I have a 79 240D that I bought ten years ago. The car was bought new by a guy that lived in the suburbs and had a trucking Co. in Seattle. He took good care of it, putting his diesel mechanics to work on maintenance when things were slow. Then he sold it to an employee that had the car for a couple years and I rescued it before is got too trashed. Its blue with pristine blue interior, I rebuild an 80 engine for it and found a 5 spd tranny, its a nice car... Except there are rust spots coming out on all the doors. Things under the car are not rusty as in nuts and bolts , jack holes OK even almost NO rust under the battery tray, all anodized trim near perfect, no dents. I really dont know much about rust or body work so my question is can a good body guy fix the doors and a couple spots on the quarter panels OR is it likely more rust spots will pop out under the new paint later. Which would be my uneducated guess. OR..would he find these potential trouble spots in the course of prepping the car for paint. I would remove all trim (except around windows), headlights, etc all the stuff that comes off easy.

The strange thing is there is no rust in all the usual spots where you'd normally find it on the W123. Its mostly the doors but a little on the quarter panels


A few years ago one could find a nice 123 body out west here and just swap everything over. Not so much now a days.

I was just going to drive it, but maybe theres hope, its really my favorite car and the wife loves it, hate to see it die of cancer.

Any advice?

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"