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I couple of months ago I started to realize that the rust repair job I did 5 years ago had started to show bad. It first started as bubbling in the Paintjob of the rear left quarter panel. Upon closer inspection it seemed obvious that rust had silently eaten throught the rear of the wheelwell and as a result after removing most of the bad stuff there was a BIG hole that half the spare tire could fit through. Thank god the repair I did for the other wheel well 5 years ago didn't have any signs of rust. I had saved it just in time.

Most of us know that THIS is the rust weakspot in the 240s and it is very difficult to repair in the advanced rust-cancer state.

Fortuently I have to admit that I am lucky to have a very skillfull buddy who also has love for older cars. His family owns 2 67-72 classic VW beatles and an 81 VW Bus. In one of the VW the WHOLE floor Rusted through and he and his brother manager to weld a new floor plus they have repaired the VWs multiple times including welding axles and welding curves. A couple of years ago he helped me to patch the floor in my 240 by welding a 2x4 foot Galvanized Sheet metal which is BETTER that the original floor.

In this repair operation we first started by removing all the rust and upon seeing this gapping hole..I was convinced that it could never be repaired. My friend patiently cut thin strips on galvanized sheet metal and he carefully curved and rivetted and strips to the remainder metal. This job took him about 45 minutes. The next 2 hours he spent time filling the gaps with body filler and wire mesh and little by little the wheel well started taking its form. Upon finishing the job I was amazed to see that the wheel well had taken its final form and we filled the gaps with thinner body filler and finalizing with Primer.

I really have to admit that the wheel well looks better that the original. One of the differences it that it doesn't have the same curve as the original but it curves sharper. It fits the style of the car much better. We still have to do a couple of coats of primer but I am very confindent that this was an awesome job done. I even tried to test fit a fender trim for the wheelwell and it fits perfectly.

I am lucky that I managed to save my car...but even more lucky to have a good friend for his help.

It really takes more that one people to maintain a car.

Any opinions?