Detailed: Mercedes S550

[Team Adam's]

I had the chance to work on this MONSTER of a car over the weekend.  A friend of mine approached me, said he just bought a new car, was taking it in to have the windows tinted, and wanted me to take care of the paint to get rid of some swirls/scratches.  Of course I obliged, who am I to turn down a big, black car in need of some paint care?!?  

 

The car was pretty clean when it arrived, so a quick Waterless Wash wipedown removed some light dust from driving it. 

 

Once it was clean, it was on to Clay Bar with Detail Spray as the lubricant.  The owner had clayed the hood and front fenders, and I could certainly tell the difference between those and the rest of the body panels that hadn't been clayed yet.  I didn't pull a ton of contamination off, but it definitely needed to be clayed.

 

Here's what it looked like post-clay:

 

 

Looks pretty nice, huh??  However, upon close inspection, there were plenty of paint defects...swirls, RIDS, marring, light water spots, pretty typical stuff:

 

 

 

 

...and one tiny bubble in the paint that I taped over to ensure no tragedies occured while polishing  :

 

 

On to polishing!  I used the Cyclo, Paint Correting Polish, and Orange Foam pads.  This was a quick 50/50 after one pass on the trunk lid:

 

 

And this was after the second pass:

 

 

So on around this massive car I went.  Two passes of Paint Correcting Polish and Orange Foam Pads on all horizontal panels (hood, roof, trunk) and one pass on the vertical panels (fenders, doors.)  The vertical panels didn't have nearly as much damage on them, so one pass was yielding similar results compared to two passes on the horozontal panels.

 

Tough to capture in the picture, but there were some water spots on the front grille.  Revive Polish made quick work of them:

 

 

Once everything was polished, I applied Liquid Paint Sealant with the Cyclo and 4" Grey Pads, and then applied Quick Sealant on all the leading edges (front end, mirrors, and above the windshield) for a little added protection to get through the winter.

 

I also used Quick Sealant on the wheels and Tire Shine on the tires.  Here are the finished pics.  It was dark and gloom when he picked it up, so no full-sun shots unfortunately.

 

 

 

 

 

[Gen9Rolla]

So jealous of the last picture! Great work!!

[DaveVY]

Any interior shots?

 

The S550 is an awesome car!

[Fphillips]

Awesome work Nick!

[Natch02]

Nice

[Team Adam's]

Any interior shots?

 

The S550 is an awesome car!

 

I didn't work on the interior, but the best way to describe it is cavernous.  I'm 6' tall, and with the drivers seat all the way back, I still had about 4" of knee room when I sat in the back seat.  Crazy. 

[Chris@Adams]

Good job Nick!

[Ricky Bobby]

Wow Nick nice work.

 

Are you guys in Indiana allowed to get windshields tinted?  Or did he just do 5% all around on the windows and the windshield is an illusion?

Edited October 16, 2014 by Ricky Bobby

[Team Adam's]

I believe he said it was 35% all around, windshield included.  However, it was applied over the factory blue tint, so it looks much darker than 35%, closer to 5-15%.

 

Also, I live in Indiana and nobody here cares how dark your tint it, or how loud your exhaust is, or any of those silly things that some people have to worry about with their vehicles. 

[Ricky Bobby]

Ahhhh makes perfect sense, yeah 35 all around including windshield is a nice look.

 

That's great to hear, Indiana gets a thumbs up in my book.  Even though Jersey has its own stupid tint law which doesn't even get inspected anymore (which is why tons of people have tint in NJ and the cops don't really make a big deal out of it), they would have a field day with windshield tint in this state (unclear windshield/obstruction of view ticket)

 

Only cars I've seen in the People's Republic of New Jersey with tinted windshields are cops and retired cops.

 

And I digress......

[Sizzle Chest]

Looking good!  It came out very nice!

[SYMAWD]

Ahhhh makes perfect sense, yeah 35 all around including windshield is a nice look.

 

That's great to hear, Indiana gets a thumbs up in my book.  Even though Jersey has its own stupid tint law which doesn't even get inspected anymore (which is why tons of people have tint in NJ and the cops don't really make a big deal out of it), they would have a field day with windshield tint in this state (unclear windshield/obstruction of view ticket)

 

Only cars I've seen in the People's Republic of New Jersey with tinted windshields are cops and retired cops.

 

And I digress......

It's amazing how many people have tint in NJ, but I don't understand the appeal of making it so dark.  I was in someone's car at work and I could barely see the image in the side view mirrors.

[Team Adam's]

It's amazing how many people have tint in NJ, but I don't understand the appeal of making it so dark.  I was in someone's car at work and I could barely see the image in the side view mirrors.

 

I had 5% all around on my GTO, and while it looked incredible, visibility was horrible at night.  So much so that after I had the tint done, I only drove it at night probably a dozen times in 2 years before I sold it.

[Sicoupe]

Beautiful job on that 550! Black is sweet when clean:)