Parts Catalog Accessories Catalog How To Articles Tech Forums
Call Pelican Parts at 888-280-7799
Shopping Cart Cart | Project List | Order Status | Help



Go Back   PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum > Do It Yourself Links & Resources > Bodywork - Repair, Paint, Tools, Tips & Tricks

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-28-2010, 07:19 PM
Chad300tdt's Avatar
Benzless Scoutmaster
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: North Wales, PA
Posts: 4,001
Another Rusty Surprise

Today I was going to adjust the bumper end cap on my 300CD and when I removed the trunk panels to get to the bolts from inside I discovered that the little rust bubbles on the rear wheels arch areas were worse than I thought.

I dug out a lump of Bondo from each side that was sculpted to the shape of the body. So I guess I'll be doing some body work again.

Here's the holes so far. I have more grinding to do before I patch them.





__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 10-28-2010, 08:43 PM
stricht8
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 127
I just completed that exact repair! Check it out a few threads below yours at
240D quarter panel rust repair
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 10-28-2010, 08:48 PM
Chad300tdt's Avatar
Benzless Scoutmaster
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: North Wales, PA
Posts: 4,001
I saw your thread before. Nice work. I wish I had a welder.

I'll be doing the same type of repairs that I did on my 300TD. There are posts here on that one too.
__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-29-2010, 07:43 PM
Joseph_Conrad's Avatar
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Cleveland Heights via Seattle, WA
Posts: 326
Crud crud, I just looked beneath the trunk lining on the driver's side of my car and it looks like I have a similar issue to you , sans bondo. This spot is definitely an achilles heal on these cars. I've seen the thread(s) on how you tackled your other rustiness and I'm looking forward to see how this turns out. Good luck .
__________________
1984 300D, 228k, Light Ivory, Java MB-Tex
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 11-03-2010, 05:45 PM
Chad300tdt's Avatar
Benzless Scoutmaster
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: North Wales, PA
Posts: 4,001
Today I installed the new bumper strip retaining clips and got the bumper strip back in place.
DIY - Attaching w123 Bumper Strip

Then I finished grinding the rust holes in the trunk well areas, treated them with POR-15's Metal Prep and fabricated the metal patch for the driver side hole.


I'll be going back out later tonight to coat everything with POR-15 Rust Encapsulator Paint which should be all cured and ready for the next steps tomorrow. I'll post the update when I'm done with those steps.
__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 11-03-2010, 06:03 PM
Stretch's Avatar
...like a shield of steel
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Somewhere in the Netherlands
Posts: 14,461
Yes yes yes a familiar spot indeed - luckily some kind Swiss bloke (well probably Swiss) welded in some new bits for me before I bought my W123. I suppose you're all aware this happens as a result of leaking rear window seals / aerial seals / and leaking trim seals? I bet you all do...





...I'll get my coat.
__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 11-03-2010, 07:52 PM
Yak Yak is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 1,711
Quote:
Originally Posted by Army View Post
Yes yes yes a familiar spot indeed - luckily some kind Swiss bloke (well probably Swiss) welded in some new bits for me before I bought my W123. I suppose you're all aware this happens as a result of leaking rear window seals / aerial seals / and leaking trim seals? I bet you all do...





...I'll get my coat.
What about the tail light seals?
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 11-04-2010, 06:15 PM
Chad300tdt's Avatar
Benzless Scoutmaster
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: North Wales, PA
Posts: 4,001
Yup, those are all common leak sources that can cause this sort of rot. The trunk seal and rear window seal were replaced by the previous owner which I know from looking through the stack of maintenance records that came with the car.

Today I pop-riveted and JB Welded the patch in the driver side area. I coat the edges of the hole larger than the patch and coat the back of the patch with the JB Weld, then pop-rivet it in place. After that sets up, I coat the whole patch with the JB Weld. I use duct tape underneath to contain any epoxy that drips through.

Driver side.


Driver side from underneath with duct tape dam.


