Normally a comp exterior will take about 8 -10 hours, This one pushed 13 straight. I don't eat lunch, i don't stop. I nibble on nuts, drink 500 gallons of water.

S430 before. I should note that the battery was dead. So I did an ONR wash inside the garage. the car has less than 16k on it. Is hand washed once a week. Pre-ceramic clear coat. Dried with cotton terry and leather chamois. These shots were taken after wash before using the clay pad.

 

Claying was done with the clay pad, and ONR as a lube.

Side note, using the PDM i was able to find out that the edges were 1.5-2.0 mils less than the areas 1 inch or more away from the edge. Someone had buffed the flutart out of this at one point. For instance 1 inch in from the edge on the hood it was average 4.2-4.8 mils. on the edge it was 3.3 or less. Not much paint to work with. I also noticed it was the same on all the major curves and body lines/creases. Moral of the story. I had to be extremely careful i how i polished this. I ended up checking each panel along creases and curves as i went. Marking the low spots with a wet thumb print.

Pictures after claying and taping.

 

Afters. This is about 9:30pm I am spent. I have no during polishing pics. Once i found out what it was going to take to get rid of the marring i knew i would not have the time to take photos.

Process, Sip Yellow LC 1500, sip Green LC 1500, 106 FF White 1200 1z glanz I think about 10.5 hours of polishing or so...









So was it total defect removal. No. I would say 95%+ on each panel. I had issues with the edges. Those that i did not feel comfortable compounding fully, i polished. Usually i was able to do within 1/4-1/2 inch of even the thinnest edges. Why do i mention this. well it underscores how necessary it is for professionals to take the time to measure paint. Even though it had 16k on it, it had 100k paint thickness, even though it had only 16k it had 90k daily driver marring. An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of sweat. I would not want to pay for a respray on any of these panels.

 

Is the clear cermaic? It looks to be a newer MB, so it might be. If it is, ceramics read much thinner than conventional clears. However, even though the paint is thinner, it's harder and can be worked more. Every ceramic I've measered, whether a MB, Ferrari, Rolls Royce, etc. is in the low to mid 100s, sometimes it gets close to the upper 100s.

 

It's an 02 ceramic clear is 05 and newer. I checked the door panel to be sure. Every where but the edges was nice thick paint. I have done many many ceramic clear cars . This behaved like normal paint in every way. 4.2-4.8 mills, When it dipped below 3.5 i got a bit concerned and looked for evidence of previous buffing.

 

Wow, the 1z does make a big different. At first, the paint is poor fill with swirl marks and minor scratches. Now it's looks really good. What kind of clay did you use?

 

WOW, should have used the "Mike Method" 10hrs with the rotary, LOL, oh I just don't know what to say.....

Looks like it was a fun job!

 

nice work!!

 

LOL i hear you, I was almost going to bust out 1z IP, and yellow pad. I tried mens sip on yellow at 1000 and got no where. I tried it at 1500 and started working it out.

MSPM is always my preferred method you know that. FWIW several uk guys are claiming it as theres. I think we need to invade...

 

Grouse, What does it mean by mens sip, yellow, at 1000, 1500?

 

wow! great turnaround

 

Awesome job! This helps me tackle polishing my mothers car (06 MB S430...Jet black! Yikes!). When the car was dusty, she would take a dry towel and wipe the dust off. Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me. I don't have a rotory (Only a PC), so I'm going to wash, clay, Menzerna SIP W/orange LC, Menz 106FF w/white LC, alcohol wipedown, and not sure which LSP to use.

How does that sound? Also, which LSP would you guys recommend. Protection is important, but since it's Jet black..a quality LSP will look really nice.

 

Honestly raz, I would expect that to take 2 days. I would also not use sip or 106 with the PC. I do not think they fully break down with the PC. Where as IP and fpII do fully break down. I think you will find you need to do IP/yellow, IP/Green FPII/white.

I used 1z glanz wax on this s430. I think it turned out deep, wet and slick as snot.