This vehicle was booked for a full exterior only, there was also a trick to it as the vehicle was also booked to get the 3M protection installed on the entire front the next day, first the vehicle: 2001 Mercedes SLK 230 Right a way I went to work, first I gave the vehicle a quick rinse and this is what I saw: The vehicle still had some protection on it, so I need to make sure I got rid of all that protection. Well first up started of with the shoes of the vehicle. First sprayed P21S Gel to the rims: Making sure to reach all the way inside the rims: Then sprayed P21S Total Auto Wash on the wheel wells, then with the help of a wool brush the inside of the rims were first agitated: The face of the rims were agitated with a Swissvax brush: The calipers were also agitated and made sure to as much brake dust as possible: Now the wheel wells were quite tight and there was no way the traditional long handle brush would fit in it, so a black ShMITT was used. The tires received a good coat of ARO and agitated with a Meg’s brush. This process was done to all wheel wells, tires and rims, once satisfied with the results it was time to move on to the rest of the vehicle. As previously mentioned all the protection the vehicle was going to have to be removed so regular shampoo wont cut it so the product of choice is P21S Total Auto Wash, combined with the two bucket system with grit guard and the Zymol sponge: Now as to how much P21S Total Auto Wash was used: The exact amount was 4oz to 3gallons of Deionized water. With the help of a CR unit the vehicle was rinsed off and was pleased that al protection on the vehicle had been removed and was left with no protection what’s so ever. The vehicle was clayed with the help of Riccardo clay bar, not much contamination though as the vehicle had been stored for winter and it’s first stop was to Divine Detail :thumb: Well once the claying process was done it was time to take readings on the paint to see how much we had to work with: This was the lowest spot on the vehicle, a mental note to go easy on this section was noted. With the help of the PosiTector 6000 and appropriate software here is how all the readings looked like: It should be noted, the front of the vehicle had been re-painted hence the spikes on the graphs. Once done with the PosiTector 6000, the PosiTector 200 Advance model is next: Again here is a graph to help illustrate the readings from the PosiTector 200 gauge: Now that I new how much paint/clear coat I had to play with it was time to tape the vehicle: With the help of the 3M Sun Gun and a 1000W lights it was time to inspect the vehicle and see what I was up against, one thing to note abut this vehicle and it’s colour it was quite hard to capture the swirls/imperfections it contained but managed to capture a few: Well a section was taped off to find the combo on this vehicle, first combo is Menzerna 85RD 3.02 with a Black 3M Polishing Pad (UK version) with the Metabo at 1500 RPM combined with the 3M Backing Plate. This combo gave great results but it was followed up with Menzerna 85RD with a Blue 3M Finishing Pad (UK version) with the Metabo at 1800 RPM combined with the 3M Backing Plate. This combo gave the following results (sorry for the poor pictures but it was quite difficult to capture the imperfections with the colour of this vehicle): Left side waiting to be polished, right side polished with the combo mentioned. I was quite happy with the results and proceeded with this combo :thumb: Here is the hood before: After: Driver fender before: After: Well this process was done through out the vehicle, some areas required extra polishing but the combo held through for the entire vehicle. Once all paint correction was done it was time to give the vehicle a final wipe down but first all dust was removed with the Zymol duster: Final wipe down was done with alcohol wipe down and several micro fiber towels. Now it was time to focus some attention to the exhaust tip: Got my secret weapon out to play: Autosol will make quick work of this mess. Here are the end results with the exhaust tip: At this point that is were day one ends, as the vehicle is now ready to be sent a way to have the 3M protection installed. Day two: The vehicle is returned to me with all 3m protection installed, a wash was required and I inspected the vehicle once again and found some micro marring so gave the entire vehicle a pass with Menzerna 85RD with a Blue 3M Finishing Pad (UK version) with the Metabo at 1800 RPM combined with the 3M Backing Plate. Rims were again given a quick wash to remove any dust/mud. This process along with the polishing process took a few hours but the owner wanted perfection to his vehicle and I was more then happy to deliver. Once polishing was done again dust was removed with the Zymol duster and once again a wipe down was done. Now to protect all that hard work, first up Swissvax Cleaner Fluid was applied to the entire vehicle: Followed up with Swissvax Divine: First I heated up the German applicator with the help of my 1000W lights: This made applying Divine much easier and with better even application: Wile Divine was left to bond to the vehicle the rims were also protected with DG #105: Tires were dressed with Zymol Tyre: Wile DG and Zymol Tyre were left to bond it was time to remove Divine, for this several Cookie Monsters are used: Just can’t help but admire Swissvax Divine, buffed off a section and this is what I was beginning to see: Well continued buffing of Divine, also gave the rims a final wipe to along with the tires and here are the end results: Lovely rims and a lovely finish to both rims and tires :thumb: This concludes this detail, hope you enjoy.
