Is there hope for my rusty benz?

[PopRivotSpecial]

81 300d with some rust issues. Been sitting in my garage for several years cause I don't even know where to start with this. Drivers side rear corner is through the floor along with the rocker issues on both sides. But the car starts right up, runs great and everything from the floor up is pretty good. Any thoughts or suggestions?


https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/HnJu6e1wDYt7bbsWxHdSXQ58MWPlB6MnOXDVb6hgzDU?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yvEYa3B2049sOrOXuWE-pg58MWPlB6MnOXDVb6hgzDU?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/amLqYx-pumg-YEEsAXGC-g58MWPlB6MnOXDVb6hgzDU?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VN1E4lH4vr3cySUimwWSdA58MWPlB6MnOXDVb6hgzDU?feat=directlink

[Chad300tdt]

I enjoy doing bodywork, but that's a bit too gone for my tastes. I'd either look into finding a donor car with a good body so you can swap the good stuff from your car or just start over with a new w123 all together.

[okyoureabeast]

I love your user name by the way

Fixing rust on my car is exhausting. Body work is an art and requires so much skill. My repairs I did a year ago look pretty bad.

[barry123400]

Too far gone and I live in the rustbelt. Donar car to move the running gear over from yours the easiest approach by far. You will need a southern car though.

I am pretty familiar with rust by the way and yours appears potentially structually advanced. Posting the pictures was an excellant ideal.

[gatorblue92]

looks pretty bad to me... it does look like a great parts car though

[Zacharias]

Unfortunately, a w123 from the Northeast can still look great from 10 feet away, but be a complete loss underneath.

The good news? What you show us isn't looking good, but the outer sills (apart from the jacking points) are cosmetic, not structural in any way.

The bad news, however, is that usually once it's reached that point in the sills the floors are shot too.

You need to take a big breath then get under the car (eye protection is a good idea) and see if you have any floors left.

Even if it looks like it's there, take a flat screwdriver or chisel and start poking around. The rule is that you will have to cut a MINIMUM of four inches back from any SOFT metal you find, to properly repair rust.

On my w116 300 SD, when I took it in for the driver's floor to be done, I had two holes. One was about 8 inches by 2 inches; the other was 4 x 3 maybe. When I went back to check on progress, the shop had ended up replacing just about the entire driver's floor, to get away from the soft areas.

If you find floor rot, show us some pics.

[Skippy]

Unless you just want to teach yourself bodywork and make a "fun" project out of it, that is a parts car. My 240D was not nearly that bad when I yanked the tranny to put in my 300D and sold the leftovers for 200 bucks.

[1980sd]

Man, that is a shame It looks like you're close to the rear subframe mount. I imagine that's getting close to some structural stuff...

[vtmbz]

I replaced both outer rockers on my last 190d. They were cheap to buy but it was a lot of work. As noted above, in my model at least the outer rockers are not crucial.

But in your case it looks pretty bad. There will be more rust showing up somewhere else. Its hard to keep up with it. In my case the rear wheel wells went south. That kind of thing is a great deal harder for the amateur.

I ended up finding the same model with a good body and blown transmission, and ended up with a good car from the two.

[Doktor Bert]

Structural...Indeed.


The car you have is not at all a classic in the sense that it is one of many produced and still on the road. You should seek out a good body that has a bad engine...Robert