My W209 Quick Spruce Up - Before Polishing

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martyp87

Active Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Messages
535
Location
Edinburgh
Car
W166 GLE350d
Well, the weather was perfect last weekend to get stuck into detailing the beastie however, it was too perfect. By the time I washed, IronX'd, de-tar'd and clayed the car the panels were very toasty and that was in the shade! :rolleyes:

So I packed in my hopes of getting the DA out and buffing her to a nice shine - I'm dying to see what this paintwork looks like when perfected.

Sunday morning didn't start well, noticed some sod had smashed a egg off the rear offside window and all the gunk ran down the paint. APC'd that off and gave up - I know it was intentional as it was sitting beside the fence and they would need to walk along the side of the car to throw it. Thankfully they choose the window not the paint, no real damage done.


So after work this evening I decided to finish what I started as far as the cleaning goes - wheels, wheel wells, exhaust, door checks, engine and I threw in another quick wash too. Two and a half hours of work later I was left with this...


Before:





One filthy girl... :eek:

After:









Remember that's just bare paint, with some time spent with the DA and a few coats of my Zymol Vintage this is going to look amazing!

Some of the details:














All cleaned up for an oil change on Saturday morning, hope their hands are clean. :D

I'll post up some more when I finally finish her off, promise they won't be driveway pics either - fed up of the eyes and snide remarks when taking pics. :rolleyes:

Thanks for looking and comments welcome. :thumb:
 
And replace the rusty screw on the centre support for the three bar grill! :)
 
Cracking job, Marty! :rock:

Looks awesome!
An incredible transformation :thumb:

Sorry to hear about the egg... I'd beat that little scrote to a pulp! :mad:
 
Loooking lovely well done. Its inspiring to remove the muck from mine :)
 
Thanks for the kind words guys. Couldn't help but laugh at the "beat" line. Brilliant. :D

Karl; I don't think the facelift lights fit onto the older shape without some modifications - which is probably just as well or I'd have bought them! However, I'm trying to just keep this car stock as I will be trading it in for a '03> CL600 next Spring, current insurance runs out in September and they'd charge a fortune if I got it now - currently paying £95 per month for this. I'd also rather use this during Winter than a CL. :eek:

sjmaxwell; I'll get onto that screw next time, not bad that is the only rusty thing on the bodywork though huh!?! :D

Rash; I do like that angle also it's just a shame the drive is at an angle there as the house in the background is way off level!

Nigel; I just used some APC (all purpose cleaner, Autoglym Engine and Machine cleaner works well also), a few brushes, a sponge, hose and some plastic dressing. Basically, just sprayed water everywhere, sprayed the cleaner on and brushed/wiped all the dirt off and then rinsed it. Dried off the engine and sprayed Autoglym Vinyl Rubber Care everywhere and let if sit whilst I washed the car, after that was done I just wiped off the excess product for the photos - normally you just leave it and it dries in evenly anyway.

R2D2; Dust isn't classed as muck!! :p
 
Mines a 03 pre-facelift too remember! You need to slightly bend the chassis to get them to fit. Great mod to do
 
Nice job, almost looks like a different car!!
 
Looks mint.

Good work there!!
 

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