Those upper control arms are not that expensive and they have a bushing up where the bolt goes through in the engine compartment. You will probably be able to shake the upper arm back and forth since it only has that one bolt holding it there. I'll bet your fine with that upper control arm. A new one comes with the bushing and ball joint and isn't too expensive if you want to replace it.

As for the rust, you need rockers and jack points replaced. People have had them done here but usually on other models. I know of alabassi who had them replaced on his 6.9. His were a lot worse though and the whole car was repainted. The good thing about rockers is they should not require paint work since they just have that rubber coating on them for color. I think the rocker panels are maybe $150/side or even less since you have a SWB 126. Look for a place called K&K Manufacturing. Do a search here because they well reasonable body parts for older MBs. You would just have to find someone to do the welding. Also, once you get the rockers cut out, you will see boxes that are the jack points, those are welded in as well. Hopefully once the rockers are out the rust should not be too far in or you would start to see it on the side of the floor pan. Try pulling up the plastic door sill and see if there is much rust there. The sill snaps onto the fitting where the rocker meets the body BTW, so that will give you an idea of what a rocker panel really entails. Let me know if you have any question and I'll find the member here who had the rockers done and will post his webpage here.

Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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