progress. Apparently he has removed all of the rust and replaced with new metal. I am very curious to see how it looks!

I am now driving another G Wagen - 1982 300GD LWB but it is right hand drive. I am in the process of fixing it up to fulfill duties of carrying and transporting film equipment and crew members. It will be a great project!


A lot of people have been asking about the video I created over two years ago. Here it is again for those interested in watching it.





Hunter

October Update

Hello everyone! It is October 20, 2008. I am currently at school now, Drexel University. My 300GD is sitting in the driveway back home in Columbia, I won't be home for awhile, but I am going to begin buying the parts needed to restore the body to factory look. I sure do miss the truck, but I will be working on it soon. Stay tuned in..

Project Update

So I have not had time lately due to the fact that I just moved into school to update this blog. Anyway, the truck's conversion has been running great, no problems with the electrical even after enduring pounding hard rain, going through mud and clay pits, the system has remained flawless. The only maintenance is to replace the fuel filter every 3 or 4 months which I have done twice since it has been installed. The motor is going to be undergoing some work in the next couple months. I have a leak around the crank seal, and I also need a valve adjustment and a new water pump. The total project cost is somewhere around a thousand dollars. The truck still needs a good restoration of the body, interior is in excellent condition, mechanically in very condition as well.

The project will be concluded once all the motor work has been completed to continue work on another Mercedes G Class project in the near future

The truck will be sold, the money from the sale will be invested and a new G Class will be purchased and a cleaner, more OEM-like vegetable oil conversion will be carried around with a hidden, heated fuel tank. This truck will also undergo a ten thousand dollar 6 cylinder turbo diesel swap. More information to follow. Please stay tuned for information regarding finding the proper vehicle, motor, and conversion procedures. Thanks!

Stuck in Hurricane Hannah

Back from my 340 Mile trip to Richmond and back! Also new tires!

I got back from my trip to visit my Grannie and Pop Pop down in Varina, VA on the 26th. This was the first trip I took that was futher than 60 miles at a time in the G Wagen. Well, I filled up my primary diesel tank and 3/4th of my veggie tank with diesel ($115.00 for gas) and 3 extra 5 gallon cubes of vegetable oil in the back and made my way down south!

The drive was slow, but without any major problems. I had a CD player installed before I left, and it was wired up to tap power from the AC unit (which btw needed to be recharged) and at one point I had the CD player, fans, AC all running at once! Well 30 seconds in I started to smell burning wires so I turned off the AC and the fans and drove with the windows down. Kind of scary! My max speed the whole way down was 55, usually cruising around 48 MPH. I got down there using only a little more than a 1/4 tank of veg/diesel mix. The trip was about 170 miles. I haven't done that math but that sounds like some good gas milage to me.



I picked up my BFG Mud Terrain 235/85/16's while I was down as well. They are sweet! My cousin and I drove around my grandparents 160 acre property for about an hour just looking for something to get stuck in, there were no takers.





Also, I went mudding yesterday and I only managed to get scared once, and that was when I drove into a water holding pond in a construction area. I made it out just fine (Thank God).

The tires are not too loud, I can barely notice them over my previous set (235/60/16 IIRC Goodyear Eagle RS/A)

Enjoy the pictures, thanks for the tire recommendation Steve and thank you Harald for those torque numbers!

Tires!

So I wake up extra early today to go get my 265.75.16 BFG MT installed at Costco. The drive was 40 miles away (gas money $$$). They were special ordered and they put one tire on the front driver side and said it was rubbing! The manager said he wouldn't mount them. I told them everyone rubs, but he said he wouldn't do it. Anyway, so they ordered me 235.70.16's BFG MT, but I didn't really want them. What is the point of a small mud tire? Please enlighten me.

I called around, talked to Steve over at Eurotruck Importers and he recommended a 235.85.16 tire. Well after calling a s**tload of places to find someone who stocked it I sided with 4wheelparts.com They set me up with 5 tires + shipping to my grandparents place in VA + the sickest tire replacement warranty for 1050.00.

[b]Any comments on this tire size? Do you think I am going to rub with this tire? Is it safe to rub this much? Any comments on http://www.4wheelparts.com/ ?
[/b]


Thanks Steve for all the advice! I will keep everyone posted on the install process of these 235.85.16's.