Back in Oct 2012, I started this thread.

At that time, I was thinking I should sell my 300D as-is for whatever I could get. But the thread developed a life of it's own. I spent quite a few $$$. But the car IS back on road as my daily driver and in a lot better shape than in Oct 2012!

Current challenges:

After sitting for 3 months, the brakes are very rough. I guess I better pull the wheels and have a look (But we have SH---Y weather at present.)

I had painted all the wheel well rims with POR and then with white automotive paint. But once again there are rust stains. Must be the sharp edge that doesn't get properly protected. Need some sort of fix.

Driver side rear fender once again has small rust bubbling - I have fixed this multiple times and the bubbling keeps coming back Probably need to be sand blasted?

I never replaced the rear trailing arms, but I think they are good for a while yet.

Regardless, I drive the old 300D every day. She is mechanically great and I use it in preference to our other cars.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

I think if it is the preferred beast of burden then you'll miss it if it goes.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

One word: Rust.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

if you are gonna use it daily in your climate, rust will be a regular maintenance item, like oil changes. ive got the same thing going on with my 240. its possible to keep it in good shape and drive it in rust environments, but periodic repair is gonna be endless.

however, no one know better on that than you after your rust journey, so honestly, if it were me and i loved driving the car, id consider a color change so i wouldnt notice things so fast. of course white makes it possible to see condition issues immediately, but burgandy or some other dark color would hide things a bit better so you dont obsess as bad.

ive done tons of rust repair on both my silver 240, and my wifes dark purple 300TD. i obsess about he rust marks on the 240, and rarely notice the fsr worse rust problems on the wifes wagon, which needs front and rear extensive fender repair

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

i think hes familar with the concept.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Possibly the best advice for one of these I've ever read! LOL

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Current:
1980 300D "Blush"
1985 300TDT "Walter"
1995 e320 wagon "Sopwith Llama"

Greatly missed:
1985 300TD "R2D2"

Don't really miss much at all:
1983 240D "Dee"

I have had this car for 23+ years, so as you said, I AM familiar with rust . We go away for part of winter, but car does still see winter conditions for a couple of months.

Most car owners up here in Canada know about rust! This car and a high percentage of Canadian cars get annual rust treatment from shops like Krown and Rust Check. Even the military have their vehicles sprayed. With the salt on the roads in winter, cars wouldn't last long without this.

Rust treatment has helped keep the main bodywork in reasonable shape. As you can see from pics, it is still good having been repainted just once quite a while back (replaced front fenders at that time).

It was the hidden parts that the rust spray never got to that resulted in need for most of my recent rust repairs. But they are now all good. Just whining about a few small rust stains

As Stretch said, I would miss this car!

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Find a good local old school body man to keep up with the rust issues.

A friend of mine has an old Dodge Caravan that he uses for camping. The front left spring perch is rusting out. Cost to repair will be ~$1,000 but the entire front end needs to be taken apart and a new piece welded in. It could have been cleaned and the cracks welded for much less - had it been maintained. It's a Michigan car and in good shape otherwise. Strange how only that corner has rust..

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

It isn't unusual in the deep rust belt for left (I assume you mean driver) side components to rust out first, as they get extra salt treatment from passing cars or splashes when parked at the side of the road.

By the time I was done with my w116, two-thirds of the driver's side floor pan had been replaced, but only about a 8" square section of the passenger side was patched.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

It really depends also if you have had metal repair done. POR15 isn't just enough in most cases. Maybe for real light surface rust.

If you cut out the metal and don't treat the metal properly (reason why metal repair doesn't work 90% of the time) before welding new metal it will only come back again like cancer. All of it has to be cut and fixed and treated properly. POR15 is simply a bandaid in most cases. Especially against Canadian winters.

After doing welded rust repairs on door sills, how would you properly treat the side of the welds that are inside the rockers that you can't access?

Re POR, I have a repair on my 350SL trunk floor that I did with POR and glass cloth in 1990. Still solid and could be mistaken for metal. But I agree that POR is not a magic potion. It needs to be used properly as does metal in weld repairs.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

There wasn't any need for any hostility or sarcasm. I was merely giving advice. I didn't read this thread or follow it at any point or was there to see your rust.

I agree POR is most likely the best rust treatment and is far more superior than most rust preventatives considering its past uses and successes. Just needs to be used sparingly and correctly in rust repair as does metal welding.

It sounds though as if you're going to try and combat this rust on this 300D it's going to be quite difficult at this point. I was just down this road with a car a few weeks ago and just scrapped it because I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the cancer.

I'd keep it and drive it till the rust gets bad and part it and sell it to the metal yard.

Don't know why you took it that way??

It was a serious question. I wanted to know how you would recommend "properly treating" the back of welds that you can't get at because they are inside body cavities.

The link in my first post describes the work done over the past 18 months. Many here followed the saga but I realize not everyone has .

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

I'm currently doing a bunch of patchwork to turn a parts-car-status 240D into a daily driver. This included major floor and rocker reinforcement. I recently finished the passenger side. For some repairs, there were obvious original body plugs that I was able to pull and then spray new protective coatings into.

For other areas I couldn't reach, I drilled access holes which I'll be plugging with plastic plugs. These areas will be mostly under the sill plates and carpeting and shouldn't be visible.

What did you spray inside the rockers?

I sprayed in a product called Fluid Film. It is somewhat like the rust treatments products that are applied up here (Krown and Rust Check). But I don't think protection will be long lasting, so I will probably get Krown to spray inside rockers again soon.

I had thought of spraying Penetrol in. It has rust protection/penetration properties and sets up like like a varnish. But I didn't have a suitable gun extension to get proper coverage. Eastwood have this product but problem is that oil and wax that is no doubt present inside rockers, would first have to be completely removed (for both products)

It's not an easy problem. I wonder what a body shop would do? Maybe the rust sprays like Fluid Film, Krown etc are the best bet?

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5