Quote:
Originally Posted by babymog
A wire wheel is typically softer than the iron oxide/rust. Running the wire wheel on the rust will polish it and give it a nice silver color from the wire, but won't remove it. I've used a Snap-On Krud Thug tool with their carbide wire wheel with good results however.
You likely will need to sandblast to get to virgin steel. Some welding shops will allow you to sandblast or will do the work for you for a minor fee, or if you have a sizeable air compressor (>5hp) you can buy a cheap sandblast nozzle and coarse sand to do it yourself. A sandblast outfit is an excellent toy to have around for everything from lawn furniture to auto resoration, the bigger the better (I use a diesel-powered one with a power-ventilated protective suit).
I don't have an E300 myself, but my good friend's '99 had the spring perch failure a couple of years ago (never in salt). One problem with the failure is that IMO it is not preventable, the rust occurs between the spring perch and inner body where the bond is made by the spot welds, and there is no way IMO to access that area mechanically.
Your only hope in preventing this rust might be to stop the rust chemically as only liquids etc. will be able to get between the steel parts.
Another concern that I have is whether your work will void any goodwill spring-perch work that Mercedes might offer in the event of a failure.
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I have run that wire wheel and cleaned off the exposed surface rust to expose virgin metal. The area's that were more affected by the rust are, as you stated polished. I will clean off the rust to the best of my ability and apply a few coats of the Eastwood Rust converter I purchased. I was clearing some of it last night and was yanking on that perch and she's on there solid. I was slightly rocking the car back and forth side to side, so she ain't coming off anytime soon. I hope that with a good treatment of the Eastwood products this should stop the rusting and prevent further damage.
I already had an MB rep look at the car last year and they denied my spring perch claim. They referred me to their body shop that handle most of their work though :-)
My thoughts are if I stop the rust from continuing to progress and with the perch still on their solidly, I should be trouble free for some time.