[Mclarenz]

My car has lots of surface rust on it, particularly on the hood. I want to fix it myself. I've read some guides online and have the basics down: wire brush the rust and some of the area around it to make sure that there's no rust left, primer, paint, clear coat. Where do I get the primer, paint and clear coat from? The paint is the most important thing as it has to be the exact color of my vehicle.

I've attached pictures of the car's color and some of the rust spots. I'm only going to try and fix the surface rust, I'll have to get a shop to look at the bubbling rust.

 

[MBGraham]

If you Google surface rust repair car you will get many hits like this one.

Some of them miss out a step - using a rust converter after the grinding/sanding step.

If you go to NAPA in Canada, they often have a paint department. They can supply proper and compatible automotive prime and paint. Some paint has built in clearcoat. NAPA can match your paint.

Doing those repairs in a way that will not be noticeable is not easy. I have done such repairs many times, but never really satisfactorily. The pros do a much better job. They usually won't do small repairs. They usually paint a complete panel.

I do small repairs on my cars, but on the W210, I eventually get a low cost pro that I know to do a panel repaint. Cost about $200/panel - may be more now.

 

[alabbasi]

You'll have to strip the paint, this blister has probably gone right through and is a lot bigger then the outside damage would suggest.

Once stripped, you'll have to sand back the surface rust and use a converter (some sort of acid) to neutralist any of the rust that's in the pitting, then prime and paint.

 

[Mclarenz]

If you Google surface rust repair car you will get many hits like this one.

Some of them miss out a step - using a rust converter after the grinding/sanding step.

If you go to NAPA in Canada, they often have a paint department. They can supply proper and compatible automotive prime and paint. Some paint has built in clearcoat. NAPA can match your paint.

Doing those repairs in a way that will not be noticeable is not easy. I have done such repairs many times, but never really satisfactorily. The pros do a much better job. They usually won't do small repairs. They usually paint a complete panel.

I do small repairs on my cars, but on the W210, I eventually get a low cost pro that I know to do a panel repaint. Cost about $200/panel - may be more now.

That article suggests waiting a night between applying the primer and the paint, I haven't heard of this before. Is this step necessary?

I found out my paint color code, it's Brilliant Silver Metallic 744/9744. There's a kit on eBay that has 15 ml of Paint and 15 ml of clearcoat for $14. For how many < 1 cm spots can I fix with this kit?

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Unless you just don't care how the result looks, or that the repair isn't going to really be long-lasting, you're not going to fix this at home. That rust looks surface, but I'm absolutely much deeper. Once you see the blisters, it's pretty advanced. You have to either grind away all rust to bare metal and then prime, or use a rust-converting primer, then fill/ grind/ sand/ prime before you paint.

There's a reason why you'll never find a body shop who who will guarantee a rust repair.

 

[Mclarenz]

I'm not going to bother fixing the blister or bubbled spots, just wanted to show them to get input from the replies. I'm only looking to fix the surface rust.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Well, if you don't care to fix the blisters and bubbles (which are what are going to cause the car to rot away), why bother fixing the superfluous surface rust?

 

[Mclarenz]

Because it's expensive as hell to fix those and it's not worth it on a car that's 14 years old. The surface rust will spread if I don't stop it quickly and it makes the car look better not having a thousand dots of rust on the hood, which the car currently has. It's ridiculous how easily the paint tears away on this car. Besides, I'm poor, the car was bought for around $4500. The rust will not stop coming back even if I do fix it as the car was not properly protected during production. Fixing a bubbling spot will cost more than $1000. That bubbling spot is rust coming from inside out. The entire door needs to be replaced or sanded down and rust-proofed. There's a 30 year rust warranty in Europe that a lot of people have used to get mercedes to fix the rust on their cars, but it's highly unlikely here in Canada as the rust warranty is only like 4 years and the dealerships will use the salt argument to repel any claims, as though salt can penetrate a car from the inside out, like on the trunk lock.

 

[Stalliontech]

The w210 are notorious for developing rust spots in the worst places... Comes from the type of paint Mercedes used in that time frame :/

 

[Mclarenz]

Yeah, Mercedes didn't galvanize the steel and used water-based paint. I don't think even Mazda's rusted this bad.

 

[summicron]

What years are problematic?

 

[Simon_E]

There's a 30 year rust warranty in Europe that a lot of people have used to get mercedes to fix the rust on their cars

This 30 years warranty is almost always useless: first, it covers not rust, but "perforation corrosion," and this only in cases where rust can be proven (!) to have developed on the inside and grown from there to the outside, which is not how rust rust develops in most cases on these or other cars. Moreover, a service history at the dealership is a must. If you drive such a car in Europe and had it indeed serviced at the Mercedes dealer throughout, you MIGHT also get some goodwill assistance on ordinary rust repairs. Also, there were some rust-related recalls (like the spring perches, if I am not wrong).

