Nissan GTR, Mercedes E350 coupe

[Scottwax]

2010 Mercedes. The owner lives down the street from my Saturday morning regular customer and stopped by last week to show me her new E350 Coupe she got the day before. I immediately noticed the rotary holograms on the front fender and upon further inspection, found more holograms near the rear license plate. She requested I fit her car in as soon as possible to remove the swirls.



As expected, the car needed quite a bit of claying, so I used Optimum Opti-Clay as I washed the car with ONR to get it ready for polishing.



Before

I've found that the PPG Ceramiclear paint that Mercedes uses is very consistant and so far, never surprises. Meguiars #205 via rotary removes minor to moderate holograms without leaving behind swirls of its own. I went over the fender with #205 using my Dewalt 849 rotary with a Meguiars yellow polishing pad at 1400-1600 rpms, finishing with light pressure at 1000 rpms.



I did get that one spot you see in the first after shot, just forgot to take another picture.

Before

After using the same process as the fender

I then went over the whole car with #205 and the same pad, but with my Meguiars G110. The rest of the paint was really good, no sense polishing any harder than needed. I then waxed with Clearkote's Carnauba Moose.

 

[bigjizzles]

nice work on the mercedez!



where is the gtr?

 

[Scottwax]

2009 Nissan GTR, aka Godzilla. First one in Dallas, according to the owner. April 08 build date, so it is defintely an early GTR.



Before, but after ONR and Opti-Clay:

I started with Meguiars #205 and a yellow Meguiars polishing pad with my Dewalt rotary but as expected, the typically hard Nissan paint laughed at #205. Bumped up to #105, also using a yellow Meguiars polishing pad at 1000-1200 rpms. Some areas needed 2-3 polishing sessions-the hood and C-pillars were especially tough.



This is after #105 only, you can see some light holograms in the 2nd picture.

I then followed with #205/yellow at 1200-1600 rpms, finishing under light pressure at 1000 rpms.

This is the car after doing the hood and passenger side with the above steps:

I then turned the car around so the driver's side was in the sun. I decided to try something different to see how the KB method compares to the rotary on the same car, so as to have a direct comparison.



Trunk lid before:

KB method using my G110, Meguiars burgandy cutting pad well primed with Meguiars #105. Took 2 polishing sessions to cut the swirls out. You can see some light hazing in the paint.

I then followed with #205 using my rotary, same speeds/pad as I used on the passenger side:

Overall, the results were pretty similar in terms of cut. KB method was a slight time saver because after going over a section with the G110, I could just pick up my rotary and buzz out the light hazing. Going all rotary, I have to change and recenter the pads each section. The KB method was also a bit easier on the curvier sections of the car where the shape of the car wants to pull the rotary around a bit.



After #105/rotary (passenger side) and #105/KB method (driver's side) and #205/rotary the whole car, I then switched to a black waffle finishing pad (American Buffing makes it, not sure who they sell it through) and went over the whole car again with #205 at 1000 rpms.

I then followed with 3M Ultrafina using a blue Ultrafina pad at 1000-1800-1000 rpms. I knew by the time I finished this step I'd be in the shadow of the house, so that's why the pictures after the 2nd #205 step.



I finished the car off with Carnauba Moose.

Engine was pretty clean, just wiped it down along with the engine bay.

I cleaned the interior the week before. Good thing I did, I would never have finished the car today if I hadn't. Helpful hint: If you have a GTR to detail that has anything more than light to moderate swirls, plan two full days to detail the car.



Anyway, I used Woolite/water at a 20:1 dilution on the vinyl and leather and a 32:1 dilution of BioKleen's Traffic Lane Cleaner on the carpets and cloth portions of the seats. Vinyl dressed with Optimum Protectant Plus, leather with Leather Master's Leather Vital. I did have to vacuum the car since it had been driven since I was out last week.

 

[vtec92civic]

damn sickness! Business is good. Need a employee? LoL

 

[vtec92civic]

i swear didnt you just do a GTR not to long ago? Thing looks great and must be real fun to work on.

 

[Scottwax]

i swear didnt you just do a GTR not to long ago? Thing looks great and must be real fun to work on.

