zippytdewda

The steering damper and the tie rod assembly on my 1989 300e are welded with a hollow pipe to the inside of the right wheel well.The weld has broken and dropped the assembly totally wiping out the damper. Oddly enough, there is no rust anywhere on this car EXCEPT where the pipe was attached to the wheel well.My question is this:If I were to have a heavy duty bolt welded to the pipe and put a mending plate on the inside wall and the outside wall and bolt it up to the wheel well, am I going to be ok? I am not clear as to how much 'pull' is exerted on the assembly at it terminus at the wheel well and weld.
Also, the rust through seems pretty odd. Was there a rubber cover plug that came loose over the years?
I have tried to upload pics of the area but they are on my computer and the site only allows url uploads.