Mercedes C300
06-24-2008, 04:28 PM
#1
Suzuka Master
Thread Starter
Mercedes C300
I got this car to do some correction .. the car was new and the owner was in Palm Springs Calif. golfing and the course sprinklers malfunctioned and came on in the mid day sun.
It water spotted it pretty bad and he tried to wash them out . Didn't work so he took it to a high end detail shop in Palm Springs that had BMWs, Merecedes, Ferraris etc out front and they charged him $150 to buff them out.
He got home and 2 washes this is what he saw. HOLOGRAMS!!!!!
Mostly just the horizontal surfaces.
My helper and I also spent nearly an hour just cleaning up polish residue that was in every crack and even in the glue under the clear bre. You could also see where thier rotary caught the edge of the clear film on the headlights and rolled it.
Here is just one area
We polished it out with Optumum Compound on a yellow pad followed by Optimum Polish on a white pad then followed it with PoliSeal to clean it up then Megs #21.
I tried Duragloss 105 side by side with #21 and on this color the 105 looked like crap .. It is a black pearl.
After pix
What looks like holograms are clouds.
Trunk .. was worse than the hood.
It water spotted it pretty bad and he tried to wash them out . Didn't work so he took it to a high end detail shop in Palm Springs that had BMWs, Merecedes, Ferraris etc out front and they charged him $150 to buff them out.
He got home and 2 washes this is what he saw. HOLOGRAMS!!!!!
Mostly just the horizontal surfaces.
My helper and I also spent nearly an hour just cleaning up polish residue that was in every crack and even in the glue under the clear bre. You could also see where thier rotary caught the edge of the clear film on the headlights and rolled it.
Here is just one area
We polished it out with Optumum Compound on a yellow pad followed by Optimum Polish on a white pad then followed it with PoliSeal to clean it up then Megs #21.
I tried Duragloss 105 side by side with #21 and on this color the 105 looked like crap .. It is a black pearl.
After pix
What looks like holograms are clouds.
Trunk .. was worse than the hood.
06-25-2008, 07:05 AM
#4
Evil Mazda Driver
Ack!!! Buffer burn!
Beautiful recovery. It's amazing how many of these 'high end' detail joints don't even know what the hell they're doing. Either that or they don't care...
Beautiful recovery. It's amazing how many of these 'high end' detail joints don't even know what the hell they're doing. Either that or they don't care...
06-25-2008, 07:17 AM
#5
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Originally Posted by PortlandRL
Ack!!! Buffer burn!
Beautiful recovery. It's amazing how many of these 'high end' detail joints don't even know what the hell they're doing. Either that or they don't care...
Beautiful recovery. It's amazing how many of these 'high end' detail joints don't even know what the hell they're doing. Either that or they don't care...
06-25-2008, 08:42 AM
#7
Suzuka Master
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by yaze21
Hey what's up....can you find this polishes in like an autozone? Or car place?
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06-25-2008, 03:42 PM
#10
Suzuka Master
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by conan777
Looks Great! Do you always have a helper work on the cars with you? How long did this job take? Did the car have the ultra hard clear coat or regular?
The clear was pretty hard .. I had an 03 VW Passat prior to my TL and the clear was like concrete .. this was the same.
The job took us 5 1/2 hours .. x 2 people.
Yes I always have a helper. She is a 36 year old with ADD and not very marketable .. living on a diability income. 3 years ago I offered her son an oppertunity to stay off the streets and learn how to work and make money.
He was supposed to start with me the next day doing an NSX. At 8 am he never showed .. .. 8:20 I went to see if he was coming ( lives next door ), his mom came to the door then went and got him up .. he informed me he was busy and had something else to do.
I let it pass as if your not interested no sense working with me. 20 minutes later the mom came out and asked if she could have a go at the job .... her reasoning is if I could teach him .. I could teach her.
I told her I would give her a try for a couple of cars and also the jobs she would be doing were the crap parts .. vacuuming , bug removal .. door edges .. etc ..
That was 3 years ago .. and she is still with me .. her jobs now are .
1) Vacuum
2) Door edges
3) bug removal
4) 1/2 the car drying
5) Clay bars 1/2
6) Mar identification. She has a hell of an eye ... she takes a roll of masking tape and puts a small piece on every scratch/mar she finds, then I follow and polish them out.
7) Polish removal .. follows behind me in the polishing stage and removes it.
8) Sealant removal.
9) Cleans exhaust tips and other chrome bits.
10) Final inspection. After we are finished she inspects the car for missed wax or smears or dust etc etc .. Then I turn the car around and she inspects the other side. We work out in full sun and it gets hot and we don't stop for coffee breaks or lunch unless the car gets into 6+ hours.
Over that period as she learned more I have increased her percentage of the rate for the job.
All the cars we do are on a quote bases based on the condition of the car .. she gets 25%.
With the ADD there is the odd time I need to remind her what to do next but I'll tell you .. it would be an insult to check her work ... she is excellent.
To be honest with you .. if she quit I stop doing cars .. I don't feel like training anyone else. Its an on call job as we don't work every day. And I'll be 64 in a couple of months and pretty hard to do it all by myself.
This is a hobby as I retired 6 years ago after working close to 40 years.
Last edited by Jesstzn; 06-25-2008 at 03:46 PM.
06-25-2008, 04:40 PM
#11
Originally Posted by PortlandRL
Ack!!! Buffer burn!
