W114 / W115 rust repair (journey with pictures) -PART VIII
by Patryk Rebisz

1. The right front floors are rusting through. They were ineptly repaired by the previous owner.
(Tip: Undercoating is NOT rust prevention! You must cover bare metal with paint first!)
The first step is to remove the thick Dynamat sound deadening — and man, this stuff sticks so well. So much work for me!

2. After a long time spent removing the sticky sound deadening, I finally cut out the corner of the rusted-through floor. For safety (and maybe because I’m a bit paranoid), I decided to repair the corner first before removing more of the floor to ensure the frame wouldn’t cave in on me.

3. The replacement floor from Mill Supply has been cut to fit. (By the way, the right front replacement floors are of very low stamping quality.) Welding holes were pre-drilled, and I also rust-proofed the supporting Y-bracket that reinforces the floor.

4. The floor has been welded in.

5. The welds have been ground down — not perfectly smooth, as leaving more metal means more strength — and then painted. I also welded in the front corner of the rocker panel for extra rigidity.

Part IX in the next post.