Metallic Black Mercedes CL500 Paint Correction by Unique Car Care!

[Rickrack]

This Mercedes CL500 was brought in over the summer for a complete interior and exterior detail. The owner was attending a car show and wanted the car looking its best, so we set a date to bring the car in, which was a couple days before my wedding.





The car was in pretty good shape to begin with, but needed a little bit of work to get it looking its best. It had recently been in the body shop getting some paintwork done, so it was a bit dirty as you can see in the pictures below.



















After snapping a few before pictures, Ryan and I pulled the car in the shop to start prepping the paint for polishing. We gave it a standard hand wash and gave all the tires, wheels and wheel wells an extensive cleaning. We noticed the paint was beading heavily, which meant there was some sort of glaze, wax or sealant present, which would have to be removed in order to make polishing easier.





After using a degreaser to remove whatever products were on the paint, we also noticed that there was some overspray present. We clayed the exterior, which did remove some of the overspray, but we weren’t able to remove all of it.





The following pictures were taken after the wash and prep. You can see the overspray present on most of the panels, which would be removed once we started polishing. The paint had a very dry and sterile look to it and lacked any real gloss or depth, but not for long!!!

[Rickrack]

[Rickrack]

Unfortunately, we were pressed for time, so we were not able to take any during pictures of the polishing process.





We masked off all trim, badges and moldings and got started on the polishing. Since the paint was pretty hard, we decided to perform a 3-step polishing treatment to get the paint looking as perfect as possible.





For the first step, we used Meguiars 105 compound paired with a Surbuf pad via DA polisher to remove the serious defects. This left the paint looking a little hazy, which was to be expected from such an aggressive combo. To clear up the compounding haze left from the M105, we followed behind with Menzerna Power Finish using an orange foam pad via DA which really brought the paint back to life.





At this point, the paint was looking defect free, but we performed an additional polishing step to ensure a perfect, swirl-free finish because well, that’s what we do here at UCC! For the final polishing step, we used Menzerna 85rd paired with a black uber foam pad. We then applied Menzerna Power Lock sealant to the exterior paint and wheels for its great looks and durability.





Here are the final results!

[Rickrack]

[E300Diesel]

Great job! Pix are excellent as well!!

[Rickrack]

Thanks michakaveli !!

[imported_Ivan Rajic]

Great work as always Rick. Now it looks as it should.

[Rickrack]

Thanks a lot Ivan!

[Jokeman]

Another good one coming out of the shop! That car was from WAY back, lots of write-ups to do!!!

[Rickrack]

Another good one coming out of the shop! That car was from WAY back, lots of write-ups to do!!!

Yup, tons of write-ups to catch up on... It`s been such a busy year that I`ve had absolutely no time to sit down and sort through pictures, etc...



Thanks for all the help this summer. Lots of hot days at the shop!

[Barry Theal]

Bought darn time you post something! Great work as expected Rick. Car looks outstanding. Hows the married life? Long time no chat man.

[Jokeman]

Yup, tons of write-ups to catch up on... It`s been such a busy year that I`ve had absolutely no time to sit down and sort through pictures, etc...



Thanks for all the help this summer. Lots of hot days at the shop!

Do the writeups when snowmobile season ends!!! Its time to ride, the snow is on the ground way up north!!

[BigAl3]

perfect rick, thanks for sharing... 1:

[Rickrack]

Barry Theal- Thanks Barry! It`s been such a hectic year, so I`m kinda hoping things are going to be slowing down a bit now that winter is here. I don`t think that`s going to be the case, since work keeps pouring in. Could be worse I guess... Married life is good!



How`s everything going in the new shop? I`ll give you a call soon so we can catch up.





Jokeman- Haha, I know... Can`t wait to go riding!

[Rickrack]

perfect rick, thanks for sharing... 1:

Thanks Al!