MB E500 Estate - MPD

**christian900se** · 03-06-2010, 01:09 AM

Today, I detailed a very nice Mercedes E500 both inside and out. It belongs to a very successful interior designer/decorator who uses the car every day to travel around. The car seemed to be fairly well cared for but as soon as I started tackling the exterior, it was clear that the car was heavily contaminated with fallout and had no protection whatsoever. I went through 2 bars of riccardo clay (probably could have gotten away with 1 1/2) but the improvement in gloss and smoothness was well worth the effort.

I hit it with XMT360 AIO which did a fantastic job of further cleaning the paint while giving some minor correction. I then glazed and waxed it whilst attending to the remaining trim, tires, and interior intricacies.

Products and Process:

-Pre-soak with ONR at QD strength
-Wash with DP Rinseless W+G
-Wheels done with CG Diablo (good stuff!) and the tires+wells with OPC 3:1
-Clayed with Riccardo and ONR QD
-Rinsed and dried
-XMT360 and a white CCS pad via PC
-CG EZ Creme Glaze
-Collinite 845
-Glass cleaned with AG Fast Glass
-Interior vacuumed with my new Shop Vac
-Plastics and leather cleaned with OPC 5:1
-All plastics and leather treated to 303 Protectant
-CG stripper scent applied
-Final wipedown with DG Aquawax

On with the pictures- The car looked a bit tired, and the wheels were really in a bad way.

My new Raceglaze XL wheel brush.

A reference for the size of it against 17" wheels

**christian900se** · 03-06-2010, 01:10 AM

Now, for the afters:

German Engineering:

All in all, it was a rewarding detail and I was especially happy with the way the interior finished. The wheels had some heavy staining that I could not remove for the life of me (clay, XMT360 tried) but they look much better. I also tried to limit the number of photos I took so you guys aren't constantly bombarded by so many. Thanks for reading!

Total time invested: 5 hours.
MPD = Martell Professional Detailing

**pushtiulk** · 03-06-2010, 06:09 AM

great job

**JohnHenry** · 03-06-2010, 08:09 AM

Nice work!

You might want to try some P21S Polishing Soap on the wheel stains. I've had a lot of luck with this product.

**Matt S.** · 03-06-2010, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by JohnHenry

Nice work!

You might want to try some P21S Polishing Soap on the wheel stains. I've had a lot of luck with this product.

Not recommended for painted surfaces. It works awesome on bare metals, but will scratch paint badly.

Great job on the Benz!

**jjkacz** · 03-06-2010, 11:21 AM

Looks Great - Nice work!

**christian900se** · 03-06-2010, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by pushtiulk

great job

Thanks!

Originally Posted by JohnHenry

Nice work!

You might want to try some P21S Polishing Soap on the wheel stains. I've had a lot of luck with this product.

I tried again with a polishing pad and XMT360 and the marks wouldn't budge. I would be willing to bet that those stains are from acidic cleaners since the stains look like 'runs' and a lot of the wheel looks cloudy and white.

Originally Posted by matt@autogeek.net

Not recommended for painted surfaces. It works awesome on bare metals, but will scratch paint badly.

Great job on the Benz!

Thanks for the comment Matt! The wheels are the only part letting my detail down, but there isn't much I can do about them unfortunately.

Originally Posted by jjkacz

Looks Great - Nice work!

Thank you for the kind words, they are much appreciated!

**WRAPT C5Z06** · 03-06-2010, 12:53 PM

Excellent job!

**christian900se** · 03-06-2010, 05:36 PM

Muchos gracias! I redid alot of my detailing arsenal with the intent to make my work faster and easier while producing the same result and it helped a lot with this detail.