Thanks Graham - as you know I've been reading through your resto threads very carefully. The sound insulation you mention is the rubber undercoating stuff, right? Or is there another coating on the inside of the car?

Zacharias - about 6 years back I had a transporter bring a boat up from Detroit - 25 ft X 4500 lb boat cost $1300 to transport, and I had to broker it across the border myself. Folks importing similar to our marina have been quoted twe and three times that this past season, some for far shorter hauls. I got the suburban and a trailer for mine to avoid the haulage costs. I plan on selling the boat next season, so the truck is no longer needed in the stable. Enter the Mercedes...

Since there is a NAPA outlet across the street from my office, I am thinking I will hide from the ice storm this weekend and clean out space in the garage. Then we can pull the seats and lower dash to get a 'real' evaluation of what is going on. The parts will be easy to get if NAPA has necessary supplies.

Replacement floor pans are in the order of $65 each X4 parts (Mercedes 230 240D 280E Ce 300D Cd Td Chas 123 76 Body Panels), so it may be easier to just redo the whole floor than to muck about with making patches - provided that the cancer is strong in this one, and pervasive. Otherwise, yes POR and patch will be order of the day. We've started saving cereal boxes.

Once the floors and a few other non-critical spots are together, I'll be in touch with Graham's friend and see what he has to say about the remaining repairs. Then its back to our local paintshop for a spray-n-run.