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  #1  
Old 08-19-2003, 11:19 PM
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Unhappy W202 1997 C280 Rust

Hi all, I got rust on the bottom of my door, its about 1 1/2 inch long I touch up with touch paint and month later the rust show up again. Are there something i can use to prevent it from spreading further?


john

1997 c280 70,000 miles

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  #2  
Old 08-20-2003, 04:21 AM
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Hi John:

I used POR 15 on my Mom's Chevy Blazer with great success. As you know, everything in Hawaii does rust.

I scraped off the rust, a little rough sanding, touch up paint and painted POR 15 in clear over the touch up paint. It stopped the rust in its tracks.

I hope this helps.

Aloha,
Eric
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  #3  
Old 08-20-2003, 12:31 PM
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Isn't POR15 a treatment to be applied directly to the rust, after the rust has been scraped down some? Would you then paint over the POR15?

How about over paint as described? Does this help prevent rust?

Ken300D
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  #4  
Old 08-20-2003, 01:08 PM
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The rust is coming from the inside out. If you remove the door panel and look inside the door at that area you will see the rust. I would then use the POR15 on the inside. Paint the entire area inside the door panel that has rust with the POR15. But make sure that you follow the directions from POR. You will need the Marine Clean then the Metal Ready then your POR15 paint. This should take care of the rust. You can paint over POR15 by using the POR product Tie Coat. After you have done all the work you paint the POR with Tie Coat and then your touch up.
Your looking at some work. This should take a couple of hours to do over a couple of days. You have to allow the various products to dry between coats. That is why it should take a couple of days.
Also consider checking the other door. Cars usually rust symetrically. Whats been happening to this one door is probably happening to the other side. the doors were designed as mirror images and usually produce the same results.

I have found that POR15 works well IF you follow their directions, Don't skip any steps. I know I have about $300 worth of POR on my sons Mustang.

POR is a polyurethane paint and it uses the moisture in the air and in the metal to cure. This is why it helps stop the rust that the metal has.

Dave
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  #5  
Old 08-20-2003, 03:09 PM
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Hi Ken:

Sorry, my bad. Yes, you are right, a coat of POR 15 is applied directly to the rust first, then my touch up paint and for good measure, I put another coat of POR 15 over top. I forgot to add the first step which is paint POR 15 direct to the rust spot.

Sorry guys!

Aloha,
Eric
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  #6  
Old 08-20-2003, 03:55 PM
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I like POR-15, but if you can get down to bare clean metal on both sides, regular primer and paint would be durable. Or you could use a rust converter to be sure.

You could spray rustproofing over the primer/paint on the inside.

POR-15 is expensive, and has a short shelf life in many climates.

If the rust is in a seam, and you cannot get at it, the POR-15 is certainly the way to go. It is very thin, and will run into seams well.

Good that you are catching it early.
Depressing that a 1997 model is rusting at all.
Best of luck.
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  #7  
Old 08-20-2003, 08:03 PM
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Smile Rust

Thanks for all your help guys, I Guess por 15 is the way to go.
One more help guys, My Rust spot is on the driver side front door there are no other rust spot I'm aware of. Any Tip on how to remove the door panel, special tools. some diagram would be helpful.

Thanks again


John

1997 white c280 70,000 miles
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  #8  
Old 08-20-2003, 08:09 PM
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Rust is truly like cancer. Paint over it, and the rust will accelerate its reduction of metal. The advice given in other threads is right on. You can use POR 115 or any of the other rust conversion products. Doors ususally rust from the inside out when the drain holes in the bottom of the door plug up with dirt, so be sure and clean out all the drain holes in all of your doors. The advice about pouring POR 15 into the bottom seam of the doors is also good advice.

