Hi all! This is a car that the Ferrari dealership took in as a trade and the new owner requested that it be polished and cleaned up before delivery. I never really liked Mercs too much but this thing is awesome; comfort and luxury to the highest extent! Anyway, when I arrived in the morning I asked the shop manager where the car was and he replied, "They're downstairs washing it." I sprinted downstairs like Michael Jackson with his hair on fire, but I was too late... they'd already "washed" it and then got nasty with it and a waterblade and a chamois. Now, I myself will use a waterblade if I'm about to polish the car (makes no sense to soil clean towels if you're about to polish it), but I also know the damage that it's capable of so I'm careful with it... they obviously don't care if they damage cars or not with it (or in any other way for that matter). Anyhoo, the car was then taken upstairs and I clayed it then did a wipedown with some water and a MF.
Picking up the scratches and swirls on this car was almost impossible because I had to fight the fluorescent lamps above me and the sunlight on my side. The paint wasn't in very bad condition, but it had several scuffs on it in different places that almost looked like it had been wet sanded. Other than that, it had the expected light swirls and some RIDS. The polishing was done with InstaFinish #15 and a cutting pad, followed by InstaFinish #30 and a finishing pad. I did a little experiment this time with wear and tear on my pads. I've been using my "altered" version of the Zenith method meaning that instead of progressively higher speeds and then trickling back down, I progressively use more pressure to achieve the same effect. I used the conventional method this time, spreading at 600, up to 900 then to 1,200 and then back down in the reverse order. I proved to have the same amount of wear and tear on the pads as my modified version of it, so I guess I'll just continue using my version of it
. OK so here's the pics!
Here's one of the "wet sanding" looking scuffs I was talking about.
Hard to see, because of the car's color and the lighting, but there's scratches there
.
And I thought the finishes coming from Ferrari were terrible... the car had blotchy, dark spots in a few places where the paint wasn't mixed correctly... pfft.
Mercedes must consider fish eyes a delicacy because this thing was packed with more of them than Sea World... I lost count of them... really.
The paint was very inconsistent also, with readings around the 230's in some places, but then dropping down to the low hundreds in others.
Hmm, looks like the same "skin disease" that was on the Ferrari California I did... meaning, they forgot to spray that part with clear. The Skoda Fabia I polished today had a paint job on it that puts this to shame... and that's a shame.
Lubed up with Migliore Primo. There was a bit of resistance when removing this wax the last time and then I figured out that I was spreading it way too thick... and "thick" was 3 very light pats on top of the wax for the entire hood of a 599 GTB... a little of this stuff goes a loooooooooong way. One light pat on top of the wax was enough to cover the entire hood of this boat and it came off much easier this time
!
Tail lights before
After polished with InstaFinish #30 and a finishing pad. These weren't as sensitive as most of the other lamps I've done.
Another after, but there were some deeper scuffs that remained. I didn't see any point in removing the factory UV protection in its entirety just to take out a light scratch.
All done!
There's a small scuff on the front wing here that I caught after taking this picture. Like I said, the light and the color of this car made it very difficult to remove the imperfections, but at least I caught it in the end.
Remember what I said about this car being luxurious and comfortable? There's a friggin' refrigerator in the trunk!!
Thanks for reading and for the Playboy subscribers thanks for "reading"!
- Jesse
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