richy
New member
- Mar 27, 2007
- 5,158
- 0
I was really looking forward to working on this car. This brings back so many memories of back when I was in the car business years ago. I have always loved these SL's! Putting it in gear and having it squat down brought back memories that I had forgotten that they all do that. These have always been beautiful cars and 32 years later, this one still looks attractive....it just needed my love. 18 hours of it to be exact!
There is one thing that I tried on the soft top plastic that worked like a charm that I'll share later, so please do read this through, hopefully you'll find the journey as rewarding as I did. I titled it a "Mini Restoration" because that's really what it felt like. Paint, chrome, convertible top, and trim all received a fair bit of attention. Let the journey begin!
Here it is as it arrived. In need of some love. Good quality chrome that can be polished and single stage paint! Here's what I was up against:
A Sizeable Scratch
I had plans for that lower piece!
The wheels were too far gone to be polished out, but they still ended up getting coated.
The interior was dirty, but good quality leather will clean up nicely with steam!
To begin, I started with the wheels/tires/wells.
Tires got cleaned first with Zep 505 and then a 2nd time with LA Totally Awesome. They were very dirty.
The wheels were cleaned first with Megs WB and then the acid was neutralized by a cleaning with Zep Citrus.
The wells were cleaned with LATA.
Next up was the roof. I always clean canvas roofs with Amazing Roll Off. It was designed for Marine use and I feel it does a great job on canvas tops. It does take some repeated rinsing as I used the ARO at 100% and agitated it with a brush.
Next up was a strong soap foam bath. The emblems and seams were done while the soap was dwelling. Here is the soap at work:
After that came a wash with DG 901. The rubber trim got washed with LATA and a brush.
It was brought in and normally would get clayed immediately, but for convertibles, I always take my PF51 and vacuum out the water from the top first. After that was done, it was clayed with the CarPro foam block.
Next came the task of what was going to turn this paint around. I had hoped a one step would have done it, but that was not to be the case. I tried several different mf pads with products ranging from D300 to M101. I settled on my rotary + black TB wool + M100. That was followed up with Opt Hyper Polish on a white B/S pad with my Rupes. Here is a 50/50 where the right side is done, and the door not. Check out the clarity of reflection:
There is one thing that I tried on the soft top plastic that worked like a charm that I'll share later, so please do read this through, hopefully you'll find the journey as rewarding as I did. I titled it a "Mini Restoration" because that's really what it felt like. Paint, chrome, convertible top, and trim all received a fair bit of attention. Let the journey begin!
Here it is as it arrived. In need of some love. Good quality chrome that can be polished and single stage paint! Here's what I was up against:
A Sizeable Scratch
I had plans for that lower piece!
The wheels were too far gone to be polished out, but they still ended up getting coated.
The interior was dirty, but good quality leather will clean up nicely with steam!
To begin, I started with the wheels/tires/wells.
Tires got cleaned first with Zep 505 and then a 2nd time with LA Totally Awesome. They were very dirty.
The wheels were cleaned first with Megs WB and then the acid was neutralized by a cleaning with Zep Citrus.
The wells were cleaned with LATA.
Next up was the roof. I always clean canvas roofs with Amazing Roll Off. It was designed for Marine use and I feel it does a great job on canvas tops. It does take some repeated rinsing as I used the ARO at 100% and agitated it with a brush.
Next up was a strong soap foam bath. The emblems and seams were done while the soap was dwelling. Here is the soap at work:
After that came a wash with DG 901. The rubber trim got washed with LATA and a brush.
It was brought in and normally would get clayed immediately, but for convertibles, I always take my PF51 and vacuum out the water from the top first. After that was done, it was clayed with the CarPro foam block.
Next came the task of what was going to turn this paint around. I had hoped a one step would have done it, but that was not to be the case. I tried several different mf pads with products ranging from D300 to M101. I settled on my rotary + black TB wool + M100. That was followed up with Opt Hyper Polish on a white B/S pad with my Rupes. Here is a 50/50 where the right side is done, and the door not. Check out the clarity of reflection:
you should check out 1Z einszett Plastic Deep Cleaner this stuff works great for those kind of windows. Have you tried Raggtopp products.
rops: