My friend has been bugging me for the last year or so to detail his Mercedes C230. I didn't have much to do this weekend and I knew the weather forcast was supposed to be great, so I reluctantly agreed. I hadn't been in his car since it was nearly new and I know he doesn't keep up with cleaning the inside or out, but nothing could have prepared me for the filth ball that awaited me.
Inside - He has two young boys and makes frequent trips to the beach, so there was lots of sand, stuck candy/gum, bits of toys and food wrappers stuck in all the crevises (I think they jam the garbage in there instead of having to throw it out). The light tan leather seats were a dark beige.
Exterior - hasn't been washed in 1.5 years. Has massive swirls from the "brushless" car wash, had some rotary halos on the hood (I guess from the dealer) and had some major scratched on the sides from what he said was the lawnmower and on the roof from hauling sheetrock without a rack.
I really didn't get the interior nearly as nice as I would have liked, and nothing I tried got the leather back to original, but after almost 2 hours it was 100% better than it was before.
The exterior jsut adter a wash and clay there was a marked inprovement. I used ScratchX to remove the scratches (first time using this and it's great stuff) seemed to be nearly half the car. Then buffed the entire car with DACP with a yellow pad then S100. I was able to get probably 90% of the swirls out, but DACP was the most agressive stuff I had with me.
Again I didn't get everything up to the standards I would have liked, but for a free job for a friend, it was pretty good. My firend was really nervous when I busted out the PC, but in the end all he kept saying was "This is unbelieveable, it's like a new car". he called in the middle of the night and left a message on my cell thanking me again and again. That was reward enough.
The killer was his car sits outside 24/7 and the wife came out and said that the spriklers were going to come on in the morning and he said "that's ok, there's wax on it now". DOH!!!!!
The pictures I took are not a fair comparison as the befores are in direct sunlite and the afters are when the sun had gone behind the house, but it gives a decent idea of the difference. Here are some of the before pics.
Nasty hood:
Scratches on the roof:
Scratches on the side:
Lots of swirls:
Inside - He has two young boys and makes frequent trips to the beach, so there was lots of sand, stuck candy/gum, bits of toys and food wrappers stuck in all the crevises (I think they jam the garbage in there instead of having to throw it out). The light tan leather seats were a dark beige.
Exterior - hasn't been washed in 1.5 years. Has massive swirls from the "brushless" car wash, had some rotary halos on the hood (I guess from the dealer) and had some major scratched on the sides from what he said was the lawnmower and on the roof from hauling sheetrock without a rack.
I really didn't get the interior nearly as nice as I would have liked, and nothing I tried got the leather back to original, but after almost 2 hours it was 100% better than it was before.
The exterior jsut adter a wash and clay there was a marked inprovement. I used ScratchX to remove the scratches (first time using this and it's great stuff) seemed to be nearly half the car. Then buffed the entire car with DACP with a yellow pad then S100. I was able to get probably 90% of the swirls out, but DACP was the most agressive stuff I had with me.
Again I didn't get everything up to the standards I would have liked, but for a free job for a friend, it was pretty good. My firend was really nervous when I busted out the PC, but in the end all he kept saying was "This is unbelieveable, it's like a new car". he called in the middle of the night and left a message on my cell thanking me again and again. That was reward enough.
The killer was his car sits outside 24/7 and the wife came out and said that the spriklers were going to come on in the morning and he said "that's ok, there's wax on it now". DOH!!!!!
The pictures I took are not a fair comparison as the befores are in direct sunlite and the afters are when the sun had gone behind the house, but it gives a decent idea of the difference. Here are some of the before pics.
Nasty hood:
Scratches on the roof:
Scratches on the side:
Lots of swirls:
