Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

[wifpd4]

2006 Mercedes Benz SL500
27,000 miles


WASH
Super Soap - Gilmour Gun
Gold Class - bucket hand wash
Rinse and leaf blower dry

CLAY BAR
Professional Mild
Last Touch lubrication

CORRECTIVE WORK
Ultimate Compound
yellow pad (7" Meg + 4" Orange LC where needed)
speed 5
speed 3
Alcohol wipe down
UC again if needed
SwirlX
yellow pad (7" Meg + 4" White LC where needed)
speed 5
speed 3
Alcohol wipe down
SX again if needed
Ultimate Polish
yellow pad (7" Meg + hand applicator as needed)
speed 4
Alcohol wipe down
black pad (7" Meg + hand applicator as needed)
speed 2.5

FINISH WORK
Ultimate Wax
pads 4" LC black + hand applicator as needed
24 hours cure time
Ultimate Wax
pads 4" LC black + hand applicator

Miscellaneous
Interior Surfaces - Quik Interior Detailer
Carpet - APC+
Leather - cleaner and conditioner (Lexus brand)
Tires - Endurance Gel (2010)
Rims - Ultimate Wax (why not?)
Door Jambs - metal - Ultimate Wax, vinyl - Vinyl and Rubber Conditioner
Glass - Glass Concentrate
Exterior Plastic - Ultimate Protectant

This is the starting condition of the car. Pretty much mint condition, except....



Starting condition of the interior. Pretty much mint condition.
Leather was mildly dirty and cleaned easily.
Dash and door panel surfaces wiped with Quik Interior Detailer.
Glass cleaned with Glass Cleaner Concentrate



Typical defects - swirls



More defects - swirls



Swirls on pillar



Swirls on trunk lid



Swirls on fender



Clay bar - finish had very few bonded contaminants



Minor scratch and more swirls



Rock Chips - no repair possible by me



Scratch



Tape up prior to starting corrective work



The trunk lid was divided into three sections to create test spots. One area was treated with SwirlX, one left untouched and one test spot treated with Ultimate Compound. SwirlX did not perform enough correction. The section shown in this photo was cleaned with Ultimate Compound and most of the swirls were removed. So the decision, based on this test spot, was to use 2 passes of Ultimate Compound followed by two passes of SwirlX and then one pass of Ultimate Polish as a cleaner, then one pass of Ultimate Polish as a polish.



This poor photograph shows a 50/50 with upper section of the photo not having any corrective work and the lower section having one run of Ultimate Compound. Upper section and tape line with swirls and lower section with few swirls.



This is a defect in the clear coat. Quite possibly from pine tar or tree sap that has etched into the finish. With my limited skills and experience, I was unable to correct this defect. There were over 15 of these darn little devils at various locations in the finish.
I'm not familiar with pine tar or tree sap being so corrosive. No matter the cause, I couldn't fix it.



Scratch I was unable to remove. I tried Ultimate Compound with a 4" Orange LC pad and also by hand...no luck...not enough passion...
Did I mention I dislike MB front bumpers...



Using a Q-tip to apply rubber conditioner



This is the front grill logo. Notice the open lattice work in the back of the logo. I grabbed my little battery scrubber and pointy brush to work out the bugs.



Notice the bugs my little scrubber brush dug out of the lattice work.



I used the vinyl and rubber cleaner and conditioner on various locations. Window gaskets and door jamb trim were a couple of examples.



Here is the finished logo. Plastic chrome waxed with Ultimate Wax and the black lattice work coated with Vinyl and Rubber Conditioner.



Here is the assortment of microfiber towels and Meguiar's products used on the car. Missing from the photo is SwirlX. Each color of towel is used for a specific purpose. Brown wiping off Ultimate Compound, blue wiping off SwirlX, green for glass, yellow Supremes for wiping off Ultimate Polish and Ultimate Wipes, white towels and glove for Ultimate Wax wipe off. I find I place my left hand all over the car as my right hand performs final wax wipe off, therefore the glove for the left hand is to prevent swirl introduction.



Various pads used on the project. Meguiar's 7" black and yellow.
In the middle row and from the left, a white 4" LC, a black 4" LC and an Orange 4" LC.
The white and orange were washed with towels and acquired some color from the towels. The microfiber on a stick was used on the rims. The Meguiar's mitt is thicker than most mitts and holds more soap.



