Engine and general mechanical check over and Rust Repair
This car was booked in some time back for a mechanical tune up but the owner had found signs of rust ,which he asked me to provide an estimate of costs to sort it all out.
A price was agreed to and a start has been made. Although the car looks great it is in dire strait sand appears to have been sitting somewhere for a very long time in long grass or possibly on it’s belly.
Firstly a set of new sills and floor panels were ordered but thanks to the virus this took far too long for the parts to arrive (never use the Pitney bowes global shipping program,) while the wait was happening the interior has been removed to get reupholstered ,
Here the front bumper,bright sill moulding and mudguard on the drivers side have been removedthis the front of the right hand sill/rocker at the base of the A pillar .This will be completely replaced ,but first the floors…
it was necessary to start here as it was suspected that the rust was really extensive.
Most of the sills are composed of polyester body filler.
same area looking down,below the tape can seen a 10mm thick layer of filler,used to fill rust holes.This is the left side , to fill in the space someone has added pieces of foam packing material ,stuffed into the cavity.
The Left side is proving to be very problematic because the guard appears to have been welded to the sill. it will have to bwe cut off to get access to the worst rust.
Not a very good picture but what it shows is the lack of floor between the sill and the front floor. It had been patched in the past with pieces of steel which appear to be from a Fridge or washing machine and tar. that is the floor visible under the car.
The floor will have to bwe rebuilt completely before the rotted out sills are removed,the car will collapse otherwise.
Left side seat mount stuck down with tar. the white parts are peices of old fridge panels covering rust this has been removed.
To remove the seats it was simply a matter of lifting them up and out,the mounts were so rusted they came apart.
This is a massive blob of old body filler which probably weighs 3 kgs. that stuff is expensive so aomeone must have been getting it for free. Inside the rear of the left front wheel house ,what is shown here is the front of the sill,again covered in a thick layer of filler which is preventing the guard from being removed .inorder to rty and free the guard ,filler was ground out along the sill line and as can be seen is nearly 20 mm thick. Inside after the remains of the old carpet were removed,the tunnel was discovered to have Rockwool insulation glued to it. Not the safest stuff to be around,it was removed carefully and disposed of. This isn’t normal for Mercedes. It was neccessary to lift the car up onto stands to get better access and in doing so these ancient wheel spacers were found on the rear wheels. They are made of alloy and were crumbling away…not good!This is the ECU for the Djet fuel injection which was floating around free, these need to be removed when welding on this model of car as voltage spikes shorten the life of them. This one,unfortunately has been used in the car without it’s cover and this has allowed dirt to get into it. Dirt all over the electronics,which will be cleaned out before the car is run again . Driver side sill,A pillar bottom. This will have to replaced .Drivers side seat belt mount. New ones are being fabricated as parts are no longer available for these now. New Drivers side flor to the right of the picture .The holes will cut out and new steel welded in new Drivers floor and inner sill section being tried for size.This is the inner sill section with the bottom cut off .To the left,that is the base of the A pillar and jack point ,which although rusty is still very sound ,again massive blobs of filler are inside the sill .as can be seen the inner surface of the outer sill section is very rusted. Another big pile of tar and stuff used to’ hide the rust. A piece of the removed floor is in the left of the picture and that’s the rear wiring loom hanging down .
The underside of the car has yet to be stripped of all the tar etc but it has been deemed easier to replaced the rusted sections first,to save time.
This is the drivers side B pillar… Drivers side wheel house with the new floor being tried for size .Lots of rusted patches such as the piece laying on the floor demonstrates .In the upper left from this angle can be seen that the out sill panel was actually sticking outwards. This is one of the braces under the drivers floor which has been polished and painted with high zinc etch primer.
to be continued now that the materials to build all the replacements for the rear floor section has been ordered.
benzkraft 