It’s a massive job on the W116… Plus, usually RHD German cars are even worse as they are conceived as LHD and stuff is shifted around to make it work. Lots of RHD Mercedes stuff looks like it’s from a kit car.

Get a good hand hold on the top of the bellhousing, other hand on the output shaft flange, good deadlift form, straight back, lift with your legs… aaand the output shaft rotates suddenly so you drop it on the concrete floor.

This is a write-off. Here is what I’m basing it on:

1. Look at the alignment of the rear quarter/C pillar versus the back door - the entire frame and skin has been pushed forward and inwards. The car is now slightly parallelogram shaped.

2. The rear wheel was moved forward on impact enough to dislodge the lower brightwork along the bottom of the rocker panel. The rear suspension/driveshaft has some give but may be out of alignment.

3. The honeycomb/corrugated rear corner structure is damaged - it’s not easy to cut out and weld in a new bit as it’s all formed together for strength.

If the hit was a foot higher this might be fixable, but this has serious but subtle structural damage that is too expensive to fix properly on a 5 year old car.

You could put this on a rack and stretch some metal back out and slap new bumper support, cover and light back in and it would look fine, but it would never drive properly ever again.

Write-off.