Feeling bummed about my 300TD... major floor pan rust - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Chad300tdt · #31 04-17-2008, 07:26 AM

Hey Aaron,

That looks like a job that will require welding. There are a few areas that are structural and I wouldn't trust anything less than new metal.

Didn't you say you were planning to weld in a bar under the seat? You should also weld in a mount support for where the suspension bolts to the rear floor.

Have fun getting to know your wagon inside and out (and cross-sectioned).

LUVMBDiesels · #32 04-17-2008, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry

My brother in law owned a 65 Corvair in rust ridden Upstate NY. The whole floor rusted. He removed all the seats, cut all the rusty floor out of the car, leaving only the side rails. He bolted some angle iron to the side rails and put down a treated plywood floor and bolted the seats down to the plywood. He drove it for a very long time with his rustproof floor. It's always an option.

Yikes... on a unit body car??!!??

I did the same thing, but on a 1984 Dodge dually truck.

LUVMBDiesels · #33 04-17-2008, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronkobi

As promised, here are photos of my "rust free" florida car. I got the seat, carpet and most of the soundproofing off so you can now clearly see the extent of the damage on the passenger side of the car (the drivers side seems to have been repaired already with fiberglass.) I also found the source of the water. Where the hood drains were, a huge rust hole had developed, so the hood drain was pouring directly into the car.

Enjoy my misery:
http://kobilis.smugmug.com/gallery/4738270_WDkCi#280658783_Mbrbo

Look on the bright side, at least you can replace all the rubber parts on those vacuum hoses

aaronkobi · #34 04-17-2008, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad300tdt

Hey Aaron,

That looks like a job that will require welding. There are a few areas that are structural and I wouldn't trust anything less than new metal.

Didn't you say you were planning to weld in a bar under the seat? You should also weld in a mount support for where the suspension bolts to the rear floor.

Well, that was my plan of attack BEFORE I saw the extent of the damage, now, I don't know what I'm going to do honestly. My head is spinning and I'm out of a car for quite some time it seems (oh well, I needed an excuse to ride my bike to work more anyway.)

This is much worse than I expected...

Icefire · #35 04-17-2008, 10:02 AM

I would closely examine the rest of the car, all structural points, rear subframe (A frames etc). If the rust is confined to that point, then you can consider repairing, (go over the body of the car with a magnet surronded with cloth, Find out if there is any body filler in other spots.)

I am really sorry to say this, but I have parted out cars, that had much less rust than that.

My opinion is find a real rust free car with mechanical trouble and swap stuff over.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do.

asnowsquall · #36 04-17-2008, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icefire

I am really sorry to say this, but I have parted out cars, that had much less rust than that.

My opinion is find a real rust free car with mechanical trouble and swap stuff over.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do.

Sorry to see its so bad. I feel the same, that I've parted cars with floors not as bad as this. In fact I just stopped parting out my 1985 because I found another 85 300TD with a "slight rod knock". Its a challenge to get through times like this, get through the pain and make the right decisions. When estimating your time and money on something like this you should take your result and multiply it by 25% especially if you have never done it before. Maybe its just because I'm 45 now, but this kind of body work is time consuming, and really hard on my body. I just replaced a 1/4 panel on a Rabbit last night and that wasn't to bad, but its a small job really. If you need a car and are forced to try and repair it as fast as possible then that just ads another stress. Parting out the car takes a lot of time also. The car I'm getting is a $100 flight, then a 6 hour drive back with fingers crossed. Won the car for $1,450, so this type of car is out there and you may even pay less. Good luck with your choice. My neighbor has a plasma cutter and I have floors. I just don't have the wiring set up yet for his plasma cutter. Here are a series of videos or 1 man and his rust repair and is way beyond what I would tackle at this stage of life, but thats just me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2AgwkMzo4

Dave

aaronkobi · #37 04-17-2008, 11:07 AM

Thanks guys. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to part the car out and swap stuff over. I have 2 choices. Fix it, or sell it as it is. This car was a bit of a leap of faith on my part Actually sold a 2006 volkswagen because I had heard great things about these and wanted to run biodiesel. Initially, I had 10k in hand after selling the VW and buying this. That money is gone now (dumped into this car). I have worked on cars in the past, but, I feel like I'm over my head with this one. It's hard for me to find the time to work on it, my wonderful girlfriend is growing impatient with my lack of availability, which I understand. I feel like it would take a solid 2 weeks off to complete all of this work that needs to be done, and when you start thinking of the dollar value of that, it's just not worth it.

