it's a long story... I took it to a feller I knew who had a paint & body shop. I've seen many of the cars he painted and was impressed with his work. We made a deal for him to completely strip the vehicle & repaint and I would de-trim the vehicle & then reassemble. I left town and returned a few months later to retrieve the vehicle & it looked awesome. After a few months the paint started to crack badly - all over & I discovered he did not use PPG as agreed and that he did not strip the vehicle as we had agreed.
He then agreed to repaint the vehicle. I again had to remove all the trim before leaving town for several months & when returned to retrieve the vehicle the same thing happened after a few months, only much worse. I then stripped the entire vehicle myself. I had it down to beautiful gleaming bare metal before leaving town again, whereupon he was supposed to repaint the entire vehicle with PPG. I was out of town for approximately 8 months. When I returned, I discovered that he had not only failed to paint the vehicle, but left it in the desert sun.
Then a series of failed promises to complete the job over a long period of time ensued. Finally, one day he said he was ready to paint the vehicle and wanted my help so I went to his shop and what I saw stunned me. The vehicle was all rusted b/c he failed to apply epoxy primer, all the leather was completely dried out and badly cracked, the wood trim was completely ruined, tires were flat and dry rotted, weatherstripping needed replacement, battery was missing, sunroof was completely inoperative and misaligned, the car interior, trunk and engine compartment were full of sand, etc. I told him to refund my money, which he did. I then retrieved my E420 and left. That was several years ago and I miss my E420 more and more every day.
I realize I could repair my E420, but the cost to do so would far exceed the value - hence my WTB post.
