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E55 Winter Prep / 100k mile detail


AudiOn19s

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I coated the 'Benz about 3 years ago and it was finally time to break it all down and start over. This is my wife's daily driver so it sees any and all elements and needs the best protection it can get.

 

I have to admit, this is the first time I've really done a full on detail on anything in quite some time and it was pretty fun to pull all the old tools out and go at it.

 

Day 1:

Started off with standard issue wash to get things going.

 

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Bought Megs ultimate wheel cleaner a couple months ago but first time using it to clean / decontaminate the wheels, did a pretty good job.

 

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Next onto body decontamination. IronX first followed by good old fashioned clay bar treatment.

 

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Couple of tar issues left over on the wheels / body were spot treated with some Tarminator

 

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After Drying it was time to address the nasty drivers side headlight. Passenger one was replaced a couple of years ago and the drivers side unit is really starting to show the effects of the sun. Wetsanded with 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 3000 / 4000 sanding disks via the 3" orbital then finsihed with polishing. End result isn't perfect but it's much better and doesn't stand out as badly vs the nearly new light on the other side.

 

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Since we've got the little guy out I moved onto the B pillars of the car and corrected those:

 

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Now onto the big defects. A rather large piece of wet drywall fell from the ceiling of our garage a few months ago and while it didn't do massive damage, I did have to break out the big guy to go after some of the defects. Got 95% of them gone without any sanding

 

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Did my walk around on the car and marked all the rest of the smaller defects with blue tape for them to be addressed as I was polishing. Thankfully with the coating on the car and the fact it was fully corrected prior to installing the coating before not a TON of work was needed here. Utilized Microfiber cutting pads and Meguiars microfiber compound for this stage via a standard orbital machine with 5" backing plates

 

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Final polishing was via my favorite finishing polish of all time, Menzerna PO85RD and a white foam pad. Wish this polish was still around I understand their newer 4000 version or whatever it is now is not quite the same.

 

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Great write-up, Andy! I know that wash bay...;)

 

I've got a bottle of Iron-X I've used from time to time on wheels....is it OK to use after a wash directly on body panels or does it need to be diluted? What did you use as a spray lubricant for the clay bar in the Zep bottle, just soapy water? Looks like Optimum No-Rinse...

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Final Prep for the coating, went around the car twice with alcohol / water mixture to remove any polishing oils that might be left on the surface

 

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Onto the coating. I've always been a fan of Optimum's coatings but I've become a bit of a CarPro fan over the last few years so I thought I'd keep it in the family and use cQuartz UK edition. Day one consisted of 1 coat to the entire car followed by a second coat on the horizontal surfaces

 

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Black Plastic bits got dressed with Black Wow:

 

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Finished and tucked in for cure period

 

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Day 2:

 

Whole car got 1 more coat of cQuartz UK

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...and after 1 hour cure time I went over the whole car with Reload for the final gloss boosting touch

 

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And the final result after 2 days of hard work. Hopefully she's good to go with no major service needed for another 3 years or so.

 

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Great write-up, Andy! I know that wash bay...;)

 

I've got a bottle of Iron-X I've used from time to time on wheels....is it OK to use after a wash directly on body panels or does it need to be diluted? What did you use as a spray lubricant for the clay bar in the Zep bottle, just soapy water? Looks like Optimum No-Rinse...

 

I've never had an issue with IronX full strength but I use it directly after a wash so there's water on the surface of the car that dilutes it.

 

Clay lube is a mix of water and waterless wash product similar to No-Rinse, in this case it's CarPro Ecoh2. Matter of fact my Quick Detailer I use post washing is the same combo with Reload added in. Tim's got a formula for those products that works perfectly...I'd have to look up the mixture though as I don't have it in front of me.

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car looks great. Random question..... how are the tiles in the garage holding up?

 

This is Scott’s (Sledhead36) building, I just store my cars there so he might better be able to answer that than me. That said, other than discoloration on the white tiles they hold up quite well.

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I see this car at work every day. Nice job on the detail. Looks very clean. BTW she always parks at the end of the row, all the way to the far lane so it doesn’t get dinged up.

 

Ha, thanks...Sounds like she actually listens to where I tell her to park!!! She hates it on days when it rains.

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Nice work. Do you have any recommended YouTube vids on proper ceramic coating application? Also what did you use to remove the ceramic coating

when you stared?

 

To remove an existing coating you need to mechanically abrade the surface....so polish it. The two polishing steps I did took care of that.

 

As for application...here's a decent video. Each product is going to have a different flash time before you remove it from the surface, make sure you read the directions on what the product your using recommends. cQuartz was like 1-2 minutes depending on temp and humidity...I've seen some that go out to like 5-10 minutes before you level high spots on it. No matter if you polish before or not, make sure you use alcohol or some other fancy pre-mixed prep product prior to applying the coating to insure the surface is bare and ready.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Somehow I missed this thread when you put it up. VERY NICE! Always loved that car but even more so now. Not gonna lie, it needs pics with your wife in it though :)

 

 

Clay lube is a mix of water and waterless wash product similar to No-Rinse, in this case it's CarPro Ecoh2. Matter of fact my Quick Detailer I use post washing is the same combo with Reload added in. Tim's got a formula for those products that works perfectly...I'd have to look up the mixture though as I don't have it in front of me.

 

 

1oz CarPro ECH20 to 20oz Water with about 3oz or so of CarPro Reload. I mix it up in a 32oz bottle, shake well before each use. Works great.

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