An ode to Odin... Mercedes SL 55 AMG flavored

Hi boys, girls and others !

It's been a while since I've done a write up and I have a ton of cars to post, but I really enjoyed this one so I fingered I'd share it first . He (the car's name is "Odin") belongs to a good friend of mine and we've been trying to get him detailed for several weeks, but something always came up. My driveway is now finished and my buddy took off to Colorado so I had Odin for a week to get him "Jesse'd up"! His previous car was a Maserati Coupé GT named "Gino" that I was rather fond of, but my buddy insisted that he be replaced.



I was sad to see him go, as I've taken such good care of him, but on the way home with Odin my foot "slipped" and hit the gas and my tears of sadness quickly (I mean, REALLY quickly) turned into tears of butt-puckering joy . 505 HP is something else on this little car... On to the detail!

The paint was in pretty bad shape and it had obviously been "polished" a couple of times.



Wheels not too bad



Good amount of bug damage on the front bumper









Tons of polish/wax in the crooks and nannies...



Eeeeeek...



At least someone's been playing with him properly















I handled the engine first with Wolf's "The Outsider" APC and various brushes. After that I hand dried and dressed everything with Wolf's "Black Out" tire and trim restore



Some glue that needed to be removed



Uhh... so I removed it



After...



The worst part of the entire paint... Not only full of holograms, but riddled with RIDS and there were some deep ones here. The bonnet was resprayed and although they didn't do a bad job on it, the color was off and the paint was EXTREMELY hard!! Every time I think I've encountered the "hardest paint in the world" something like this comes along and just throws me for a loop! I put about 6 hours total into the bonnet alone over the 4 day detail... Curse you painter man...



The boot wasn't as bad, but still full of RIDS





"Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!" Removing the badges was a must, there was just too much crud in them to leave them on. If you put a piece of masking tape on the badges before you remove them, you will keep them in their original alignment.



Then take some dental floss and gently cut away the foam tape behind them. The tape also keeps them from falling on the ground, or more importantly the paint.





Some serious gunk behind there...



I sprayed this several times with tar and glue remover to let it soak. After it was nice and gummy it was "easy" to remove.



This is what was left behind... Glue as hard as a rock! Nothing would budge it so I had to machine it off with a wool pad and Wolf's WP-5N polishing compound





Left a pretty nice finish after the polish broke down fully!



Badges up in my cave and glue boogers removed with my trusty Victorinox bottle opener



Double-sided foam tape pieced on



Done one letter at a time



Done!



One of the only sun shots I could get... the weather has been pretty cloudy lately



Carpets and leather cleaned with Wolf's WT-1N APC





Exhaust cleaned with steel wool and some metal polish. This isn't ours, but we're working on a metal polish :thumb:



Lamps polished with Wolf's WP-1N finishing polish "The Jeweler" and a finishing pad. The rest of the car was polished with WP-5N and our new cutting pad (soon to be out, but we're still waiting on them !) and finished with our finishing pad and WP-1N. After all the polishing was complete, I gave it a wash with a new shampoo that I'm testing to remove all the oils and waxes. Tires were dressed with WO-1n "Black Out", leather conditioned with WL-1N leather conditioner Looking good so far! Of course, the LSP for this car was none other than Wolf's Body Wrap nano coating and rims sealed with "Rim Shield" nano rim sealant



Enjoy the afters :thumb:!









You can see some of the RIDS that were too deep to remove in this picture. No, not all details are 100% corrections, so it's always best to know what you just have to let go!



Love this shot...



One of the other sun shots I managed to snap between cloud gaps...





















Thanks for reading!

- Jesse O'Connor

COMING SOON >>



And this >>



And one of these >>



And one of these, and that and then...

 

Amazing work Jesse!

 

very nice

 

Thanks Phil! This is linked on FB too ! Still waiting on the shipping monkeys to get the ball rolling, so should be very soon!

 

You are theman

 

Hey wolf man, I know that you like using a rotary. Did you use a rotary outside during this detail or was it a DA... by the way Great Job, looking forward to those other write ups

 

Great Job. I didn't think you were gonna put the badges back on.

 

great job Jesse! Can't wait to see the Mansory write up.

 

No questions about the products used this time. But I'm curious...you say the owner of the car went to Colorado. But your profile states you are in Budapest. Is that home for you?

 

Tight

 

Excellent work there! Great detail on how to remove/reinstall the emblems, I know a lot of people learned a lot from that!

-Kody-

 

Nice job Jesse. The black looks awesome. Looking forward to the next write ups. Is the Mansory a Bentley?

 

I like the write-up, looking forward to reading/seeing more of your work.

 

Thanks buddy! Yeah I used the rotary outside

Thanks! Personally I would have left them off, but the owner requested them to be put back on!

Thank you sir! The Masonry is nothing compared to what's coming after that... if all goes well

Actually I was raised in Mississippi and lived in Colorado for some years during and after the Army, but I've been living in Budapest for almost 11 years now!

Cheers buddy, glad I could be of some help!

Thanks Ken! Actually the car is blue It's a Rolly!

 

Excellent work, wonderful afters. Thanks for the DIY guide to removing and replacing badging. Great tip with the tape for keeping them in place.

 

Sweet job Jesse love those SL's

 

Very nice work Jesse

 

A southern Irishman living in Hungary.... that'd make for an interesting writeup all by itself!

Primo work on the AMG, as usual. :thumb:

TL

 

Excellent work Jesse! Thanks for sharing.

 

Looks amazing Jesse. Love the tip on the emblem removal and reinstall. I really need to pick up some 5n, if it cuts and finishes down as well as I see it does it will be a great product. What is your method of applying Black Out? I sprayed it directly on to the tires and it looked amazing but did not last after 1 rain. I applied it to the trim on my wifes van and it has been holding up well since Aug. Applied to the textured trim on my Accord and it only lasted one rain.