Reflections on the hood



Notice the cheapo lower grill on the SL500. MB you should be ashamed. I went after this with my tiny buffer and two different products.



Note the lower grill. On the far left I used Ultimate Protectant and on the far right I used Professional Vinyl and Rubber Protectant.



The remainder of the photos are project completion photos.
No sunshine photos:
1) Iowa has no sun,
2) Garage Queen does not go outside in the winter

































I was disappointed to be unable to call this a perfect job. I used alcohol wipe-downs in order to help identify defects I may not have corrected during initial passes. Yet after the final polish and again after wiping off wax, I found scratches I had missed. Some were most probably correctable had I not missed them.

Regarding the growing discussion of streaking with Ultimate Wax. I machine apply all products as much as possible. I use a 4" black LC pad to put on Ultimate Wax. It goes on smoothly, easily and thinly. I must admit for one second during the first wipe off I saw some streaks. If I had moved a little quicker, I would not have seen the streak. Saw it for a brief flash and it was gone. Really no big deal.

After applying the second coat of Ultimate Wax, I could see streaks almost immediately as the wax dried. The streaks were at the "wind rows" or thickenings of wax where the outer diameter of the rotating pad deposits a "wind row" of wax. However, the streaks disappeared when I wiped off the wax. Again, at least for me, no big deal!!

Keep in mind, my normal work flow is to apply wax and let it set for an hour or more before wipe off. Also I wait a minimum of 12 hours before applying the second coat of wax. This particular job I finished wiping off the first coat at 6pm on Saturday and then applied the second coat on Monday at 9am.

I believe, in my limited overall experience and my even more limited experience with Ultimate Wax, put it on thin to win!!

Thanks to all who assisted with this project by comment or suggestions. I'm meeting with the owner later this week to review the final product. I wish I had done better, but I think overall the project was successful. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this particular's MB paint is hard and difficult and I wonder if 105 shouldn't have been used in some locations. Like near and around door handles and also on that accursed front bumper!!

I think I kept a fairly accurate track of each product used. Perhaps for a couple of reasons. One, to get a feel for the real cost of a detail and also to find out if you all think I'm using too much or too little product. Here are the totals:

Ultimate Compound - 16 oz (full bottle)
SwirlX - 7.1 oz.
Ultimate Polish - 7.5 oz.
Ultimate Wax - 2 oz.

Other comments: I used Ultimate Compound for the first two days of correction. On the first there was a lot of dusting and the second day hardly any??? Why is SwirlX so hard to get out of the bottle?? Ultimate Polish goes on easily and comes off easily, but don't let it dry. I like it much better than M07. Ultimate Wax is sweet, especially if it has the life expectancy longer than NXT or M21. I would like to try a UltWax/UltWax versus a UltWax/M26 combination.

Enough said, thanks for stopping by.
(Nick did I reach the bar?)

[scanlessfool]

Re: Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

Thank you for your post. I had been waiting for someone to use Ultimate Compound, Ultimate Polish, and Ultimate Wax all at once. Did you notice any hazing from UC that you believe UP could have removed on it's own or did you find it necessary to use UC, SX, and follow it up with UP?

[rcktpwrd]

Re: Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

The SL is one of my favorites.
It looks like the finish was pretty beat up for a summer only toy. I think you did a great job on the car! Also a great write up on your process...

[juliom2]

Re: Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

Terrific write up!! Excellent job!!!
Mercedes looks flawless!!!!!

[Tuck91]

Re: Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

Very impressive David.

The car looks great!

Plus your attention to detail is spot on.

The one I service is an 04 with less than a thousand miles on it.

Had some light marring that was cleaned up with 205 almolst two years ago and now I maintain it with 66 or M20 annually.

How much time did you spend on this one?

I easily spend 5-6 hours just maintaining a small car like this.

[greg0303]

Re: Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

Great work and nice write - up.

Can't wait to use The Ultimate Triplets on my car.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

Beautiful work, David, and fantastic attention to detail on the center logo in the grille. You are really developing your talents to a whole new level, aren't you? That is just fantastic to watch happen, I must say.

From personal experience, having recently corrected a very similar year and model vehicle, also black, that the D/A Microfiber System makes short work of relatively hard paint. It's something you're probably going to want in your arsenal for those, um, less cooperative vehicles.

