Found Rust

[Litton]

I am sad

I pulled the top piece off the left rear door to replace the window brushes and found BAD rust right below the rear quarter winow. It looks like the seal leaked and water was trapped by the trim. Now I have another problem. Of course my wife said "just put some rust stop stuff on and cover it back up" Guess that is an option. Also found that he bottom of the door (way underneath) is rusted through.

Now I am faced with 3 choices, leave it alone.....repair it, or replace the door and have it painted to match. I can get another door for 100.00 in perfect shape but then have to paint it.

What a bummer.

Only good spot of the day is finding an '86 560 SEL AMG sitting at the bone yard for 2500.00. Do I need another project????

[Tomguy]

If the part of the door that's rusted through is on the inside of the seal, you can let it go for now, but if it's on the outside, don't waste the new brushes because there's a fair chance that water will get inside and screw them up. I don't know how bad it is but if I were you, and it's really bad, I'd repair it by using construction adhesive to attatch a piece of sheet aluminum, but making a "drain" in the center first to prevent more rust, then cover up the inside with some POR-15

560SEL AMG? (didnt know they made 126 AMG's) Only $2500? Condition? If it runs and drives well and has little/no rust then yes, you do need another project!

[300SDog]

Caution - replacement of the entire door is labor intensive.... Do you have any idea how difficult it is to hang a door properly to close perfectly??

Three of us tackled junkyard replacement for driver's door on 220Sb long time ago. It took all afternoon fiddling with infinite adjustments. We never got it right and finally settled for reasonable allignment. The door never functioned with MB precision ever again.

[Litton]

The rust is on the inside around the door lock button and completely hidden from view. That's why it was such as surprise. I guess the prudent first step is to pull the rest of the panel and fully appraise the situation then scrap and sand. I used to use a "rust reducer" which is believe was phosphoric acid that converted the rust to an iron phospate. I need to find out if that stuff is still available.....worked real well on my boat engine.

I will check out that PBR stuff aslo, I remember that it got some favorable comments.

For some reason, I figured the door replacement would be simple but I yield to the voice of experience on that issue.

What a PITA.

The 560 AMG will wait till I get more info. Anything too good to be true.....aint.