Once you have treated the inside of the door, you can move to the ouside of the door where the corrosion has blistered the paint. To effectively deal with it, I would suggest sandblasting the corroded area until you reach good metal surrounding the area. If you don't have access to a sandblast machine, wire brush the area with a portable drill and wire brush wheel. The sandblasting and/or wire brushing removes the rust that is on the surface; however, there will still be corrosion in the grain boundaries of the base metal. The best way to treat this is with products such as Metal Prep, which is basically phosphoric acid. The acid will seep into the grain boundaries and dissolve the rust. Once you treat with phosphoric, you will wash the area to remove any remaining acid and corrosion products. Then dry the area thoroughly. At this point, you will want to use an apporppriate body filler to build up the corroded area. The filled area is then filed and/or sanded until the surface is, by touch, indistinguisable from the surrounding areas.

With the "body work" complete, prime the area and then paint it.

UNless you take the meticulous care to remove and/or convert all the rust as mentioned above, you can expect your repair to begin blistering in a year or so.

Sorry for the long post.
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  #9  
Old 08-20-2003, 08:13 PM
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Definitely use a conversion primer or "etch" primer on rusty metal before using any other coating. This will chemically convert the rust to iron phophates and prevent corrosion under the coating, whether it be paint or POR15. I assume the initial POR15 applications are a similar product.

Peter
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  #10  
Old 08-21-2003, 04:02 AM
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Guys,

Further to the other rust posts, if you've got a W124, and you live in a place where it rains, you've almost certainly got some rust starting on the inside of the front suspension turrets (guess how I found out)

My local MOT (sort-of road-worthiness annual check) bloke sees literally hundreds of W124s every year, he says he's never seen one without SOME rust starting there.

I got under mine this weekend with the Dremmel and a cone-shaped grinding wheel and found LOTS more rust than I wanted , but aboout 30 minurtes work each side had the underneath of the turrets shining like stainless steel.

The secret to long-term protection seems to be getting the paint/primer/converter/whatever onto the shiny metal in as short a time as possible, corrosion starts within minutes (at least it does in England......).

As an experiment, I put the underseal straight on the shiny metal without any further treatment.............I'll keep an eye on it to see if this was the right decision. The Underseal contains "waxoil" so it should protect pretty well.....we'll see.

I've seen '70s Cortinas and Capris having their bonnets violently opened by rusty McPherson Struts jumping up through them, I don't want THAT to happen to my Merc.........
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  #11  
Old 08-21-2003, 07:25 AM
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Quote:
front suspension turrets
Paul,

Thanks for the info. Can you tell me exactly where that is? Maybe a picture?
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  #12  
Old 08-21-2003, 08:04 AM
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Wjm,

Take the front wheels off and look around the top of front shock absorbers. The area of chassis/body immediately around the rubber gaiter is very likely to have pitted areas.

Mine went down about 5 inches from the top.

As said, it's now covered in underseal, but I will give it reqular stabbing with a screwdriver to see if the rust has again taken hold.

If it rusts right through, it's more likely to happen when you're driving. I guarentee you won't be able to ignore it !
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  #13  
Old 08-21-2003, 08:56 AM
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Paul,

The undercoating you applied to your turrets will work fine, IF you have removed absolutely all of the corrosion products from the bare metal. Coating rust in anything, will result in greatly accelerated corrosion in short order. The problem is that the rust can be practically invisible to the naked eye. That is why it is strongly recommended that you "wash down" the de-rusted bright metal with an acid wash. I also agree whole heartedly that time is of the essence in re-coating any metal that has been prepared for coating, since humidity can provide enough moisture to set up a corrosion cell on bare steel in a matter of minutes or hours.

Incidentally, thanks for the heads up on the bottom sides of the shock towers. I have a 124 that sees lots of winter salt, so I'll take a hard look at that area this weekend.
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  #14  
Old 08-21-2003, 09:20 AM
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POR-15 makes a starter kit that includes Marine-Clean (a degreaser), Metal-Ready (a metal prep and rust converter to zinc phosphate) and POR-15. I believe you used them in that order.
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  #15  
Old 08-21-2003, 10:58 AM
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A number of torn upper spring mount cases have been reported on this board for 124/201 models.

Strangely, mine are in perfectly fine shape after 17 salty NE winters and 205k miles. Not sure why some fail and others do not.

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