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Old 11-15-2016, 12:46 PM
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Zacharias Zacharias is offline
Not so amused
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: West Quebec
Posts: 4,025
The wheels could be from a w210 but that style was also sold as knockoffs by the Tire Rack, etc. When you have a wheel off, look on the inside and if it's OE you will likely see either a manufacturer name such as Ronal and/or a Mercedes star stamped into it. If nothing then it's a copy. Only difference is that the copies are usually just a little bit different than the OE, in some way.

I owned a w116 and in my opinion, the very worst rust spot was by the driver's left foot, behind the dead pedal. There is a cavity behind the lower section of of the front fender, blank space between the fender and the body tub, that can fill up with debris and trap water. Your car should have a plastic trim piece covering that, at the rear of the wheel well. If you find only metal there, then your car has been repaired there already. I find that bodyshops inevitably don't bother to reinstall the trim and put a piece of metal over the area instead. If you want to really know what is going on rust wise, pulling that plastic panel (two or three small bolt head screws IIRC) and looking inside will tell. If you are golden there, you should be elsewhere as well.

Also be wary of water intrusion from the windshield seal. This runs down and gets into the factory sound insulation on the floor If it gets bad, or if you have water coming in from another source, it can collect on the rear floor and cause serious rot. Many Mercedes of that vintage rotted as badly from the inside out, as vice versa.

Not to rain on your parade, but a rust-free w116 body car is very, very rare now. Even cars from "dry" states often show some rot. If you are serious, you need to examine the car very carefully.

If it's rot free, you have a real gem there and please treat it accordingly .
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