Besides that, with cars that are more than 10 years old, the situation for owners in Europe is not much different from that in the US. Perhaps it's even worse, as in many European countries winters seem to be at least as harsh on these cars as winters in Northern and Eastern US states. In fact, in Europe, the frequency of rust is probably the single most important reason why the reputation of these otherwise rather fine cars is seriously tainted.

 

[Mclarenz]

What years are problematic?

Your car is affected by this. It's right before Mercedes and Chrysler merged together, from 1995 to 2002. There's a person who regularly parks their CLK in the visitor parking at my building and it has a lot of rust spots. You should probably wax your car every month to slow down the inevitable rust from showing up.

This 30 years warranty is almost always useless: first, it covers not rust, but "perforation corrosion," and this only in cases where rust can be proven (!) to have developed on the inside and grown from there to the outside, which is not how rust rust develops in most cases on these or other cars. Moreover, a service history at the dealership is a must. If you drive such a car in Europe and had it indeed serviced at the Mercedes dealer throughout, you MIGHT also get some goodwill assistance on ordinary rust repairs. Also, there were some rust-related recalls (like the spring perches, if I am not wrong).

Besides that, with cars that are more than 10 years old, the situation for owners in Europe is not much different from that in the US. Perhaps it's even worse, as in many European countries winters seem to be at least as harsh on these cars as winters in Northern and Eastern US states. In fact, in Europe, the frequency of rust is probably the single most important reason why the reputation of these otherwise rather fine cars is seriously tainted.

Yeah, it's considered useless, but I was able to find a few posts where people managed to get mercedes to fix their car's rust. Here are some:

I took Mercedes-Benz to court over their 30-year bodywork warranty. | Ask Honest John | Honest John

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w220-s-class/1423002-free-rust-repair-done-merc-dealer.html

The spring perches worry me a lot, they seem rusted from my quick inspection of the underside, but when I did a VIN search for my car it said there are 0 recalls for it. I'm sure there was a recall for the spring perches and the door seal. Maybe you have to take the car to a dealership before they tell you about the recall? I don't know, I've never heard of such a thing, but from reading on the Internet it seems the recall is unofficial.

Check out this article: http://europe.autonews.com/article/...es-offers-guarantee-against-rust-for-30-years

'The quality of our entire model line-up allows us to take this unique step toward a new dimension of customer care, which is in line with the very core of our brand philosophy,' said Dieter Zetsche, head of sales for Daimler-Benz.

The high quality of materials, standards of workmanship and corrosion protection of the bodywork and underfloor structures allows the warranty, Zetsche said. If the body is perforated due to corrosion from the inside out anytime within 30 years, Mercedes-Benz will repair the damage at one of its workshops, at no cost to the owner.

lol, who is he fooling? There's pretty much no corrosion protection on the W210.

The amount of money you save by not getting the car serviced at the stealership lets you get the car's rust fixed from the inside out at a bodyshop, or even a low mileage W211. Don't they charge $1000 for each service performed? Even though they're just inspecting the air filter, fuel filter, and whatnot? I buy my own oil and filter and get my trustworthy mechanic to change it.

On my car there's rust developing from the inside out on the passenger front door and on the trunk lock. On the trunk the rust isn't even visible, it's just bubbling. So it's clearly coming from the inside out. I doubt that they'll fix it since I don't service the car at the stealership and I don't think the previous owner did either.

In any case, I just don't want my car to end looking like this nightmare: Should a 2002 mercedes really look like this? - PistonHeads

Has anyone here fixed their car's surface rust at home? If not, how much would it cost to get it fixed at a body shop? Just the surface rust?

 

[tjts1]

My w210 had some hidden rust on the window frames after spending its entire life in southern California. I can't imagine owning this car anywhere they salt the roads.

 

[Patch's]

My w210 had some hidden rust on the window frames after spending its entire life in southern California. I can't imagine owning this car anywhere they salt the roads.

TJTS1, I know this is disappointing to find, however, and based on what I see in the picture it is not hard to understand why the panel is rusted in that particular location. The panel fold has had impact from above at some point, causing the metal to bulge, then the layers of corrosion protection to (delaminate)!
Because of this, and that it is under the window seal and stays wet or damp, what you see is to be expected on any car fabricated out of metal.
Patch

 

[tjts1]

)

The panel fold has had impact from above at some point, causing the metal to bulge, then the layers of corrosion protection to (delaminate)!
Because of this, and that it is under the window seal and stays wet or damp, what you see is to be expected on any car fabricated out of metal.
Patch

I'm not so sure. It rusted in the same spot on both front doors. I doubt they both had the same impact. As far as I know this car was never involved in any accident. I agree on the window seal, it kept moisture trapped which caused the rust. The paint and and rust proofing is sub par on these cars.

Other side

Fuel door

Battery well. To be fair, the battery vent tube was missing.

These were all relatively easy repairs and I went on a crusade to touch up every stone chip I could find. For comparison my 87 with many exposed stone chips doesn't have any rust.

 

[Patch's]

TJTS1 the gas cover/door is a weird one?


Patch