Today, I detailed a very nice Mercedes E500 both inside and out. It belongs to a very successful interior designer/decorator who uses the car every day to travel around. The car seemed to be fairly well cared for but as soon as I started tackling the exterior, it was clear that the car was heavily contaminated with fallout and had no protection whatsoever. I went through 2 bars of riccardo clay (probably could have gotten away with 1 1/2) but the improvement in gloss and smoothness was well worth the effort. I hit it with XMT360 AIO which did a fantastic job of further cleaning the paint while giving some minor correction. I then glazed and waxed it whilst attending to the remaining trim, tires, and interior intricacies. Products and Process: -Pre-soak with ONR at QD strength -Wash with DP Rinseless W+G -Wheels done with CG Diablo (good stuff!) and the tires+wells with OPC 3:1 -Clayed with Riccardo and ONR QD -Rinsed and dried -XMT360 and a white CCS pad via PC -CG EZ Creme Glaze -Collinite 845 -Glass cleaned with AG Fast Glass -Interior vacuumed with my new Shop Vac -Plastics and leather cleaned with OPC 5:1 -All plastics and leather treated to 303 Protectant -CG stripper scent applied -Final wipedown with DG Aquawax On with the pictures- The car looked a bit tired, and the wheels were really in a bad way. My new Raceglaze XL wheel brush. A reference for the size of it against 17" wheels Now, for the afters: German Engineering: All in all, it was a rewarding detail and I was especially happy with the way the interior finished. The wheels had some heavy staining that I could not remove for the life of me (clay, XMT360 tried) but they look much better. I also tried to limit the number of photos I took so you guys aren't constantly bombarded by so many. Thanks for reading! Total time invested: 5 hours. MPD = Martell Professional Detailing
Thanks everyone! Sorry it took me so long to respond, I always appreciate the comments. I was actually unhappy with the way the wheels turned out; every single one had stains that looked like 'runs' in the way of lighter streaks down the wheels. The wheel finish was very cloudy and looked almost dry, like oxidised paint. I think that the previous detailer left an acidic wheel cleaner on for too long, but I tried clay, XMT360 AIO, and finally Lusso Revitalising Creme and none even touched the staining. Oh well, the car did turn out nice! The wheels were gross though, but the car came up nicely.
