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The Reiedsville Auto Show

4K views 47 replies 11 participants last post by  Mehitabel 
#1 · (Edited)
So with the man cave now in working order, Its time to get back to work on the cars. Its been 6 years since I have personally detailed the cars for show and long over due. See:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r-c...ew-upholstery-delilah-has-been-neglected.html

There is a car show 2nd Friday of each month that is usually featured on NC public television. Each car is rolled up to the fat lady who introduces you and the car to the camera. My wife has seen it and she wants to go. So Samson and Delilah are about to get the full polish and wax for the first time in 6 years.

Stay tuned.
 
#7 ·
Got a bunch of competing shit out of the way today then hand washed both cars.

Delilah looks ready to go I will just wax that. Samson is going to need some work.
 

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#8 · (Edited)
In for dinner and taking a break. Back is killing me. I have 2 bumpers to remove and side molding. That's the goal for the night then I have to clean off all the crap behind every thing before I can start to polish. Hopefully cwmoser will arrive for lessons on how to use the dual action buffer.

Found the third break light will need reconstructive surgery.

Also figured out how to remove the rear star without causing damage.

I have had a black carpet set for for the trunk of this car for about ten years now. I finally will install it.
 

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#9 ·
Done for the night. Got all of the cars disassembly complete.

Tomorrow after work I will be hand washing all the areas that were covered with other parts. That will be a lot more dirt than originally came off the car when I washed it. That will have to be done indoors so the place will be a mess for a while. Then I will be ready to start polish.

The biggest challenge will be overhauling and cleaning all the parts that came off. I may run out of time and some may have to go back on as is.
 

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#12 ·
John, meticulous work as usual.
BTW, I used a product called Forever Black on the black rubber trim pieces. It transforms those old grayed rubber pieces.
 

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#15 ·
Needed to take a break. Porta Cable polisher was just getting too hot and my hands are still shaking.

2 of 5 stages complete.

Started left quarter panel and right fender using Griots Machine polish #1. These two sections were really bad so I polished those using the most aggressive consumer product . With that done the cars color is now somewhat close to one color. Nobby once described Samson as three different shades of vagina pink depending on how the sun hits it. After Machine polish 1 its more like the inner and outer labia.

Stage 2 was be Menzerna Intensive polish. At this point I'm starting to see my reflection however the left quarter and right fender have distorted reflections because the paint is not smooth. Not going to be any way of getting that out without wet sanding.

Unfortunately I got a little burn through on the right fender trying to get the pinstripe off.

Still need to do:

Stage 3 Menzerna Final Polish.

Stage 4 Menzerna Glaze

Stage 5 Meguiars NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0

Well time to go out and do that final polish.
 

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#16 ·
Step 3 Final polish complete. No real difference in shine but the color seams more brilliant. I also notice that after the final polish the rag squeaks when you rub it out hard.

Next step is Glaze. I never used glaze before but it sounds good.
 

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#18 ·
Marathon day today. 4 steps of polishing complete. Tomorrow is wax for both cars. Started at 8:00AM just finished at 11:00PM. The pile of parts that still need to be cleaned and detailed still remain.
 

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#19 ·
I like the looks of a car with a little patina that has been
cleaned and polished to perfection. In fact it looks more
realistic than one that has had rotisserie rebuild.
 
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#20 ·
John, it's kind of hard to tell from the photos, is that orange peel? I see the flat photos where your paint correction process has done an excellent job of leveling everything out. I agree, only way to get that out would be to wetsand it. I'm assuming you have plenty of paint thickness to facilitate that.

One thing we did when restored my '66 911 was to deliberately leave orange peel in the same places the Factory did. There are cars with perfect paint out there, but that's not the way they rolled off the line!

Looking great and your removal of the lights bumpers and all trim really sets a new bar for thoroughness in the polishing stage.
 
#21 ·
That's not orange peel. My painter said it was painted at the wrong temperature for the reducer used. It actually looks more like sand in the paint. The only parts that are supposed to look like orange peel from the factory at Mercedes are the parts under the rear bumpers. They are textured that way. In the area I'm showing this paint would have been absolutely perfect form the factory. Plenty of paint thickness in that area left quarter for wet sanding but not on the front fender. Paint really sucks every where so its not worth fixing that one spot. Plus the paint in that area is cheep and oxidizes quickly.
 
#23 ·
Samson Waxing complete.

Delilah Clay bared and waxed complete.

I'm going to have a cup of coffee and relax.
 

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#28 ·
I little work on the details.

Started cleaning some parts and putting things back together.

Side moldings and inner fenders installed.

Windshield washer nozzels installed.

Door edge chrome (aftermarket) installed

Went to put on lower windshield trim and found that I need to install the vent grills first. Had to clean polish and wax those as well as the screens under them. So I spent the night polishing again 4 stages. Intensive polish, Final polish, Glaze and wax. Cleaned the screens below them and coated those with Forever Black. Masked the center star and that will be ready for Forever Black tomorrow.

Sorry no pics because when I tried to upload them I got a message saying "the security token was missing"
 
#29 · (Edited)
...
Sorry no pics because when I tried to upload them I got a message saying "the security token was missing"
I get that shit all the time. I thought it was because
I was using Linux or Firefox - just a crappy web server, but great forum content.

Wished that I had the skill to remove windshield chrome without fubaring something.
BTW when you replaced those Cowl Vents did you reuse those plastic plugs, replace with screws, etc ???
 
#31 ·
Starting to go back together. All of the parts detailing that I am going to do is complete. I would like to do more but I'm running out of time.

I tried the new forever Black on my grill and I didn't like it. It now comes with a brush and its thicker than the old stuff. Tomorrow I will paint the grill with SEM satin black. The more like paint and it comes with a foam brush. The old stuff was thin and watery and came in a shoe polish type dispenser. My preference would be the old stuff with a brush.

I realized that when I went to put the cowl vents back on I should have painted underneath them before polishing and waxing. The last person to paitng this car never removed these so you can see the over spray underneath them. So major masking job and painting.

Three days off left before show time. Fortunately I have Thursday and Friday off. Still lots to do. I haven't touched the interior or wheels yet.
 

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#32 ·
Just about there. Still need to clean wheels and do the interior and finish carpeting the trunk (Boot for Ianwright40). Also need to do major surgery on the third break light. Trying to find a used one but no luck so far anyone have a lead on one of these. Wish I could have spent more time with some of the parts but at least I got everything that is difficult to remove.
 

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#33 ·
Wheels on today. I put the 16" chrome wheels on. I think they look a lot better than the 18" AMG. And they certainly smooth out the ride. Only problem is the chrome is pitted. But I think they still look better.
 

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#35 · (Edited)
Cleaning wheels. Finished my trunk carpeting. Will let the glued together third break light cure overnight. Now all that's left is cleaning the interior.

Unfortunately weather is looking questionable and wife cant make it so it might be Samson only.

First two pictures is of my only good wheel. Second two are of what the other three look like. But not to bad from 10'.

Anyone have any experience with LA wheel.
 

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