Once this all cures, I'll coat the bottom side of the patch with JB Weld to seal all the edges. Then I'll coat it all with POR-15 Rust Encapsulator Paint before continuing with shaping the metal piece for the fender lip.

The passenger side hole is all cleaned up and coated with POR-15. I still need to fabricate the metal patch for this side.

Passenger side.


Passenger side from underneath.


I also finished grinding the jack hole areas. I used a 3/4" plumbers brush to clean the scale from the inside of the holes, then treated everything with Metal Prep and coated it with POR-15. I still need to do 2 more coats on these before top coating. Then I'll cover it all with rubberized undercoating.

Passenger side.


Driver side.
__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 11-05-2010, 04:38 AM
Stretch's Avatar
...like a shield of steel
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Somewhere in the Netherlands
Posts: 14,461
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yak View Post
What about the tail light seals?
Oh yeah those too - the list goes on - I suppose the trunk seal could let water in too...
__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 11-05-2010, 11:14 AM
Admiral-Third World Fleet
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Central FL
Posts: 3,069
Chad-

Nice work on the wheel well/fender- a very elegant solution, but why not use the correct epoxy like Fusor 108B instead of JB Weld? I did the same spot on my 240D 6 or 7 years ago and it still looks great. I used 3 or 4 pieces to achieve the same thing- yours is much better.
__________________
80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 11-05-2010, 11:23 AM
Chad300tdt's Avatar
Benzless Scoutmaster
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: North Wales, PA
Posts: 4,001
Quote:
Originally Posted by rs899 View Post
Chad-

Nice work on the wheel well/fender- a very elegant solution, but why not use the correct epoxy like Fusor 108B instead of JB Weld? I did the same spot on my 240D 6 or 7 years ago and it still looks great. I used 3 or 4 pieces to achieve the same thing- yours is much better.
Thanks!

I used the JB Weld because I can get it at the local Pep Boys for $12/10 oz.

More importantly, I didn't know about the Fusor 108B until your post. I just Googled it and they sell it at TCP Global. I'll try it out next time.

How long does it take the Fusor epoxy to setup? With the JB Weld, I can mix it up, let it set up for about 20-30 minutes and it's the consistency of body putty.
__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 11-05-2010, 12:12 PM
Admiral-Third World Fleet
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Central FL
Posts: 3,069
Fusor 108B is the medium speed stuff, usually 20-30 min at "normal temps" . In FL in summer it's more like 10 minutes. They also have slow speed and fast speed stuff. They sell a fancy application gun for it, but I just squeeze it out of the tubes in 2:1 and mix it like bondo. It's good stuff when you don't want to weld.
__________________
80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 11-20-2010, 05:39 PM
Chad300tdt's Avatar
Benzless Scoutmaster
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: North Wales, PA
Posts: 4,001
Today I was able to finish everything to the point of self etching primer. I still want to spray some high build primer over it and wet sand that before I begin the base and clear coats. Then I'll spray some rubberized undercoating underneath and in the wheel wells.

The inside is all top coated and ready for reassembly once the underside is finished.

Driverside inside the trunk:


Passenger side inside the trunk:


Driver side underneath:


Passenger side underneath:
__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 11-20-2010, 06:08 PM
Joseph_Conrad's Avatar
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Cleveland Heights via Seattle, WA
Posts: 326
Nice work, that's looking much better! , one thumb for each side! I think I'm going to pay to have mine addressed. If I had a workspace it'd be a different story...
__________________
1984 300D, 228k, Light Ivory, Java MB-Tex
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 11-21-2010, 02:13 PM
Stretch's Avatar
...like a shield of steel
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Somewhere in the Netherlands
Posts: 14,461
X2 looking good - make sure those drain holes are unblocked and that any water that does get in drains through them before you put back in your rear wheel arch plastic liners. This might sound like a bit of a dumb comment - it would of course be better if your car didn't leak - but if it does settle in there... well you know don't you 'cos you've just repaired it...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On




All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:12 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2024 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Peach Parts or Pelican Parts Website -    DMCA Registered Agent Contact Page