I first saw this swirled up SLK parked at my chiropractor's office. Every time, it's in the early morning when the sun is at that super unforgiving angle where it almost exaggerates all imperfections with unrelenting truth. This car was so swirled up, it actually turned the car white at certain angles due to the reflection of the swirls overpowering the dark blue paint. As a big fan of Mercedes, and having a soft spot for SLK's in particular, I really wanted to detail this and bring it back to life. They dropped it off and agreed to let me have it for pretty much as long as I needed, which was great, since this turned out to be my longest detail to date, despite being such a small car. -------------------------------------------- Products and Tools Used in this Detail: Adam's: Car Shampoo All-Purpose Cleaner Green Wheel Cleaner Detail Spray Waterless Wash Glass Cleaner Leather & Interior Cleaner Leather Conditioner Metal Polish Super VRT Revive Polish Fender Brush Boar's Hair Wheel Brush Lug Nut Brush Menzerna: Power Gloss PG1000 Compound Power Finish PF2500 Polish Super Finish SF4500 (PO85RD) Pads: Uber 6,5,and 4" pads Griot's Garage 3" Pads Polishers: Flex 3504VRC Porter Cable 7424xp Griot's Garage 3 LSP: Collinite 845 Other: Karcher 1500psi Pressure Washer 1000w Halogen Lights Brinkmann Dual Xenon Swirl Finder Metro Master Blaster Metro Vac n Blo -------------------------------------------- Here's the patient: The obligatory foam gun shot during decon stage: (Adam's Car Shampoo with some All-Purpose Cleaner in the foam gun) Washed and dried with a SINGLE bucket wash dun dun duuuunnnnn...yes I know I know, but seriously, have you seen the paint on this thing??? Clayed the hood, not bad. Definetely have seen worse. (Adam's Clay Bar and Detail Spray) Engine bay was very clean already, just wiped down and dressed. (Adam's Waterless Wash, In and Out Spray, and Super VRT.) Before: After: Now the detail can start: let's see it under the lights and see what we are working with: Holy crap-ola Hmmmm Geezus Like automated car washes much? Some 50/50's Before After Before After One of my favorite things to do during paint correction is doing that first swipe to see how you did: Before After Before After Before After Before After Almost there... just a few more passes. There we go! Rear of the car all tidied up having tried all 3 polishers: Flex 3401(6"), PC7424xp(5.5"), and GG3(3"). Using the Griot's 3" on the front grill wings. Leather Seats cleaned with Adam's Leather & Interior Cleaner, and treated to Adam's Leather Conditioner. After final polish, I washed the polish oils off using an APC soak and pressure wash. I did this inside the garage, since it was high noon and I didn't want to risk any water spotting after all this work. That would have sucked. (Adam's APC sprayed on with Venus Pro sprayer, massaged in with hands (it was kinky), then pressure washed off.) No previous wax protection whatsoever is left. Perfectly clean surface ready for new wax! Finally after 3 days, time for the wax! Applied Collinite #845 via PC with Uber Black pad (sorry no pics) Final shots Lessons learned: 1. A yoga mat can save your back when polishing rocker panels. 2. When wearing a sleeveless shirt, don't roll back in your seat into the 1000 watt halogens. 3. With 3 buffers lying around you, when the one in your hand doesn't work, chances are, the wrong one is plugged in. Thanks for looking!
damn nice job man. It looks so deep that it appears to be black in certain shots and then you catch the metallic flakes popping out.
Good job saving that paint! 845 looks awesome on that color. As a detailer (trapped) at a Mercedes dealership, I have seen first hand things that would make any Benz fan cry. The way people treat their $50-100k cars is rediculous and revolting. Glad this one was cleaned up good and proper!!!
right on, i was going to say the same thing...the leather 50/50 pics were freaking awesome. that leather was damn dirty great work on the entire car Jae! i notice that you are making a tread of "lessons learned" in each of your new writeups...kinda cool...haha
Nice save. That car was a sleeper when it comes to how bad it actually was when looking from a distance.
WOW!!! You definteiy saved that car. I know for sure the owners were more than pleased. Get ready for the flood of referrals after that job. The best part about doing cars in that bad condition is taking the pictures. Nothing is more satisfying then the looks of the owners faces when they see before and afters. It makes them realize how much hard work you put into it.
Very nice turnaround on a car that was in terrible condition, also multiple extension cords work wonders. :giggle:
