O.C.Detailing/Hill City Auto Detail - 1998 Mercedes SLK-230

[O.C.Detailing]

Okay, so this customer was a pleasant woman I met while working on the 1987 Mercedes SDL 300 I posted a while back. She is the admin assistant to an attorney here in Lynchburg, VA. (who's headlights needed about 3 hours worth of work to make them clear again on his Mercedes SUV). She pulled into the parking lot of MB Euro Service and I noticed how swirled her paint was. I gave her my car and told her I could fix her paint and a few weeks later, I received a call to fix the headlights on the previously mentioned Mercedes SUV and she walked out to ask when I could do her car. I scheduled her for today (AWESOME DAY!), and John and I went to town.

The customer requested I stay within a certain budget, which meant John and I would focus more on the exterior than on the interior, though we did do some light interior work, though I forgot to take after pictures of the interior...to sum up the work done on the interior, we wiped down pretty much every surface with a diluted 4:1 Meg's APC, used a brush to fluff and vaccuum the carpets and seats and cleaned the windows. No dressing was used, though I wish we could have added it within the budget. The carpet and floormats looked new when we were done. Wish I'd remembered to take pictures for you all. Sorry. Anyway, ON WITH THE PROCESS AND PICS!!!

PROCESS:

- Washed via ONR (this will be the norm for us from now on!) and dried with an absorber.
- No claying was necessary, though we thought about doing it, we had a bit of a time constraint to meet today as John had to leave at a certain time to be able to pick up his kids after school today.
- Rubber and plastics dressed with Meg's Synthetic dressing (exterior only).
- Wheels were cleaned using a light degreaser/Meg's Gold Class Shampoo/Aluminum Brightener mixture and LOTS of warm/hot water and aggitated with several brushes. Had to go over them 3 times to get them to where they are in the after pictures.
- Correction was done with M105 on LC Orange 6.5" CCS pad using the new Griot's DA x2(AWESOME machine!) and M105 on LC hydro-tech Cyan pad using the Flex 3401 DA x2.
- We were satisfied with the correction and surface of the paint and decided that since there did not appear to be any marring left (though the pad/product combo was pretty aggressive), we decided to top it off with an LSP of Poorboy's EX-P.
- Windows were cleaned with Stoner's Invisible Glass.
- I also had to do a light correction on the headlights to make them clear again as they were starting to scab up and yellow a bit. I went at them with a quick hit of 1000 grit 3m wetordry paper, then 2500 grit, a bit of M105 on an orange pad, followed by Meg's PlastX and a top coat of Poorboy's EX-P for a bit more protection. There were nice and clear after that with no scabbies, so for a quick, free headlight correction, it was awesome.

So now for the pics!!!

BEFORES:

So yeah...this car was SERIOUSLY swirled.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3143.jpg

Somehow...this was about the ONLY bug splattered on the whole car, we were both amazed.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3144.jpg

Few more hood shots.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3145.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3146.jpg

See? No bug guts anywhere to be seen...strange.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3147.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3148.jpg

The trunklid and roof had some deeper scratches we couldn't get out and with both of us in "alternate" vehicles today and not having access to our entire arsenal of pads and product, we decided to let a few RIDs pass in the afters.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3149.jpg

Notice how dark and murky the wheels look and how dead the overall appearance of the paint is in this picture.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3150.jpg

There's just nothing in this pic that gives me warm fuzzies...it was like looking at a piece of chalk.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3151.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3152.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3153.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3154.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3160.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3164.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3165.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3166.jpg

Look how BLACK the drums are...such a pain to clean, but they came out looking VERY nice in the end.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3167.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3170.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3171.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3173.jpg

Here are a couple of 50/50 shots of the level of correction we were getting with just 1 pass of M105 on the LC Hydro-tech Cyan pad and Flex 3401 DA.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3174.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3175.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3176.jpg

[O.C.Detailing]

And NOW THE AFTERS!!!! Forgive me for not posting the interior befores, as not having afters just irritates me and I don't think posting them would really net any benefits. Just know that the interior wasn't FULLY detailed, but that it was well-gone-over and cleaned decently and within budget.

Here's that same hood after 2 passes of M105 on our machines.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3177.jpg

Trunklid.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3178.jpg

check them wheels yo!
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3179.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3180.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3181.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3182.jpg

Now THAT'S got some life in it!!! Nothing dead about the paint there.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3183.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3184.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3185.jpg

It's like...blindingly white now, and trust me, this car was HARD on the eyes to work on in direct sunlight all day.
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3186.jpg

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3187.jpg

And that's it all. Sorry for not getting a ton of afters, but we had to pack up and get John out of there so he could drop me off and go get his chir'ins. Thanks so much for looking and your feedback is GREATLY appreciated! :D

Adam (Adrock2003) and John (VR8).

[Impressions]

great job......looks awesome.
I'm sure your customer was very happy.
I know what you mean about some of these white paints, it's hard enuf to look at them for a minute but look at them for hours on end and you go home looking at spots

[Pie]

I love these before and afters, great job!

[VR8]

Did he say "check them wheels yo!" ... ??

:)

[O.C.Detailing]

Word dawg! You know how I be rollin' yo. Flossin' benjamins in da pockets and rollin' on dubs fo' mah peeps mang. LAWL

Okay, enough, but yes, i did go there. ;) Thanks so much Impressions and Pie for your kind words. We try really hard and it's starting to get better. Can't wait until we own the entire Central Virginia region. :D

[Matt]

Word dawg! You know how I be rollin' yo. Flossin' benjamins in da pockets and rollin' on dubs fo' mah peeps mang. LAWL



HAHAHA Brilliant!

Those wheels are a real turn around!

BUT! I really LOVE the hood shot below. Those curves look very sexy now. Have fun shampooing those curves ;)
VERY NICE!
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk116/adrock2003/1998%20Mercedes%20SLK%20230/DSCF3177.jpg

[O.C.Detailing]

haha Thanks Matt. John's full of sarcasm, it's a good thing I am too. I agree with you on the hood shot. It's my favorite photo and the wheel shot is a close second for me. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.