I took off the little metal cover from around the shift knob to clean and take a look under it, and there was a fuse attached to it. It appears to be burnt out, but I have no idea what it does, or why anybody would think of putting a fuse in such a place. The car is a '69 230.6. Also, my floor is in pretty bad shape. It's rusting all up and down next to the door, and if I apply too much pressure to it it starts to cave in. I don't want to buy a new floor because that would probably end up costing me around $750, $1000 to buy it, get it shipped, and get it installed, and I don't have the money right now. If I buy a few sheets of steel, coat them with spray-on bedliner (for the beds of pickups) so that it's waterproof and then bolt it on, will it work or could I end up sitting on the road while driving around?

Could that 'fuse' be a light bulb instead?
As for the floor, it depends on how rusted it is. Does the rust extend into the seat mounting? Several years ago, I got several large pieces of galvanised steel ducting that were being discarded from a construction site. That's what I use for floor repairs.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

It is considerably obviously not a light bulb as it is in a little black plastic holder, and the fuse is hidden.

......_
.....(_)
......||
......|| <----- Shifter Knob
.__ ||__
.........|O| <---- Fuse in holder
.........|--|



It's hard to see from my picture, but the little metal cover with the letters on it has sides, and the fuse is right up against the inside edge, with the little black plastic holder blocking the view from the other two sides. I can't remember exactly, but I seem to recall the fuse being on the passengers side of the cover, but don't quote me on that one. As for the floor, the rust is all along the floor up against the door sills. The seat mounting is affected on the door sides on both the passengers and the drivers side.

|..| <--- Door
|_|
|..| <--- Door sill
|_|________
....^ Rust
................^ Floor


Unfortunatly I can't colour just the rusted parts, but there is rust where the arrow is pointing and on the bottom part of the sill right next to it. It's like this all the way from the front of the interior to the rear seat. The seat mounts are affected in this area too, and the rear seat mounts for both front seats are really shakey. Any pushing or pulling will move them. The rear one on the drivers side is still attached to the door sill but has rusted off from the floor, and the rear one on the passangers side is no longer connected to the door sill. I'll attempt to find a digital camera and take a couple pictures, or at least scan a couple. The floor is what worries me the most. It will cost a lot of money to repair, which I don't have now, and there's absolutely no way I can drive it at the moment. It is way too dangerous. I can't remember if I said it before, but I sat in the drivers seat wrong and it caved in slightly right at the door. If I can't fix this soon with something that will hold for a couple years at least and it'll cost me some $750 to change the entire floor, I may end up selling this car, which is something I would really hate to do.

In a nutshell, at the moment I don't know whether I'll be keeping this car. The amount of money I have to put into it may not be worth the resulting value of the car and it's life expectancy. I'll try to keep it for as long as I can, but my parents also have a say in this and I don't have the money to do anything major on it. All the work is either done by me or my dad, and as a last resort a proffesional, but we haven't had to resort to that yet.

Philly

Rust is a killer. It kills cars and it can kill car occupants too. The kind of rust you are describing means that the structural integrity of the body is severely compromised. If you get hit by a truck, the car will disintegrate and you might die. In the UK you would not be allowed to take a car in this condition out on the roads.

Bolting plates over this rust will add absolutely nothing to the strength of the structure. You need to cut out all the rust and weld in new steel. I had a 1970 250C with this problem. After a while I became quite a good welder but I never did get the car back on the road.

Assuming you want to keep the car, you need to have a serious look at how far the rust has gone. Any areas that deform under moderate pressure or which you can puncture with a screwdriver need to be replaced.

You need to be realistic about how much work you need to do. This might be a nice old car that you enjoy using but its not a collector's piece. There is a point at which you need to walk away. I've been there with my 250C, as well as a number of other cars.

In order to keep the costs under control you must consider if you are going to use MB panels, pattern panels or sheet steel. Sometimes the MB panel is the cheapest option. I think the rocker panel from MB for your car is available as a combined inner and outer section with strengtheners. This will restore a lot of the integrity of your car for not too much money. You can use sheet steel for the floor pans to offset the cost.

Good luck

__________________
Cheers, Neil

Philly,
My factory W114 manual doesn't show the wiring to the shifter but I know my '72 250 has a light there. From your diagram, I thought, perhaps, it was a shift indicator bulb inside a plastic holder. Sometimes the holder will completely enclose the bulb except for a small hole to aim the light. There are miniature bulbs that look like glass fuses.
Could someone have mistakenly replaced the bulb with a fuse? Could it be a fuseholder someone added, not original to the car?
Can you post a photo?

As for the rust, I had to repair a '79 300D that rusted out in the same area as you've described. The owner resorted to jamming a big 4 X 4 chunk of wood under the drivers seat to keep it from dropping through what was left of the floor. In an attempt to provide extra strength for the seat and outer seatbelt mounting I had to fabricate repair panels from heavy guage galvanised steel, much heavier than the stuff I usually patch floors with. One panel bolted inside the rocker, behind the sill and the other bolted to that one and supported the floor and replaced the missing seat mounting. Then some thinner galvanised to seal up the openings in the bottom of the floor and rocker. Many hours of cutting, drilling, bending, fitting,
re-doing and re-fitting! How good are your fabrication and repair skills? If your rust is as bad as I've described, you'll need to heavy-up on the steel at the seatbelt and seat mounting areas. Maybe find some heavy angle steel or plates for just those areas.
Or decide if it's worth the cost of a professional repair.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Philly,
While the repairs I described were a big improvement over what was there they didn't restore the car to it's factory strength.
I'd seriously consider what Neil said.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Try these guys for floor panels, the prices are Canadian and you can buy them through UAP or other aftermarket parts shops. They have floor pans for the 69 230, I know cause mine needs them too, if I don't sell it first. about $185 per pan if I remember it right.

http://www.crosscanadaparts.com