awsome job nice.... looks like a nice pool of red!!! really like it... on the metabo, have you used any other roatry to compare it with?
WOW!!! Incredible, Incredible, Incredible work Carlos! Man that Benz looks so good I want to go out and do some polishing on my cars! Hate not seeing your interior work but man did you make up for it with the exterior...I'm blown away by this one.
Glad you enjoyed the detail Dust2Glory, thank you for the feed back. As for the Metabo and comparing it to other rotary's, I also have the Makita and the Flex (DA) but I favour the Metabo over any other machine I own, specially for vehicles with lots of curves such as this one :thumb: Thank you JLs glad you enjoyed it, this vehicle was a treat to work on. It would have been nice do the interior but the owner takes care of the interior himself but the exterior is for me to perfect and for the owner to admire and enjoy :thumb: I finaly got the hang of Divine and it made a huge difference compared to the first time I used Divine :mounty: Thank you, glad you enjoyed it eace: Glad you enjoyed it :thumb: Thank you for the feed back, very much appreciated. This vehicle took over 30hrs, the owner demanded perfection and he had no problems leaving the vehicle with me to work with to achive perfection. Many hours went to this vehicle, but the end results and the owners expression is all worth it. Thank you :chest:
Thank you P1et, yes this vehicle finished off very nice...shame I couldnt get a pciture of it outside but the owner came to pick it up he left quickly to go cruise town with it. Glad you enjoyed it trhland, Divine made a big difference on this vehicle :thumb: Thank you for the feedback, very much appreicated. By the way I like your avatar, what's it from, it looks familiar?
Nice work Carlos but you already know when popping into to your threads your in for a nice read a detailed write up maybe a fire truck,airplane or something as ordinary as a Benze...lol
Thank you glad you enjoyed it eace: lol man you know me to well dont you hahahahaha....but really I'm just trying to keep up with everyone here :worship2: :worship2: Thank you for the feed back buddy :hug:
Top notch work Senor!! Thanks for showing the taw dilution ratio... glad to see I am not the only one with problems showing swirls on some paintwork colors :lol:
Oops sorry I'm corecting my self here, this detail didn't take over 30hrs, this SLK took just over 20hrs for me to complete. The next detail I'm posting is the one that took me over 30hrs. I'm posting the 30+ hr detail next :thumb:
Thank you glad you enjoyed it...to be honest I still prefer Zymol but it's nice to change it up once in a wile :thumb: Thank you Deep Gloss, I meassured the Total Auto Wash out and I've marked that cup I keep in the garage now so I'll be using this ration when it comes to washing the vehicles, well at least vehicles that are required to be striped of protection or polish residue, it works really well for that too :thumb: As for the pictures, boy I had a tough time capturing the imperfections...I mean if your were to stand beside the vehicle and point the 3M Sun Gun you could see the swirls but when I tried to take a picture of them they just wouldn't turn up...I wonder if a different type of lens would help...mmm...:shead:....I don't but maybe worth a shot. I mean I've seen other detailers capture imperfection on white colour vehicles...if they can do it I should be able to do it as well. Well off I go to do more reading on this matter :mounty:
