Strap yourselves in. Merc C180. Magic Detail.

[Magic]

Now then!!

Right, I'll start from the top then. The owner of this car first contacted me with a view of tidying up the paintwork on his mother-in-law's Merc C180. When he arrived I quickly realised this was going to be no ordinary detail! I inspected the car throughout when my client got here, and we decided on a course of action. As of late I've had alot of "can you just" jobs added onto the original, which I don't mind, and put that down to people seeing more and more of what I can do (despite me avoiding DW like the plague).

So it changed from an enhancement / minor correction detail which you've seen me post quite often, to a full fat 2 stage polish with paintwork, dent removal, replacement badges, new stereo, new wing mirror and wheel refurb!!

Started out like this;






















So I got it prewashed with ph-neutral snow, mixed with a little APC to give it some bite around the small work - the gunk oozing out of the window rubbers and around the roof guttering.. proper manky stuff. Didn't take a picture, hands were too dirty. It was washed using the two bucket method - why? even though the paintwork was goosed, I didn't want to create even more work for myself!! Then de-ironised and clayed when indoors;











Cleaned all these panel gaps out around the lights and got rid of the green slime that had gathered on the inner edge of the light. Then I clayed the car.





Taped the car up and started to take some paint readings - some panels had seen paint over the years, could see that without the gauge thanks to some lacquer runs and the usual kind of poor worksmanship that is too common these days Once it was taped up and ready to go, I took shots as I was going along.. starting with the damage;





After polishing, colour looks totally different - it was flat in the above shots, now look at the gloss, and no scratches;









Moving around the car now..



After the first stage;



Final refinement;



The boot, under the strip light before and after (disregard the orange peel, I wasn't tackling that)..





Whilst the badges were off..



Look at the dullness, as if it's been cleaned with an emery cloth


Gloss returned



Rear lights were the same - being plastic, they only needed a single stage, but the difference is still night and day - if I hadn't told you, you would more than likely think they had been replaced





All the time this was going on, the wheels were also being worked on and refurbished...







The bumpers were also taken off to my paint shop for repair - when they arrived back I refined the finish to the same high gloss level as the rest of the car

And finally, after re-washing the car down to remove all the polishing dust I was able to apply the finishing touches. In this instance, 2 layers of Zaino Z2 sealant and after 2hrs a final wipe down with Zaino Z8. Between coats I worked on the interior and dressed all the trim, including the grill and other chrome work, which when added together with 50hrs work overall;





















Thanks for reading! If you made it this far you did well! But I hope you enjoyed looking at my work

Don't forget to 'like' my facebook page to keep up to date with other treatments and services I'm offering..


Best wishes,
Matt.

[wanner69]

Great work again Matt, that merc was really unloved but you've brought it back to life. Big thumps up mate another top job.

[robbo51]

Fantastic Matt
It is totally beyond me how people can let their cars get into such a state..its total laziness and ignorance
Well done mate

[leepickering16]

That looks brand new. Well done Matt.

[Bog]

The looks fantastic.

I know it's a 'cheeky' question but how much would a job like that roughtly cost? I assume quite a bit due to the work involved.

[okehciv]

Top quality work again Matt.

[GoatMasterUK]

Wow.

[Magic]

Thanks for the comments fella's. This is generating quite a stir on other forums, particularly due to the work involved and the obvious cost implecation. The total cost came to just over £1800. Saves people speculating if I just outright tell you lol

Yes it's more than the car's worth but it holds great sentimental value to my client, and you can't put a cost on that...

[robbo51]

Perhaps they'll look after it from now on then!!

[RobertUtley]

surely the cars not worth that much more than £1800 :/ he must of inheritted it or some sort of personal attachment!

That is some serious work gone into that!!!!

(im an idiot and didnt get past reading £1800 or i would of seen about the personal attachment bit durrr)

[John-R]

Very nice work mate, a real transformation!

[Magic]

Thanks guys. I was saying to Wistow I am running out of things to show you really, other than post up work that I've done or am doing - then this came along and I noticed as a forum we've been lacking detailing work this in depth. It's not DW and I don't want to take the p!ss by keep posting up the look at me style threads when it's not a Honda (when I do a Honda I don't mind sharing).

I hope you guys learn stuff from me, or at least find inspiration in some of the bits I show you

[robbo51]

Already have Matt

[Sambuca]

Fantastic transformation, I hate reading these threads with all the detail work.
My other half thinks I have enough cleaning stuff for our car, A bucket, some noodle mits, soft drying towel, some polish, dash cleaner, window cleaner, rain x and some micro fibre cloths.
Reading this makes me want to go internet shopping
Oh, and some tyre black lol.

[Foulsmell]

Amazing job! What sort of price is a normal detail on a tidy car? PM me if you prefer.

[fourthdisciple]

wow ! what a transformation .

[Heavenly]

Lovely!!

[pablolimey]

Excellent work!

[Magic]

Originally Posted by Foulsmell

Amazing job! What sort of price is a normal detail on a tidy car? PM me if you prefer.

It varies tbh. Detailing is such a broad term these days. You hear people talking, and saying things like "I detailed my car this weekend" and when you ask them what they did (or you read about it on a forum) all they basically did was wash and vac it.

My treatments start at £120, and there is no upper limit. This was £1800, I could easily have doubled it if my client had the budget and desire.

Assuming you were interested in a single stage minor correction or something along those lines, typically, you would be looking at something like £360 for a Civic sized hatch. I don't mind discussing prices at all, and I hope it wasn't seen as vulgar by me divulging the price for this detail, it wasn't my intention to do so, but on the forums it's on, there was some speculation and many people questioned how much.

[Foulsmell]

Thanks very much. That's given me a great insight into what's involved.

I take it that the minor correction would be removal of micro scratches back to as new.