1968 Mercedes 250SE - Mirror Detailing

[MirrorDetailing]

Had a restoration shop call me last week about getting one of their cars done for it to go back to the customer. Shop manager was wanting to get the cars cleaned up after being finished, but wants them truly detailed. Did not have the time for any of his guys to learn...or who could truly do the work. Found me and had me come out last week and quote the car. Well everything was good and he dropped it off at the shop late Monday afternoon.



Car was to have the paint cleaned up to a good 90%+ correction, metals cleaned and sealed, interior carpets cleaned and interior cleaned. Car was a great piece to work on. It was restored by another shop some years ago and really had not been cleaned since. Normal scratches/swirls across the paint, plenty of holograms and interior was pretty grimy. Anyways....



No good before pictures as I did not have my camera. I went ahead and did a waterless wash and clayed the car the first night. Had it ready for buffing the next day, which is where the photos begin.



Process:



ONR Wash

Paint Clayed w/ DI Medium Clay via ONR Lube

Some areas clayed w/ Meguiars Aggressive Clay via ONR Lube

Paint taped up w/ Meguiars Car Masking Tape



Buffing

M105 via GG DA w/ Uber Orange Pad

Some Areas w/ SIP via Dewalt 849 Speed 1200-1800-1000 w/ Uber Orange Pad

PO87 via Dewalt 849 Speed 1000-1600-1000 w/ Uber Green Pad



Hard to reach or smaller areas done by...

M105/D300 via GG DA w/ Microfiber 3" Cutting Pad

M205 via GG DA w/ Tangerine Spot Pad



Metals w/ Optimum Metal Polish

Metals Sealed w/ Wheel Guard



LSP via WGDGPS

Windows w/ Meguiars Glass Cleaner

Tires w/ Optimum Tire Gel



Interior w/ Cleaned w/ Green Clean

Interior Seats/Panels wiped down w/ 303

Carpets via Steamcleaner by Meguiars APC+ Mixture

Starting on my test area to see what would yield the results I wanted.



Test area before...

Half and half...

And test area after both buffs...

General condition of the paint around the car...

The areas of the front bumper as I was working on them...



Pass side before and after...

Driver side before and after...

Then some light on the hood after doing half of it. Hard to tell but you can see the line running half way through the lights...

Then the front hood scope before and after...

Here a shot of the hood and the fender. Hood has already been done, fender untouched...

Now after working on the whole car...here are some shots of the paint after everything was completed...

A shot of the wheels before and after...

After everything was done....got to the interior...



The amazing amount of floormatts that came out of this thing...

After cleaning them...

Driver door panel before and after...

Driver interior before and after...

Pass interior before and after...

Pass door panel before and after...

And then inside waiting on the sun to come out, I snapped a few pictures...

 

[MirrorDetailing]

Finally the sun came out...

Now back inside to wait till it got picked up, I snapped a few more pictures...

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

Nice! That's a cool old Benz....

 

[mikenap]

Wow, Mike, that came out great! Lot of metal to polish too, but it all shines and no rust to be seen. Great job!:clap2:

 

[Brad B]

I enjoyed these pics! Great cool old car. You did a nice job. And as I always say, I appreciate those who have the skill to preserve the classics.

 

[MirrorDetailing]

Nice! That's a cool old Benz....

Thanks

Wow, Mike, that came out great! Lot of metal to polish too, but it all shines and no rust to be seen. Great job!:clap2:

Thanks Mike. Luckily since it was brass chrome plating, some Optimum Metal Polish was able to clean it up and get a real good shine out of it.

I enjoyed these pics! Great cool old car. You did a nice job. And as I always say, I appreciate those who have the skill to preserve the classics.

Yeah this was a cool car to do. For someone as young as me, 25, sitting in this car was a blast from the past. The spring leather seats were just to funny.





But yeah...the shop manager was real happy. This is a message I got from one of employee's that referred me via a forum he and I are on...

Very happy, car looks like it has new paint on it. The chrome really turned out great too. David said he would continue to send cars to you.

 

[DeanSweet]

ohhh myyyyyy.... that is a cherry looking mb.

The afters are amazing. I bet the owner was stunned?!



-Dean

 

[Scottwax]

Great job, looks like it was just transported here in a time machine from 1968!

 

[dschribs]

Great job!!



Must be built like a tank. What an incredible car.



Just think, that car was around for almost 20 years before you were even born...

 

[MirrorDetailing]

ohhh myyyyyy.... that is a cherry looking mb.

The afters are amazing. I bet the owner was stunned?!



-Dean

I do not know what the owner of the vehicle thought, but the shop manager was really impressed.

Great job, looks like it was just transported here in a time machine from 1968!

Thanks Scott.

Great job!!



Must be built like a tank. What an incredible car.



Just think, that car was around for almost 20 years before you were even born...

LOL, Yeah. Thats the fun thing about working on classic cars.