First time detail with DA

[mjk778]

Thanks to this forum and all the helpful advice, I decided to correct the paint on my mercedes c300 with ceramiclear white paint. The paint was not bad, but was filled with swirls and had some particularly bad scratches (enough to lightly catch a fingernail) and some dark marks that I'm not sure what caused. The hood in particular was the worst. I tried in the past to correct by hand with mothers three step but no success. The plastic bumpers and side molding are not great but we're not my concern as I may get them resprayed, and wanted to focus on the rest of the car.

Products I used:
Harbor freight DA
lC 5in backing plate, CCS pads, euro foam applicators
Menzerna SF1500 and SF4000
Mothers sealer/glaze, carnauba, clay kit
Megueirs ultimate compound
Plexus

After hand washing and claying I taped off the car although I could have done a better job.

Performing a test spot I determined the entire car needed orange pad w SF1500 and certain spots needed compound.

After I used SF4500 w gray pad, sealer with gray, and finally a coat of carnauba w red pad.

For Plastic trim and clean up, I used plexus although I need to go over with some other plastic trim restorer

All in all I corrected about 85% and I got out almost all of the problem areas I wanted to. Aside from roasting 2 pads (maybe pressing too hard or overheating) everything was flawless but extremely time consuming at roughly 22 hours just on this.

After wash and clay

Before/after

After

After

Finished car. Obviously I'm not a pro photographer

 

[HD.Detailing]

congrats, clean them winders

 

[BobbyG]

Nicely done!! rops:

 

[jamesboyy]

Excellent work on that Benz

 

[Bunky]

congrats, clean them winders

It looks like the windshield is marred by the wiper as well.

Paint looks good!:xyxthumbs:

 

[mjk778]

It looks like the windshield is marred by the wiper as well.

I'm not sure, I cleaned twice with a spray on glass cleaner (forgot which one) and a microfiber towl for the outside only, not inside. They looked ok to my eye, but definitely some streaking. Is there a better way to clean?

 

[lawrenceSA]

Nicely done. Really like the 'negative' pics showing the damage.

 

[Kamakaz1961]

Nice work! So you had no issues with the ceramiclear paint? I have heard about some problems, however, it appears you had no problems at all!! Your car looks great! Nice job!

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Looking good!

 

[mjk778]

Nice work! So you had no issues with the ceramiclear paint? I have heard about some problems, however, it appears you had no problems at all!! Your car looks great! Nice job!

Well I really don't have anything to compare to as this was my firs time using a DA. I guess my only issue seemed to be roasting two pads (pink and orange). It was hard to keep spinning with any pressure and the machine was really hot, despite cleanings after every few section passes. Maybe I was pressing too hard?