Setec Astronomy
Well-known member
I think you're pulling our legs...that car is clearly blue in the indoor pics...and clearly black in the outdoor pics...I think you did a switcheroo 
86 Mercedes turbo diesel 27 hours of polishing Barry Theal Presidential Details
- Thread starter Barry Theal
- Start date
maxepr1
New member
Autopia can we pause for a second and pray...... Buffergods can we find a place in the front of the line for Barry!! He trully is one we all should look up to!!!!! AMEN!! You are the MAN!!!!
imported_Sludge1
New member
You really increased the value of that car. Looks like it was always well cared for. Great job and turn around. :bow
Barry Theal
New member
OCDinPDX said:
I thought the paint was fubar'd to Its one of them things I guess you never know till you try. I love a good challange and this one presnted itself.
Legacy99 said:
Legacy thanks for the kind words. yeah there was a few small spots where there was a little clearcoat failure, but for a 23 year old car it looks better. thanks again.
Gianni D said:
in all honesty he just looked at it for about a minute and stood still not making a movement or a word. he was shocked. thanks for the kind words.
dsms said:
Thanks dave for the kind words.
David Fermani said:
lol david pm sent!
weekendwarrior said:
thanks man
AuAltima3.5 said:
Thanks man. no i used a 3 inch pnuematic polisher for the flat surfaces and a dremal and a felt wheel for the inner sections.
chibchaman said:
yes man it is!
d00t said:
aaron, thanks man!
ohiostate said:
No mike Im not kidding lol. Thanks man.
Labster said:
Labster thanks man, and yes I did. I took them off at first to spray the 3m undercoating and thought I 'm gonna polish them and they started to comeout also so i kept going.
itb76 said:
Thanks man, i used a 3 inch pnuematic polisher for the flat surfaces and a dremal and a felt wheel for the inner sections. with m205
Peco said:
thanks man!
rydawg said:
Rydawg thanks bro. I only hope to have the skills with a buffer that you do some day. Im working on it! :bigups thanks man.
ten39 said:
thanks man
toyotasuvs said:
well pick it up that could hurt lmao. thanks man
osoda said:
the majority oif the damage had penetrated the surface of the clear some etched threw at a few spots but when I ran my first step at 3000 rpms. not recomended unless you know what your doing. it began to shave some of it off. and i just kept going. thanks man.
MBenz said:
Thanks mbenz. its alot of steps but I often do stuff like that. It's a passion thing I guess. I'm never happy and constantly trying to out do myself.
TSC17 said:Nice work as always Barry. What we do isn't just about transforming a vehicle, but it's also about adding (resale) value to the car. Especially in challenging economic times, buyers and sellers alike will be more inclined to pay attention to our services if we take the time to focus on that aspect as well as educate them accordingly. If I were you I would dedicate a section on my website about this, and use this particular vehicle as a prime example.
Keep up the great work!
Todd thank you very much. Your right, coming from a high volume auction prep background I completly know what we can do for adding resale value on a car. One area I am working on is the education part of the business. I'm try to get my website going some more. I think it will be done in winter when things slow down ya know.
Thank you Todd! Setec Astronomy said:I think you're pulling our legs...that car is clearly blue in the indoor pics...and clearly black in the outdoor pics...I think you did a switcheroo
setec Ill take that as a compliment, but talk to accumulator I was sending him pics as I went. I knew he loves these old cars! Oh seriously where are you gonna find 2 1986 turbo diesal mercedes lol.
maxepr1 said:
Thanks man, but its not about being the best. its about being a man amongst men!
tom p.
Active member
My god, that redefines "oxidation". I would have said you were wasting your time, Barry, on that one. Amazing effort. I hope you charged him 3X. This is one of the most dramatic saves yet!
imported_Jakerooni
New member
Barry when you showed this to me when you were working on it I wished you all the luck in the world because you were going to need it on this one... Helluva save there man. I honestly thought the paint was gone on that one. You realize if you and me were to get together we'd be able to bring back all the turds out there LOL.. Gotta love the insane detailing! excellent job.
Barry Theal
New member
tom p. said:
Tom I hear ya there man! I was really surprised to see this type of oxidation on the clearcoat. I have seen it on singlestage, but this was a first for clear! thanks alot for the kind words.
Jakerooni said:
I have offened pondered those thoughts to jake! I love the insane type of stuff. conventional swirls get old after a while lol thanks bro!
rbruditt said:
thanks man!
grungy said:
grungy I hardly ever use a paint meter grungy. I know ill get lectured on this alot. Im from the old school before they had a meter. I was taught its all feel and eyes. with a job like this one isn't wasn't a matter of removing to much clear. It was about saving what little clear that was left. It was thin. razor thin. thanks for the kind words!
Accumulator
Well-known member
As I think rydawg, MBenz, and Clean Dean, (and others I'm not thinking of) would agree, IMO to *REALLY* appreciate what great work this is you have to have some experience with Benzes of that vintage. The clear is lacquer, thin, and somewhat fragile under the best of circumstances. To do that sort of aggressive work on it without simply cutting through takes an incredible amount of skill :bow
And heh heh, I've been giving bufferbarry plenty of those lectures about ETGing the paint
bufferbarry- Ah, now that I see things more clearly, the spots I was worried about don't look so bad. That turned out even better than I'd thought, what a save!
Did it seem like the *oxidation* was what like a really hard layer on top of the paint? What I mean is, I never found the clear on those very hard, and the most aggressive of your steps would normally, IME, have cut off a *whole* lotta clear in no time :think:
Days later, I'm still amazed that you had to get that aggressive! When you told me what you were doing I was simply :nervous2:
And heh heh, I've been giving bufferbarry plenty of those lectures about ETGing the paint
bufferbarry- Ah, now that I see things more clearly, the spots I was worried about don't look so bad. That turned out even better than I'd thought, what a save!
