This client brought his car in looking for a basic clean up before he put his car away for the winter. After looking at the car it was decided that we would do a little more work like removing the wheels to clean the inner fenders and suspension, detail the interior and give the paint a single stage polish. ( Didn't work out that easy. LOL ) The whole front end of the car had been repainted after a a bag of crushed limestone ripped open on the back of a flatdeck in front of my client.
Engine, jambs and exterior trims were cleaned with APC we are testing and Raceglaze brushes.
Engine was dressed with 303 Protectant this time.
Foamed with RG ph Neutral Snow Foam at 10:1 and left to soak for 4 minutes
Washed with CG CWC and Raceglaze Sheepskin Mitt
Wheel faces and barrels were cleaned with test APC as were inner fenders and suspension components. Wheel barrels were touched up with a mild acid solution to get rid of some staining.
Autosmart Tardis was used to remove road tar and weight glue on inner barrels.
Wheels were sealed with Blackfire All Metal Sealant
Tires dressed with Swissvax Pneu
Clayed with Exclusive Medium Clay with PB Spray & Wipe as lube
First stage of polishing was with B&S Green with Power Finish but had to switch to B&S Yellow and Power Finish and finally B&S Yellow with Megs 105 via Flex 3403 at 1100 - 1300 rpm.
Final polishing was B&S Black with Menz 106 via PC7424 at speed 5.
LSP was Raceglaze Black Label x2
Exhaust tips polished with DG Metal Polish and sealed with Blackfire All Metal Sealant
Interior wiped down with AG Interior Shampoo
Seats cleaned with RG Leather Cleanse and conditioned with RG Leather Balm
All glass cleaned with AG Fast Glass
Total time - approx 25 hours
One mildly dirty 06 SLK55
Some befores....
Polish residue inside fuel filler door
Interior was dusty from having the top down, but not really dirty.
Even the jambs weren't too bad
The car had been recently driven in the rain and was covered in alot of grit from the road.
The engine was dusty as well, other than the paint overspray on the underside of the hood.
Now this just sucks! Polish splatter UNDER the grille.
More polish residue.
Look what showed up this morning!
It was -15 this am so I'm doing this inside. Thanks again Michael for the wash mat!
After 4 minutes on horizontal surfaces..
and vertical
Cleaning around all body seams etc
After washing, time to inspect paintwork for damage
Nasty hood. Guess we figured out where the polish residue came from.
Looking for the jacking points
With the wheels off, it was time to inspect the dirty inner fenders and suspension components.
Dirty calipers
While the calipers were soaking in APC, time to get going on the wheels.
Back to the inner fenders
After rinsing the inner fenders, its time to remove the road tar etc from the barrels with Autosmart Tardis
Tardis at work
Some old weight glue
Nice clean inner fender
Wheel looking a lot better
This build up turned out to be a bitch to remove.
Rear inner fender finished
Another wheel to do. This is what all four wheel barrels looked like. There was actually some staining on the barrels from the brake dust that had to be removed with a mild acid solution. Total time cleaning all four corners - 3 hours
Hard at another caliper
All this dirty water from just the inner fenders.
Nice caliper
Wee bit of contamination off the front fender
I love cool tools. Used my handy extend O magnet to recover a hood grille screw I dropped into the engine area.
Polishing around these will be a PITA so they have to come off.
Bottom tray off
Now we can easily get at the polish splatter
Last thing, undo the washer fluid line.
After removing 4 small plastic tabs, its out.
There were marks in the paint from the grills that could not be polished out. The grille hides them so its not a big worry.
Some wax residue..
and here as well.
Taping off emblems...
Clay left a little marring but it was easily cleaned up.
50/50 for you
A few very deep marks in front fender. They were too deep to polish out so we went with 3M #2500 wet/dry sand paper.
After one pass of B&S Yellow and 105
and another...
three's a charm. Looking mint.
PTG reading AFTER sanding and polishing
Another 50/50
Slight bodywork issue.
There was a deep scratch on the rear pillar and it looked like someone has had a go at it.
After one pass
After two passes, this little bit remained but as it was quite deep so we decided not to chase it.
Taped off the trunklid to polish the rear spoiler and then moved the tape to the spoiler to do the trunklid.
After a couple of low rpm passes on the rear spoiler
And finished
There was one deep scratch that remained on the trunklid
but with PTG readings like this, I won't be sanding anything.
Working with the Flex 3403, B&S Yellow and Menz Power Finish
Before
After
The dust after B&S Yellow and Megs 105
Tail lights were also all scratched up
Looking better after 3" B&S Yellow with Menz Power Finish
Door sill on drivers side was badly scratched up
Not 100%, but as much as I could remove safely
New backing plate we are testing
After polishing
Headlights were looking a little hazy.
Corrected with B&S Yellow, Megs 105, Menz PF and B&S Black with 85rd.
And after
Ready for LSP.....
Raceglaze Black Label
After one coat
Waiting for it to haze over...
After one coat
Breaking out the Swisswax Pneu
Tightness
Residue around dash control
Finished interior - seats were cleaned and conditioned with Raceglaze
There was a lot of overspray under the hood, including on these emblems.
It was removed with a LC Hand Polishing Pad and Werkstat Prime Strong
Finished engine - dressed with 303
With grilles replaced, everything looks nice and sharp
Exhaust tips polished with DG Metal Polish and sealed with Blackfire All Metal Sealant
After the second coat of RG Black Label
Thanks for looking.
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