rust repair Archives « Classic Jalopy

W124 crash repair – rust repair and repaint

admin — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 20:00:14 +0000

Before my 300TE could be repainted, the rust uncovered in the rear window apertures had to be repaired. The rust was cut out and the area welded – we didn’t use any specific repair panels in my case.

Once all the rust was repaired, the next step was obviously paint. Since the whole car was not being resprayed, just the rear quarters and roof the colour had to be blended in. The goal wasn’t to get my car perfect, but to fix any rust and get it looking really good without the expense of a full respray.

While most of the work is in the preparation, it’s when the colour goes on that the car is really transformed. Seeing how much better it was looking when I visited made a big difference.

The car looks really sleek without the roof racks and rubbing strips on the roof. However, I do plan to put it back to the stock look.

The bumper was painted separately and will go on later. One of the things that attracted me to this car at the time of purchase was the colour – 888 Beryll. Its a great colour and looks so much better without the badly faded roof. By 1990 it was getting rarer for a Mercedes-Benz to be sold in an interesting colour.

I was also impressed with the red XJC parked under the hoist next to my 300TE. I’m a big fan of the XJC, and red is a great colour for one.

The post W124 crash repair – rust repair and repaint appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

W124 crash repair – disassembly and rear window rust

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 19:48:07 +0000

With all the parts procured, my 300TE went into the body shop. The repair started out as routine, removal of the old bumper and disassembly. However, things quickly went sideways with the removal of the rear windows.

While I was aware of the rust traps in the S124 rear window design, I wasn’t prepared for how bad the rust would be would be without any real external evidence. I’m really glad I did this repair now, as while it was bad, it was still very much repairable.

Both sides were pretty bad with one slightly worse. The challenge is that if any water gets under the seal, there is nowhere for it to go. It sits and rusts away the metal under the seal. The low point seems to be at the front of the aperture, although there was some rusting at the rear.

Fixing the rust was going to be more effort than I had planned, but at l was getting it repaired all at once. It would have been quite a shame to fix one side only.

Preparing the roof for paint was more effort than I had hoped. The strips on the roof are just attached with adhesive. But the actual roof racks require the headlining to come down. Seeing the strips off the roof showed how badly the paint had faded from original, the main reason why I was having the roof repainted.

The post W124 crash repair – disassembly and rear window rust appeared first on Classic Jalopy.