Smart Car Polishing

[SpoiledMan]

Experience will be teaching me pretty soon.

[Mark Cummins]

The first Smarts were produced in 1998 as Swatch before Mercedes bought them out

[FUNX650]

The first Smarts were produced in 1998 as Swatch before Mercedes bought them out

s....Swatch
m...Mercedes
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t....art


Seems to me the processes of powder-coating plastics was already in full practice well in advance of the introduction of smart cars, then.

Perhaps Mr. Hayek considered, and may have been a driving force, of having this "plastics powder-coating process" implemented for his "swatch-car", if indeed it ever was, that is.




Bob

[SpoiledMan]

Talk about a car with a lot of different materials. It seems that there is molded plastic for the colored panels, the metal "cage" seems to be the powder coated part and then there the raw polish able plastic. Don't let me forget the see through roof! Takes a couple different processes to make it all look it's best. I'll work on the write up this weekend.

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Welcome to the club...........

[SpoiledMan]

I had some nasty water spotting to deal with too.

That looks great Joe! Mine was yellow/black.

[SameGuy]

I remember when the first Smart Cars were imported over to the USA a couple of my friends in SoCal had them brought them to my classes...

Here's a class from 2005, just over 7 years ago.

I read through the above thread and we were using light diminishing abrasive polishes on the paint with good luck.

I also sent an e-mail to my friend Mark Cummins to see if he could chime in...

Mine is five years old -- a 2006 cabrio cdi in "phat red." Note that nomenclature of all smart models and options are lower-case-only, and that the is no such thing as a "Smart Car" -- the brand is "smart," the model is "passion" (or whatever). Calling it a "Smart Car" is like appending "Car" to any other make. Would you say, "I detailed a Ferrari Car yesterday"?



Nitpicking aside, before the US-spec 2008 model, all smarts (including the gray-market import G&K models in the States) with non-metallic colors used dyed-through plastic panels with a clear coat on top. The metallics use a color coat below the clear like any other car. The silver or black "roll bar" areas are cleared, powder-coated steel.

These cars take to polishes just like any other clear coat system, though the clear may be fairly thin in spots. Also, the plastic panels are very flexible, so there are issues of dragging the pads, overheating and edge-marring, and because the plastic doesn't disperse the heat as easily as a metal panel, it's wise to use less pressure and a bit more arm speed.

This was how it looked, fresh from the dealership, in 2007. I had told them not to gussy the tires. I'm still finding sling from that. It looks a bit different now, too -- most of the black trim and accents are color-coded to match either the silver or red panels.

[SameGuy]

The first Smarts were produced in 1998 as Swatch before Mercedes bought them out

Hi Mark, nice to see you here. Note that swatch was never involved in the production smart; Daimler was the majority stakeholder in MCC since 1993, and the design of the original smart prototypes (which show the clear lineage of the fortwo coupe and cabrio) was done by Mercedes in California. SMH (swatch) had no input on these designs, nor on the final production models, and SMH CEO Nick Hayek's engineering company never turned out a working hybrid drive train for it, leaving SMH with zero actual involvement in the car. By the time the factory in France was ready to start running, Daimler owned over 80% of the JV's equity, and finally bought out SMH's tiny share in MCC smart GmbH just as the first sales of the cars started in Europe.

[Blackthorn One]

Where does the claim, by smart USA, that the body panels are "painted" by a powder coating process come into play? Would that make a difference in deciding what tools/products/processes needed for "detailing" a smart?

Thanks for any info you may have in regards to the above questions.



Bob

If the car is really powder coated, then you should not polish it. I had some parts powder coated for me when I was restoring my car back in 95. The guy who owned the shop that did the work said that the reason is that all of the gloss in powder coating is on the outer layer, like some enamel paints, and that if you polish it down, you will lose the gloss. He said to not touch the powder coating, just wash gently with soap and water.

Powder coating was originally invented for aircraft landing gear, because no paint would withstand the rock chipping that would be caused. It is super tough and resilient, but it wasn't designed for show cars really. I've seen it used to coat springs, though, and it looks phenomenal on them, like porcelain when done right.
The less you rub on powder coating the better.

[SpoiledMan]

Unfortunately, not touching it would've left the car looking awful. It's outside 24/7 and it's 3 years old. Wash techniques obviously haven't been good. The only powder coated part I found was the steel cage the kind of looks like a "C" starting from the A pillar.