1973 450sl

[deportes]

Just bought a 73 450 sl for cheap, the paint is shot and in missing areas rust has developed. No holes!!! Need to preserve the metal until I can start sanding removing old and prepping for new paint. Do you guys recommend a rust stopper spray until the weather warms up and dries up. Thankfully the underneath is not rusty being a California car.
Also found rusty panels inside the trunk but no holes, I have removed the wet contents and used a heater to dry the area up. The car runs great it has a rebuilt motor and tranny with a receipt for 6500.00 done 20k miles ago.

It's not pretty but has great potential.

[cth350]

Mercedes have a bad habit of rusting from the inside out. The original paint is tough enough to mask the slow deterioration.

Pretty much any phosphoric acid prep applied with a scotchbrite pad will clear up existing rust. The a neat coat of etch primer will hold it for a bit.

-CTH

[deportes]

I think you are correct, the paint is coming off very easily, not very good adherance. It's 37 years old though.
It's going to look great once I remove all the rusty paint. Now need to find a nice color in the blue tones in order to match the existing paint under the hood etc. The car runs great!