Steel eating rust demon

exposed rust demon

rust demon hiding in a corner

Cut out the rusted area, leaving the rear structure in place for now to fit new sheet metal. The original shapes are duplicated using shrinking and stretching dies, and some hammering. Everything is ground back to clean steel.

New sheet metal butt-welded in after tacking. The structures behind the well were cut out and replaced too, but those are not visible anymore. The seam at the bottom is sealed with seam sealer.

The area is then primed with self-etching lacquer primer, left to cure and coated with a brush on urethane rubber rock guard about 1/4" thick.  It's rubbery, but more like plastic so it doesn't hold water like rubber would.
Matching the texture to the original is difficult, and as you can see. 

C126 Mercedes Resto

I just pulled this one off the street. It's a 1985 500 SEC, euro spec with the M117 V8 engine, aluminum hood and trunk. It looks pretty bad, but there actually wasn't much wrong with it until I got it home and broke the driver's side window. The door dent put too much pressure on the window, which got stuck, then exploded spectacularly. That will be expensive. Also expensive is the grille, which can't be found for less than $400 anywhere. There are a few mechanical problems: high idle, a transmission mount is worn out or broken, it needs new brakes and shocks all around, the lower radiator hose fitting is leaking. God knows what else. It will have to wait until the W116 mentioned before is finished and prepped for paint. For the meantime it's sitting as far away from other moving vehicles as possible, because I find these are magnets for uninsured drivers, and insurance companies won't fix them anyway. Nothing like rarity to make it a target for morons. Kind of like the time I ran into our 300E. It just appeared in the rear-view as I was backing up. Just kind of jumped up behind me. That's the only time I've ever hit a parked car. So, never park these on the street.