Beautiful recovery. It's amazing how many of these 'high end' detail joints don't even know what the hell they're doing. Either that or they don't care...
Beautiful recovery. It's amazing how many of these 'high end' detail joints don't even know what the hell they're doing. Either that or they don't care...
06-25-2008, 05:22 PM
#12
Evil Mazda Driver
The hard clearcoat must be a German thing. I'm currently working on the black sections (3/4 of the car) on a custom painted 1999 VW New Beetle. Pictures will be up later today but German paint is a total bitch, I'll say that.
06-25-2008, 10:33 PM
#14
Suzuka Master
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by exceldetail
Ever work on a Vette? Hehehe, now theres some hard CC......
Dale, you rectified some awful paint!!
Dale, you rectified some awful paint!!
06-26-2008, 08:42 AM
#17
Suzuka Master
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by exceldetail
Whats your magic Dale?
That was polished out with a mix of Opt Hyper & compound on a yellow pad on 5 with the UDM two slow passes with medium pressure if I remember right. Then Opt polish on a white pad again at 5 .. slow patient passes.
The PoliSeal # 21
06-27-2008, 01:22 AM
#19
Racer
Originally Posted by Jesstzn
Yes I always have a helper. She is a 36 year old with ADD and not very marketable .. living on a diability income. 3 years ago I offered her son an oppertunity to stay off the streets and learn how to work and make money.
He was supposed to start with me the next day doing an NSX. At 8 am he never showed .. .. 8:20 I went to see if he was coming ( lives next door ), his mom came to the door then went and got him up .. he informed me he was busy and had something else to do.
I let it pass as if your not interested no sense working with me. 20 minutes later the mom came out and asked if she could have a go at the job .... her reasoning is if I could teach him .. I could teach her.
I told her I would give her a try for a couple of cars and also the jobs she would be doing were the crap parts .. vacuuming , bug removal .. door edges .. etc ..
That was 3 years ago .. and she is still with me .. her jobs now are .
1) Vacuum
2) Door edges
3) bug removal
4) 1/2 the car drying
5) Clay bars 1/2
6) Mar identification. She has a hell of an eye ... she takes a roll of masking tape and puts a small piece on every scratch/mar she finds, then I follow and polish them out.
7) Polish removal .. follows behind me in the polishing stage and removes it.
8) Sealant removal.
9) Cleans exhaust tips and other chrome bits.
10) Final inspection. After we are finished she inspects the car for missed wax or smears or dust etc etc .. Then I turn the car around and she inspects the other side. We work out in full sun and it gets hot and we don't stop for coffee breaks or lunch unless the car gets into 6+ hours.
Over that period as she learned more I have increased her percentage of the rate for the job.
All the cars we do are on a quote bases based on the condition of the car .. she gets 25%.
With the ADD there is the odd time I need to remind her what to do next but I'll tell you .. it would be an insult to check her work ... she is excellent.
To be honest with you .. if she quit I stop doing cars .. I don't feel like training anyone else. Its an on call job as we don't work every day. And I'll be 64 in a couple of months and pretty hard to do it all by myself.
This is a hobby as I retired 6 years ago after working close to 40 years.
He was supposed to start with me the next day doing an NSX. At 8 am he never showed .. .. 8:20 I went to see if he was coming ( lives next door ), his mom came to the door then went and got him up .. he informed me he was busy and had something else to do.
I let it pass as if your not interested no sense working with me. 20 minutes later the mom came out and asked if she could have a go at the job .... her reasoning is if I could teach him .. I could teach her.
I told her I would give her a try for a couple of cars and also the jobs she would be doing were the crap parts .. vacuuming , bug removal .. door edges .. etc ..
That was 3 years ago .. and she is still with me .. her jobs now are .
1) Vacuum
2) Door edges
3) bug removal
4) 1/2 the car drying
5) Clay bars 1/2
6) Mar identification. She has a hell of an eye ... she takes a roll of masking tape and puts a small piece on every scratch/mar she finds, then I follow and polish them out.
7) Polish removal .. follows behind me in the polishing stage and removes it.
8) Sealant removal.
9) Cleans exhaust tips and other chrome bits.
10) Final inspection. After we are finished she inspects the car for missed wax or smears or dust etc etc .. Then I turn the car around and she inspects the other side. We work out in full sun and it gets hot and we don't stop for coffee breaks or lunch unless the car gets into 6+ hours.
Over that period as she learned more I have increased her percentage of the rate for the job.
All the cars we do are on a quote bases based on the condition of the car .. she gets 25%.
With the ADD there is the odd time I need to remind her what to do next but I'll tell you .. it would be an insult to check her work ... she is excellent.
To be honest with you .. if she quit I stop doing cars .. I don't feel like training anyone else. Its an on call job as we don't work every day. And I'll be 64 in a couple of months and pretty hard to do it all by myself.
This is a hobby as I retired 6 years ago after working close to 40 years.
Last edited by Wes_R; 06-27-2008 at 01:26 AM.
06-27-2008, 11:17 AM
#20
Originally Posted by Wes_R
That's a pretty cool story, her son does not know what he missed out on. Hopefully I can still be polishing and such at 63, I find detailing therapeutic like how my mom likes gardening. Great turn out I wish I could do my details with a view like that. I was actually born in Burnaby and am way overdue for a visit.
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