What we have here is a 2010 Mercedes Benz GLK350, dressed in Black, with roughly 30k on the clock, and the paint is hammered The owner took delivery of this car a week prior to us getting our hands on it. It was “Dealer Prepped” for the owner. What a JOKE! They absolutely ruined the car and I CANNOT believe a dealership would let a car leave looking like this! The car was COVERED in holograms, pictures don’t show how bad it is… The main focus for us was the owner’s request to remove the holograms and get the finish looking 85-90%, as it his daily driver and perfection just won’t last under those conditions. Beyond the horrendous holograming there are the usual wash swirl marks, a few deep scratches, and damage from improper contaminants removal. After 24 man hour the car ended up with zero holograms, and the paint corrected to about 90%. Car looks nice and wet, finish is smooth and consistent. Anyways onto the products, process, and pics! Materials: Porter Cable 7424XP FLEX 3401 CG Citrus Wash and Gloss CG Honeydew Westley’s Bleach White Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner Mother’s Clay Bar Kit Nanoskin ONR Clay Bar Dilution Mothers Showtime Quick Detailer IPA wipe down Dilution Menzerna PO203 Menzerna 106FA Menzerna 85RD Menzerna Powerlock Prima Banana Gloss Stoner’s Invisible Glass Mequier’s Natural Finish Dressing Lexol Leather Cleaner and Conditioner Prima Hydro Wax Prima Slick CG Xtreme Shine CG Bare Bones No. 7 Chrome Polish Uber 5.5” Orange Uber 5.5” Green Uber 5.5” Blue Uber 5.5” Black Swissvax Wheel Brush Uber Boar’s head brush Uber Wheel Brush Uber UFO Blue Applicator Pad Misc MF Towels Q-tips 3M Painters Tape Process Exterior: CG Honeydew foaming, CG Citrus Wash w/ Micro Fiber Mitt, dried, taped, Nanoskined and claybar, PO203 w/ Orange (2 passes), 106FA w/Green (1 pass), 85RD w/Blue, IPA wipe down, Powerlock w/ Black (12hr set-up), Banana Gloss by hand, Prima Slick during delivery Wheels: Sonax Full Effect, Westly’s Bleach White, Wheel Brushes, dried, ONR wipe down, clay bar, NXT w/ hand applicator, tires dressed with CG Xtreme Shine Interior: Vacuum, Door jams cleaned with ONR and sealed with Hydro, hard plastic Mequier’s natural finish wipe down, Leather Zaino Bros. Preserve using Red Applicator pads. Engine Compartment: Misc brushes, CG citrus wash by hand, rinse, dried, dressed with CG Xtreme Shine Enough of that on to the pics!!! Delivery After the bath... Under the lights Giving the Nanoskin a try for the first time Hrmm... It marred the paint pretty bad with just a 2 or 3 light passes... Jury still out on it... 50/50 and process checks Check on the holograms on the hood, much better... Headlight clean-up In process shots Looking much sharper now Finished! need to work on taking pictures of black cars :/ not quite the right coloring... Thanks for viewing!!!
Nice work! Love the 50/50 on the hood. Being that the client received it at 30k probably makes this a CPO vehicle i'm guessing which means it either went through Mercedes financial and there "reconditioning" department aka the rotary line of death.....or the same rotary line of death at an auction house. Its pretty typical..... Glad you were able to properly remove the defects- again, great work! - Dan
Nicely done on the Merc. Dealership details are "Let us detail the vehicle for you so that we can have it properly ruined." :shakehead: As for the nanoskin, you didn't break it in by using it on the a glass surface or stone counter surface which is why it marred the paint.
Thanks for the comments guys! Huh... I did run it on the glass for a bit, but maybe not enough... I am going to try it again with one of the recommended lubricants. I tried ONR in a Clay bar dilution and then switched to Mothers Showtime when it marred real bad. Mother's was better but maybe it was starting to break in at that point... Thanks for the tip!
Car looks great now! +1 on running the auto scrub across all the glass surfaces. I broke mine in this way on an Audi and used ONR. I really didn't notice any marring after switching to the paint and am surprised you had so much on the hard Merc clear. Maybe adjust your pressure and speed? I use gen.1 PC on speed 2 and really don't put much pressure down at all.:thumb:
Yup used a speed of 2 and dropped to 1 when it was marring real bad. Little to no pressure either... I must have not broken it in on the glass sufficiently. I will say it left a noticeably smoother surface after a pass or two with it, so it certainly did something to pull junk out of the clear! I will get a chance to try it again in a few weeks so I will make sure I do all the glass first before dropping down to the paint.
