Restore, Repair or Replace
by Alex Rosner

After 30 years of faithful service in and around New York City, my 1981 300TD wagon was now a 30-foot car – that is, it looked perfect from 30 feet away. One day we drove over a bump and the right rear support of the passenger seat, with my wife seated there, went through the floor.
Participants with restoration experience at the MBCA Forum advised me to purchase a similar year and model car from California – sans rust – if I liked the car so much. I considered that, and also considered getting a Smart car or some other small wagon because my business no longer called for schlepping big stuff around.
Test drives in a Smart car and a couple of VW models dissuaded me from these because of their rough rides over bumps. After each test drive, I remembered the comfort in the old 300TD.
But I’d decided against a new Mercedes-Benz wagon because a diesel isn’t available and the E-Class wagon is big and pricey. So we were back to the idea of restoring the old 300TD or replacing it with another just like it.
Purchasing someone else’s used car wasn’t appealing, and I knew where all the bodies are buried in mine, so when I saw a friend’s nice-looking 1985 300TD wagon that had undergone rust remediation, I decided that this was the way to go. Also, preservation always appealed to me on principle. My goal would be to use the old wagon in a presentable and comfortable condition for 10 more years.
The wagon and everything in it worked perfectly during my 150-mile trip to the rust specialist. He examined the rust using an angled mirror at the end of a stick and said he could replace the rusted metal with new metal fashioned to fit; that he had been doing this on all sorts of cars for a long time and he had one man in his shop who he said specialized in M-B cars. He made a rough cost estimate that sounded reasonable.
Seven weeks later – three weeks longer than promised – he told me the car was ready but the price was $9,575, twice the estimate. I picked up the wagon late on a Friday afternoon.
I looked around the car and saw large swaths of black undercoating-like material covering the places where the metal was supposed to have been replaced. They were to be sanded down prior to painting, I was told. The jack holes were now usable.
Moreover, the car wouldn’t start and no one knew what to do. I poked around the engine bay and found a loose glow-plug connector. After driving away, I heard screeching sounds from the wheels, and when I hit the brakes, the brake pedal pulsated violently. The car pulled to the left and the directional signals didn’t work at all. Neither did the seat-belt buzzer. I pulled over to look around the car and all I noticed was the right front parking-lamp assembly dangling out of place.
By then the shop was closed. The drive home was slow and unhappy. I worried that the brakes might fail. The screeching sound caused other drivers to look at me quizzically. I was grateful the headlights worked.
The next day, I removed the wheels and look for the source of the noise. Two of the Kleen Wheels dust shields were bent, seated improperly and rubbing against the brake rotors, which accounted for the screeching.
After I unbent and reseated the Kleen Wheels, a whining noise remained, the car still pulled to the left, and the brakes still pulsated.
On Monday, I took the wagon to the independent mechanic who has cared for the wagon during the past few years. He went over the car carefully, fixing the directional signals, putting the side lamp assembly back in place,
Two days and $1,000 later, the directional signals worked, the lamp assembly was back in place, and the directional signals now worked. The brakes were smooth, after two of the rotors were replaced because they were warped. The seat-belt buzzer needed to have a broken connector under the seat replaced, a part he didn’t have. On the lift, we could hear the left front wheel making a slight noise when spun manually. The mechanic was sure that it was a bad wheel bearing, so he ordered a pair for the front wheels. Chances were that the pull to the left was caused by the bad bearing as well.
My mechanic and I believe that the problems with the directional lights and parking-lamp assembly likely were caused by someone disassembling the car for painting who didn’t have much experience with this make and model. There’s no way to say whether the problem with the brake rotors and wheel bearings had any connection to the rust repair.
It was now time to repaint the car, so I took it to a local paint shop that works on M-B cars. He quoted $3,500 and two weeks. Four weeks later the car was ready. The painter had trouble dealing with the primer material the rust specialist used. While painting, they damaged some of the door gaskets and reinstalled the rear windshield wiper incorrectly. I returned there three times for minor touch-ups and other fixes. The car looked fine now.
A few days later after some rain, I noticed that the floor mat in the driver’s foot well was soaked with water. Using a water hose I found water leaking through a crack in the chassis behind the left hood hinge. Rust could be seen there. We cleaned it and plugged the crack with silicone. How long this fix will last is anyone’s guess. Another water leak in the wheel well was discovered and fixed with a patch.
Looking back on my experience, I’ve concluded that it’s just not possible to eliminate all the rust from a rusting car and avoid creating other problems without dismantling the car, carefully and completely. To do that costs big bucks because, aside from the time it takes, old parts can break and other damage can be done during disassembly. Collectors do it, but that’s on rare cars worth the investment that justifies care in dismantling and the cost of finding or making replacement parts.
Because eliminating body rust will entail rummaging around an active engine bay, the wheels, wiring, piping, and suspension components, systems can get pretty messed up during parts removal, grinding, banging, welding and painting. And if the person performing the work is unaware of the damage he’s causing in the course of his work, then problems are sure to ensue. Finally, if thorough system checks are not completed on the car following these services, Murphy’s Law guarantees problems.
For what it’s worth to other owners in a similar situation, my recommendation now is that if the cost of a good replacement car is less than cost of body repair and repainting, that’s definitely the way to go. It’s worth remembering that even the best body and paint specialist won’t be able to give an accurate estimate of the cost of the work until the extent of actual rust damage is known, which isn’t possible until the job is started, and even then, rust can still come back.
But if I decided to do it again, I’d look a little more carefully to find a shop that had body and paint experience with models similar to mine, and good references from other customers before trusting them to give me a sound estimate or do a good overall job.
Alex Rosner is administrator of the MBCA Forum at mbca.org and will be contributing occasional columns to The Star.