SLK front wing rust issues

[Furno]

I've spent a good part of today reading various forums about rust problems in R170 SLKs, with limited success.

I'm currently looking at a friend's SLK and I'm trying to sort out the rust where the front wing joins to the bumper.

Taking the bumper off was relatively easy as all the bolts etc had just rotted away - the bumper was loose on one side.

The outer wings are in good condition, apart from the lip that is used to join onto the bracket on the inner wing near the headlight. This lip on the outer wing has gone completely, but I'm confident that I can fabricate these and weld them on to the existing outer wing. Also, the metal plates on the bumper have almost rotted away but these are still obtainable new, so no real problem there.

The big problem is the part of the inner wing that incorporates the bracket that the outer wing bolts to has virtually entirely disappeared. There is still some serviceable steel underneath this bracket that I could weld a new bracket onto if only I new what it looked like.

Does anyone have a picture of this bracket so that I can at least attempt a repair that will look less of a "bodge job" than making one from scratch and probably save me a lot of trial and error time.

Does anyone manufacture these brackets, he asked knowingly?

Cheers, Steve

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Reminds me of when I had the front wing resprayed on mine. A lot of the edges were bubbling around the car when I sold it and the arches were a mess. Not Mercedes finest hour.

 

[optimusprime]

Mercedes do have problems with rust in most of their cars. And are no better than any other . You need to look after them and dont let the dirt build up on the wing arch lips .Thats why the dealer has this under body inspection .

 

[BishopDave]

There is an internal horizontal plate under the wing which one of the headlight fixings attaches to and when I was removing the headlight it disintegrated - looked like it had been part of the titanic! However Mercedes sell a replacement plate which I managed to fix adequately in place with self tappers. Worth knowing the piece is available. I had both wings replaced on my R170 (Euro Car Parts after market plus spraying came to £400) - I'd already tried a repair job which cost £180 and didn't last five minutes. Worth doing a proper repair if you're thinking of keeping the car.