Mercedes E350 special paint?

[octane]

last night I get a call from a friend of a friend that imports cars to resell...

he want's me to do a light correction on a black 2010 Mercedes E350 coupe and he tells me that it has a special type of paint... special has in ceramic clear coat?

never did any correction on something so high end, and the guy, if satisfied would be sending at least one highend car my way per month, so I want to impress him!

guess I'll be able to try out my new PF2500 and SF4500...

[MikeN]

Sounds like a great opportunity! Congratulations and good luck!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using AG Online

[Mike Phillips]

I find Ceramiclear paints to buff very easy. I see others post comments about how hard they are but that's not my experience.

The most important thing about a Ceramiclear paint is to avoid breaking, (buffing), through the top portion which is fumed silica. The reason why is the underlying portion of the resin will be softer and can be more difficult to polish to perfection.

The tale-tale signs to look out for...


1: Dealership asks you to fix paint job because their guys can't do it. This is a bad sign and a red flag should go up in your mind.

2: Upon inspection, you find a lot of compound and polish splatter on the trim and in the cracks, crevices and nooks and crannies. Again, this is an indicator someone else, and possibly multiple people have worked on this car before you and it's possible if they are not wise to the proper techniques for buffing, then they have broken through the top fumed silica layer of the paint job.


Besides that, follow the sage advice of,

Take the least aggressive approach to get the job done.
Start by doing a Test Spot - Make sure your process can make one small section look GREAT before buffing out the entire car.


And read my article here... don't scan it... read it...


Ceramiclear Paints - Be Careful (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/hot-topics-frequently-asked-questions/47152-ceramiclear-paints-careful.html)



:)

[octane]

Thanks Mike, car is supposed to only have light swirls marks, so I won't worry too much then!

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks Mike, car is supposed to only have light swirls marks, so I won't worry too much then!



Perfect.


Keep us updated as to how it turns out...


:)

[octane]

took me 10 hours of work... once I washed the car it was evident it had some glaze to hide the swirls!

started with PF2500 on a test spot, but didn't do anything the paint was rock hard! so I took out some FG400, worked great, it was 95% correction and was almost LSP ready! still did a couple of passes with PF2500, so the finish was perfect! a coat of Cquartz and the client was amazed, his wife was even more impressed! so now she's bugging him to get her car done! he said I'll see him soon with his other cars!

I don't know what's best, the gratitude from these people or the paycheck...

thanks for the help guys! pics to come!

[octane]

couple of pics, still trying to get the handle on taking good swirl pictures with only two hands...

pic 1 and 2 : before
pic 3 and 4 50/50 shots
the rest, after pics

[sproketser]

Great job on that Merc buddy !

[octane]

Great job on that Merc buddy !
Merci!Im the MAN

[Mike Phillips]

his wife was even more impressed! so now she's bugging him to get her car done!

he said I'll see him soon with his other cars!



Yeah buddy!






I don't know what's best, the gratitude from these people or the paycheck...




Both are rewarding!


Thanks for the update...



:dblthumb2:

[kdubski]

Looks amazing! What machine did you use for the polishing? I have a similar job coming up and I'm nervous to find out if my PC has enough balls for the job!

[spiralout462]

Looks amazing! What machine did you use for the polishing? I have a similar job coming up and I'm nervous to find out if my PC has enough balls for the job!

The PC will definitely get the job done nicely. It's the time it takes that seperates one machine from the next.

[octane]

I used the flex 3401