Tato
New member
- Nov 27, 2013
- 2,157
- 0
Dear friends,
This weekend I had the pleasure to work on a Silver 2007 Mercedes-Benz C280. Needless to say, the car needed to be detailed in order to bring back the owner's excitement of owning such machine.
Agreed with the owner, the complete interior / exterior package with 1-step polish and coating (paint/glass/wheel) was decided. Here's how the things followed:
Car arrived, although not looking bad from distance, it exhibited ample potential for improvement.
Closer inspection
Driver's side front
Driver's side rear
Passenger's side
Driver's door opened:
Rear license plate removed for inspection:
Preliminary paint inspection of the same area:
Door handles general condition
TOGWA present in every part of the car, and I'm afraid it's still present in some 3-5% parts I should have missed (impossible to get rid of it all at once, when this bad).
I believe TOG had good intentions to protect every detail of this car, lol!
A view from the water-spot roof
Engine bay needed some care too
Wash and Clay:
The car was thoroughly washed for hours receiving many rinses of Hyper Wash, all set of brushes where they fitted, lambswool wash mitt, and followed by nanoskin medium grade clay mitt.
Even after washing and claying, it was clear the paint needed some serious tar removal approach prior polishing.
Here (in advance) it's cleaned with tar remover and polished:
Paint Inspection:
This label indicates this paint has the well known Ceramiclear clearcoat.
Basically, I'd inspect the whole paint using many sorts of lighting, but the Swirl finder flashlight is my favorite for doing it.
I was able to find different kind of defects on this car's paint,
Swirls
Holograms
Extra-Terrestrial (LOL) light reflections
More holograms
and here
Heavy Swirls
Everywhere,
Polishing Procedure
The holograms are a huge indicator that this car has been polished in the past.
My intention at this point was to start my test spot using the least abrasive method to tackle the job.
I've started as low as SF4000 on a Gray Finishing Pad. However, on this hard paint, barely nothing happened. After a few step ups, I was able to dial up a system not very aggressive, but enough to solve the problems I was facing.
The combination consisted of LC orange pad and Menzerna PF2500, a high quality polish suitable for scratch resistant clear coats.
Although this was a 'natural' step up from the SF4000 to PF2500, I must give due credit to Claude, our 'Dr. Pain' who has shared this approach (but using the Rupes) when working on Mercedes paint. This fact was enough for me to assure me I was working towards the best decision.
To maximize gloss and refine the finish even further on glossy panels, I've used the Rupes 21, Rupes Yellow pad and SF4000.
Some passes,
Some results (overall view).
Swirl finder light inspection:
After long hours of work, I've managed to correct mostly every defect inspected earlier to a ~90% defect free paint.
Remember this part?
Improved:
Side of rear license plate
Near Handles
Hood corrected
Closer
This weekend I had the pleasure to work on a Silver 2007 Mercedes-Benz C280. Needless to say, the car needed to be detailed in order to bring back the owner's excitement of owning such machine.
Agreed with the owner, the complete interior / exterior package with 1-step polish and coating (paint/glass/wheel) was decided. Here's how the things followed:
Car arrived, although not looking bad from distance, it exhibited ample potential for improvement.
Closer inspection
Driver's side front
Driver's side rear
Passenger's side
Driver's door opened:
Rear license plate removed for inspection:
Preliminary paint inspection of the same area:
Door handles general condition
TOGWA present in every part of the car, and I'm afraid it's still present in some 3-5% parts I should have missed (impossible to get rid of it all at once, when this bad).
I believe TOG had good intentions to protect every detail of this car, lol!
A view from the water-spot roof
Engine bay needed some care too
Wash and Clay:
The car was thoroughly washed for hours receiving many rinses of Hyper Wash, all set of brushes where they fitted, lambswool wash mitt, and followed by nanoskin medium grade clay mitt.
Even after washing and claying, it was clear the paint needed some serious tar removal approach prior polishing.
Here (in advance) it's cleaned with tar remover and polished:
Paint Inspection:
This label indicates this paint has the well known Ceramiclear clearcoat.
Basically, I'd inspect the whole paint using many sorts of lighting, but the Swirl finder flashlight is my favorite for doing it.
I was able to find different kind of defects on this car's paint,
Swirls
Holograms
Extra-Terrestrial (LOL) light reflections
More holograms
and here
Heavy Swirls
Everywhere,
Polishing Procedure
The holograms are a huge indicator that this car has been polished in the past.
My intention at this point was to start my test spot using the least abrasive method to tackle the job.
I've started as low as SF4000 on a Gray Finishing Pad. However, on this hard paint, barely nothing happened. After a few step ups, I was able to dial up a system not very aggressive, but enough to solve the problems I was facing.
The combination consisted of LC orange pad and Menzerna PF2500, a high quality polish suitable for scratch resistant clear coats.
Although this was a 'natural' step up from the SF4000 to PF2500, I must give due credit to Claude, our 'Dr. Pain' who has shared this approach (but using the Rupes) when working on Mercedes paint. This fact was enough for me to assure me I was working towards the best decision.
To maximize gloss and refine the finish even further on glossy panels, I've used the Rupes 21, Rupes Yellow pad and SF4000.
Some passes,
Some results (overall view).
Swirl finder light inspection:
After long hours of work, I've managed to correct mostly every defect inspected earlier to a ~90% defect free paint.
Remember this part?
Improved:
Side of rear license plate
Near Handles
Hood corrected
Closer
rops: :dblthumb2: :buffing:
