w123 Floor Rust repair - Page 7 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

ktesler · #91 12-02-2020, 03:15 PM

Looks great! I recognize that piece from the donor.

martureo · #92 12-09-2020, 08:20 AM

Still getting closer to the point where I can drive it.

Driver's side rear outer seat mount is fabricated and in. That jig really helped and I'm confident that the seat will go in easily.

I drilled out a few holes for plug welds along the bottom seam and the vertical face and attached it that way. But for added strength (and a bit of insurance in case the plug welds didn't have full penetration) I bevel welded the inner edge of the mount.

Started painting the inside this time. Cleaned up the seat channel and painted it , including painting the internal section as best I could with the brushes I have.

martureo · #93 12-09-2020, 08:23 AM

I ended up seam sealing every patch in the driver's footwell and inner fender area. Not really because I needed to, but because I'm running short on time and this is just nice insurance. I've already ground down the welds and checked them with a flashlight, but seam sealer quiets any nervous feeling I have in my gut that I've missed something.

At least the seam sealer is a nice highlighter of where each patch is. That is, until I paint over it.

vwnate1 · #94 12-10-2020, 10:07 PM

BRAVO ! .

martureo · #95 12-14-2020, 02:59 PM

I worked my butt off this week and weekend, but as I was going full speed I didn't take pictures of everything. Kinda wish I did (for my own scrapbook), but it is what it is.

I don't have decent shots of it right now, but the driver's floor was painted with several coats of Rust Encapsulator plus. This is the best I've got at the moment.

Stupid flash and reflective paint.

The driver's rear is a bit better.

One thing that I forgot about when I was getting things ready to drive the car out of the garage was the mounting holes for the parking brake bracket. If you don't remember it used to look like this.

vwnate1 · #96 12-14-2020, 03:12 PM

Looking very good ! .

I sometimes put my finger over the flash on my cell 'phone to prevent glare .

I like that my W123's all have light colored floor paint, it makes seeing the dust & crud accumulation easier and helps with the periodic cleaning too .

martureo · #97 12-14-2020, 03:13 PM

Yeah, I've got to drill a hole in my nice, new, painted panel. This did not feel good.

Done.

Now what am I going to do to prevent this from happening again?

You can see that Mercedes had a little rubber gasket on the inside of the car up against the parking brake bracket.

that keeps the water from getting into the car, but it doesn't prevent water from going behind/through the nut and into the hole in the panel itself.

Not taking any chances on this one.

I installed a rubber washer on the bracket where the old ones were, then a rubber backed seal washer and a zinc plated nut. I use the rubber backed seal washers in my professional life pretty regularly and they do a very good job of sealing both the hole and the threads of the fastener from pressurized water.

The threads are M6x1 and below are the descriptions of the hardware I used if anyone is interested.

Nut, M6x1mm, class 8, zinc plated, 10mm hex, 5mm height
Flat washer, for 1/4" hardware, .230" ID, .625" OD, 0.078-0.108 thick, EPDM, black, 55A durometer
Metal bonded sealing washer, for 1/4" hardware, 0.260 ID, .5" OD, 0.086-0.116" thick, Hot dipped Galvanized Steel and Black EPDM rubber, 65A durometer

On the left below is the original rubber washer as a reference.

martureo · #98 12-14-2020, 03:22 PM

And installed.

Lower bracket nut.

And upper.

You can see why I don't want to ever have to hunt after rust around this fastener again. This is looking down into the engine bay rear driver's side drain.

Once that was installed I thought I was home free, but I forgot how to install the front side bracket/hardware.

There's a brass colored bracket which mounts to the inside wall of the driver's outside footwell (near door hinges), to the front of the parking brake bracket and to the outermost dash support. I've indicated it in this picture.

martureo · #99 12-14-2020, 03:32 PM

Here's a picture of it installed. It took me quite awhile to figure this out and I wish I'd taken a picture of it.

Next thing to do was to figure out how to seal the passenger's rear floor seam. I really didn't like the way Mercedes did this and didn't think I could get it to seal properly without removing the subframe and making this a whole project in itself.

I decided to make myself a corner patch which would seal the three different intersecting panels. I had to cut out a bit of my patch to do this.

The patch installed.

That's all I've got pictures for now. The good news is that I was able to finish the passenger's rear floor, both the inside pan and the rocker panel patches on the outside, and apply seam sealer and a coat of Rust Encapsulator Plus. I also finished the underside seam sealer, painting and rubberized undercoating of the driver's side.

I put in a few of the body plugs (not all as I need to spray cavity coatings inside the rocker channel) and drove the car home last night from the garage I've been renting. It was just in time as we got rain starting early this morning and most of the day. Got home and strapped a nice new tarp over it.

So, sound insulation and carpeting are a thing. My car sounded like a mix between a racecar and the last beater pickup I drove. I think I might try to take a reading of the sound levels once I get everything sealed up and before I put the sound deadening insulation and carpet in just for funzies.

martureo · #**100** 12-14-2020, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vwnate1

Looking very good ! .

I sometimes put my finger over the flash on my cell 'phone to prevent glare .

I like that my W123's all have light colored floor paint, it makes seeing the dust & crud accumulation easier and helps with the periodic cleaning too .

I'm using my phone for now as hauling a camera back and forth is just impractical. Pictures have been decent, but lately they've all been crap.

I take a few with the flash on and a few more with the flash off. I change positions a few inches and do it again. All because I know I'll get back to the computer later and find out most of them didn't come out well, I moved a bit or there was some reflective surface causing a glare.

Sometimes every shot is crappy. If I were a hobbyist or professional photographer I'd know what was going on. But I'm neither.

vwnate1 · #**101** 12-15-2020, 09:24 PM

I'm neither either yet I occasionally take decent cell 'phone pictures .

You're doing fine, keep up the good works and sharing ! . this makes a fantastic tutorial .

martureo · #**102** 01-20-2021, 08:38 AM

So, the car's been in the driveway and the weather has sucked. It's too cold for painting (sub 40° F) most days, the days I have off are rainy and the days I'm working seem to rise just enough above 50° only to drop again before I finish working for the day.

So not much has been done.

I did manage to get the rear passenger floor painted up and looking all nice.

Before.

And after.

martureo · #**103** 01-20-2021, 08:43 AM

I'm on the last bit of passenger compartment rust in this section. This was left from a previous repair that I'd done over a year and a half ago and never got the chance to finish it.

Passenger's front footwell.

Now to cutting all the crap out.

martureo · #**104** 01-20-2021, 08:47 AM

Some will notice that I cut through the seat support channel. I decided I really didn't want to remove it for a few reasons (this one is curved unlike the driver's side and I didn't want to let the scope of this repair creep too much more). So I found an area that I didn't mind slicing through and welding it back in.

I'll use my seat bracket jig to put it back in the proper position.

No more cancer. Just a hole in the floor that I didn't see and will have to tackle next.

martureo · #**105** 04-23-2021, 10:38 AM

Progress is slow. Some days are great for welding, and others are busy.

New patch in here.

And new fun discovering rust next to the jacking point. Because of course there was rust there too, its part of the car!

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