Ultimate "Wow" Factor

B

Brunkel

New member
*Edit: UPDATED WITH PICS IN POST #14

I'm working on a silver 2004 Mercedes Kompressor this weekend and really want to go for the ultimate shine with tons of depth and a wet look. I've been detailing for only a couple months and have maybe done 5 or 6 cars so I'm still very new and in the experimental stages of products. My previous customers have been pretty easy to gauge on what LSP would work well for them but I'm a little stumped on this one. I know what I need for this one is the "wow" factor. The car already looks pretty good, so I need to make it look INCREDIBLE. There are some swirls so polishing or at least an AIO is on the list.

At this point I have a few options in almost every category of LSP's and polishes/compounds. I will definitely be doing some test spots...but am looking for a few suggestions to narrow down my list! Gloss, shine, and depth is priority over protection for this car.


Menzerna FG400
Meg's Ultimate compound
Meg's Ultimate Polish
Meg's 105
Meg's 205
Sonax Nano 3/6
Pinnacle XMT 360 AIO
Auto Finesse Triple AIO
CG Blacklight
CG Glossworkz Glaze
Meg's Ultimate Liquid Wax
Collinite 845 Insulator
Lusso Oro Carnuba
Pinnacle Souveran Carnuba
Liquid Souveran
Adam's Machine Super Sealant
Sonax NetShield

I think I have some more but this is just off the top of my head at work.

Thanks!

Oh and I have an afternoon and evening available so I'd like to do the job in about 6-8 hours max.
 
You have taken quite a bite at the apple for a guy with 6 cars under his belt. MB are notoriously difficult to correct due to ceramiclear (spelling). It means the paint is very hard and requires slow compounding and multiple steps to restore the gloss. Possible a 3 step correction. I have never done one (a MB) but I have heard on this forum that they are hard (paint wise). There is some good news is it is Silver not Black!

I think that you should repost a question like, look at these pics please, what combo of pads and polishes would be good to start with on a 2004 benz. The guys who know will look at the condition of the paint and chime in. I have foound you get the best answers by asking specific questions instead of general ones.

If you see you are not gettng the defects out of your test spot, go more aggressive on the pad, then the polish. (or both if necessary). That is like a 1/2 step down instead of a full step in aggressiveness.

The LSP has way less to do with the shine than the polishing. It took me a while to get that. Don't get discouraged if it does not look like pro work, it wont for a while, but you will get better each time if you keep asking questions and posting pictures.

I am an ameteur photographer. I have a good camera and shoot lots of outdoor stuff. Mostly my kids playing sports or my cars :). I was aked to shoot a friends son's surprise birthday party and I declined. I offered to be a second camera if they hired a pro. They said you are great and we dont want a pro. (Not a Money issue with them). I explained that I am NOT A PRO and if I mess up my settings or miss shots they can never get that back. My outdoor shots are easy when there is a ton of natural light the camera is "fast". In low light, not so much and I know my limitations. Why do I tell you this story? There is nothing worse than being in over your head. It happens to everyone from time to time and you need to make the best of it to suceede. But I am thinking that if this is a detail for hire, maybe you better get some help or decline the job. It took me more than 8 hours to do my car and that was a 1 step, full interior, wheels and 2 coats of coating on everything (wheels, glass, paint), tips polished on a well maintained close to perfect car. I may be wrong but you have not alloted enough time to properly clean, decon, polish, wipe and apply LSP.

If you go forward, Look into Net Shield as the LSP, will save alot of time.

Wish I could help more but I am not a the level I should be giving any further advice.

Good Luck.........
 
Hey JSFM35X,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, still fresh into the business and I appreciate your words of caution. I'm only doing friend's cars right now and I'm aiming towards more of a "weekend warrior" when it comes to detailing. I teach music full time and keep pretty busy so working on cars is my hobby on the side. I own a VW GTI which has hard paint but I'm not sure how it compares to the Mercedes.

Good call on the pics. Everybody loves pics! haha. I usually take a bunch while I'm detailing but haven't gotten a lot of the polishing stage yet. I'll try and get some from this job though.

Yeah when I did my GTI I spent two days on it. 1-step polish, sealed, then waxed after it sealed. Took wheels off and polished and sealed those, full interior, sealed glass, etc...I've since gotten much faster at the wash and decon phase (thanks to the speedy prep mitt!) and this Kompressor (it's not a benz) ;) is super tiny and will be a breeze to work around. It doesn't have a lot of curves either so lots of flat, small panels.

I totally agree with your story about being in over your head...I learned that when someone asked me to do opti-coat. I went ahead with the job...but this was a black car with lots of swirls. I got about most of them out...but not 100% perfect. I will not do another opti-coat until at least a year of polishing practice.
 
Tip of the day! Mercedes Oem recommendations for their detailers...

CCS Green W/Menz 4000 with a rotor. I'd go FF3000 with an RO like a 3401. I've been doing mercs for years, I love their paint. Post a pic so we can really see what you working with/against.
 
After you get it corrected and polished, I am a big fan of CG black light. It has wowed quite a few times, but not sure about length of durability. What machine are you using?
 
Meticulous said:
After you get it corrected and polished, I am a big fan of CG black light. It has wowed quite a few times, but not sure about length of durability. What machine are you using?
Click to expand...

