Mercedes SL500, C6 Corvette, my car, why you should focus on prep, not LSP

S

Scottwax

New member
Gonna be a lot of pics, 56k people, I may I suggest reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged whilst you wait?



2004 Mercedes SL500, detailed about a year ago using AIO/EX-P. His brother was my contact, lost my number. Found it last week and called to set up the SL. I also have an M3, C Class and an LX470 to do for the family in the next couple of weeks.



The paint was pretty light on swirls but heavy on cooking grease. Yes, cooking grease. :soscared: Seems they do a lot of frying and to avoid setting off the smoke detectors in their house, they have fryers set up in their garage, right next to the SL! Anyone who has worked fast food and cleaned the fryer screens knows exactly how nasty and thick that stuff is. Washing and claying had a minimal effect, other than to turn both black and sticky. My Menzerna/RMG mix was taking too long so I kicked it up to Optimum Compound and a white LC polishing pad.



I believe you can see how hazy the left side of the hood looks compared to the right, which was hit with OC:



2004_Mercedes_SL500_hood_before.jpg




You may be able to see the line where I stopped polishing a little better in this shot:



2004_Mercedes_SL500_hood_before2.jpg




I went over the whole car including the glass (because even a razor blade wouldn't get it all!) with OC and the white LC pad and then followed with 106/RMG mix with another white LC polishing pad.



These next 3 shots are just the two polishing steps, no LSP at all. Honestly, if 106/RMG protected the paint, I could have stopped here.



2004_Mercedes_SL500_hood_OC_106RMG.jpg




2004_Mercedes_SL500_front_OC_106RMG.jpg




2004_Mercedes_SL500_backendt_OC_106RMG.jpg
 
Of course, protection is part of detailing, so I applied Jeff Werkstatt's Prime with a blue Propel finishing pad and Acrylic Jett Trigger x 2 by hand.



2004_Mercedes_SL500_backendt.jpg




2004_Mercedes_SL500_front1.jpg




2004_Mercedes_SL500_rear1.jpg




2004_Mercedes_SL500_frontend1.jpg




2004_Mercedes_SL500_rear2.jpg




2004_Mercedes_SL500_side1.jpg




Interior cleaned with Woolite/water, vinyl dressed with Meguiar Interior Quick Detailer, leather with Turtle Wax Leather Conditioner. One weird stain on the passenger side mat wouldn't come out completely, but the stain that was completely black did. Go figure.



2004_Mercedes_SL500_interior1.jpg




2004_Mercedes_SL500_interior2.jpg
 
2006 Chevy Corvette. New car, lives across the street from my brother. First time he's paid anyone to detail any of his cars....he now wants me to detail his black Prowler and white 1974 Corvette. :)



He is a doctor and the hospital he works at runs the sprinklers at 10 am and 3 pm a few times a week and after just one week, his hood and trunk lid were caked in hard water stains. The sides washed off okay but the top half of the car required Optimum Compound with a white LC polishing pad and several very slow passes under very heavy pressure to remove. I then polished the car out with 106/RMG and a white LC pad. Sealed with Prime using a blue Propel pad and Acrylic Jett by hand. Even in the full sun, it looked very wet and glossy!



2006_Chevy_Corvette_backend1.jpg




2006_Chevy_Corvette_backend2.jpg




2006_Chevy_Corvette_front1.jpg




2006_Chevy_Corvette_frontend1.jpg




2006_Chevy_Corvette_rear1.jpg




2006_Chevy_Corvette_rear2.jpg




2006_Chevy_Corvette_side1.jpg
 
My 1999 Mazda 626 ES-V6. Rough winter/early spring. My car would go 3-4 weeks at times without any washing. Of course, my customers always feel the need to touch my car and see if it is slick and rub dirt into the paint. Hood and trunk took a beating. Went over them with Optimum Hyper Compound using a green Propel lite cut pad. This is about as aggressive as I can get on my car's soft paint without having to spend a lot of time taking out marring. I then went over the whole car with Optimum Compound using a white LC polishing pad and then 106/RMG with a white LC pad.



Again, this illustrates that the majority of your shine comes from the prep, just the above polishing steps in these two pics:



my_626_hood.jpg




my_626_trunklid.jpg




I finished with Clearkote's Carnauba Moose with a white Meguiars finishing pad. Too dark to get good pics, rained the next day. My car was reasonably clean the next and the cloud reflections looked really good. Wheels didn't look that great, so no whole car shots.



my_626_frontend.jpg




After the above C6, I gave my car an Optimum No Rinse wash and a coat of Pinnacle Souveran.



I used my sister-in-law's (Olympus, I think) 4 megapixel camera for these shots. Flash shows no swirls.... :)



my_626_CMW_Souveran_door.jpg




my_626_CMW_Souveran_front2.jpg




my_626_CMW_Souveran_frontend3.jpg




my_626_CMW_Souveran_side.jpg
 
Scott,



Your work on silver makes it look like Molten Silver Wetness! :bow :bow :bow



Frying grease! Who would have thought?! Keep up the Awsome work Scott!!



Cheers,
 
Scott you have some truely amazing details. The reflection on your car is simply amazing, and the silver's cleaned up REAL nicely. Did you use the rotary on your car?



Awesome details :xyxthumbs
 
evenflow said:
Scott you have some truely amazing details. The reflection on your car is simply amazing, and the silver's cleaned up REAL nicely. Did you use the rotary on your car?



Awesome details :xyxthumbs
Click to expand...





Thanks and to Andrew too!



I currently only use a PC. I do many more Audis though.... :buffing:
 
Mmm, very nice.

I have to say I prefer the digicam shots, which don't have that yellow-ish hue which is pretty much the trademark of all your pics.
 
Looks awesome. :)



I noticed you've been using 106 a lot lately. WOuld you say it is worth the price for the finishing ability? It sounds (and looks) like it leaves a real wet finish, but how is it at correcting micromarring?
 
SVECobraR said:
wow those rims on the sl must have been a pita.
Click to expand...



My thought exactly :eek: Must take an hour just to clean them properly, and I don't wanna think about polishing or waxing. Great job Scott, like always :)
 
For grease, oil and frying pans I have a perfect somution.

If you want Scott, I can mail you the Safety Data Sheet so that you can search for a similar product in the States. Here it is called "Vitrosol", "MC2", or "Orange Power".

Soapy fluid, minimal foaming, smells like... you guess... orange.

It has a serious degreasing power, frying pans like McDonlds deep fryers are cleanid with it.

It has to be diluted (so a gallon makes up to 20 gallons), costs about 35$/gallon here.

I use it on lower sides of the car, also for removing tar spots/streaks.

If you use it 1/1 then it can almost dissolve a pool of black engine oil on the garage floor.... !!!!
 
Scott - the car seems to be over-exposed from a photographic standpoint. Is that a technique you use to put it in proper perspective or am I just imagining it? Thanks.
 
Wow that SL it's hot. Yah, how do you clean those rims? with a chop stick?? :shocked

Excellent work like usual :bow
 
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