Reply With QuoteLots of opinions, but one question... How much did he pay you??
Evening!
Had a 65 year old friend of my Dads ask me if I could have a crack at getting his paintwork back to standard on his H-reg Mercedes after it being on his driveway not doing much for an unhealthy period of time.
When I got to his house to pick it up I realised it was going to be a pretty big challenge, my first detail for someone other than a family member too.
On arrival:
I gave it a wash down with fairy liquid initially and began on the tight work, using a detailing brush with a strong mixture of APC in a spray bottle.
Inbetween the door shuts.
You can really see the build up of general dirt inbetween the lines of the car.
Attacked around the headlights and front grill using the same method of APC and a detailing brush.
The wheel trims were actually not in a bad state, I sprayed on some degreaser, left for a minute and agitated with a brush and the grime simply slipped off. Easy.
And after.
Used degreaser on the steel rims, even though they won’t really be noticed underneath the trims, stops any dribbling dirt coming beneath the trims when rain hits or whatever.
Popped open the filler cap, wasn’t as bad as I expected. Before.
After.
The badges were pretty shocking inbetween.
After the tightwork was complete I started claying the car.
Claying was a breeze, my Metro took so much longer but this just seemed to pick up the contaminents with ease.
Pretty bad.
Then we started to get a bit more colourful.
This was after claying, can see how badly the car really has faded.
This was Tuesday night and I had just finished claying intending on cracking on with machine polishing the following day but just had to see how well it was going to come up.
Results after using a light cutting pad with a low cut polish.
Next day I started early and began taping up the trims etc
Removed the boot badges.
On with the correction. Little 50/50 of the bonnet.
Bonnet nearly done.
Just a few general pics of how bad the sides of the car was.
Front door done, rear not.
More shots of the front end after being machined.
Top part done, bottom not.
One side of the car done.
One side not done :P
Now done!
50/50 of the roof although i got a bit carried away and turned out to be a 40/60 lol
More shots after machining done.
It actually started turning pink again in places so went round with a finishing polish on a finishing pad which solved the little patches.
After a wash with Durogloss 901 I went over with SRP and finally waxed with collinite #915. Here it is curing.
Trims back on.
Buffed off. Wax really made a huge difference.
Dressed the plastics.
Front grill 50/50
Done.
Final Shots! Had to wait for some double sided sticky tape to be delivered via Mother so the last few shots have the rear badges back on.
Badges back on
The owner has just collected the car 10 mins ago and he was absolutely gobsmacked.
Comments and criticisms welcomed.
Dan!
Lots of opinions, but one question... How much did he pay you??
Now that would be telling
about a onna id say. maybe 120. i paid ton for a mopping/clay bar session last year.
its quite a transformation on this old merc. quinten willson would be well proud.
hopefully its been sealed so the shine lasts for sometime.
reminds of the crappy red paintwork i had on a N reg Punto GT. i was forever t-cutting the damn thing, then polishing it and 2 months later itd be faded again. original fiat paint too.
Hah cheers. and yeah that's what my red punto was like too. Shocking!
And yeah it's wearing some colli #915. Should last it a good 3-4 months.
Looks excellent. I'd have been well pleased if it was mine. Love the Merc's & BM's of that generation - built like absolute tanks.
Did you dress the tyres, just they look a bit grey still?
I did after I stuck the badges on. Think im going to get some megs endurance tyre gel as heard really good reviews.
Originally Posted by karbineftw
Yes definately recommend this product. Started recently using it myself and unlike most tyre shine products seems to last for days!
Absolutely fantastic, and exactly what this section of the forum needs to reinvigorate a bit of interest! Great turnaround there mate! Can't beat rotary powerz
Why ask that?!
If you have any car care related questions, ask me in the Cleaning/Detailing section.
Why wash with fairy liquid?
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