Boy was I ever looking forward to doing this car. There is nothing as elegant as a big, black S class! The other things that had me excited was that I had ordered in CarPro Reflect specifically for this car to try. The last great thing is that this car was going to be the first thing I shot with my new Nikon D7100. Unfortunately the job got delayed a few times, but the timing ended up working out well so I got to do all the things I just mentioned. Fate is funny that way, eh?!?

This job was going to be the best of what I offer for exterior. Wheels off, coated along with the calipers. I really wanted this finish to be perfect. It's a 2010 that he bought 2nd hand in Toronto, so some of the chips, etc came before his ownership. Let's see what was waiting:






























First up was the wheels. German brake dust plus barrels that hadn't been cleaned since brand new. Hmmm...time to get aggressive!

The barrels & faces were first done with Tarminator.
That was followed by Megs WB.
That was neutralized and further cleaned with Zep Citrus.
They were then cleaned one final time with a demoted wash mitt and DG 901.

The tires were cleaned twice for good measure with Zep 505.

The wells were cleaned with LATA.


Next up was the foaming stage to loosen the dirt and agitate crevices and emblems using a strong mix of DG 901.







Next came hand washing using DG 901. That was rinsed and then it got a final wash with IronX paste and a grout sponge. I got the car a day early so after all this it was brought inside and blown completely dry with the Master Blaster, including the wheels, wells and tires.

The following night I used the CarPro foam block to decontaminate the paint. Now it was time to inspect the paint closely to see what challenges lay ahead:































Obviously I was going to be spending a decent amount of time filling chips. (It equated to 1/2 a cigar I think). I was also trying some different settings on the D7100 during those shots too.


Now it was time to pull the wheels.



Each wheel was removed and I further perfected the barrels. Each barrel and face was cleaned with DG Squeaky Clean prior to coating. The barrels and faces got coated with Opti Guard. I even took a minute and cleaned the nuts with Colli Metal wax before re-installing them.

The front calipers got coated. The rears were in too rough shape to do so. The front wells, which are plastic, got coated with the DG beta trim coating. I have a new version to try and this version dries a little too quickly and looks a bit smeary. But, for this purpose, it is perfect as it will keep them cleaner longer and will make cleaning up easier too. Here is the work in progress: