Rusty floors, etc.

[Big Al]

Hello. I'm a new member, and this is my first post, which I'm sure I'll be adding many more. It looks like I posted in the wrong forum. I got off track. Was going to talk about a transmission issue.
I recently purchased a 1970 280sl. Have had many older American cars but this is my first Mercedes.
My car is in need of a lot of help. It has 88,000 actual miles and the body is in fairly good condition. The major problem is rust. The car was left sitting outside for about 15 years. Very sad.
There are a few holes in the floors, but my biggest concern is that there are a few holes in the side rails where they meet the floor pan.
Is this a deal breaker financially? Can it be repaired without refinancing my house?
I got an excellent deal on the car, but I'm not sure how deep I want to get in to it.  
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

[ja17]

Hello Big Al,

Welcome.  We are more used to dealing with rust here in the mid-west than you folks in sunny CA.  Nice new zinc coated floors and chassis panels are manufactured for these cars on the aftermarket these days. Do a little research. K&K manufacturing is one of the main suppliers here in the US. Find a skilled metal fabricator or restorer to tackle the project if you cannot do it yourself.  Post some pictures and we may be able to advise further. These cars are worth repairing correctly in most cases these days.

[Shvegel]

Do a thorough survey before you get too deep. Poke around in the following areas with a screwdriver:
The sills under the door at the bottom.
The "frame rail" right behind the sills.
Remove one of the splash shields behind the front wheels and look in there.
Reach up above the front tire to the inner wheel well and feel for a rectangular rail that runs front to back.  Check the top of that.

It can be as much as $30,000 to fix all that if done at a shop (ask me how I know) or far less if you can do it yourself.  Take a good look around and tell us what you see.

[DickLewis]

Big Al,

The parts are all available for what you need to accomplish but as already pointed out the question is can you do it or must it go to another.  The other issue is that as the price of these cars escalate so have the prices for the replacement parts.  I had much more rust than anticipated and purchased a lot of the parts you would need from Bud's Benz and had my restorer put them in.  Depending upon the extent of rust I think it may be less expensive to buy new panels and have them put in rather than try to save what is there.  My opinion.

Dick

[Big Al]

Thanks for all of the input.
I've never repaired any rust so it's not likely that I'll repair the rust on this one.
I'll have to leave it to someone that knows what their doing and has the equipment needed.
I tried to post a few pics but I keep getting a message that my session "timed out".

[Peter van Es]

Big Al,

ensure you scale down your pictures before attempting to upload them. A 4MB file straight from a camera will break things. Resize them to 800x600 and then upload.

Peter