First Bath - 2017 AMG GLE43 in Designo Cardinal Red

ntwillie1

ntwillie1

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Hello all. Gave my wife's new car its first bath. It was sitting in the show room floor for a month or so and wasn't exposed to the elements much so it was in pretty good shape. It did have some very light and minor swirls on the hood so I polished those out. Prior to polishing I did have to clay off some left over residue from the plastic they wrap the car with. It is a 2017 AMG GLE43 w the AMG Night Package meaning it has black accents. So far we are super happy w the car. It has plenty of power for my wife and the transmission performs and sounds awesome. It's also her first red car. We usually get White or Silver cars so its a big change for her but we think this car pulls it off. I put some authentic AMG valve stem caps on it and the dealer ordered me a set of AMG door pins as well. Not sure why an expensive car like this wouldn't already have those small items addressed. My CLS 550 was the same deal.

Products used
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash
Chemical Guys Super SUDS II
McKees Iron remover
Mothers Gold Clay Bar and Spray
Griots Garage Interior Cleaner
CQuartz Leather Coating
Rupes Yellow Micro Fiber Pads
Rupes Yellow - Keramic Gloss
Car Pro Hydro - for wheels, front grill, and roof
Optiimum Opti-Gloss for paint coating
Optimum Opti-Seal cause I like it
Cobra Micro Fiber Towels
Wheel Woolies
Various Boars Hair brushes for wheels and running boards


Pics

Taking Delivery - Wife's bday is on Saturday. I had the dealer put a Bow on it. When my 5 year old daughter saw it she said "Thats Santa's Car". They use one very similar in the MB Christmas commercial. LoL.
View attachment 57480


Products Used
View attachment 57469


Iron Remover at work – hardly any contamination removed. Also hard to see on red but no bleeding washed off when I rinsed. Was in great shape.
View attachment 57470

View attachment 57471

View attachment 57472


Citrus Wash using my Foam Canon
View attachment 57473

View attachment 57474

Mother's Clay Bar – again, hardly any contamination to be found
View attachment 57475

Polishing Pics - didn't take any because wife was bugging me to hurry up. She wanted to go out shopping :(. But I used My Rupes big foot 21 and Yellow MF Pad and polish. The Rupes was way to big for that hood, it has a lot of curves/bumps in it. I should have used my GG Mini and PC 7424XP but wanted to just get through it and I had already started w the Rupes. The rest of the car didn't need any polishing. I checked it over w my LED lamps and all good. The detailers at my dealership are really good. The after purchase car wash guys though are a different story. I get free car washes for life on any cars purchased form their network of dealerships. Guess how many times I have used that offer?

Opti-Glossed and Sealed - I also checked for high spots when I was done and didn't have an so pretty happy w the results. This car will live outside because I keep my 350Z and CLS550 in the garage :)
View attachment 57476

View attachment 57477

View attachment 57478

Interior Pics - I will upload Soon. The car has the Nappa Black Pearl Leather option w black poplar wood interior. I used CQuartz Leather on the seats, doors, dash, and leather console. I'm going to be using Opti-Seal on the wood trim pieces.


Random Pics - The next morning it rained so I took this picture of the hood showing beading. It's been a few days since I detailed it and the pollen here is bad and its also rained but this afternoon the weather was ok and it looked like I had just washed the car.
View attachment 57479

Figured I'd throw a few in of my CLS550 that I did the morning before. I had to get up at 6AM and start detailing before the kids wake up. Otherwise its ....daddy ______ (you fill in the blank). LoL. Its hard to the see shine on White in pictures but its there. Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it this far.

View attachment 57481

View attachment 57482
 
ntwillie1 said:
Hello all. Gave my wife's new car its first bath. It was sitting in the show room floor for a month or so and wasn't exposed to the elements much so it was in pretty good shape. It did have some very light and minor swirls on the hood so I polished those out. Prior to polishing I did have to clay off some left over residue from the plastic they wrap the car with. It is a 2017 AMG GLE43 w the AMG Night Package meaning it has black accents. So far we are super happy w the car. It has plenty of power for my wife and the transmission performs and sounds awesome. It's also her first red car. We usually get White or Silver cars so its a big change for her but we think this car pulls it off. I put some authentic AMG valve stem caps on it and the dealer ordered me a set of AMG door pins as well. Not sure why an expensive car like this wouldn't already have those small items addressed. My CLS 550 was the same deal.

