rr69h
Part of things
Posts: 313
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One of the nicest things about living with a retro is meeting awesome people you would never have met without sharing that wonderful passion. I've made my fair share of really good mates through driving and caring for old tin and I'm sure you've all had similar experiences. Another nice thing is that with time you'll meet people having skills you don't have. And since car-people are good people everybody is delighted to help each other out: you give a little, take a little and everybody has a nicer car in the end. Win-win! Today's antics are about a good mate who works as a sculptor. Working with stones makes him exceptionally good with thinking in a three-dimensional way when it comes to making and fitting panels - a job I absolutely know nothing about. I on the other hand have recently aquired a bit of knowledge about da-polishers - a job he knows absolutely nothing about. But he had a car looking like this:  Here we see his pride and joy: a 1971 Mercedes 220 Diesel. A car he'd spent years on putting right again basically replacing the whole underside up to a standard that even a pro cannot see that it had ever been welded. It looks factory from underneath so it was time to make it shine on the other side, too. The car was repainted at some point in the 90's. Now my theory is that the previous owner waxed it regularly, but never had a go at polishing it. The paint always looked okay, if not great. All that changed when he took it to a car wash after which it looked absolutely dreadful: hot soapy water took all that wax off leaving the car look like a right mess. Well, that's only a theory. If some of you are more knowledgeable and have other ideas of what might have happened I'm happy to hear your thoughts! Anyway. Close-up of what I've started with:  Wash and claying done:  Yuk:  So I started on the bootlid and took some measurements of the paint thickness (more than plenty) and broke out the da. After a fair number of times of me saying "Meh. Still not strong enaugh." I've found a combo of compound, pad, machine-speed and pressure that worked out well. I didn't even bother with taping up sections for the before-after shots. I think the difference is easy to spot if you squint a bit. I think.    That was a bit good. Proceeded to the roof...  ...and then moved to the bonnet which was by far the worst area:    After the whole car was polished I've applied my favourite sealant leaving the back looking like this:   The final result looks a little like this:       After all was said and done it took me about 30 hours in total. Being fueled by a good bbq and a cold beer every now and then made for a great time. And the best bit: my mate was absolutely speechless. It feels so good to make a mate smile with just a bit of effort. Shame though my cars don't need any welding done anytime soon. |
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Last Edit: May 5, 2014 14:04:32 GMT by rr69h
"Racing drivers never carry cash"
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Adey
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,444
Club RR Member Number: 171
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WOW! good work, wish i had just an inch of your skill for cleaning my car
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120y
Part of things
Posts: 423 
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Love these Mercs, you did a really nice job you should be proud.
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1996 Renault Clio MK1 1.4 RT Auto
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Very, very impressive!
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That's an impressive transformation. If mates are mates, he'll look after you when your time comes.
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Sterling work there. I'd go with your theory on the paint and throw in a bit of oxidisation for good measure. If you don't do the deep cleaning before putting the sealant on you'll always have a car that looks okay but never great so I reckon it's a credit to the car and your friend's work that you've put it so right from where it was after the car wash. Maybe tell him not to take it through a car wash in future too |
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Fantastic work! .....any clues to what you used or is it a trade secret??!! |
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Awesome work and car.
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Last Edit: May 5, 2014 19:46:11 GMT by joem83
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rr69h
Part of things
Posts: 313
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Cheers lads, much appreciated.  Sterling work there. I'd go with your theory on the paint and throw in a bit of oxidisation for good measure. If you don't do the deep cleaning before putting the sealant on you'll always have a car that looks okay but never great so I reckon it's a credit to the car and your friend's work that you've put it so right from where it was after the car wash. Maybe tell him not to take it through a car wash in future too You know what? After putting it right again he definetely could take it through a car wash. You do raise an interesting point: I too think that most of the white-ish muck was indeed oxidisation masked up with some sort of wax. The true test will be the next rainfall. I expect some of the leopard-effect to come through again indicating that it needs another spot of polishing here and there. Luckily the paint still is so thick that another tickle with the da won't hurt. Fantastic work! .....any clues to what you used or is it a trade secret??!! Haha, I'm technically not in the trade so I'm happy to share. Keeping in mind that I'm still a novice I know there's a lot more to learn than what I know. So far I've learnt that every car and every panel needs to be approached differently: older paint is harder than newer paint, thicker paint can be tackled in a more aggressive way than thinner paint and so on and so forth. So there is no recipe that fits all the bills every time. My approach is to start as gentle as possible and work my way up through stronger compounds, harder pads or more pressure. One has to keep in mind that every polish wears the