Greeting mybenzers!
I promised you chaps pictures of car detailing process for my dad's 230e. Hope you guys enjoy the pics, and may our detailing sifus may flock to this thread and judge me. Not too harsh ya? . OK, cut to the chase;

Before washing




Washed the car using using 2 bucket method, as i dont have any grit guard. Used microfibre wash mitt and microfibre towel to work on the car.

After washing


Rim, tyre and inner fender cleaning





I cleaned the inside rim using long brush, flexible brush to clean behind the spoke, and brush to clean intricate area (Basically i use the brush to clean the face of the rims. Scrub the tyres and dont forget the inner fender as well, as you may call it banana leaf.

Claying to prepare for polishing

After washing the car, it is a good practice to claybar the surface of the paint. Clay the car with the help of soapy water as lubricant, clay the whole to remove any dirt and sand that cannot be removed during car wash.

Polishing the car

Before polishing


After polishing
In this process, i prefer to use wool cutting pad than foam pad because it will cut deep scratches faster. After polishing using wool pad, i decided not to use the foam pad afterwards, because almost 70% of the deep scratches are gone. Plus, no marring (spider web patern scratch) present after the polishing session. For the polishing compound, i used fast cut compound from Waxco.

Hydrophobic coating solution

Fancy as it sounds, it is like applying Rain-x to your paint. The hydrophobic solution was applied to the paint and left to dry about 30 minutes. Then buff the coating out using microfibre towel. The solution also can be applied to the windscreen, but i prefer to use Rain-x, as it is easier to put on.

Finished product


There you have it, the colour of the car is one tone lighter (no thanks to the black spot because of our rain), and probably i dont have to wash the car for the next 3 weeks. Check out the clear reflection on the car's hood. I must admit that there some scratches i didnt remove, as it is time consuming for a one person doing it, and i didnt get paid by my father. .

I really enjoy enjoy doing this job, and i might going into detailing business, probably this year. Hope you guys like it, and please drop some comment!

Great effort!

BTW, other than Waxco, what other products did you use?

regards...

Hi rs-w124,
I use generic brand for carnauba car wax, car shampo and hydrophobic coating. For multi purpose cleaner and leather cream, i use Osren. I am still at a very steep learning curve. I didnt use meguires or any branded product, as i find it is more fun to explore the world of detailing this way. More pics coming up!

The other day, our car wiring savior, Alex agreed to have me working on his midnight blue CLK. Earlier inspection on his paint work, i concluded that i can remove most of the heavy scratches from the repainted body panel.

Boy, i was caught by surprise when working on the Alex's car.
The keyword is "midnight blue" and "repainted body panel".

Midnight blue
Dark colour paint really highlights the fine scratches (spider webbing) under intense lighting. The paint work has to be finished correctly to avoid new fine scratches after polishing session.

Repainted Body Panel
Factory original clear coat on your car is softer than bodyshop clear coat. You have to be just agressive enough to remove deep scrathes on repainted paint's clear coat.

Hendak dibuat cerita, my rotary decided to forfeit in the middle of polishing session. I do have my dual action polisher with me, but to do colour correction, rotary is the best.

I told Alex and Danny that i will be back to finish the job. Lesson learned today, bring BACKUP!

Some pictures!

Waxing in progress


Polished using foam pad and waxco cutting compound


Polished using wool pad and G3 cutting compound, finished with foam pad waxco polishing compound.

I must admit, there are lots of deep very fine scratches that i cannot remove during the detailing session. I am keen to find ways to overcome that obstacle. I planned on doing interior cleaning on alex's car after i finished with the outside. Stay tuned folks!

Excelente Bro.

I was once interested in learning detailing but didn't continue because of time constraint.

Hope you keep it up and continue doing what you love to do.

Thank you fairuzld. Your words means alot to me. I havent realized car detailing is my passion until recently. How foolish of me. Will keep posting on cars (i will try to find any benz that i can work on) in this forum. Thank you for the support.

Sound interesting on your detailing work. May I know what DA & Rotary polisher are you using?

Hi mot, for da and the rotary i use generic brand only, imported from china. I dont mind using non branded machine as i am sure i can produce desired result. But using branded tools may give some advantage to some people, but right now i couldnt think of any.

Of course any pro detailer has one absolute weapon to deal with all the gibberish and nonsense of scratches, the FLEX 3401 dual action polisher with forced rotation, aka Bigfoot.

Normal dual action (DA) polisher:
Spindle moves in a shape of 8 figure, has free moving spindle, the spindle will stop moving if your pad snagged on to something, to prevent more damage to paint work. Good at removing fine scratches. Great starter for freshies, and normal maintenance.

Rotary polisher:
Normal polisher, the spindle is locked to the gearing, and no free moving spindle. Powerful enough to remove layers of paint, aka colour correction (deep scratches and old dull paint), and has greater potential to ruin your paint than the DA. Preferred by seasoned and pro detailer.

Dual action with forced rotation:
Combining the 8 movement of a DA, with locked spindle to the gearing if a rotary. This machine is able to remove imperfection on paint finish and at the same time leaving deep glossy finishing, all in one go! (If used to the max potential). And i dont have one. I got to get one, soon.

Sorry for the long post, it is not my intention to turn this technical forum into my personal blog. Aiya admin, you look very handsome lah today. Pls dont delete this post ya!

You are definately very passionate with your work. Thank you for sharing your personal experince in detailing

No prob mot. Sharing my experience is part of the job. No feedback means i cannot progress very far. Plus, the car detailing section in this forum is a little barren . So i might just put something in, hehe.