[RaceDiagnostics]

The two side chrome parts of my rear bumper blistered and split, and since we just had our first frost, it's time to set to work on it.

The euro bumper is easy to take off, just two nuts and bolts in the trunk, it then lifts off.

The bumper then splits down into three valance parts, three chrome parts and three stiffeners, and the rubber. Getting the rubber off was the trickiest job as it has a captive nut held in the rubber and easy to damage. One of it's nuts came off easily, the other I cut off.

Split into the separate parts, the valance parts are in good condition but both side chromes and stiffeners need to be replaced, I just need to find one more side stiffener as I have been collecting parts over the last 6 months. I will paint the inside of all the parts with 2 part epoxy mastic before rebuilding.

The problem parts.

So what was left behind?

Once you start picking....

From inside the trunk.

I certainly have my work cut out, step one, lean how to weld properly.....

 

[1Blue]

ouch, make sure to show us your progress.

 

[Werner W]

Rust never sleeps. I hate rust. Keep digging, you can do it.
Keep the progress pictures coming.

 

[strife2]

This is basically what happened on my 380's LH side...in my case, the inner wheel well trailing the wheel had rusted at or near the joint between it and the quarter panel, and allowed a small (but apparently adequate) amount of water into the trunk at the seam. I would advise you to look there, and also see at Werner W.'s excellent PDF posts concerning this area.

I welded MUCH, but not all of this; I was afraid to weld so near to the gas tank.

A lot of it I did with POR-15 and fiberglass, this car being a driver and not a restored vehicle. The rear lower piece under the bumper covers up a lot of crimes against neatness. Because of previous bad experiences bonding fiberglass to steel, I used POR-15 as a "resin" on the first layer of fiberglass. then, BEFORE THE POR-15 DRIED (important), I put down a conventional fiberglass mat/resin or two.

My repair was not pretty if you look underneath anything, but without going under the car or well into the trunk under the carpet it is invisible; more importantly, it survived one winter so far entirely unscathed.

 

[strife2]

Rust never sleeps. I hate rust. Keep digging, you can do it.
Keep the progress pictures coming.

It actually makes my blood boil. It is Pure Evil. It is entropy at work.

 

[nobby]

I don't know what your repair budget is RD but some of those bumper parts are still available through MB.

I bought new valances for decent prices and I priced out the main bumper support...the item that the valances and chrome screw to.

Support was $400 CAD and the valances were $70 a side and $140 for the center.

 

[tdoriot]

Werner is right, rust is a bitch. I had exactly the same issues on my 73. It all needs to be cut out and replaced. Grab a bottle of Crown Royal, some ice and read my post. http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c107-sl-slc-class/1601645-1973-450-sl-help.html. The first few pages detail exactly what you are facing. Depending on your ultimate goal, you might want all factory metal. I fabricated some parts such as the drop valance behind the bumper and the tool box. In retrospect, I would have bought the tool box just to keep the authentic look. But at the time I had no idea I would be doing nut and bolt restoration Keep us posted ! Just remember, if you cover rust, it just keeps eating ! Be afraid my friend, be very afraid !

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Wow, that work was amazing, unfortunately I have zero car body experience or skills so can't hope to emulate the work you did.

Given I have no spare cash to have someone do the job for me I will just need to do the best I can.

The limited welding I have done so far has been with flux cored gasless wire with poor results, so today I bought some new kit.

Once connected up to the welder I could immediately hear a hiss from the torch without pulling on the trigger, a leak of about 2l/min, so I took it apart.

Inside there was a gas valve, I found a replacement on line for £23 but decided to take this one apart to see what the problem was. I knocked the brass stem out with a drift, there were three parts in the valve body, the two brass parts and a spring which immediately few out and disappeared into a dark corner of the garage.

I cleaned up the dirt on the stem and the valve body, greased it up, took the spring out of a pen and cut it in half and pressed it all back together in a vice. It now works perfectly.

So that is £23 saved along with a few days waiting time.

 

[tdoriot]

Great first step. The flux cor is crap. You'll do fine just get some scrap and practice. If you're ad my posts and Werners, you'll have good basic knowledge. Cleanliness is super important. Any paint etc will contaminate thevweld and make a mess as well inferior welds. Just post pics and ask questions. Everyone here will give you great advice! Soon your car will belike new, or in a million pieces like mine !

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Next job was to build up a trolley for the welder and gas, done.

The wire brush on the angle grinder was great to get rid of the rubber underseal.

Then out with the cuting disc.

 

[Fonzi]

I'm quite a ways behind you.