paint down: once it's gone it's gone. On this particular car I've started by measuring the paint levels to confirm that we have enaugh substance to play with (more than 250 microns all round). I then started with a soft open-cell polishing pad and a very gentle finishing compound (Menzerna SF4000, if that helps you). This resulted in a noticeable improvement, but didn't shift all the muck. I gradually moved through stronger compounds (they are graded just like sanding paper) and finally settled on Menzerna IP2100 on a harder pad for the roof, the bootlid and the bonnet. It still took quite a while to get each panel right, but this combination was the ideal compromise between getting a good finish while not being too abraisive. On average I've removed 8 microns leaving plenty of meat on the bone for going over the car again in a few years time if necessary. As for sealants: this territory is completely new for me. I've recently moved from waxes to chemical sealants and I'm on the very first bottle of the very first product. The stuff I've used (Chemical Boys M-Seal) works well for me, but only time will tell if it's the right product or if there's something else out there that's even better for my application. Anyway. I start to wrabble. I don't want to make this post sound like a commercial since I only just started dipping into this teritory. The compounds mentioned seem to be a good start for beginners like myself, the sealant was just a shot into the blue based on recommendations. So far it works for me, but we'll see what the future brings. |
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"Racing drivers never carry cash"
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Excellent work! This reminds me that I need to give my black E36 a good clean for the summer, I wash it regularly but it needs a good sorting out and waxing...
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,962
Club RR Member Number: 174
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Do you need a new mate my car is filthy haha
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rr69h
Part of things
Posts: 313
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Do you need a new mate my car is filthy haha Always up for a challenge. |
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"Racing drivers never carry cash"
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Menzerna IP2100 - would that be an equivalent grade to Farecla G3...roughly....? i'm currently hand polishing my range rover classic (one panel at a time) as i'm not brave enough to use my machine mop yet.
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nyx
Part of things
Posts: 47
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wow.. my s124 1988 230e in midnight blue isnt as bad as that but would benefit from a professional da polish like that
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rr69h
Part of things
Posts: 313
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Menzerna IP2100 - would that be an equivalent grade to Farecla G3...roughly....? i'm currently hand polishing my range rover classic (one panel at a time) as i'm not brave enough to use my machine mop yet. Hi Matt, a bit of a tough question this. I don't really know anything about Farecla G3 except for the fact that it's a complete range of products. A spot of googleing revealed that there are very abraisive cutting-compounds as well some for finishing which are much more gentle. Since I don't know which one you're working with, what your paintwork looks like and what exactly you want to achieve I don't want to give you any false advice. If you'd like to discuss this in more depth I'll be happy to provide my opinion. I'm far away from knowing everything there is to know about detailing, especially since I'm doing this only as a hobby for myself and mates with shonky cars. But if I can help you in any way I'd be glad to! Felix |
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"Racing drivers never carry cash"
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Menzerna IP2100 - would that be an equivalent grade to Farecla G3...roughly....? i'm currently hand polishing my range rover classic (one panel at a time) as i'm not brave enough to use my machine mop yet. Hi Matt, a bit of a tough question this. I don't really know anything about Farecla G3 except for the fact that it's a complete range of products. A spot of googleing revealed that there are very abraisive cutting-compounds as well some for finishing which are much more gentle. Since I don't know which one you're working with, what your paintwork looks like and what exactly you want to achieve I don't want to give you any false advice. If you'd like to discuss this in more depth I'll be happy to provide my opinion. I'm far away from knowing everything there is to know about detailing, especially since I'm doing this only as a hobby for myself and mates with shonky cars. But if I can help you in any way I'd be glad to! Felix my bad - i didn't realise G3 was a range of products. i'm using the G3 cutting compound in the yellow bottles.  currently its 2 sessions with the G3 then 1 session with meguiars ultimate polish then a couple of layers meguiars carnuba wax. I've read that Meguiars UP is more of a "glaze"....so i'm debating whether to get the Meguiars Professional 105 Ultra Cut Compound & 205 Ultra Finishing Polish link |
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i've also got a bottle of autoglym super resin polish but i don't really like it....its hard work and still leaves a lot of dust
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VIP
South East
Posts: 8,302
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i've also got a bottle of autoglym super resin polish but i don't really like it....its hard work and still leaves a lot of dust SRP has basically no cut to it, you need other products before it to get anywhere near the results you seen here. The dust is basically you using too much of the products. SRP has a tiny but of cut, and some fillers to cover up fine scratches. |
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me not being clear enough...sorry...i was comparing the SRP to the meguiars polish which just seems so much nicer to use and gives a better finish.
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