R170 SLK320 rust on front inner arch bracket

[Paul Farrant]

Hello everyone, I have an SLK320 2000 reg, I have got bored with the lockdown and thought I'd tackle some rust, I took off the front wing and found the bracket that is spot welded to the inner arch has rusted away badly. I have drilled out the welds and removed the bracket and on the back of it there is a number 003 stamped in it then a Mercedes logo and then the letters Y and P. I cant find it on WIS/EPC anywhere, all I can see is where that bracket mounts too. I have attached 3 pictures, one is the rusty one fitted to my car, the other is what the bracket should look like and the third is the numbers stamped on the back to show what I mean. Does anyone know where to buy this part from please?

 

[Uncle Benz]

I think you’ll probably have to make one.

 

[Paul Farrant]

Thanks for the reply, I did think that, but was hoping I didnt have too.

 

[DREAMER NO2]

There is a company in Germany makes most replaceable body parts for Mercedes., i will look for you

 

[DREAMER NO2]

Paul try this Central Panels or Klokkerholm or Van Wezel also Cantral Panels and Buy Carparts .co.uk .... good luck .

 

[Paul Farrant]

Thankyou I will look now.

 

[PKG]

Hi, any luck finding the brackets? I am just about to start on the rust on my wife’s SLK, I expect to find similar rust. The wheel arches have been done twice (first time body shop and rusty in a year, second by me using RustRoy and lasted a few years). This time I am trying Bilthammer products. I’ll update my experience. Does yours have a heavy steel sump guard? I am wary of touching that.

 

[Paul Farrant]

No luck finding any unfortunately, I made mine from scratch in the end using 1.2mm mild steel. Cut 3 pieces to make bending easier and then welded them together to make one bracket. I went flat bottomed with the bracket and drilled through the bumper to allow bolting through for the wing in two places rather than just the front bolt being for the wing and the back bolt being for the bumper, it means i have to remove 2 bolts from the bracket to remove the wing but it's not a big deal and made the job alot easier.

 

[Paul Farrant]

No luck finding any unfortunately, I made mine from scratch in the end using 1.2mm mild steel. Cut 3 pieces to make bending easier and then welded them together to make one bracket. I went flat bottomed with the bracket and drilled through the bumper to allow bolting through for the wing in two places rather than just the front bolt being for the wing and the back bolt being for the bumper, it means i have to remove 2 bolts from the bracket to remove the wing but it's not a big deal and made the job alot easier.

 

[00slk]

Good to see some self fabricating

 

[ajlsl600]

Good job, knowing Benz, that part only comes with rest of car!!!

 

[PKG]

Thanks! This is my wife's offside!
I have a friend who will weld a piece on, then I think I will fit the wing, mark and drill. The nearside is corroded and not complete, but connected. so Bilthammer Deox gel, wash off and Dynax. The gel seems to remove the rust ok leaving clean steel. Takes several applications or maybe I am not great at it. Not complaining at all, am impressed. I was expecting much worse rust than it has. I have ordered the plates that sit between the bumper and the wing
A1708800111 and A17088212. £84 the pair, plus the 4 plastic "bolts" and "nuts" to fit them.
A0009908891, A1709840529. I don't know if these are the correct fasteners. If they are wrong I will update.
Could probably use pop rivets.
Got the heavy sump guard off, not too bad but heavily corroded.

 

[PKG]

One other question, for anybody! I want to protect the wing lips from stones etc. I don't want to use underseal, has anyone had success with a stone chip aerosol?
These wheel arches have been derusted twice before, once by a bodyshop (1year) and after by me using Rustroy ( 2-3 years). So I really don't want to do them again!

 

[Paul Farrant]

Good job, knowing Benz, that part only comes with rest of car!!!

I looked on their parts catalogue, I joined a forum which has a link to it, and it shows the inner wing, but no inner bracket, either attached or separate to the inner wing, I'm guessing they either forgot to add it to the picture or I would have to order the whole inner wing and take pot luck if the bracket was on it or not. I decided to make my own in the end, pretty easy, even with my basic lump hammer, block of wood and a workmate table then weld the bits together.

 

[Paul Farrant]

Thanks! This is my wife's offside!
I have a friend who will weld a piece on, then I think I will fit the wing, mark and drill. The nearside is corroded and not complete, but connected. so Bilthammer Deox gel, wash off and Dynax. The gel seems to remove the rust ok leaving clean steel. Takes several applications or maybe I am not great at it. Not complaining at all, am impressed. I was expecting much worse rust than it has. I have ordered the plates that sit between the bumper and the wing
A1708800111 and A17088212. £84 the pair, plus the 4 plastic "bolts" and "nuts" to fit them.
A0009908891, A1709840529. I don't know if these are the correct fasteners. If they are wrong I will update.
Could probably use pop rivets.
Got the heavy sump guard off, not too bad but heavily corroded.

If you mean the brackets that go under the bumper that the bolts go through to attach to the inner bracket then my brackets came from Mercedes with small plastic rivets to attach the bracket/plate to the bumper. The bolts I'm guessing are to bolt the bumper to the inner bracket (1 for each side) and bolt the wing to the inner bracket (1 bolt each side), my bracket I made with a flat bottom, not the correct design, but I just drilled a hole through the bumper and the bracket underneath the bumper and will bolt through the bumper to hold the wing and bumper in two places rather than the one bolt used for each part to attach them separately to the bracket. Good luck with it, it's a fairly easy job and although it looks bad to start with it is easily fixed, even me, a novice DIYer managed.

 

[Paul Farrant]

One other question, for anybody! I want to protect the wing lips from stones etc. I don't want to use underseal, has anyone had success with a stone chip aerosol?
These wheel arches have been derusted twice before, once by a bodyshop (1year) and after by me using Rustroy ( 2-3 years). So I really don't want to do them again!

I wouldn't have thought so, it seems like it's a water trap behind the wing and as water sits there it will inevitably rust after time, just coat it with a good covering of stonechip for the inside of wing and probably some wax oil treatments to try and delay the inevitable.

 

[PKG]

Photo of bracket I made and the other reinforced with a plate.

 

[PKG]

Ref. Previous post about fasteners for £84 brackets, I can't confirm that the part numbers I gave are correct! The rivets seem to come with the plates. Sorry.

 

[PKG]

Photo of bracket I made and the other reinforced with a plate. View attachment 59464

Thanks?

 

[Paul Farrant]

Thanks?

That's a nice easy fix out the way, did you buy new wings or are you repairing those too? I managed to repair mine, but now having issues with paint as a previous owner has resprayed the outside with a different blue and nobody can match it so I now have to sand the whole car and repaint it all, no small feat when it's on my driveway and using aerosol cans. I am taking parts off bit by bit and will repaint those off the car and just leaves the rear quarters panels and boot area to spray on the driveway. The paint shop I bought my primer and paint at gave me etch primer and I've had no end of issues with it lifting the old paint edges and reacting so have to sand those back down and use a non etch primer to make it good again. It's been a big learning curve doing this.