Products used
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash
Chemical Guys Super SUDS II
McKees Iron remover
Mothers Gold Clay Bar and Spray
Griots Garage Interior Cleaner
CQuartz Leather Coating
Rupes Yellow Micro Fiber Pads
Rupes Yellow - Keramic Gloss
Car Pro Hydro - for wheels, front grill, and roof
Optiimum Opti-Gloss for paint coating
Optimum Opts-Seal cause I like it
Cobra Micro Fiber Towels
Wheel Woolies
Varios Boars Head brushes for wheels and running boards


Pics

Taking Delivery - Wife's bday is on Saturday. I had the dealer put a Bow on it. When my 5 year old daughter saw it she said "Thats Santa's Car". They use one very similar in the MB Christmas commercial. LoL.
View attachment 57480


Products Used
View attachment 57469


Iron Remover at work – hardly any contamination removed. Also hard to see on red but no bleeding washed off when I rinsed. Was in great shape.
View attachment 57470

View attachment 57471

View attachment 57472


Citrus Wash using my Foam Canon
View attachment 57473

View attachment 57474

Mother's Clay Bar – again, hardly any contamination to be found
View attachment 57475

Polishing Pics - didn't take any because wife was bugging me to hurry up. She wanted to go out shopping :(. But I used My Rupes big foot 21 and Yellow MF Pad and polish. The Rupes was way to big for that hood, it has a lot of curves/bumps in it. I should have used my GG Mini and PC 7424XP but wanted to just get through it and I had already started w the Rupes. The rest of the car didn't need any polishing. I checked it over w my LED lamps and all good. The detailers at my dealership are really good. The after purchase car wash guys though are a different story. I get free car washes for life on any cars purchased form their network of dealerships. Guess how many times I have used that offer?

Opti-Glossed and Sealed - I also checked for high spots when I was done and didn't have an so pretty happy w the results. This car will live outside because I keep my 350Z and CLS550 in the garage :)
View attachment 57476

View attachment 57477

View attachment 57478

Interior Pics - I will upload Soon. The car has the Nappa Black Pearl Leather option w black poplar wood interior. I used CQuartz Leather on the seats, doors, dash, and leather console. I'm going to be using Opti-Seal on the wood trim pieces.


Random Pics - The next morning it rained so I took this picture of the hood showing beading. It's been a few days since I detailed it and the pollen here is bad and its also rained but this afternoon the weather was ok and it looked like I had just washed the car.
View attachment 57479

Figured I'd throw a few in of my CLS550 that I did the morning before. I had to get up at 6AM and start detailing before the kids wake up. Otherwise its ....daddy ______ (you fill in the blank). LoL. Its hard to the see shine on White in pictures but its there. Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it this far.

View attachment 57481

View attachment 57482
Click to expand...
Nicely done and congratulations on the new car!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
Nice write up and detail. I imagine it has the same 4 cylinder turbo as the CLA43, if so, that thing packs a nice little punch.
 
Thanks Detail Rookie.

Thanks Wax Master. It has a BiTurbo 3.0 Liter 6 Cylinder. I think a 4 Cylinder on a car that heavy would probably cause it to struggle. Did u mean the CLA45?
 
ntwillie1 said:
Thanks Wax Master. It has a BiTurbo 3.0 Liter 6 Cylinder. I think a 4 Cylinder on a car that heavy would probably cause it to struggle. Did u mean the CLA45?
Click to expand...

Yes, CLA45 is what I was thinking. It is an insane motor for a 4 banger. 3 liter 6 cyl sounds like a better option. :)
 
WaxMaster1 said:
Yes, CLA45 is what I was thinking. It is an insane motor for a 4 banger. 3 liter 6 cyl sounds like a better option. :)
Click to expand...

To make it more confusing, Mercedes does build a GLA 45 "SUV" with the same engine as the CLA 45, but it's far smaller than the OP's GLE. The alphabet soup gets confusing.

OP: Great looking car. I really like some of the darker red's automakers are rolling out these days.
 
Desertnate said:
To make it more confusing, Mercedes does build a GLA 45 "SUV" with the same engine as the CLA 45, but it's far smaller than the OP's GLE. The alphabet soup gets confusing.

OP: Great looking car. I really like some of the darker red's automakers are rolling out these days.
Click to expand...

Thank you Desertnate. And yes, it is hard to keep track of the naming on all of their models. I think last year the GLE43 was called a GLE450 and they just rebadged it. I also found out the day I was buying it that for 2018 they are adding another 27 horses (HP) to it so I was a little vexed but what are you gonna do.

I will note one more feature I like which I didn't mention in the original post, the Mercedes Me app is pretty cool. Lets me remote start the car which I couldn't do previously on my 2015, and it has a lot of features like valet mode, permitter, and speeding meaning if you go over a certain speed you get alerted. So if you lend your kids the car and they are speeding you can bust them:). Luckily I won't have to worry about that for a few years more.
 
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