R170 SLK320 rust on front inner arch bracket

[PKG]

Good luck! I derusted the old wings using Bilthammer Deox gel, after a dozen or more treatments I still saw black in the deep pits. The rest was shiny steel. So I used Hydrate80 converter over all the bare metal, then Gravgard stone chip sprayed from the inside. Same happened with the front sill.
I have tried to blend in with Halfords rattle brilliant silver, no luck as colour has aged (19 years) and I cannot avoid a dark line between the old and new paint.
So a professional is coming to quote. My wife wants to keep the car so cheaper than a new one (or the latest fantasy, DS Pallas!). I will find out what he will use. Rattle cans are acrylic??
I have sprayed a Minor ( car not infant) with rattle cans and it looked ok. Spray gun is better but then I used cellulose.
To be continued!

 

[PKG]

I would get a quote for a respray. You should get a more durable finish. The big challenge is the rust.
My primary objective was to eradicate or stabilise the corrosion, but had spread above the wing flanges so it's panel resprays.
I hope the Bilthamber stuff works or a professional will be a waste of money!

 

[PKG]

I took the four bars underneath off and am derusting by electrolysis, looks like it is working, will update. 5 days so far!
I managed to pull the rear bumper down far enough to clean the rear wing rust (after taking/snapping frontmost bolt/nut). But noticed heavy rust under underseal at rear. So probably rear bumper off to check/correct!
Sorry for being garrulous.

 

[Paul Farrant]

Yes it's certainly a labour intensive job, I started just wanting to repair the front wings, both have movement at the front where they attach to the bumper so I knew it would be a welding job and sheet metal needed, so i brought a small welder and some metal and repaired the front driverside, sanded, skimmed and sanded again, primed and painted, only to find out a previous owner had changed the colour blue, so I stripped the sideskirt off and found some rust at the front edge behind the wheel and rear in front of the rear wheel, I sanded those back and luckily it was surface rust which I treated then sanded back, skimmed and primed then sprayed stonechip over it, I will leave that black as the sideskirt covers most of it. Then there was the rear arch, I haven't tried to undo the rear bumper for fear of breaking that front bolt, I will need too to finish the job properly so have been spraying it with wd40 to help as much as I can when I tackle it. Then I have the rear boot lid to tackle where the handle sits as that has some rust too. Then the passenger side has all the same issues to tackle. I will attach the wings again and then spray some stonechip inside where it bolts to the bumper and inner bracket to try and seal the joint from water damage and hope that preserves the wing for longer. I will fix all the jobs and prime it all then flat it down and then buy the paint and lacquer, I have taken the front door off, wing, sideskirt, windscreen panel and wing mirror off so I can spray those in my shed and keep the weather away, but it's no small job, not as I originally envisaged it to be anyway. I definitely need a bigger shed haha. Good luck with your project, let me know how you go with it all and any tips you have or find when you are doing it.

 

[Paul Farrant]

I took the four bars underneath off and am derusting by electrolysis, looks like it is working, will update. 5 days so far!
I managed to pull the rear bumper down far enough to clean the rear wing rust (after taking/snapping frontmost bolt/nut). But noticed heavy rust under underseal at rear. So probably rear bumper off to check/correct!
Sorry for being garrulous.

They dont make it easy to remove things either do they, the whole boot covers need to be removed to get to the bolts for the rear bumper. Still have to remove the front one on mine, that's meant to be a pig of a job with some saying you can do it without jacking it up and some saying you cant, I will find out soon enough.

 

[PKG]

Here are the bar, 3 hope ones a week's electrolysis after a cursory hand wire brush. The 2 hole ones 3 days after a going over with a nylon brush on an angle grinder. I think the 10 minutes spent on the angle grinder are worth it.

 

[PKG]

The rear bumper front bolts just snapped off despite lots of penetrating oil. No problem as I will refit with stainless. They look about 6mm. To take the front bumper off you need to remove the shield under the motor so you can access two of the bolts. Needs to be jacked up to get the access to the shield. The shield under wife's car is a heavy steel thing, and was very rusty - I wish I had used electrolysis for it instead of a dozen plus applications of Deox gel! I also took the front carrier bar for the shield off to derust and paint - easy to do. Will refit with 10mm stainless bolts. You can see a lot when the bumper is off - lots more fun to be had ! I wire brushed the wishbone etc and Hydrate80 and stone chip.
I will spray anti corrosion wax over the arches/brackets etc when I reassemble. Also in any cavities I can get at.
Can I ask what paint you will use? I wanted 2k hence the Pro to spray it.
But that looks unlikely now, so will reluctantly do it myself. I think 1k acrylic ....

 

[Paul Farrant]

Thanks for the info, ill jack the front up and get the bumper off the same way. Those brace bars scared me to take off as some people said the nut can break loose and then you have trouble refixing them, i havent tried them yet. I'll pluck up some courage and give it ago. To be honest I'm not sure what the paint is, as i just asked for the paint code colour and they made it. I did repair and spray the wing using aerosols which were made for me by a paint shop. They came out lovely, I wet sanded the clear coat to remove the orange peel and then used a grinding paste to bring back a polished look and then applied wax. But never refitted it as it didnt match the colour of the car due to a previous owners respray. I have just sanded down the sideskirt and removed all stonechips etc from it and just need to spray that with some plastic primer as it exposed the raw material. Got to order some primer to spray the rear quarter and make sure that's nice and flat and then I can buy some more paint and clear coat to finally finish one side. It would be so much easier in a workshop so i could spend a day and remove everything and then work on it bit by bit without worrying about weather, but I'm getting there slowly and when its finished it will look good. I think the rear bumper and roof are the only things that dont need some sort of work, just a quick sand and spray for them. Thanks again for the info on the bumpers.

