Just found rust on my W123
 

Hey, I just bought a 1983 300D and I just took out the carpets to clean them and I had a few little surprises there to bum me out. I have a couple holes in the floor behind the driver's seat. Two holes are located to the front and rear of the part that bolts the driver's seat to the car. Those holes worry me the most as they make me think of the rear corner of the seat falling through the car, which by the way is me freaking out more so than I should, cause the hole is only 1 1/2 inches long.

I was recommended POR15 to fix up the rust holes and spots but I wanted to see what people here think about these holes.

Overall photo of rear floor
http://libertad.ucsd.edu/%7Edavid/rust/overall.JPG

Close up of holes 1 and 2

http://libertad.ucsd.edu/%7Edavid/rust/rust1.JPG


Close up of hole #3

http://libertad.ucsd.edu/%7Edavid/rust/rust3.JPG


And the view from under the car looks worse

http://libertad.ucsd.edu/%7Edavid/rust/outside.JPG


And now two spots of rust on each side of the rear wheels.

http://libertad.ucsd.edu/%7Edavid/rust/rear1.JPG

http://libertad.ucsd.edu/%7Edavid/rust/rear2.JPG

Some rust on the front floor

http://libertad.ucsd.edu/%7Edavid/rust/frontfloor.JPG

And lastly some rust and a hole on the front door

http://libertad.ucsd.edu/%7Edavid/rust/door1.JPG


That's all the rust on my car. I want it all gone. If I can use POR15 I'd be happy to. Does anyone think I need more than just that?

I'm only really worried about the holes where the driver's seat is bolted down. If anyone has some advice please share it.

Thanks in advance,
David

I would be worried about all of it if you are going to be keeping the car long term. You can see looking around the pedals that you have a leaky windshield, so you need to fix that to keep water out of the cockpit. You need to peel back all the spongey floor matting , cut the rust out to sound metal and replace it somehow. It WILL look a lot worse once you have done this, but if you don't you won't have much of a car left in a few years.

Rick

i don't see the pics...... i'd really like to see what your up against.

If that is all the rust you have
 

You could be quite fortunate if that is all the rust you have. Even that much is not nice, but I think it is easy to repair. And there is only one way to repair it. Cut out all the rusted area. Start with the hole and find out how far you have to go to get back to original thickness floor sheet. When you find that out, cut out all the rusted metal. Then either weld in new sheet metal or find a welding shopto do it for you. After it is welded, you might want to grind down the weld even a little nicer, but remember it is flooring and will be covered. After it is all repair paint the entire floor inside with POR and also the bottom side where ever you have added new metal. Then, finish it up with a spray on rubberized undercoating on the bottom and if that is "all" your rust you are very fortunate. Yes, fine the leak that is allowing the water to come into the car, and check the back seat area very closely also. Just an added note. You can cut that flooring out with the dreml tool very easily. Buy an extra canister of the 1 and 1/4 cutting disc and take your time and keep your fingers out of the way and you can cut out those rust areas very easy. And make it easy by cuting out rectangular pieces. It is much easier to cut and weld in a straight line.