450SLC Rust

The big Achilles heel in the R/C107 chassis is its propensity to rust.   They are pretty much bullet proof mechanically, but the rust proofing from the factory was poor and there are a lot of areas where they can and do rust, even in climates such as Australia that are not prone to it.    Once the rust gets to a point, the cars are pretty much scrap.

My car is pretty rust free – but I had some rust cut out about 10 years ago.   There were four places and they are all common rust points in these cars

• near the front jacking points – dirt gets inside and they stay wet
• the bottom edge of the boot lid – water gets into a lip here
• the front chassis rails – water pools on top in the engine bay
• bottom of the rear window – water gets in under the seal, the metal starts rusting and the window starts delaminating.   The delamination is generally seen before the rust.   It is important to use sealer when replacing these windows.

10 years later, the rust is back in the bottom of the boot lid, and in the drivers side front chassis rail.   in addition, there is also rust:

• behind the front wheels – there is a lip here were dirt can accumulate and cause rust
• passengers side boot floor – leaking boot seal or tail light seal
• where the side trim attaches to the car – water gets in the holes in the body

The rust is not bad yet, and very easily repairable at this point.   leaving it too long and it becomes problematic to fix.   I have also decided to do a full repsray at the same time.   The paint on the front of the car is faded and cracked in places, and the boot lid needs to be repainted.  The doors are also very faded. The rear part of the car is better because of the rust repairs 10 years ago, but the car is currently many shades of blue.    A full respray is expensive but it should rejuvenate the car for many years to come.

If you are looking to buy a 107, this is as list of the 450SLC rust points.   The SLs are pretty similar but they also add the soft top compartment.