A Steel Blue Mercedes-Benz C L K 3 2 0

S

stilez

New member
Good Afternoon,





Today I had the priveledge of working on this fine piece of german engineering. This CLK was in "good" shape on the interior and "poor" on the exterior. Allow me to elaborate.



The interior contained minimal stains and normally soiled leather seating. The doors had some scuffs and the wood was in rather nice shape. Overall, a pretty quick hour to clean it up.



-Zaino Z9 on leather, vinyl, plastic, rubber

-Oxi-Clean Mix + steam cleaner on mats, carpets

-Zaino Z26 to protect leather, vinyl, plastic, rubber

-Gliptone Glass Cleaner on glass, chrome, wood

-Zaino Z6 in jams



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The main event was a messy one. Where the exterior lacked in bonded contaminants, it made up in heavy and deep swirling, clearcoat checking/failure in many areas, heavy tar and sap deposits, many R.I.D.S, and just general filth. Unfortunately a couple areas couldn't be fixed, even with heavier solvents and wetsanding. My finals to correct and (almost) perfect were:





-Meguiar's Wheel Brightener cut 2:1 on wheels

-TOL Tire Cleaner cut 1:1 on tires/wheels/plastic trim



-Dawn Wash

-Zaino Z18 Clay with Dawn Wash as lube



-HTEC/OCP (50/50) via rotary and LC Cutting Pad @ 1900 rpm x 2

-OCP/RMG via rotary and LC Polishing Pad @ 1400 rpm

-Zaino Z6 wipedown



-Zaino Z2 Pro (ZFX/Z8'd) by hand on paint, glass, wheels, chrome

-Zaino Z8 by hand

-Zaino Z16 on tires/wells (2:1)/trim x 2





Checking/Failure/Dullness

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Before

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After

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Before

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wish the sun was brighter before compounding...these spiderwebs were deep and plentiful



After

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Note: A polarizing filter was used in all pictures. I was trying it out and wanted to see how it affected photographing automobiles. If my memory serves me right, the pictures (compared to in person) appear less reflective, but with more color depth. If you notice, there is almost no glare and you can see clearly through the glass.





Questions/Comments/Advice, please feel free.





Cheers!
 
:eek: The befores of the exterior and wheels!



Really excellent job pulling off an incredible make-over Sean. :up



Oh, and thanks for mentioning your use of Optimum/RMG, I have found that OC/RMG is a great mid grade polish that finishes down super wet. Wouldn't have thought to use that combo if I hadn't seen your posts about OP/RMG. :)
 
Great work Sean. Quick question on your mixing of products. Are you just mixing the OP/RMG or OC/RMG in a small bottle or just putting both together on the pad????
 
Scott: Welcome. I really like the combo...so much, that I have to reorder tonight :).



Pat: Two beads, on the panel, side by side. I don't think the product would 'mix' well.





The wheels weren't too bad. I soaked them for about 2 minutes with Wheel Brightener, then agitated with a bug scrubber. The marks you see on them were deep gouges and curb marks; one was even bent in the lip.







Thanks everyone!
 
I mixed OC/RMG and it blended nicely. Sort of a burnt orange color. :)



I am glad I have a local distributor who carries Optimum and some Clearkote (specifically, VM and RMG). Makes it easy to stay stocked.
 
A superb job Sean; nice results with the polarized filter too! It looks like either bad chrome on the lug nuts or strong wheel acid was used too much in the past. What year is the CLK if you don't mind me asking? You wouldn't think the clear would fail that soon would you?
 
RCBuddha said:
Sean, looks great, but do you have any un-polarized pics?
Click to expand...





Sure! Check out the differences:







Polarized

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Unpolarized

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Polarized

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Unpolarized

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Looking at them, I tend to like Unpolarized better for vehicle picture taking.
 
Ben Kenobi said:
A superb job Sean; nice results with the polarized filter too! It looks like either bad chrome on the lug nuts or strong wheel acid was used too much in the past. What year is the CLK if you don't mind me asking? You wouldn't think the clear would fail that soon would you?
Click to expand...





I think the CLK was a 1999 or 2000.





Acid isn't the word. The fact that the jams were heavily water spotted, dulled, stained, and oxidized led me to believe some really harsh chemicals have seen this vehicle.



Further, random spots of clear failing were abundant. The entire lower rocker section on the driver's side had clearcoat failing. The passenger side was completely repainted sometime in the past (lots of sanding tracers).



A rough life for this vehicle, no doubt, but now it resides in a garage. I think it's getting a second chance at life :spot .
 
nice work Sir "Mix A Lot" .. heh heh



I'm curious as what the finish looked like after a rotary pounding at 1900 with a cutting pad ????? holee !!!! why so high speed ? that's a lot of heat generated.. I assume due to the time issue ?
 
tumbler: More like, the swirls were really deep. I stepped in at 1500 and the finish was laughing at me. Just out of sure experimentation, I stepped it up to 1900 with new beads of product and I was off! It chopped it up really nicely.
 
I am the owner of the CLK, its a 1999. I have browsed these forums for a while and found Sean through this site. Although I would like to learn to detail, THIS was a job for a pro. Sean worked wonders on my car, I was in shock when I saw it in its finished state. He truly did an amazing job and used top quality products; the paint and interior look gorgeous. I can honestly say that this was the best money I have ever spent on my vehicle in terms of what a difference it made. I would highly recommend him to anyone and will definitely be using him for all my detailing needs.



BTW as you can see, the interior was in good shape. This is because the car only has 30k miles, the paint sure didn't look like it had only been through 30k though until Sean had worked his magic. The previous owner didn't garage it for the last 5 years. But I can assure you all that it is in a garaged home now :)



-Jimmy
 
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