 

[PKG]

The brace bars bolt were very stiff . I soaked them with penetrating oil several times over a few days. When they moved a little I sprayed more penetrating oil and retightened, repeated a few times.
They came off ok. Replacing with stainless. They do have a blue threadlock on them, so maybe a warm up with a heat gun?

 

[Paul Farrant]

Thankyou again, I shall try that way when I do mine. I have sprayed those front bolts today a few times after giving the threads a clean up using a wire wheel on a cordless drill, fingers crossed they come off okay. I've cleaned up all the black plastic parts aswell, the previous owners spray job was very messy, overspray everywhere. They look as good as new now. I did break one bolt on the front wing mud guard though so need to weld a new bit on or I may use a self tapping screw, just need to check to make sure there is nothing behind the part it screws into.

 

[Paul Farrant]

I got the rear bumper off today, wow the rust behind it on the lower corners where all the rear drain pipes are located. I've had to grind it right back to clean metal and cut out the rust where it had a massive hole on the driverside, it's on both sides but the driverside is the worst. As I dont have enough sheet metal to make a new corner skin I have treated the area and will sand it back when I get the new metal. Another big job, as some of the lower inner panel is rusty too and I've cut those out now aswell. Should keep me busy for a while just doing those.

 

[PKG]

Still to take off rear bumper! Have removed outer lower door seals to get at a little rust
Used PTFE spray, they pull off backwards. Well one did ! The n/s snagged, twisted so has a visible split outside and a break inside. Trying to get part number.
.

 

[PKG]

Also,need following for sill covers:
Big white ones 6 a side -
A1709880878
One part black 20x16mm base, 2 each side at back -
A0099883978
Can someone please confirm correct numbers? And n/s outer lower door seals please? Or both!
Am now on a deadline! Have decided to have a professional respray and booked it in. Trying to find and eradicate all bits of rust, rebuild front, remove and treat rear and replace......

 

[PKG]

Seems a bit crazy to spend far more than the car is worth..... Just hope the Bilthamber stuff works, and that I didn't screw it up!

 

[Paul Farrant]

Also,need following for sill covers:
Big white ones 6 a side -
A1709880878
One part black 20x16mm base, 2 each side at back -
A0099883978
Can someone please confirm correct numbers? And n/s outer lower door seals please? Or both!
Am now on a deadline! Have decided to have a professional respray and booked it in. Trying to find and eradicate all bits of rust, rebuild front, remove and treat rear and replace......

The six white clips and 2 black clips for the sideskirt I have taken a pic of so you can see the part numbers. White ones for mine are A170 988 08 78, the black ones are A170 988 07 78. I also bought 4 new jacking point black plastic dome things the part number for those are A170 997 02 86. The part number you said A0099883978 is for the front clips to the side skirt, there are 3 each side and they also have a black holder they sit in ( 3 each side also) which has the part number A140 271 00 60, Hope that helps.

 

[Paul Farrant]

Still to take off rear bumper! Have removed outer lower door seals to get at a little rust
Used PTFE spray, they pull off backwards. Well one did ! The n/s snagged, twisted so has a visible split outside and a break inside. Trying to get part number.
.

Not sure if these are the part numbers, but I found these numbers on another site but dont have a picture. Left - A170 690 22 62, Right - A170 690 21 62.

 

[Paul Farrant]

Seems a bit crazy to spend far more than the car is worth..... Just hope the Bilthamber stuff works, and that I didn't screw it up!

I always wanted one of these cars when I was younger but never had the funds, they will soon become classics (I insure mine as one on a limited mileage policy when it's on the road) so will start to appreciate in value, hopefully.

 

[PKG]

Thanks! Front now back on, alignment seems ok. Quite hard to get right. Problems with that horrible Mercedes double ended bolt. Had to cut them short. Should have used straight bolts.
Back bumper off. No holes but corrosion!!!! Have booked professional respray.

 

[Paul Farrant]

Thanks! Front now back on, alignment seems ok. Quite hard to get right. Problems with that horrible Mercedes double ended bolt. Had to cut them short. Should have used straight bolts.
Back bumper off. No holes but corrosion!!!! Have booked professional respray.

Not too bad for you then, just a quick clean off and treat then prime it to protect it and carry on with the rest. May I ask how much the respray will cost? I am guessing you are doing all the major repair works and then getting a professional sprayer to do the final prepare and paint.

 

[PKG]

Quoted £1500. I am treating the rust, prime and stone chip. The bonnet will be stripped and etch primered. All flatting will be done by the painter. I will replace the plastic under the wings.l when done. I am supplying new fixings where needed and clips for the sills and new seal for the door. After the respray a local garage will replace corroded brake pipes and rear caliper outer seals, the old ones look a bit manky. Not helped by me running a wire wheel over them! I cleaned an painted the calipers, lots of rust. I also slackened off the handbrake, took off the discs and cleaned rust off the drum part of the disc, plenty of brake cleaner! The pads were ok but at £15 for new ones I replaced them. I didn't on the front.