SL500 mercedes clean up



Upon first arrival, I could tell this car was in need of some help. There were tons of scratches, a grey-ish hue to the paint, and it was rough to the touch. All those indicators tells me its not going to be a quick and easy job. Adding in the fact the owner wants me to re-sand and polish the drivers door from a poor repaint to make it match better, yet not look so much better than the rest of the car (don’t do too good of a job), I had my work cut out for me. (how in the world was I supposed to do that?)



After waterless washing the car in the garage (dusty, not dirty), I was able to inspect the paint with the LED lights. Every single panel looked the same…







I talked to the owner about some options for the paint, and he wanted to just “clean it up”…a one step process was agreed upon, price was agreed upon, and I was left alone in the garage to do my thing for the next 4 hours…or so I thought.



As I started working on the paint, I could tell I wasn’t going to be happy with the results from a one step polishing. This car had TONS of scratches, RIDS, swirl marks, slight oxidation…It needed a two step at least to make it much better IMO, so I did it. We called this the “friend hookup” as it was my good friends’ boss.



Here are some of the befores:













Claying after just half the trunk lid, “its been a while”





Wax and junk in the cracks…







At this point in time, it was time to sand the door to make it blend and match more. I wasn’t going for a completely flat reflection as the rest of the car had moderate orange peel, I was going for “better”. I took some 2000 and 3000 paper to the car, then followed it up with 105 and two passes on the rotary to level the defects, and then a MF pad and D300, then a polishing pad and 85rd to finish things off. Through the sanding, I ended up going through 2 microns of clear and was left with more even orange peel to match the rest of the car.















After I was all done with the whole car











6 hours later I was finally driving away and the owner was left with a car “that looks so much better now”.

 

Did such a good job that that top just looks out of place now hahaha

 

WOW!!! That is some awesome job you did there. I know what it's like for a car like that. I just detailed my wife's car that has never been wax after it left the lot in 2008. That car was luck to see the car wash 2x a year. I should have did a before and after but the after is looking brand new. But red can never shine like this Black Mercedes does. Again you did an awesome job.

 

hahaha, yeah, the top is a little off now!

Thanks! Nothing beats black done right!