I had only done the inside last week, finished it this week. That's when I got this ride...



[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dYTbGQe-qE]YouTube - Nissan GTR launch to around 100 mph[/ame]

 

[Pats300zx]

Beautiful work Scott. That GTR came out amazing. :wow:

 

[Möller]

Great work, looks really good!

 

[imported_Jayhawker]

Did the owner of the GT-R say what was faster? The Supra in the garage or GT-R?

Very nice work.

 

[dickwitham]

Great work on a beautiful set of cars!



I'm beginning to like the GTR's more and more each time I see them...probably because each one I see is on this forum and they are always flawless, haha.

 

[evolutionwc3]

Great work as usual Scott. That GTR looks unbelievable!

-Brent

 

[Legacy]

Super job Scott. I know you use Clearkote Carnauba Moose a lot. Do you ever top it, or is it not necessary? On using 105 with a rotary, how much 105 do you use on a panel? You don't butter the whole pad, do you? One last question. I'm a little afraid of going up to 1800 using Ultrafina on a blue Ultrafina pad. Will I get a better finish then using lets say 1400 rpm's. Thanks Scott.

 

[Leadfootluke]

Wow, that looks great!



If the paint is so [hard] and takes a while to correct, would that in turn suggest it would be harder to induce swirls in the paint?

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Wow on both cars Scott!!!!! :bow :bow :bow

 

[Scottwax]

Super job Scott. I know you use Clearkote Carnauba Moose a lot. Do you ever top it, or is it not necessary? On using 105 with a rotary, how much 105 do you use on a panel? You don't butter the whole pad, do you? One last question. I'm a little afraid of going up to 1800 using Ultrafina on a blue Ultrafina pad. Will I get a better finish then using lets say 1400 rpm's. Thanks Scott.

I almost never top or use more than 1 LSP. Polishing is where the real payoff is. Plus CMW looks really good and is pretty durable for a carnauba.



Once the pad is primed, 3-4 pea sized dots of #105 is all you need.



3M makes the 1800-2000 rpm recommendation and they know their products better than I do. Honestly, working UF at 1800 rpms feels very smooth.



Leadfootluke-improper wash technique or medium can quickly damage paint. Not to mention this car was 18 months old and hadn't been detailed before. Probably just cumulative damage over that time.

 

[fergnation]

Both cars look awesome Scott. Red is by far the best looking color on the GTR. I have a black one owned by an IRL driver scheduled soon and it is a disaster.



But The benz looks great. The clear on those cars are tuff and you handled it like a champ.

 

[Scottwax]

But The benz looks great. The clear on those cars are tuff and you handled it like a champ.

What is weird is the paint is reasonably easy to correct, nothing like a C5 Corvette or Audi/VW paint. I do believe that PPG did work with companies like Menzerna and Meguiars to make sure that their paint was polish-able.

 

[Nikku]

Scott very nice ! I see a supra and P-car hiding in the garage of the GTR

 

[Legacy]

I almost never top or use more than 1 LSP. Polishing is where the real payoff is. Plus CMW looks really good and is pretty durable for a carnauba.



Once the pad is primed, 3-4 pea sized dots of #105 is all you need.



3M makes the 1800-2000 rpm recommendation and they know their products better than I do. Honestly, working UF at 1800 rpms feels very smooth.



Leadfootluke-improper wash technique or medium can quickly damage paint. Not to mention this car was 18 months old and hadn't been detailed before. Probably just cumulative damage over that time.

Scott, back to the 105 on a rotary. Do you prime like with a DA (KBM) or just a line or two and then 3-4 pea sized dots after that for the next section? Btw I forgot that Ultrafina recommended 1800-2000. I'll try 1800 next time. Thanks

 

[Scottwax]

Scott very nice ! I see a supra and P-car hiding in the garage of the GTR

There is also a '93 Skyline in there, posted that one a few weeks ago. Also posted the Supra and 911. Spent 4 straight Wednesdays at his house. Should be doing the Countach he picked up in a few weeks.



Legacy99-I don't overprime the pad with the rotary the way you do for the KB method.