I'm using a Griot's 3rd generation 6"

I have a wide variety of foam and microfiber pads available.

Also, I'll try and get a pic tomorrow since I may see the owner at work. It's 2004 but very well maintained. The hood was repainted not too long ago and just some minor swirls after a quick inspection of the fender the other day.
 
Make sure the fresh paint has cured out before you hit it with a DA.

Brunkel said:
I'm using a Griot's 3rd generation 6"

I have a wide variety of foam and microfiber pads available.

Also, I'll try and get a pic tomorrow since I may see the owner at work. It's 2004 but very well maintained. The hood was repainted not too long ago and just some minor swirls after a quick inspection of the fender the other day.
Click to expand...
 
Meticulous said:
After you get it corrected and polished, I am a big fan of CG black light. It has wowed quite a few times, but not sure about length of durability. What machine are you using?
Click to expand...

I've been wanting to try it out for months so I may give it a go. It's pretty much a glaze with minor abrasives correct? All I know right now is it smells really good haha.

JSFM35X said:
Make sure the fresh paint has cured out before you hit it with a DA.
Click to expand...

Just confirmed that the hood was repainted on June 20th of this year.
 
Should be good to go, just stay away from the wetsanding, wool pads and DO NOT POLISH IN THE SUN. As long as the surface stays cool you should be good to go, especially if your just doing a light correction.
 
The Driver said:
Should be good to go, just stay away from the wetsanding, wool pads and DO NOT POLISH IN THE SUN. As long as the surface stays cool you should be good to go, especially if your just doing a light correction.
Click to expand...

Ok great. Yeah, I'm not touching wet sanding yet and definitely need more experience before I try that on someone else's car. I'll probably go with Meg's MF cutting pad for compound and maybe an orange foam pad for the finishing polish. Working in a garage with lots of lighting so should be good to go. Thanks!
 
I would go with a white or Green for finishing if your using menz. It's designed to cut into ceramic clears no problem (Esp. 4000).
 
The Driver said:
I would go with a white or Green for finishing if your using menz. It's designed to cut into ceramic clears no problem (Esp. 4000).
Click to expand...

For finishing I will probably use Sonax 4/6 or Megs 205. I've actually seen the FG400 finish rather nicely with a mf cutting pad and used it as a one-step. That will be one of my test spots to compare to a 2-step process.

I was at work and only had my iPad but here are a couple pics of the paint on the Kompressor:

Trunk looks pretty good at first glance...
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Up close trying to capture swirls...pretty hard to do with the iPad but you can see some in the sun spot:

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And here's a shot of the hood:

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That honestly looks like it could be a 1 stepper with FG. I've finished down plenty of times with FG but you got to keep an eye on it, it like's cake up an dry very fast.
 
The Driver said:
That honestly looks like it could be a 1 stepper with FG. I've finished down plenty of times with FG but you got to keep an eye on it, it like's cake up an dry very fast.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's not too bad at all. I may compare it to the Nano 3/6 too.

I also have a couple AIO but I'm guessing using a designated polish will give me a better look in the end?

Thinking about finding the best 1-step polish for this car then applying black light. If I wanted to put netshield on after that would that still bond? I'm guessing black light has some oils on it. Or, is it kind of a "one or the other" thing between black light and netshield after the polish?
 
Please do, I've been eyeing sonax's 3/6 for a while and a good replacement for my menz 2500. I don't think I'll ever get rid of FG400 though, the gloss is just ridiculous. The only one that beats it is FF3000 IMO.
 
I have used almost a full bottle of Sonax Profile Line Perfect Finish 4/6 on going on a dozen german cars and it really rocks !!!
With a Rotary and either of the Lake Country Hydro-Shred Cyan or Tangerine pads, I can do anything really fast and not have to go back and finish it because the gloss is a 6.

It does not dry out or gum up on german paint and so little wipe up is needed, I am amazed everytime how fewer microfibers I need to correct an entire vehicle.

Also tried and liked Sonax Nano Pro Paint Cleaner but it says on the label it contains carnauba wax..

The Chemical Guys Black Light came and went for me. Its nice but very temporary and I dont want to do that to my Clients, so I have a few bottles of it I will probably never use now.

The Sonax Net Shield however, is a game changer for me and all the German Cars and a few American cars I have applied it to with nothing underneath, because nothing else is needed, unless you want to go all the way around a big vehicle twice.. :)
Dan F
 
So I ended up comparing Sonax 3/6 to FG400 on a couple different pad set ups. The Mercedes only needed minor, minor correction so the FG400 was a bit overkill. I tried it with a Megs MF cutting pad and it got lots of imperfections out but left a haze. When bumped down to an orange foam pad it dusted like crazy. I first tried the Sonax 3/6 on a green foam pad and it didn't have enough cut. Bumped up to an orange pad and it was the winner. That's twice now I've seen good results with the sonax and an orange pad. It left a brilliant finish and I definitely got the "wow" factor from my customers as they stopped by right as I finished polishing! :bigups Ended up picking up their new Ford Raptor as well as their 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

After polishing I used CG Blaclight and after that was cured I put on a final layer of Lusso Oro Carnuba wax. Pretty happy with the results. What do you think?

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This was right after I finished the job. Packing up and heading out!

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