w123 rear ended fix.

[winmutt]

So when I bought my 83 euro it had been rear ended and the trunk lid didnt sit right.... I thought about taking it to a shop to get repaired but this car is my daily driver and probably isnt worth the $$$.... The left rear end had been pushed in and up and someone had already applied some body filler to it and a crap paint job.

So I tried two different solutions. The first did not work as well as the second but I'm betting if I had the right tools I could have gotten it near straight.

Attempt #1. There is a bunch of holes in the rear end with rubber fillers in them. I took out the fillers and fed a chain through the holes. Attached said chain to a tree and put the car in 1st. Two things happened. The rear end did pull out a bit but then the chain just ripped through the sheet metal. I think if I have bored a hole through the frame into the trunk and then fed the chain into the trunk compartment and then used a piece of thicker steel between the frame and chain that this would have fixed most of the problem.

Attempt #2. I too chain from attempt #1 and bolted it on the bumper mount. Put car in 1st and drove. I didnt want to rip off the bolt so I was pretty careful. This pulled the rear end out alot further.

At the end of the day I just took a sledge hammer to the interior of the trunk. Its not perfect but it looks alot better than the DIY or nickle and dime body work that was done before. Trunk lid is straight and while its certainly not up to MB specs it looks less like a junker from the rear.