Keep up the outstanding work!

[Shawn T.]

Re: Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

Fantastic job and write up. You really paid attention to every detail on that car! Looks like liquid glass now.

[wifpd4]

Re: Garage Queen - Finally done - perhaps?

Thank you for your post. I had been waiting for someone to use Ultimate Compound, Ultimate Polish, and Ultimate Wax all at once. Did you notice any hazing from UC that you believe UP could have removed on it's own or did you find it necessary to use UC, SX, and follow it up with UP?

I don't have the trained eye of so many folks here and I think I had to brutalize the car and yellow pads with Ultimate Compound, so perhaps I made it necessary to use SwirlX. To me it seems like a natural progression in my noob like work flow. UC, SX, UltPolish. Your skills may permit skipping the SX step. I had no time constraints, so I used SX.

The SL is one of my favorites.
It looks like the finish was pretty beat up for a summer only toy. I think you did a great job on the car! Also a great write up on your process...

Thanks. I usually prefer to interject some humor into a write-up, but I took this job fairly seriously. Dropping my last clean yellow pad on the floor or finding a scratch(es) while waxing set the tone for the write-up.

Terrific write up!! Excellent job!!!
Mercedes looks flawless!!!!!

Thank you. The owner and I have to meet yet to discuss the end result. I'm hoping he's thumbs up too!

Very impressive David.

The car looks great!

Plus your attention to detail is spot on.

The one I service is an 04 with less than a thousand miles on it.

Had some light marring that was cleaned up with 205 almolst two years ago and now I maintain it with 66 or M20 annually.

How much time did you spend on this one?

I easily spend 5-6 hours just maintaining a small car like this.

Tuck, you know this took me forever! Your hours are my days. Keeping in mind I'm trying to learn a new skill and become a valid member of the MOL community, it was a learning experience and perhaps a stepping stone to other challenges. (Still hate that front bumper!)

I broke the task into specific daily goals and struggled to meet some of the goals and coasted to others. My task was complicated by my landlord. He owns this old car dealership and rents space to me to learn this trade. The owner's car was in the "showroom" area at the front of the dealership and my landlord preferred I work "up front". I had to carry tools and product from my haunt in the back garage to the front showroom. Also my days vary in length from 4 to sometimes 6 or 8 hours. Plus it's next to the Mississippi and I caught myself watching the eagles soar above the icy river.

I think it was like this -
Day one: inspection and photographs
Day two: wash, clay, interior clean, all glass and tape up - photographs
Day three: test spots and then Ultimate Compound - photographs
Day four: SwirlX and Ultimate Polish
Day five: Exterior details and glass, then 1st Ultimate Wax
Day six: 2nd Ultimate Wax - miscellaneous details - photographs
Day seven: put license plates back on, clean area and pack up

I'm guessing somewhere around 20 - 26 hours. (eh gowds I'm slow)

(no one warned me leaving tape on a car sitting in a glass showroom would cook the tape onto the finish....grrrr)

Thanks for your interest and support.

Great work and nice write - up.

Can't wait to use The Ultimate Triplets on my car.

Thanks Greg, you'll love it.

Beautiful work, David, and fantastic attention to detail on the center logo in the grille. You are really developing your talents to a whole new level, aren't you? That is just fantastic to watch happen, I must say.

From personal experience, having recently corrected a very similar year and model vehicle, also black, that the D/A Microfiber System makes short work of relatively hard paint. It's something you're probably going to want in your arsenal for those, um, less cooperative vehicles.

Keep up the outstanding work!

Thanks for your continuing support, from the Saturday class nearly a year ago to today. Another fine example of what the Meguiar's family can and will do to support the art.

Believe me, in those areas where I'm bumping the PC to 6, I'm wondering how the D/A Microfiber System would be helping me today and more so with what is ahead for me. (Sneak peek - black camaro that the owner clay barred with sand in the clay. Sounds like a month of work, unless I get the D/A Microfiber System. Then it's just two weeks....)

I also wonder if or how M105 could have been used. Still a little fearful of the aggressiveness of 105.

Fantastic job and write up. You really paid attention to every detail on that car! Looks like liquid glass now.

Thanks Shawn for your comments, they're appreciated. Obviously, the products have made it easy.