Having my cars squeezed in the garage like this makes no room to break out my welding equipment. And having more than one 107 to restore sure helps me lose focus.

I have to admit I'm a little surprised so much metal must be cut out for that size rust hole.

Edit:
I have a parts bumper with similar problems but worse. I don't know if I would have anything of value to offer. I got the valence off (in good shape), but could not break down the bumper itself due to rusty bolts. I gave up and just put the flat bumper at the end of my garage with other junk.

 

[tdoriot]

Good job ! The drop valance and the rear fender well can be fabbed from 18 gauge sheet metal. I bought the trunk floor panels and fabbed the tool box on the drivers side. Between my post and the post by Mbboyce onthe 73 trunk restoration should show you all you need to know to do your job. Keep up the good work :thumbsup:

 

[tdoriot]

I'm quite a ways behind you.

Having my cars squeezed in the garage like this makes no room to break out my welding equipment. And having more than one 107 to restore sure helps me lose focus.

Hey Fonz, I feel your pain. I am in a space quandary in my shop as well. Having made room for the 600 and the SLK ate up the real wiggle room. I'm used to having lots of room around the car to manuver. I of course have a substantial addition ready to go, but am holding off with the holiday slow down in our construction season. Blowing all that dough in the winter is sketchy.

These projects do well with momentum. As soon as the car gets surrounded or covered with crap and other priorities and distractions take place, progress grinds to a stop. I appreciate the guys making progress and sharing. It gives me a much needed kick in the ass ! I might even go down and straighten the shop up a bit so I can perhaps make some progress with the engine reassembly. That would be great to get that thing back together. Right now it takes up lots of real estate in pieces ! :crybaby2:

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I did a fair bit of wire brushing and sand blasting to get rid of the underseal and paint on both sides of the car at the weekend and headed back out tonight to make up some paper templates.

For the skirt I plan to lap weld in a new verticle section lapping on the inside, I'm just not confident to do a good but weld.

Once that is in place I will fine tune the new floor section which will have bent over edges and will fit in from below.

I have some 1mm sheet steel, that seems to match up what has been used on the wing.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Back into the garage tonight, did a bit of cutting out. I also did a bit of practice welding on scraps till I felt confident.

Clamped in place and tack welded, the tacks were easy enough.

I then tried to join the dots, but it was much tricker doing it on the verical join so ended up with a combination of dots, blobs and short runs. A bit of a mess overall but I will just have to live with it. Don't look too close.

 

[tdoriot]

Good job ! You'll never see it behind the bumper ! Put some seam sealer on it and call it happy till you paint ! :thumbsup:

 

[strife2]

You know, on the bumpers - if you look at eBay auction 111230434000, the company making bumpers for old MB's in Viet Nam now has W107 bumpers. If the quality is there, this is not a bad price, given that it SEEMS to include everything (I wonder if they actually reproduced everything themselves). If you have rotten bumpers, I suspect that sending your bumpers to a restoration shop (many are going to take MUCH MORE than rechroming), and get all new rubber and skirts, this price would be hard to beat. I have read that their workmanship is very good for even older MB's. Again, I can't say with no hands-on experience, but I've priced things out, and unless you get cores for free and are willing to do the legwork, this SEEMS pretty good.

P.S. Although I don't like the rockers and the cartoon rear tires on this car, I love the "shaved", "no-seam" look (I assume the front has a similar treatment) - this was done with 67/68 Camaro bumpers, modified:

http://www.carcentric.com/tubbedSLrear.jpg

This is the ONLY picture of this car that I can find.

 

[tdoriot]

You are right. My bumpers needed minimum dings taken out of one section and even a deal at a custom chrome shop leaves me with a $ 800.00 bill. By the time I replace the rubber, I'll have $1,200 in my originals. All brand new stainless for that price including sub structure and rubber is a great deal. :thumbsup:

 

[strife2]

You are right. My bumpers needed minimum dings taken out of one section and even a deal at a custom chrome shop leaves me with a $ 800.00 bill. By the time I replace the rubber, I'll have $1,200 in my originals. All brand new stainless for that price including sub structure and rubber is a great deal. :thumbsup:

It KILLS me that the Chinese make and you can have at your door a very nice set of new chromed Camaro bumpers for about $225, and they aren't running a charity, and neither are their dealers.

 

[tdoriot]

Yeah, that's a bitch. Why can't they knockoff the plastic seat chrome caps in chrome pot metal? Fricking plastic ! I've got 3 or so bought new. 5 to go @ $ 20 to $ 40 bucks for chrome plated junk! First time I drag my ass outa the seat, I'll bet the pins get snapped off !

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