1996 Mercedes S320 - The Sheik Mobile

[jkk7479]

Hello and welcome to the restoration of the Sheik Mobile. This is my cousin David's 1996 Mercedes-Benz S320. He bought the car used and it's main purpose is to be used as a daily driver for his wife. He showed me the car over a month ago and although I told him I cannot perform miracles, I would like an attempt at cleaning the car the best I can. He was awesome enough to give me the chance and so I jumped on it. So let's get started.....

Products Used:

CG Citrus Wash and Gloss
2 buckets with Grit Guards
Mothers/Wolfgang clay bars
DP Rinseless Wash and Gloss as a clay lube
CG Debugger wash
Meguiars D300 Compound
M205 Finishing Polish
Meguiars Microfiber Cutting Disk
Lake Country White Foam Polishing Pad
Poor Boys Black Hole Glaze ( Trunk and Hood)
Poor Boys APC Cut 4:1
Sonax Wheel Cleaner
Amazing Roll-Off
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant
Dodo Juice Purpe Haze Pro
Plenty of Microfiber Towels


So the previous owners completely neglected the finish. Not only can I tell that it visited the local swirl-o-matic, but towards the end of their ownership, it sat for 17 months with no protection under the hot sun by the jersey shore with plenty of sand and salt around. Here are a couple shots of the paint so everyone can get a good idea of how bad it was. To me, the clear coat is pretty much shot. Can you say trashed?

And my favorite shot here....

to be continued......

 

[jkk7479]

So after thinking "What the hell did I get myself into with my big mouth" I rolled up my sleeves and got down to business with the wash and clay.

Here are the wheels, sorry for the poor quality pics. David's camera was not on the right setting. But trust me...the wheels were bad.

I hit the wheels with the Sonax wheel cleaner and hit the tires with some Amazing Roll off, and pretty much hit everything after that with some APC.

Forgot the close ups....but trust me the wheels and tires where looking much better.

So I definitely gave her a really good bath and got to claying. This was from one small section of the hood. You didn't expect that the car was previously clayed did you?

I think switched to the Wolfgang Clay and finished the car and gave her another quick bath.

Now I hate taping but Cousin David seemed to have a nack for it. David was busy doing things around the garage and so the pics in the beginning are limited. After awhile I remembered my camera phone and promise from here on out, the pics will be plenty! Below is the last pic from his camera before we compounded the car. It's from the trunk doing a test spot. Again, his camera was on the macro setting and isn't very clear, but you can see that half of my image is incredibly cloudy and the other half is a lot clearer.

So the paint has tons of swirls, RIDS, oxidation, the works!!!!! Let's get to compounding shall we?

I used the Flex 3401 with the Meguiars D300 on the Microfiber cutting disk on speed 4, and to my surprise it worked very well! I hate some hazing which I cleared up but overall I think it finished very well and I hit the horizontal panels with the Black hole glaze to cover any deeper RIDS and swirls.

Here is my finished test spot....clouds are rolling in.

I felt pretty good with these results, so I started tackling the rest of the car with this process. I was very happy that the Flex and Microfiber disks played nice. I know a lot of you guys aren't a fan of that combo.

Yes I know I have D300 all over my shirt, it smelled so good, I took a sip!

Haze, Haze and more Haze....

But good old M205 took care of that! I'm liking the depth and gloss I am getting with this combo!

Yeah...this is a pretty good indication that M205 is definitely refining the paint!!!

Well, this side came out really nice! Let's see how we can do on the other!

To be continued......

 

[jkk7479]

Around the other side, it was pretty much the same story. D300 finished down well, but left some haze. There were lots of rock chips on the paint, and the splatter all over me didn't help, but you get the picture.

But good old M205 didn't fail me and I was getting great depth and gloss.....

I say this side came out just as well as the other. Technical note : we moved the car around to work better in the sun. It was cloudy out, but I still got a good sunburn and the paint was still able to heat up a bit.

Ok....here's a fun break! Apparently my cell camera has the ability to take pictures that look like cartoons. Here is a shot of the car and my cousin David. Looks like something out of "A Scanner Darkly"

Ok....enough with the Rotoscoped pictures.....onto the finish.....

 

[jkk7479]

After final polishing, I put on a good coat of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant and dressed the tires with some CG Insane shine tire spray. Here is the finished product. There were still plenty of Deep Scratches but total correction wasn't the goal here. I said we achieved about 75-80% correction. My cousin was pretty happy with the results and I was just happy that he was satisfied!

I think David caught my fixing up a spot, looks at those arms in that pic!!! I better get them to a vet...those puppies are looking sick! LOL

I think Sky sees another doggy in the paint!

The next day I topped the WGDGPS with Dodo Juice Purpe Haze Pro. Definitely added some wetness to the paint. Sorry for the lack of photos, I was beat!

As a result of this detail, about 4 people approached me to do their cars. It looks like I am going to be very busy for the next couple of weeks. I want to thank my cousin David for letting me work on his car and for giving me the biggest detailing challenge to date. It means a lot to me! Glad I can bring the Sheik Mobile back up to par!

I hope everyone had as much fun looking at this as I had working on it!

Thank you!

Ken

 

[backtees]

Very Nice!!! Love that model MB. Absolute tank.

 

[Fast Eddie]

Great work and I must say, excellent write-up!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Mike Calloway]

It looks wet in that last pic! Awesome job

 

[jkk7479]

Very Nice!!! Love that model MB. Absolute tank.

Great work and I must say, excellent write-up!

Thanks for sharing.

It looks wet in that last pic! Awesome job

Thank you Gentleman! It's always nice to get some positive feedback from you guys!

 

[MDetail]

Man that paint came out mirror perfect. good job.

 

[WannabeG]

Did this EXACT same car except the one I did was a V8. Looked the same though. What did you use on the gray bottom trim?

 

[jkk7479]

Did this EXACT same car except the one I did was a V8. Looked the same though. What did you use on the gray bottom trim?

My cousin had actually coated it with a cleaner wax previously. The bottom trim was a pain in the butt. I actually hit it with compound to chew some of the hazing off, but it sort of came back. What did you use on the bottom trim? I was thinking of going over it with Plast-X

 

[ph16]

Great job....some of those photos are insane....it looks awesome. I see you taped off the emblem on the trunk, did you polish inbetween the mercedes emblem "arms?"

 

[jkk7479]

Great job....some of those photos are insane....it looks awesome. I see you taped off the emblem on the trunk, did you polish inbetween the mercedes emblem "arms?"

Thanks Man. Yes, I tried. I took a little M205 on a foam polishing pad and tried to work it in a little.

 

[WannabeG]

My cousin had actually coated it with a cleaner wax previously. The bottom trim was a pain in the butt. I actually hit it with compound to chew some of the hazing off, but it sort of came back. What did you use on the bottom trim? I was thinking of going over it with Plast-X

I tried hitting it with a compound and it did nothing. Ended up just throwing a coat of wax on it to make it semi shiny...

 

[jkk7479]

I tried hitting it with a compound and it did nothing. Ended up just throwing a coat of wax on it to make it semi shiny...

The D300 and the MF pad did a little bit to improve it. I think that is about all you can do. I was a little disappointed with Mercedes using that type of material as the lower trim.

 

[Mazda.Mark]

some of the best reflection shots I have seen!

 

[jkk7479]

some of the best reflection shots I have seen!

Really? Wow! Thank you so much!

 

[Flash Gordon]

Turned out great rops:

 

[jkk7479]

Turned out great rops:

Thank you Flash, that means a lot!Im the MAN