Pen stripe, trunk holes

[Deaneallinson]

1) I am stripping off trim, bumpers, etc looking toward paint and dealing with a couple of rust spots. I have a couple of large (6"-ish) holes in the trunk. One looks like it was knocked out or rusted put. The other near the spare is still intact. Is this for a plastic plug, metal? Available or do I need to patch?
2) is the pen stripping around my rear side marker an after market add on? I haven't seen it anywhere before.

[Mike D]

Uggh! You've definitely got some rust issues going on. You have either a major failure of the boot lid seal, rear wind screen gasket failure or both. Those were metal plates.

As always, the rust you see is only 40% of the rust which is present. You need to thoroughly inspect the boot deck area. Wire brush, dust mask, Shop-vac and probe time. What you find will determine your course of action.

Most of the time complete boot deck replacement is the easiest/best remediation.

The coupes and sedans share the same boot deck so that eases things a bit as far as finding a replacement.

Check the wells on the sides of the deck. They have drains which are often clogged and allow moisture to accumulate creating another rust prone area.

The pin striping is an after market add-on.

Rust never sleeps!

[Deaneallinson]

I think that the trunk seal was the problem. I guess that the metal plug rusted out and the PO knocked it out.

[Tomguy]

My 4.5 had hand-painted pinstripes. I have a feeling this was a dealer thing. Unless someone can show the pinstripe options in the MB catalog, that's what I would go with.

That being said, I would consider it "Original enough" to replicate if you like it, if the car was delivered with it by the dealer then it's not an add-on by the first owner.

[pj67coll]

Originally Posted by Tomguy

Unless someone can show the pinstripe options in the MB catalog, that's what I would go with.

Pin striping is a uniquely American phenomenon. For some reason yanks figured splattering pin stripes all over these things was classy back in the day. No Mercedes ever left the factory with them and I have no idea why people in the US figured they needed to be defaced in such a fashion.

Maybe a dealer "option" to fleece the blue rinse country club brigade out of some extra bucks making them think they look as "classy as a Cadillac" by splattering them on.

Dammned if I know but I'll wage a war against pin striping on Mercedes Benz's till the day I die.

- Peter.

[RobertinMN]

Originally Posted by Deaneallinson

I think that the trunk seal was the problem. I guess that the metal plug rusted out and the PO knocked it out.

If there are not any actual rust holes, then use Rust Bullet to seal the rust after following the directions. I furst used it in 2011 on a 560SL which is still in the family and works and the rust never comes back through. You may want to use it on both sides of there is rust on the other side. You will have to sand it before coating it with paint or underbody coatings. This is not porQ or anything like it. It was designed to coat water towers with and need not be painted over or otherwise sealed. You have to buy it online and you will need the argon gas can to seal it when closing the lid on the can.