Deception and Filler (C110 Restoration)

When I bought my 110, way back when.  I was lead to believe by the seller that there was very little rust in it.  He made mention of a few points that were a concern but there was certainly nothing major and it was in fact, “The best 240K I’ve seen, as far as rust goes and I’ve owned a few.”. Sure, it’s a line, I realise that, I’m not entirely stupid.  What I did not realise was the extent of the deception.  So without further delay I shall bring you fine observers up to speed with the stripping back to metal of my C110.  Firstly, here is what I began with, from the rear;

Obvious signs but not all bad, right?

BZZZT! Wrong.  Sure, it’s not entirely cheese but it’s hardly fantastic.  Observe!

Starting of course with the side that’s already been stripped back and working my way around the top.  I was doing this on a Saturday morning that I had confused for being a Saturday that I was to fill in a shift at work in the afternoon.  So I was working to a schedule of sorts;

Not tooooo bad.

Top Section, Clean(er than the rest)

Right Hand Side, Oh dear.

Further Metal Inattendance

As was now coming a common feature of the strip back, masses of powder (dust) often came flying out during the wire brush technique of removing paint.  The subsequent operation on the top of the Right Rear Quarter revealed something entirely surprising to me, given what had been found previous.

Holy Crap, someone actually welded steel in at some stage!

Working my way around...

OH MY! More Steel!

Then whilst working down from the boot guttering, I stumbled upon…

More Bog!

The bog cleared off, I weaseled into all the angles and crevasses, resulting in this before I sprayed on some etch primer and shot off to work for the afternoon.

Clean Metal, Woo!

From the other angle, still a bit to be done.

All of the uncovered steel was dusted with primer as such;

Grey, Indicative of my mood to come.

So, with having done what I could before lunch and not wanting to get particularly dirty again before heading to work, I was done for the day.  Or so I thought.  I toddled into work to cover the Saturday shift I was asked to, only to discover I had my days wrong.  CURSES! time was a wasting!  I darted back home, lamenting the lost time and got stuck back in as quickly as possible.  Wanting to get the rear end done before light was at a premium.

Looks alright from this side.

What ho? A foe?!

Just how far down does this newly discovered bog go, I wonder…

All the way down you say?

Quite thick too, it seems

Removal results in...

Disheartened by the latest discovery, I decided to move onto the left side and work my way back to to doomed side.  The things about this side was that I was told by the previous owner that it had been involved in a minor bend and he’d fixed it up.  I guess fixing means different things to different people and you can imagine (using the rest of the car as a guide) that what it meant to him was entirely different to what my definition would be.

Filler, it returns.

Goodbye wire brush, Hello scewdriver.

Chip, chip, chip away

They're Wedges, but I prefer Slim Cut.

Ah well, wire brush the residue off and you’re left with something along the lines of this;

Shiny mixed with Shit

...and in Primer, the creases appear.

…and not forgetting the ill fated corner

Dread.

Which leaves me where the car sits presently.  Having gone to Alexandra for the Blossom Fest. Drags on the Sunday, I didn’t get any more done in the weekend.  I’ll get stuck into the engine bay at the next available opportunity.  Those who know my car will recall that the right hand side was the victim of a tourist not giving way at an Intersection.  Soon we’ll see just how well they repaired that.  I have very little confidence in the repair.  Very little.  I hope to be pleasantly surprised!

-Michael