Update by Tim Suddard to the
Mercedes-Benz 230 S project car
Dec 14, 2012
For just a couple hundred bucks, Mercedes Classic has both the inner and outer sides of the front crossmember. And, of course, there is nothing like the quality of factory parts.
Our front crossmember was badly rusted—a common problem on the W111-chassis Mercedes.
As we mentioned last time, we decided to stop what we were doing, order the correct flooring materials from the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, and do some paint work at the same time.
We thought some more about this, and as much as we don’t want to turn this project into a full-on restoration, it seemed kind of crazy to paint the top of the car, and then start welding in a new trunk floor and fix the rest of the rust on the car. This was certainly going to end in disaster.
So while we were planning on using the (somehow perfect) trunk floor pan in our recently acquired parts car, we decided at the last minute just to order a new one. The Mercedes-Benz Classic Center had this part, too. At well under $400, it didn’t seem worth it to try to cut a used trunk floor out of our parts car. We have day jobs, too, you know.
From there, it seemed logical to fix the badly rusted front crossmember, to which the bumper mounts, and a couple of other minor rust spots in the rear-quarter panel.
To fix that front crossmember, the front fenders must be removed. At this point, we decided we’d strip down the car to get it painted. We will probably have the only fully restored 1966 Mercedes 230S on the planet, but we really like this car. Besides, the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center has our back with fairly inexpensive and easy to get parts.
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