State vehicle inspection made a remark of a hairline crack in the vans windshield, so I had to change it. The rubber frame hid some hideous rust
Half of the lip is gone..
Some generous silicone caulking later the new shield is in place, hope I don't have to brake hard

Attached Thumbnails

     

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Tomas, Sweden
1966 Mercedes Benz 230S with OM617.912, automatic. Disk brakes from W108
1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD grey, OM617.912 and 5-speed manual
1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD blue 7-seater, OM617.912 and 5-speed manual

I think a hair crack is kind of minor compared to that, don't you think?

Uhm, yup.. it sure is a strange world , especially when dealing with government rules.

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Tomas, Sweden
1966 Mercedes Benz 230S with OM617.912, automatic. Disk brakes from W108
1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD grey, OM617.912 and 5-speed manual
1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD blue 7-seater, OM617.912 and 5-speed manual

Depends where the crack is located. Generally it's not an issue unless the crack is in the "line of sight" of the driver...

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

Ew, that rust is nasty. Is that van from a salt infested area? That looks like a mid-late 80s Chevrolet or GMC van.

Silicone causes that, salt to but silicone doesn't help.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Thats not to bad really, in my neck of the woods the whole van would be swiss cheese.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Really? WOW. One of the old family friends has one of those... his is a '79 GMC Rally Wagon... he bought it new in 1979. I remember in 1985, he had some rust repair on the lower sliding door, but thats the only rust the van has ever had. He still has it, but he rarely drives it due to his age and he has three Lincolns he ususually drives or has someone drive him.

I have childhood memories of that van... I remember my dad borrowed the van twice when I was little to move furniture and one year we took it to northern Virginia for some reason.... that was in 1985 and I was only 9 then, so my memory fails me.

You poor bastards in the east have some rust issues. In Colorado we can remove exhaust nuts on 20 year old cars. If I ever moved out there I would never wrench.

I don't think its as bad as it used to be. Most towns have been switching over to this green salt mixture that do much less damage to cars.

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

X2. I used to live in upstate NY. Rust is everywhere. In early 70's I had a friend with a 67 Ford Galaxie. Thing was so rusty, it broke in two as he was driving down the highway. Wrenching is a different game in that environment.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Around here anything under the car needs a breaker bar, cold chisel, grinder, PB blaster, or a torch to get off.

When we take exhuast parts off old cars up here a wrench is the last thing we reach for. A sawzall and cut off wheel are the tools of choice.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Yeah, its a big issue in the northeast... southeast is fine, but some cars along the coast can get some surface rust. My next post down you can see my old '84 190D, totally rust free...

Wow, that sounds terrible. Thank goodness we dont have to deal with that here... here is my old '84 190D, an original east TN car...






you can see that the engine bay was not exposed to salty conditions...

ALL floor pans and trunk pan looked like this... brand new.... (I have seen some W123s from this era from up north with huge holes in the floors)





and my old 1985 380SE, was a North Carolina car from 1984-2006, then a Tennessee car from 2006-on.... (I had a 1985 Texas license plate, which is why thats on there )







...and my current 300SEL is just as rust free... it was originally a Florida car, then the PO moved to South Carolina, then Georgia, now it resides with me in Tennessee.

Now there's something to be envious about..!

The ugly van is a 87 chevy, bought it originally for engine/trans that I intended to transplant into my finnie. Luckily I came to better senses and the finnie now sports a nice MB diesel

Well put, x2 on this, anything below the seats is considered consumables, consumed by rust that is. I have never ever successfully parted an exhaust system off a car here.. It's like a distant utopia, a dreamland, nirvana, to NOT being forced to fight rust half of the time working on a car.

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Tomas, Sweden
1966 Mercedes Benz 230S with OM617.912, automatic. Disk brakes from W108
1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD grey, OM617.912 and 5-speed manual
1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD blue 7-seater, OM617.912 and 5-speed manual