Rusty wheel arches and door W203 estate 2002

[duncanh]

I spent last weekend on my rear wheel arches.

There was no obvious sign of rust looking from a normal standing up position. The rust was only visible from below or with a mirror.

It seemed a good time to tackle it before it crept round the corner, as I would not have to worry about respraying etc.

I took all of the inner trim off, scrubbed it up well, particularly inside the lip. I was pleasantly surprised to find that inside the lip had a rubbery sealant that was intact. The only rust that I had was caused by paint being chipped off under the wheel arches.

I carefully attacked the rust with a wire brush attachment on the electric drill then gave it two coats of silver POR15 (the car is silver, and the match was acceptable). As the rust was largely out of sight, I have done no more finishing. Time will tell how long it lasts.

Front wheel arches look OK, but I plan to cover the unseen edges with POR15 as a precaution, also behind the lip as it is a single skin and may rust from behind. This is a task for another weekend.

I had a small rust bubble on the bottom corner of my driver's door. I think this was caused by opening the door and hitting a high kerb. It was a very small piece, about 0.5cm square. As soon as I touched it with the wire brush, a lump of paint about 5cm square flew off. Apart from the very corner where the rust was, the metal underneath was bright and shiny. I tried to feather in the edge of the paint, but every time I went near it with the sandpaper, another lump of paint fell off.

I ended up with a rather large area on the bottom corner of the door that I had to prime and spray (about 4 inches by 3 inches)

It makes me wonder whether the paint is properly stuck to the metal in other places.

I have heard that paint often flakes off galvanised surfaces, but as my car was manufactured in June 2002, it seems unlikely to be the reason. Has anyone else had this problem? I have never had this before.

My daughter was laughing at me having to repair rust on a 7 year old Mercedes. Her 14 year old Peugeot has no sign of rust anywhere, above or below the surface.

 

[A210AMG]

Hello


Any pics or the repair before and after?

I'm going to get a quote for mine both rear acrches around 2 to 3" but if I could do something as an interterim measure. Its hard to see as up on the inner arch but as you I don't want it to spread...

 

[duncanh]

Any pics or the repair before and after?

Sorry no pics. I did not take any before pics, and have not yet taken any after pics. Looking from the outside (i.e not from below) there is nothing to see. None of the corrosion on the arches had crept round into view.

It is thanks to this forum that I was alerted to the likelihood of rust, and over the years I have been watching for it. This enabled me to catch it and treat it before it came into full view. I have treated a strip of only about 0.5 inch most of the way round the inner wheel arch, largely invisible from any normal viewing angle.

I recommend you treat your arches to POR15 before the rust becomes visible. It is "interesting" to work with, but the results seem excellent (so far).

 

[LeighW]

Where did you buy the POR15 from? I need something like this for my van's subframe.

 

[Baron_Samedi]

www.frost.co.uk is a good starting point

 

[blondebier]

As your car is only a 2002 model wouldn't this have been sorted by MB under warranty?

 

[duncanh]

As your car is only a 2002 model wouldn't this have been sorted by MB under warranty?

No chance! for the following reasons:

• I have not taken it to a dealership since the warranty expired (June 2005)
• It has done 189,000 miles
• It has not perforated from the inside out, so the best I could hope for is a goodwill offer, which would still cost a lot more than doing it myself

As it is no worth much more than the scrappage value (but too young to scrap), I thought I might as well have a go myself. So far I am very pleased with the results.