Did it seem like the *oxidation* was what like a really hard layer on top of the paint? What I mean is, I never found the clear on those very hard, and the most aggressive of your steps would normally, IME, have cut off a *whole* lotta clear in no time :think:
Days later, I'm still amazed that you had to get that aggressive! When you told me what you were doing I was simply :nervous2:
Barry Theal
New member
Accumulator said:As I think rydawg, MBenz, and Clean Dean, (and others I'm not thinking of) would agree, IMO to *REALLY* appreciate what great work this is you have to have some experience with Benzes of that vintage. The clear is lacquer, thin, and somewhat fragile under the best of circumstances. To do that sort of aggressive work on it without simply cutting through takes an incredible amount of skill :bow
And heh heh, I've been giving bufferbarry plenty of those lectures about ETGing the paint
bufferbarry- Ah, now that I see things more clearly, the spots I was worried about don't look so bad. That turned out even better than I'd thought, what a save!
Did it seem like the *oxidation* was what like a really hard layer on top of the paint? What I mean is, I never found the clear on those very hard, and the most aggressive of your steps would normally, IME, have cut off a *whole* lotta clear in no time :think:
Days later, I'm still amazed that you had to get that aggressive! When you told me what you were doing I was simply :nervous2:
By no means am I trying to toot my own horn here. but yes accumulator you are right! This paint takes alot of skill to work, even in the better conditioned ones. The oxidation was like concrete on the top of the clear. I compound this very hard and very aggressive. the first step was more about cutting threw the concrete felt oxidation, then even after I was finished and did an ipa wipedown I noticed some still was present. So the second step more or less was to reomove the remaining oxidation. to what could be removed. Now at this point I knew I had taken the paint to the limit as far as I could so I used the kevin brown method ( to the best of my knowledge ) ON a gear driven da this is actually designed from my understanding to do some serious sanding threw bondoing. To some it up its more like a pc on some serious steroids. Very tough to control but killer results. Then once the oxidation was removed with all that serious compounding I had a fresh base to start with and it was loaded with all kinds of holograms from the ground and pound type method of compounding I used on it. so the m105 completely refined the finish, and them m205 has a great polished look to it. I thought I could do more, being the nut case I am with a buffer, I thought I'm gonna jewel it and that was the end reult. But yes it was a very tuff detail. Thanks for the kind words. I was gonna name this one "ONE FOR ACCUM lol. I hope I gave one of your favorites justice. thanks man!
Apollo_Auto
New member
Holy sh1t, man... now THAT is a save!!! Nice one!
Barry Theal
New member
Thanks jesse! hope all is well in hungary for ya!
mikenap
New member
Even though I'll never get past weekend warrior status, THIS is the reason I spend all my time on this site. Just knowing what some of you guys are capable of is simply amazing and sort of inspiring. My wife, who is sick to death of seeing 50/50s and always being dragged to the computer to "check this out", was completely speechless when she saw this one. I think that's the best part, when you can wow someone with absolutely ZERO interest in car detailing, you're definitely doing something right.
Barry, you'll be getting pats on the back and "attaboys" for a long time over this save. Enjoy every last one, because you earned it for sure. BTW, consider this thread bookmarked!
Barry, you'll be getting pats on the back and "attaboys" for a long time over this save. Enjoy every last one, because you earned it for sure. BTW, consider this thread bookmarked!
Accumulator
Well-known member
bufferbarry said:
Heh heh, toot away man, you earned it
And heh heh#2..."don't try this stuff at home, kids"
Thanks for confirming that..I was simply astounded that you had to use the Ardex on that paint at 3K!
That sounds a little like my Flex, but with undoubtedly a different throw/etc. I *think* I used air-powered DAs like that back in the day when I worked in a bodyshop. Hey, I'm sure that any guy who can sand autopaint with a PC can use that DA just fine
Hey, *NO QUESTION* you did it justice. One more old-timer looking better than it woulda in anybody else's hands :xyxthumbs
MarcHarris
New member
save of the year? quite possibly!!!!
the turn around is so dramatic... to someone who didn't know about the type of work individuals like you do: they would think it was photoshopped for sure. People always love seeing the exotics and garage queens: but threads like this are my personal favorites. Taking a beat-to-death car and making it look new again. Not only did the paint look FUBAR, but the wheels looked beyond savable as well. Truly a skilled and dedicated work of art. I only wish I could see this beauty in person. No way the pics do justice to how bad it was, nor to how great it looks now. Good to see fellow grunts doing good work!
-Marc
the turn around is so dramatic... to someone who didn't know about the type of work individuals like you do: they would think it was photoshopped for sure. People always love seeing the exotics and garage queens: but threads like this are my personal favorites. Taking a beat-to-death car and making it look new again. Not only did the paint look FUBAR, but the wheels looked beyond savable as well. Truly a skilled and dedicated work of art. I only wish I could see this beauty in person. No way the pics do justice to how bad it was, nor to how great it looks now. Good to see fellow grunts doing good work!
-Marc
Apollo_Auto
New member
MuttGrunt said:
This one's definitely got my vote for "Turn Around of the Year"! I just had to look at this one again
...dmw2692004
New member
thats just an amazing turn around! Completely amazing.
OCDinPDX
Paint Ph.D
I nominate for turn around of the year as well.
corrswitch
New member
Wow, excellent work.
Forget turnaround of the year, can this go into the Guinness Book of records?
Forget turnaround of the year, can this go into the Guinness Book of records?