Mercedes Benz G Wagen - i am Autos - Picture Heavy - 28 Hours of work

[Andr3wilson]

Hey guys!

So on Friday, I got to do the long awaited Mercedes G500.

Whenever it was booked in, the booking was postponed. So when I finally got to pick it up and detail, I was ecstatic!

I love these beasts and their simplicity. Such a joy to be working on a real beauty!

The wheels were going to be coming off to be properly cleaned and dressed, so I hit them with some Sonax Full Effect to start.

Snowed with CG Citrus W&G

Hand washed. Really need a small brush on this girl to clean the cracks and crevasses

Clay before - Riccardo Yellow

Clay After

WHEEL TIME!

First hit of ironX



jack up - This beast is pretty heavy 5700lbs - To be safe, I got a low profile 3 ton jack

Second ironX hit

Third IronX hit

After

The rims had excessive tar build up so I used a lot of TarX too.

Wells Before

Cleaned with Megs APC and Dressed with PERL

Rims sealed with CG Wheel Guard and Tire Dressed with Migilore

Now this SUV and an exotic supercar share two things in common. If you hose the engine bay, you will throw codes! I did a waterless wash and dressed with a few coats of PERL

After

Now the Clear Bra on this car is pretty old. Older bras cannot be machine polished like new ones. Taking a buffer to this is like taking a buffer to an eraser. It just crumbles. The only way I have found to clear these up is to take a compound (FG400 in my case) and a hand applicator.

Before

After

Now onto polishing!

The panels on this car are oddly shaped and very intricate. 90% of the polishing was done by rotary and a 4 inch pad.

To get a feel for the paints hardness I did a test spot on the hood with SI1500 and a yellow constant pressure pad via a 3401

I found this car had surprisingly hard paint!

Unfortunately, in many places full correction was not possible due to a thin CC. Thickness fluctuated from 180 - 50 microns. There were also a few burn spots from improper rotary uses on the girl. One on the door sill that cut to the metal (rusting) and 3 on the rear bumper. All aside, I am sticking to the plan of doing the best job I can do!!

Most of the car was done SI1500 and PF2500 on an orange 3'' pad via rotary.

Before

 

[Andr3wilson]

After

Finally onto Jeweling with SF4500 and a Red pad. On larger panels I got to pull out the Gold pad, but most of it was done with the red.

Trim pieces (which are many!) were dressed with Gtechniq C4 Permanent Trim restorer.

Finally before wax and after Eraser wipedown

Wax Time!

Raceglaze Black Label

Interior Time!

The seats were very hard and needed some TLC. I did a full Leatherique treatment on them to soften them up and make them feel as nice as possible.

Before

Bagged

Half way to put another coat on

After Cleaning with Pristine Clean

Glamour Shots!

 

[david11g35]

Awesome detailed worked. I would think its tricky working on a truck like that due to its shape

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful work Andrew. I like those things as well.

 

[cartman57]

The Pope's new ride when he visits?
Great job, too bad it has to go out in the snow........

 

[Pinpoint_Precision]

After all that beautiful work I see the outside shots, I see snow? Oh my! Thank God I live in Florida! . Great job Andrew

 

[Andr3wilson]

Awesome detailed worked. I would think its tricky working on a truck like that due to its shape

Thank you very much! It is quite time consuming, but fortunately the panels are not curvy. Bit easier to polish

Beautiful work Andrew. I like those things as well.

Thanks Mike!!

The Pope's new ride when he visits?
Great job, too bad it has to go out in the snow........

Thanks!

Its a full on off roader! Arctic explorer!! Oddly a lot of people reserve these for summer use..

After all that beautiful work I see the outside shots, I see snow? Oh my! Thank God I live in Florida! . Great job Andrew

Thanks!!

I was actually a little concerned. We had a warm spell come through and start to melt everything! Muddy soupy slush! Fortunately we are back into the negatives and its mostly dried out. Customer loves to garage this car so getting it back clean and keeping it clean shouldn't be an issue.

 

[vegas911gts]

Did you iron x the body? I would've loved to see how much iron was stuck in the paint. For that truck, I would've used a speedy prep towel to save time, but old school clay is always a safe way to go to get it done right.

 

[lazyjet]

great job :xyxthumbs: i actually detailed a black one a couple of weeks ago. The car is massive, and yea i thought cool alot of flat panels but when i actually started i realized that i couldnt use my 6.5" pads for alot of the work and ended up using my GG3 with 3" orange pads. I need to invest in some 4" pads lol.

 

[steamshooter]

Super job.
Very cool truck.
I know it will get dirty in the snow, but it just looks like it belongs there.

 

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

Quick question do you have a drain in your garage and why do you cover the leather seats for?

 

[Andr3wilson]

Did you iron x the body? I would've loved to see how much iron was stuck in the paint. For that truck, I would've used a speedy prep towel to save time, but old school clay is always a safe way to go to get it done right.

No I didn't! Three reasons. One I already hate the smell of ironX and I am in an enclosed space. Two I didn't have enough to do the body and the wheels. Three, there are some rust spots on the body and ironX on rust can create a never ending "bleeding" affect. I have looked into those clay substitutes, but old fashion clay makes more sense to me.

great job :xyxthumbs: i actually detailed a black one a couple of weeks ago. The car is massive, and yea i thought cool alot of flat panels but when i actually started i realized that i couldnt use my 6.5" pads for alot of the work and ended up using my GG3 with 3" orange pads. I need to invest in some 4" pads lol.

Thanks!!

I couldn't imagine doing this with a DA let alone a GG3. Like I mentioned there were some rotary burn marks on her from previous detailers

Its not a car for newbs lol

Super job.
Very cool truck.
I know it will get dirty in the snow, but it just looks like it belongs there.

Thanks!!

It sure does! Wonderful vehicle to drive!

Quick question do you have a drain in your garage and why do you cover the leather seats for?

1. Yes I do, it has a 15" deep sump that I empty once every couple months.
2. Its for the Leatherique treatment. Now they don't say to do it, but some of my buddies bag the seats after application. Basically it creates a greenhouse effect and considering parking the car in the sun wont warm the interior at all in the winter means cranking the heat in the shop and bagging the seats. Takes about 2-3 days like that. It also doubles as a barrier so you can move the car and work without getting oil everywhere.

 

[lazyjet]

Yea I had a lot of trouble with it, the one I worked with also had alot of buffer trails, burn marks, pig tails, a few repainted areas. I was only doing a 1 step/partial 2 step, was still able to correct alot of the damages though. But id say I corrected about 60% total of 10 hours

 

[Andr3wilson]

Yea I had a lot of trouble with it, the one I worked with also had alot of buffer trails, burn marks, pig tails, a few repainted areas. I was only doing a 1 step/partial 2 step, was still able to correct alot of the damages though. But id say I corrected about 60% total of 10 hours

Yea thats about right for a one stepper on this car. This one also had some oxidation in some places. Usually a one stepper will be looking pretty good on most cars, but this colour really benefited from the multi step (2-5 in some parts).

UPDATE:

Just threw on another coat of wax. Much glossier now!

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

UPDATE:

Just threw on another coat of wax. Much glossier now!

Bored? Lol. I bet it looks better with two coats. Any quick pics?

 

[Chris's FX4]

I love these beasts, especially the AMG. Great work Andrew.:xyxthumbs:

 

[Andr3wilson]

Bored? Lol. I bet it looks better with two coats. Any quick pics?

I just wanted to wax it again LOL, plus I like opening the jar!

I will take some this morning and maybe upload them later!

I love these beasts, especially the AMG. Great work Andrew.:xyxthumbs:

Thanks Chris!! I want one badly!