What do you use to stop rust???

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1985 300SD
1983 300D
2003 Volvo V70

https://www.boldegoist.com/

Fertan or phosphoric acid ( MetalPrep ) or sandblasting.

I'm going to give the POR15 line a go. I ordered a starter kit, which has marineclean, a rust preper and the por15 itself. Going to try it on the rocker panel and then the body areas, as soon as it's decent outside enough to do so (no garage ).

Can't tell you anything about it yet, but once I do the project, I'll be posting comments/pictures.

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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

Anyone try thePOR-15 website? Well the link is here now for reference.

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Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

Avoid salt.

Also axle grease is a great way to prevent rust before it starts. A healthy coat on jack points seems to do wonders.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Unfortunately this seems to be the salt capital of the world. There's no such thing as a black car in State College ... only dithered salty gray. My car's been a year-round daily driver for its entire life anyway, so it came with rust when my dad gave it to me (although less than I would expect compared to most cars in our family!). I'll do the best I can with it, and maybe someday get a "winter car" to do the salty travel. Will try the axle grease, though, on parts that haven't been hit by the rust bug yet ...

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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

Yep, I've got the frame rail covers on my 190e...they don't prevent rust but they hide it quite nicely! Long story short, I was replacing the head gasket and I jacked up the car a bit to make it less backbreaking. My front driver's side jack point made a strange crackling noise...

I made sure to fill up my jack points with petroleum-based anti seize paste (has a brush applicator that made it quite easy). If people do this from the start I think it will cut down drastically on jack point rot.

whunter,

Simple. I don't drive the car in any salt. Works every time I do it.

P E H

I may just move to the alternate universe where PEH lives. Imagine a place without any corrosion!

Seriously, I use Ospho (phosporic acid) and POR for corrosion control.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

THats what I do with my W116...........I don't drive it in the winter months and it park in my driveway away from the street. And I know where he lives sees more salt over the winter than I do. The W123 however begining next winter will see salt becase by then I will have sold my other 2 cars.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

The bottom of my 85 300SD is coated with a black waxy substance that has kept rust at bay for 20 years. Not sure what it is , or if it is factory applied.

I have just finished a large rust repair/proofing job on my 240D that included surface rust treatment and cutting out and welding of patches where the rust had gone through. During the job I used rust bullet, POR-15, Waxoyl, and Spray-Galv.

Most of the rust proofing was dome with POR-15. It sticks to skin quite well so be careful. I found the POR-15 application very time consuming with the cleaning with marine clean, etching with metal ready, rinsing of metal-ready, drying and applying 3 coats of POR-15 with 3 hours between coats. Although you are supposed to be able to paint directly over rust I still wire brushed the areas before applying it. Even with all the prep-work and following the instructions to a “t” I still had some problems with pealing and non-coating of some areas. The stuff will go on nicely, but while it is drying it seems to tend to thin out in some areas leaving holes in the coat, which is why several coats are needed.

I just used a tiny amount of rust bullet, so I don’t have too many comments about it.

Some of the welding work was in the passenger compartment side of the rocker panels. The rockers are coated with an anti-corrosive coating and waxy coating from the factory. To prevent contamination of the welds I removed these coatings in the area of the repair prior to welding. On the inside of my rocker patch and in any areas with overlapping metal I used spray-galv to as a rust treatment. It is also sometimes called weld-through primer, however I would not apply it within ¼” or so of the weld bead area. It is 90-something % ultra-fine zinc powder with a bonding agent and is supposed to equal hot-dipped galvanizing in rust prevention and can withstand a good amount of heat. I then sprayed Waxoyl into the rocker panels to replace the factory wax coating.

Out of all the products I used, the spray-galv seems to be the best if it works as well as it claims. I am doing some tests with both it and the POR-15 to see how they stand up over time.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

Here's my $.02 worth.

I have used Rust Mort from SEM Paints. Supposedly converts the rust by some chemical process.

Here's a link I just found to some rust chemicals.

http://www.tcpglobal.com/autobodydepot/rustremove.aspx

Bert-NH

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1979 300SD 83k miles Astro Silver Metallic/Black leather #3447
1990 350SDL 202k miles (3L engine from an 87 300D)Black/Grey leather
2006 Pleasure-Way Class B MoHo (Sprinter chassis) 134k miles
2005 E320CDI 270k (car is sooo fast - I can't believe it's a diesel!!!)

What do people think about a professional spray on rust proofer, like Rustcheck..rustcheck.com/

I'm looking to get an early 1970s MB which (hopefully) wont have any rust on it. However, I'll be driving it in the spring summer and fall where it will rain (Toronto) - and likely not in the winter, although possibly. What can I do to PREVENT the rust from starting?

Rust Check is a great product - just go to a shop that applies it liberally.

You need to let your car drip-dry for a couple of days before washing it. Best applied annually in the fall. I used it on both our Benz's (Cam's garage on King St E) in Toronto before moving to BC. It's not common around here but Canadian Tire sells spray cans of the stuff.