This was a welcome sight for me. Not only do I need the money, but I think it is the first car I've detailed that had low miles (only 27K) and had never hauled around children. The owner is the wife of one of my dad's co-workers, and she works from home. Process and products: I started with the interior, since it was below freezing and I needed to pull the car outside to wash the wheels/tires/wheel wells. I started by giving the car a thorough vacuum, and the only real trouble I encountered was a small amount of pet hair. Next I proceeded to clean the entire interior with OPC at 10:1. I normally use it at 3:1 but I found a bottle of 10:1 and figured that this was the only car I would get that would be clean enough to use that dilution on. I used Costco microfibers (my towel of choice for interiors) and various brushes. The leather also got OPC and was scrubbed with a leather brush. Next, the interior was dressed to a matte finish with 303 Aerospace Protectant. The seats and all other leather was conditioned with duragloss leather conditioner. Finally the windows were cleaned with Stoner Invisible Glass. Next I worked on the exterior. I pulled the car outside and braved the cold for the wheels. The tires and wheel arches were cleaned with Zep Citrus at 3:1 dilution. The wheels were cleaned with P21S wheel gel. All were agitated with various brushes. I rinsed the car and then pulled it back into my parents' lovely heated garage and did an ONR wash. Next, the car was clayed with DI fine clay, and then dried. At this point I recognized how properly washing your car can protect the paint--apart from a few bird etchings and some very light marring the paint on this car was nearly perfect. My guess is the owner only has Mercedes wash their car when it is in for service--and the Louisville Mercedes dealership is equipped with a touchless car wash, meaning no damage befalls the paint of cars in their care. Finally it was time for LSP, and a chance to try out my new Griot's 6" random orbital polisher! I applied Menzerna Powerlock with an Uber black pad, and I have to say I was incredibly impressed with how much easier the polisher made sealing the vehicle. (Next thing I plan on doing is getting a scrap panel and learning paint correction techniques) The PL was buffed off with CG microfibers. Tires were dressed with CG VRP dressing, which I buffed flat as glossy dressing really doesn't look good on a black car. This has been one of my favorite details to date, and I sincerely hope that I get more nice cars like this in the future. It's not that I don't enjoy making dramatic turnarounds on trashed vehicles...but it's a nice break to get something that isn't disgusting every once and a while And now...onto the pics. Sorry for the bad quality, there was poor lighting and all I had was my iPhone. Before: This lovely heater is what has made winter detailing possible for me Afters: (Incidentally, as soon as I pulled the car out some bird, which I couldn't see, continued to crap on all the cars in the driveway, leaving me scrambling around to clean the bird poo off the car). Also, I polished the tailpipes, but after I took these photos. Paint in very good shape, those appear to be scratches but they're actually some reflection Had a bit of fun with the iPhone 5's panoramic feature... Again, I apologize for the awful photo quality, this car really did turn out beautifully, even if you can't tell by the photos. Thanks for viewing, Clark
Thanks for all the compliments and such guys, it's one thing that keeps me going on the worse cars And I was wondering if anyone would notice my phone case. lol.
