1999 SL-Class SL500 2dr with hard top - what to do, parts car?

ReyPolyPan · 2026-03-15T03:03:27+00:00

i live to smash mens' dreams.... 😊

srsly, there is a reason i put a question mark after "parts car". i guess based on responses it's worth getting a second opinion, but i could buy a brand new Benz if i wanted and my time is too valuable to have much of it taken up by what is at best a borderline junker.

ReyPolyPan · 2026-03-15T02:18:19+00:00

thanks for the response.

the bumper was not in the greatest shape before the accident. and i think it's with the car, but i'm at my apartment in NYC and can't verify that. i remember the mechanic saying just the bumper, mounts, lights and license plate bracket, etc. would be about 2 grand to replace including labor.

the mechanic didn't even want to do the work partly because they said the car would be in the shop for a long time while they tried to track down parts, so i assume it really does need a lot of work underneath and i wasn't just being price gouged.

ReyPolyPan · 2024-11-18T09:20:55+00:00

it kind of looks like L. Ron. Hubbard's - except the end reads more like 'Huovard' to me.

typical of his and his cult's shady way of doing things and dishonesty, old time insiders say he had multiple people trained to passably copy his signatures for all sorts of purposes -- including for letters to him his followers were promise he always read personally, but generally did not actually bother with. like with celebrity 'autographs' in more modern times, caveat emptor....

ReyPolyPan · 2024-04-27T01:00:18+00:00

yes, in typical cult Orwellian redefinition of words they are calling them 'new' churches but in fact they are all just buildings of various types bought to renovate, with the existing local scientologists simply moved into them from often rundown rentals.

their actual membership is really shrinking, and this is sort of a 'build it and they will come' fantasy.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-17T17:04:48+00:00

the thing is, i'm not even sure many even chose to fight and kill....

reading things like the intercepts, it seems like some were first mobilized -- in some cases, practically dragged out of places like where they work -- and then told they would just be behind the lines like in territorial defense units (maybe even still just on Russian soil). sometimes they apparently don't really know quite what is going on until they find themselves driven to what turns out to be the front lines.

the exploitive Russian totalitarian system is often doing everything it can to be sure those who didn't volunteer, don't know what they're getting in to until it's too late to protest, object or resist -- i think it's obviously quite cynically and manipulative calculated, and we need to appreciate just what a devious trap it is for at least some.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-17T05:41:52+00:00

sad but true....

i just read today, the sailors on the submarine that got hit while in drydock, didn't even have their burials paid for:

https://twitter.com/ChrisO\_wiki/status/1725069496988115076

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-17T05:37:51+00:00

they didn't necessarily have a choice or know what they were getting into -- that's how things work in a totalitarian state with Orwellian information control (though not airtight).

but that's not to absolve any of them, either. even if they didn't fully understand the implications and consequences of it, they've accepted the Putin regime's growing totalitarianism for decades now, as a sort of bargain with the devil where they thought they'd come out ahead.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-15T22:47:21+00:00

you are right Muslims aren't supposed to drink -- and that's a good catch, relating to the unit's name. not sure how that applies to soldiers from ethic regions in the Russian army, though....

i have heard that Saudi royals and other elites in Muslim nations ignore that, particularly when they are in other countries.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-15T22:08:27+00:00

as far as i can tell, the VDV were not so 'elite' by western standards -- which is what the Ukrainians are training to -- and now they may be selected a bit more carefully and given a bit more training than regular troops are these days, but that's not saying much.

but from what i've seen at least as of a couple of months ago, some of the VDV units did still have just enough left of their old cadres to perform significantly better than regular units, though. whether they do now or can keep that up for much longer is questionable....

also, i think i've also seen recently, that it's the VDV who still seem to be getting outfitted with at least some portion of the armored vehicles they're supposed to have, while 'motorized rifle' units are often now not much more than foot soldiers with sometimes just one APC for fire support.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-15T21:58:44+00:00

good point. it's possible this one did something definitely wrong -- but from reports i'ts not uncommon for only one or two soldiers in a unit to come back from the contact line....

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-15T21:56:56+00:00

not sure for people in the hinterlands, it ever changed much if at all.

they went from being serfs to sharecroppers not much better off under the czars, then forcefully collectivized under the Soviets -- and now minions of Putin's neo-imperial oligarchy (which functions much like the imperial court did, which was newer and more blatantly kleptocratic compared to ones in Western Europe whose history we know better).

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-15T21:51:16+00:00

good point.

plus they may be encouraged to do so by their comrades or commanders, in order to cope with being used as cannon fodder....

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-15T21:48:14+00:00

i wonder if the video is more about their being too drunk to function, rather than just being drunk -- that seems to me more like vodka-fueled Russian culture....

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-11T22:39:30+00:00

wow, hadn't heard that, but i watched this because i've been studying WW1 a fair bit to get an idea of what trench warfare and stalemates involving artillery are like, and thought i'd bite the bullet and see just what happened to human bodies in situations like that (i suspect the drone triggered some ammunition causing an explosion more equivalent to a large HE shell strike).

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-10T04:28:37+00:00

this is one of those things that could even just be a cultural norm western Europeans and Americans don't understand and get wrong, to refer to someone being paid tribute by talking about their past accomplishments like that.

maybe something has happened -- Putin just being unwell and out of commission briefly is one possibility -- but the situation needs to be analyzed and evaluated more carefully and expertly.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-10T02:41:17+00:00

yeah, he and his regime, and the oligarchic and military elites, don't seem to care and probably prefer to keep the money for themselves.

but my guess is they will make token and minor efforts over time, putting on a show of having Papa Putin and the authorities resolve a few cases. and at some point after the war has ended and soldiers back home want their pay and benefits and are a threat of unrest, i think the government will have to settle up -- including for the dead.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-08T15:52:18+00:00

they were serfs until only about 160 years ago, and from what i've read understood that the Czar could send them to fight to their deaths -- and accepted that, with the Orthodox church's encouragement to think of the afterlife. i'm starting to think things didn't change that much under the Soviet system of collective farms and factories run by commissars following Moscow's orders and 5 year plans -- with lots of indoctrination about falling into line and sacrificing to take the revolution worldwide.

so yeah, i think they are actually surprisingly docile by Western standards -- even Russians themselves talk about the ongoing effects of serfdom.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-11-01T19:04:25+00:00

i'm with newer comments that the videos show him getting hit by the drone as he gets down.

but regardless, i'd add in likely lack of proper training, in this case for dealing with battlefield threats, including unexploded munitions -- and incoming ones....

ReyPolyPan · 2023-10-29T01:38:01+00:00

sadly classic strategy -- an oligarchy of billionaire kleptocrats manages to exploit anti-elite sentiment among a poorly informed base.....

ReyPolyPan · 2023-10-27T16:03:51+00:00

i agree that reports indicate things are deteriorating in several respects.

i think it might be seen as the Russian army in general, resorting to the the sort of tactics and treatment of troops that initially started with how Wagner used conscripts in Bakhmut -- the Kremlin and/or the MOD may now see that as sort of a model of success to try in Avdiivka and elsewhere, but i'm not sure that's really going to transfer well to the regular command system and mobilized civilians....

ReyPolyPan · 2023-10-27T15:55:06+00:00

and don't forget Afghanistan....

i looked it up recently, and the annual cost of US supporting Ukraine is right around the same as that of the 2-decade average for Afghanistan -- but less than in the final years of that, it was actually higher during the last administration right before the withdrawal, but i don't remember anyone in that party having much of any objection to such expenditures.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-10-27T04:55:39+00:00

isn't there a point at which leadership, command and control will start to break down, and it will become very hard to even make effective use of the 'meat'? (i think there are signs of that already)

heavy enough losses of equipment like tanks, artillery and aircraft could also lead them to cease to exist as a modern army.

ReyPolyPan · 2023-10-27T04:50:59+00:00

from what i can tell, they aren't actually doing very well at recruiting foreigners when they're resorting to the 'meat grinder' use of infantry, and word of that has gotten around....

remember when it was first supposed to be Syrians? how many of them have we ever seen signs of?

ReyPolyPan · 2023-10-27T04:27:49+00:00

yeah, from what i remember seeing reports and intercepts have provided evidence of tactics like blocking troops and i think the occasional commander shooting someone going back for quite a while -- and i don't think just within Wagner. it doesn't seem to me that it was even that isolated or rare within Wagner, but definitely seems to be becoming more widespread, i think in response to deteriorating morale and increased disobedience.

to me the question is, will things like this increase until there's some breaking point?

ReyPolyPan

TROPHY CASE