Full detail: 1981 Mercedes 380SL

[RyanDe680]

This is the "weekend car" for a co-worker of mine. Funny thing is, he is actually a referral but I work with him at my day job.



Car is a 1981 Mercedes 380SL. Has 114k miles. Owner bought the car 14 years ago, and since then, has had just about the whole car replaced when he purchased it, but spent a ton of money to maintain it.



The car was in great shape for being 26 years old. Paint had scratches of course and the interior is worn, but doesn`t show 26 years of wear.



Befores:



I realized I forgot to take before pics about halfway through the wash :wall

http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5355.jpg



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5357.jpg



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5360.jpg



The car was terribly dusty, as it had been sitting for a while.



On to the interior. Seemed as if the carpet was never cleaned.



Before:



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5349.jpg



After:



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5403.jpg



On to paint.



Paint on this car was difficult, due to panel repaints. The clearcoat used on the repaint was as hard as a rock.



I used Menzerna IP with orange pad on the majority of the car.



The trunk and the hood received Menzerna IP with orange and then 106ff with orange.



The whole car was waxed with Natty`s Blue.



The car is very difficult because of the paint color to obtain pics.



Trunk Befores:



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5377.jpg



Trunk Afters:



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5380.jpg



Door Befores:



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5386.jpg



Door Afters:



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5387.jpg



Here are the finished results:



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5397.jpg



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5399.jpg



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5400.jpg



http://www.lexfstyle.com/misc/Ryan/06_06_2007_Mercedes_380SL/IMG_5402.jpg



I used Mother`s chrome polish a lot as well, since there was chrome everywhere.



Very cool car to work on. He also has 2 other Mercedes, of which I will be seeing in the next two months as well.

[01bluecls]

Great job! Silver and other light colors are a PITA to capture swirls on camera. lol THose wheels look fun to clean! ;)

[Todd@RUPES]

Awesome turn around on a very cool car. Great job

[mazdaguy]

Beautiful job, the car is flawless! those old benz`s are so classy

I like them better than the new ones

[Old Pirate]

Great work you did on that Mercedes , amazing how it looks after all these years!

[CBlakeNS]

Looks good, nice job!

[RyanDe680]

Thanks guys.






Great job! Silver and other light colors are a PITA to capture swirls on camera. lol THose wheels look fun to clean! ;)



LOL, the wheels alone I spent about 40 minutes on each between cleaning & polishing :wall

[Accumulator]

RyanDe680- Nice job, and I sympathize with the trouble you encountered taking good pics of the marred silver paint.



This makes two W107s I`ve seen here today, people must be getting their SLs out for the summer :D

[93AccordLXwhite]

Looks good! Were the seats/leather stained beyond repair in some areas? Also, in the pictures, the floormats look thick and shaggy, were they more difficult to clean than those with a short, tight knap? Just imagine if the owner hadn`t taken care of those wheels and they needed some good ol` TLC:eek: In one of the pictures, the rear left wheel looks shiny, almost like plastic. Is it really like that in person, or is it just the camera? What tire products did you use (cleaner/dressing?) That paint looks beautiful! But what`s up with the rocker panel?

[Accumulator]

But what`s up with the rocker panel?



Looks like it needs another trip to the bodyshop ;)

[RyanDe680]

Looks good! Were the seats/leather stained beyond repair in some areas? Also, in the pictures, the floormats look thick and shaggy, were they more difficult to clean than those with a short, tight knap? Just imagine if the owner hadn`t taken care of those wheels and they needed some good ol` TLC:eek: In one of the pictures, the rear left wheel looks shiny, almost like plastic. Is it really like that in person, or is it just the camera? What tire products did you use (cleaner/dressing?) That paint looks beautiful! But what`s up with the rocker panel?



The seats were both stained and dried out/cracked in many areas. 26 year old seats though, and I am surprised that they looked that good.



What was unique about these floor mats is that they were essentially the floor. You removed them, you saw coated metal. I did extract a ton of dirt from them though.



The wheels are that shiny in person, each wheel was washed and then each spoke was polished by hand. The wheels are newer originals - the owner found a new machined set and bought them a few years back and maintains them each year to keep them looking great...



I use black magic tire dressing, with a hint of water to have it dry faster and avoid spraying.



Rocker panel, yep needs a trip to the body shop to be worked on...