600+ Horsepower Black Mercedes E55 !!!!

[Rickrack]

Hi everyone,



It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted up any details and haven’t had much time to visit Autopia. The past couple months have been extremely busy (almost too busy), which I guess is a good thing considering the current state of the economy. I am so far behind on posting up my previous work, so I decided to share this detail, which I performed about a week ago.







This Mercedes E55 wagon belongs to one of my very good customers. I see the car about 3 times per year and perform a complete interior & exterior detail every visit. The car is always in and out of the shop due to the constant performance modifications added by the owner and currently pushing well above 600hp, so this is not your every day station wagon!







The owner has an extremely busy schedule and lives a great distance away, so he has been having a local detailer perform regular hand washes in between visits. Unfortunately, this person did not do a very good job washing the car since I had last detailed it, so the paint was in horrible condition.







Below is what the car looked like upon arrival…





Exterior…



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335099.jpg



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http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335081.jpg







Interior…



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335105.jpg







Engine compartment…



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335104.jpg

[Rickrack]

As you can see, the car was in dire need of a proper detail. Before any paint correction could be undertaken, I began by giving the car a thorough wash and extensive cleaning of all wheels, tires & wheel wells, followed by a claybar treatment and engine compartment detail. All previous wax / polish was stripped using a degreaser and rinsed. Once the vehicle was dry , I wiped down the complete exterior with 91% alcohol. It took me about 3 1/2 hours in total to prep the car for polishing.







Below is what the car looked like after the wash …



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335122.jpg



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http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335106.jpg





I chose the drivers side front fender as a test panel to see what pads / products yielded the best results. After testing various combinations, I found that 3M Extra Cut Compound (06060) using a blue cool cut wool pad worked the best at removing the heavy defects and leveled the paint nicely. This step left a considerable amount of compounding haze, so I followed this step with 3M Extra Fine Compound – UK (80349) using a white cross-cut euro foam polishing pad. This did a great job at removing the compounding haze and left the paint ready for final finishing. For the last step, I chose to use Menzerna 106FA using a black non-CCS foam finishing pad, which left the paint looking perfect.





Here are the results after the test panel was complete…



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335131.jpg







After I was satisfied with the results of the test panel, I continued to compound the complete exterior with 3M Extra Cut, which took an entire day. Below is what it looked like after compounding…



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335131.jpg



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335129.jpg





Once the compounding was complete, the rest of the polishing went fairly quick. I polished the complete exterior using 80349 , followed by 106FA in roughly 9 hours or so. Once the polishing was complete, I washed the entire car to remove any remaining polish residue / spatter from all cracks, crevices and body panels.

[Rickrack]

Before applying the LSP, I spent about an hour polishing and sealing each wheel using a variety of products, then polished the chrome tips and dressed all tires & wheel wells.







For protection, I applied 2 coats of Opti-Seal, roughly 4 hours apart and left the car inside over night to properly cure. The following day, I applied a coat of Carnauba Moose Wax by hand, which really added to the look. I then wiped down the complete exterior with a quick spritz of OCW (version II) to remove any residue that might have been remaining and treated all exterior glass and chrome with Opti-Seal.







The car will be driven through the winter and will probably need another extensive detail in the spring, but at least it is clean for now…







Here are the final results…



http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y296/rickrack/E55%20Wagon/BlkMBE55-GrayBMW335154.jpg



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