Going on a Rust Hunt

[Zeppelin_Noir]

Ok this upcoming Saturday I am going to find out the bad news about my recently acquired 300td wagon which was a pig in a poke.
Going to pull the fenders and battery tray and look for all the places rusty badness can accumulate. I am recent purchaser of the car and I am having a sinking suspicion that the car was recently resprayed, maybe over rust.
Casually looking into the bay I see that the driver's side lower hood hinge connection pin and clip is sitting in the middle of a round hole(?) thats not present on the passenger side. Hoods working fine so I dunno. The inner fender well under the Master cylinder has at the least a lot of surface rust, probably caused by an old brake fluid leak?
I am still getting water in the cabin entering over the emergency brake/hood release which is weird because the back of the hood hinge pockets looked ok (with hinges still in place- I am going to remove to check). The windshield gasket was recently replaced with a factory replacement as well.
Definite places to check:

• Inside of fenders
• Under battery tray
• Pull carpet and look at floor pan
• Hood Hinge pockets
• Rain Gutter and base of windshield
• Bottom of doors
• Jack Points
• Spare wheel well
• Inside of doors

What else, guys? I can already tell this is going to break my heart, but I wanna know the prognosis, doc.

*This might be interesting to you guys: I am planning to spray this stuff (Ultra Ever Dry), everywhere that's vulnerable and unrusted. It's translucent white, but my car is light ivory(mb623) and I won't use it on exposed exterior panels. Not affiliated. If it's a bad idea, tell me why. I had been using fluid flow and like the product but the lanolin is kind of slimy and glisteny in appearance (Put it on my new brake caliper outsides.)

So post your worst and I will update this thread with pics.

Edit: delayed one week due to inclement weather.

[whunter]

Some basic vehicle condition pictures would help everyone suggest areas to look.


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[Zeppelin_Noir]

Oh hey, Roy, just got off phone with you. Pictures tonight, will be flashlight illuminated, sadly.
Edit: Pics! maybe. Did not pull fenders yet.

Top of Battery tray

Battery Tray

Under Battery Tray

Underneath

Underneath and to the right

Lower Hood Hinge Driver Side THATS GOING TO NEED FIXING

Actually, That raises a question. Anyone?

Other little bits of Rust

Door sill Driver's side looking at backdoor.

Passenger Hood Hinge pics

Another

ok lighting is bad..we'll try in the daytime.

Under the master cylinder

another master cylinder pic





update: Under Battery Tray Daytime shot:
What would you guys do here? AT least some of that is overspray from a battery tray rattlecan job.
I am planning tostart with a simpole green bath and see what comes off...


Soon: Driver side hinge, inner fender areas, inside the fender,a bizarre hood-fender liner thing where someone closed the hood on a tool, under-carpet footwells, spare tire well. Still taking requests for areas of interest.

[Zeppelin_Noir]

Here's the underbattery area all cleaned up..I think it's actually pretty rustfree, so I'll move on.

Uh ok, pulled the bumper. This thing is the bit beneatht the black rubber trim piece on the bumper. Solid rust, guess I'll just POR it?

another shot

ok this is the bit under the bumper/attached to fender

It's rotten. Here's the inside.

Jb weld? The rotten part is about 3x3 inches. SUggestions appreciated.
The fishhook shaped dark area below is a line of rust..seems to be all surface.. I pulled back the undercoating to clean metal on all sides.

And here's the thing that ruined my day. I was pulling back any split undercoating and there just above the jackpoint my screwdriver disappeared into the metal.

&^*)&^)^&)*&^(*&^%&^R
Iguess that needs to be welded. Anybody got ideas?

[NC-Diesel]

I'm fixing this myself now. After buying two pigs in a POKE. Might start doing an assessment of if it is worth fixing...

[Zeppelin_Noir]

Yeah. It's a really small area, in a single plane and I absolutely love the car, so fixed it's going to be. Theres good metal right to the right so hopefully it isn't too bad to sort out. How bad is yours?

[NC-Diesel]

BAD! Really bad! my 1982 is shot. Drivers side floorboards completely rotted out. It creeped up the firewall and started taking out the lower drivers side A pillar supports too. Rockers are mostly gone on the dirvers side. Passenger side is in an even worse mess. Floorboards are shot, A pillar supports eaten all the way through, floorpans gone.

The car interior was in pristine condition. No cracks in the dash, carpets and seats in excellent shape. I have all the maintenance records since NEW including the mercedes dealer service books and the the data card, etc. The exterior paint was in excellent condition too. MAde me want to cry when I got to the rust underneath. Sigh. Sometimes you just have to know when it;s not worth fighting and let it go.

[whunter]

Originally Posted by NC-Diesel

BAD! Really bad! my 1982 is shot. Drivers side floorboards completely rotted out. It creeped up the firewall and started taking out the lower drivers side A pillar supports too. Rockers are mostly gone on the dirvers side. Passenger side is in an even worse mess. Floorboards are shot, A pillar supports eaten all the way through, floorpans gone.

The car interior was in pristine condition. No cracks in the dash, carpets and seats in excellent shape. I have all the maintenance records since NEW including the mercedes dealer service books and the the data card, etc. The exterior paint was in excellent condition too. MAde me want to cry when I got to the rust underneath. Sigh. Sometimes you just have to know when it;s not worth fighting and let it go.

It should be easy to find a good body for transplant.



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[NC-Diesel]

Transplanting it into my brown 1981 With significantly less rust issues!