It's hard when you realize that you've made a poor decision, both financial and otherwise. I really wanted this to work, and even if I do repair it, I'll always have doubts about its structural integrity now.

Does a heat gun really work for getting the rubberized undercoating off? Guess I'll just keep scraping to see what else I can find, that stuff is impossible to get off.

Anyway, thanks again for the words of support and encouragement.

notfarnow · #38 04-17-2008, 11:26 AM

Lots of rusty cars up where I live, and I've had to keep many of them on the road when they were past their prime.

Advice:
Do what others are advising: make sure the rust you're dealing with is non-structural... some of those corners look like they'd be important to the overall strength of the car. Also make sure you don't have rusty suspension points.

I was in this very same position with an old wooden boat once. Once I realized it had rot, I almost wanted to cover it up quick & easy... partly because I was embarrassed. I really didn't want a "pro" to tell me what a bad boat I had.

You need to be smarter than that... this is a heavy projectile that will carry you, your family and friends at over 60 mph on highways filled with lunatics. Get a welder to look at that car, and make a determination on how to continue. You can still do lots of work by cutting out the rot, shaping new panels etc... but really... have that car welded up.

Heck, you might even be able to justify buying a nice Mig welder. When my Samurai was too rusted to pass inspection (much like yours, actually) I bought a Lincoln 140c (about $600USD) and taught myself to weld after watching the 20 minute DVD. It's not hard, and you're welding in spots nobody can see, so you can be sloppy as you learn.

Finally: Has anyone been underneath the car yet? I don't think you should make any plans until that's been looked at

aaronkobi · #39 04-17-2008, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notfarnow

Finally: Has anyone been underneath the car yet? I don't think you should make any plans until that's been looked at

Yes, Don pool had it up on a lift. Seems that the suspension points and frame are solid. It's really amazing to me how much that rubber undercoating will hide though. While it was up on the lift, I looked underneath. The ONLY problem I saw was a small hole near the seat bracket. The rubber undercoating was holding everything else together. Just incredible.

Chad300tdt · #40 04-17-2008, 11:46 AM

Looks like you have a tough call to make.

If you are able to get by without a vehicle for a while, I would say get a welder and try to fix it. You can do other artistic things with metal that could justify the welder purchase and learning curve.

If you have $10K into it so far, I doubt you will get anything near that back with the floors in their current state. I think fixing what you have, provided it isn't any worse than the pics, is less effort than swapping everything to a different body.

aaronkobi · #41 04-17-2008, 11:53 AM

Here's a question, how dangerous is mig welding the floorpans considering their are fuel lines running under the car? I'm assuming these need to be removed before welding?

Chad300tdt · #42 04-17-2008, 12:05 PM

I would think draining them and using a fire blanket between them and the welding would be OK. Use hose/fuel line clamps (or vice grips) on the rubber lines by the tank and disconnect them and then blow compressed air through them from under the hood and clear the diesel out of them.

Hatterasguy · #43 04-17-2008, 12:36 PM

Since the car is pretty much worthless as it is, I wouldn't sell it. Most your going to get if you disclose that rust is $1k.

I see a few options:
1. Get another newer car and hide the rust, trade it in at the dealer and maybe get $2k-$3k for it.
2. Keep these car and try to fix it, while buying another car because this is going to take a long time. Fixing it ain't going to be cheap either, I bet W123 floor pans cost a few bucks.
3. Junk this car.

Look for more rust, this car may be past the point of no return. No matter how much you have into it, eventualy you have to stop digging.

bgkast · #44 04-17-2008, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronkobi

Does a heat gun really work for getting the rubberized undercoating off? Guess I'll just keep scraping to see what else I can find, that stuff is impossible to get off.

Yes. First use a utility knife to cut through the edge of the area of undercoating to be removed. I have a harbor freight heat gun ($15) I use high heat on the undercoating to get it really hot (it will just start to smoke when the heat gun is removed and it is hot enough) then use a screwdriver or putty knife to get an edge up, then use a leather gloved hand to pull the undercoating up as you heat the edge where it is still attached to the car. I'll post a picture tonight.

bgkast · #45 04-17-2008, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronkobi

Here's a question, how dangerous is mig welding the floorpans considering their are fuel lines running under the car? I'm assuming these need to be removed before welding?

The biggest danger is accidently cutting through them when you are cutting out the rust. It's a good thing I cut the patch panel out of the donor car before I was cutting on my car.