Here's a picture of the helmet. It was purchased from Clinton Welding supply in Westbury in September of 2005 for $220. It is self-powered and does not require batteries.

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'83 300D, 126K miles.

I'm sure everyone will freak at this one, and I'm not going to suggest it would work in the application the OP intends. But, when I restored my 74 Karman Ghia Convertible, I repaired the rust in the floor boards by cutting out most of the rust, bead blasting the rest, then zinc painting, then I used fiberglass and carbon fiber on the entire floorboards running it right up the top of the inside of the rocker, up the floor toward the dash, and up in the back as far as I could reach. It's very solid, it might have added about 30 pounds though, but it's been 10 years now, granted I do not drive this car in the rain ever, but if I'd had one of those roller things Greezer is talking about in his thread, I would have sealed if from both sides and never worried about rust again. As is the underside is sealed with an asphalt tar product I reapply every 4 or so years basically roof sealant.

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1983 W123 300TD US spec Turbo engine, with Euro bumpers and manual climate control, and manual transmission.

I had a hole on the rear passenger side floor.

I patched it using layers of fiberglass mat and a POR15-like paint called KBS Rust Seal.

I prefer it over welding in places that don't affect chassis strengh. My only concern with this method is that i imagine a floor flexes a lot with people stepping in and out and might cause the patch to eventually separate. If I ever get the hunch that that has happened, I will be welding. Starting to feel like maybe that's what I should have done in the first place.

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1982 240D 4-speed
2013 Jeep Wrangler Sport - 4.10 e-locker

IMO, this is the easist, quickest, and cheapest route to take. ASSUMING you don't have a rust disaster on your hands. That is, what starts out as a little "seam" or hole, can quickly turn into ALOT of rust once you start the grinding process.

If you got holes or seams, or something pretty "simple", you can DIY grind away and clean up the area probably in less than a few hours and the time and costs are very low.

Then, as others suggested, buy some 18 or 20 gauage steel, cold rolled patch panel material. Very cheap and easy to come buy.

Make some carboard templates and carefully trace the holes or whatever you're trying to fix. Most likely, none of the areas you're trying to fix will have beads or other indentations. Any curves can be done by hand and look pretty close to the real McCoy.

Then, cut out the metal with your templates and grind the metal so you have a tiny gap. This is the time consuming part. You can buy the "official" metal fabrication holders or jimmy them any way you want so that they hold in place with the 1/16 gap.

Then, HIRE a welder. There are a ton of them in my area which charge $45 an hour. They come to you. If everything is ready to go, you're looking at no more than 2 hours and that includes grinding, et cet so you have a professional finish. There are some super pros out there in-between jobs, with years and years of experience and top notch equpment. After that, anyone can paint POR15, seam sealer, et cet.

The above is for someone with no welding experience, no welding equipment, and someone who wants to get the job done for under $150.00 and do so with some pretty simple tools and DIYer skills.

Just one of many solutions out there IMO.

Ideally, we'd all be doing repairs the right way the first time. BUT... different budgets, different skill levels, and reality get in the way.

The way I see it, there's no shame in doing it the wrong way if you end up prolonging the life of the car and the repairs are done in a decently safe way.

Back in 2008, I had a 240D with good mechanicals, a nice interior, but swiss cheesed floors and rockers. I did all my repairs with sheet steel, pop rivets, and seam sealer (not to mention primers, paints, undercoatings...) The repairs felt strong (not that I was planning on testing them in an accident).


I ended up selling that car a year later (with full disclosure to the buyer on how I'd made the repairs) and it fell off my radar. A year or two ago I saw that self same car on eBay (the engine had died and had been removed from the car). There were plenty of pictures in the ad which showed the areas I'd repaired years earlier, still looking perfectly solid.

Despite the fact that the 240D had stayed in New England, and had been driven (I assume), deterioration was nil, or at least at a minimum. Did I do the repairs the right way? No. Did I give that car a few more years on the road when someone else might have scrapped it? Yes.

The repairs on my current project car still aren't done in a 100% correct way. But, I have faith that they're solid and should last me a number of years.

Indeed. There are plenty of repair options for someone with some ingenuity who isn't aiming for a concours-quality restoration.

Yup ... if you had a zillion dollars dedicated to the hobby, ship it out to the big boys and pay $10,000 for a concours-quality restoration paint job. OR, spend what you can or want. Heck, my silly method is all steel repairs and virtually no skills needed. Just a day or so and the ability to find a decent welder. Welding is an art IMO.

I agree with ya, on this Greezer, welding is an acquired skill. One I have not acquired. I fall back to fiberglass-carbon fiber often, because I used to build massive chemical storage tanks out of the stuff, they had to be strong enough to contain 30,000+ gallons of corrosive chemicals. That, and I have the tools (which are really not expensive, just rollers and etc.) Most people don't roll out the glass when they laminate, which leaves bubbles and prevents the resin from fully saturating the glass or carbon fiber. There's a surf shop I get all my goodies from now, though with the car I'm doing now there won't be much, so far just the broken HVAC bracket, will post pics when I get that done though.

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1983 W123 300TD US spec Turbo engine, with Euro bumpers and manual climate control, and manual transmission.

Even CF is an art !

Everything Greazzer said, and just to add that you need to get two inches of CLEAN metal around the repair area if you want the patch to last.

Also if you are doing surface rust repair, you need to make sure to coat the inside of the panel after with undercoating or rust paint or POR to prevent the rust from returning on the outside. I learned this the hard way and apparently decided I needed to re-learn it last summer.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

The nice thing about mig welding is the learning curve is very easy compared to many other forms of welding. Or it was for me. Plus the penetration factor of the weld is much easier to get.

I have never used wire with an incorporated flux though. Only straight wire with gas.

LePage Epoxy Steel

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1978 300D