Benz Black CLS550

[Jaretr1]

Hello,
This was my first paint correction on a car not in my direct family. This car belongs to my best friend. When I recently saw it, I saw all the swirls and told him it looked horrible and I can make it look better. We made a deal, he buys the products, helps me with some labor (which he is not used to), and I do the work and keep the products. For this car, I bought the Pinnacle twins, Souveran (the real gift in this deal), Collinite 845, Pinnacle Poly Clay and Clay Lube, and a few microfiber towels. I also brought along my megs 105/205 and M21 just in case.

Once I got to his house and took a really good look at the car, I realized what I had gotten myself into. This car was maintained by a swirlomatic auto car wash. It was horrendous! Part of the deal was he would assist me. I would use the machine, he would wipe off residue. That allowed me to at least get the car done in about 8 hours. It would have taken twice as long otherwise. This car really needed about 16 hours worth of paint correction alone, but seeing as I am not a pro, and our schedules were limited, we did what we could.

I gave him the poly clay while I tried the XMT Speed Clay. The Speed clay definitely is more aggressive. We completed the claying. I then taped up the trim. I taped off an area of the hood and started with Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover. This would have been fine for hood, roof and trunk, but not the sides. While it wipes off 10 times easier than 105, it wasnt going to cut it (litterally). Since I wasnt wiping off anyway, I had to go to 105. Maybe it is me, but I kinda like 105 because it tells you when its been worked through by beginning to dust. ASR didnt do that as much. Needless to say, I probably obtained about a 80% correction on the roof, hood and trunk, but only 60-70% on the side panels, they were just horrendous. They needed a few passes, or a rotary or something, which I had neither the time or that skill or tool. I did notice that the 105 was leaving some micromarring (first time I had ever noticed that using it). No problem, Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish took care of that. I would say the Advanced Finishing Polish worked as good and equally easily as 205 so I left the 205 alone.

After the polishing, I applied a coat of 845. Yes, less is more. This is a little finicky, and where I applied it to thick, it left a little streaking that required extra buffing to remove. I did the entire car and let it dry for about 30-45 minutes. It came off for the most part without an issue. After that, I applied a coat of Souveran. Even my friend who knows nothing about this stuff commented on how good it smelled and how easy it was to wipe off. He followed me around the car wiping the sections off after I applied it.

With a little extra time I took some 10-1 Megs APC and we cleaned his tan leather seats and fabric trim around the door sills. It got everything much cleaner if not perfect. However, that was probably the first time any attention had ever been paid to the interior.

These pictures were all taken on my phone, so the quality is reflected.



Amazed how clear this picture shows the swirls. This was a before and after on the drivers door. As you can see, the after still shows there was more work to be done. But this was all the time I had available to do.



finished:






The car looked much much better when I finished than when we started, although it was far from perfect. Hopefully he will stay away from the automatic car washes for a while.

Jaret

[alko]

nice job on the car!