2011 Mercedes Water Spot Removal Detail

Recently completed job, this car would have the most severe damage other than deep RIDS and marring on a new car I have ever encountered, in my opinion the car was left outside for a long period of time with no protection at all as the there was acid etching from bird droppings on all the horizontal surfaces of the car (Hood, roof and trunk) the etching was so bad that even the plastic shroud covering the windshield wiper arm was uncorrectable and will have to be replaced.

The job was originally a new car prep and a mobile job and my thought was light colored brand new car = "Easy job" how wrong I would be as the car required 26 hours of work(Some spots etched to the point of not correctable due too less than 90 microns of finish which tells me a repair was attempted on the worst damage on the roof.

Here is the beginning.







Customer rquested the badges removed.









With the light color the pics do not show the various pockets of damage easily(later at the Mercedes dealer thier service guys confirmed the damage and this was AFTER all the correction).



First round of wet sanding.







Another pic of the damage.



After aggressive compounding step.



After medium polishing step.

 

50/50's of the trunk area, note the dull film of hard water(reclaimed water most likely) on the right side of the tape line.





Gloss and clarity restored.



Sanding spot on the hood.



Close up of acid etch damage.



More pics of the damage.



Same area after correction.



Hood looking "As new" again.



Here is where I earned my money............... under the hood there was hard water etch but it was really "Baked in " with the heat of the engine.







Here I am rubbing on the water spot removing gel..........for hours!!!!.



There was also deep scratches on various areas of the car like it had been driven through some hedges or something? on the left side of the lower bumper there was a 4" area where the scratch went trough to the primer!!!!! just horrible new delivery condition.



All fixed......



On the lower part of the same area.



Corrected.



The tow hook had some compound on the edge, which tells me a attempt at correction was tried there as well which was a fail.



Taking care of this little problem.

 

During part of the correction I pulled of and prepped the front areas to be wrapped by Premier, here is the car @ thier facilty.





Wilson of Premier doing his thing.





After the car was wrapped, it was back to my shop just across the freeway for quite a bit more work.



After correction.



Two more spot that were wet sanded.



After correction.



Even more sanding................



But the results were worth it.



Stubborn etch near trim on the windshield.



Working that area which seemed like an "Eternity".



More pics of the etching.









Before I started working on the side mirror water spots my "Buddy" a nieghborhood cat was letting me know it was time for dinner.



Corrected.

 

great work as always!

 

"B" pillars were predictably in bad shape.



Starting to come back to life.



The finish starting to look better.





Dismounted the wheels to clean the wheels and seal them as the client wanted, the wheel wells were the only part of the car saved from "The horror" of the water spot etching.



Tightened up the rotor/hub assembly and polished/sealed the very attractive caliper.



The day before the client and I were wondering who made the O.E. wheel for Mercedes and I have seen Ronal before on O.E. wheels and Brabus, but they turned out to be Borbet.



Clean and sealed "Tightness".



On the home stretch........ I pulled a "All nighter to get this car completed by 10:00AM-12:00 noon the next day so the car would not get caught in the forcasted rain coming in.



Polishing the tips about 3:00AM, the cat you saw in the earlier pics stayed the whole night over by the wall on some of moving blankets(lol) as it was cold that night and he came thru under the gap in the roll up door. He does this if I am working late and will watch me buff cars for hours if I let him(When Bing was out last @ SEMA he saw the cat visit and do this).



Rubbing hard to get at water spots in the cowl area.



AMG tightness.



Remember the earlier pics of the waterspots.............all gone, after almost having my arms fall off.



Interior did not need much(thank goodness).

 

Waterspots ruin everything eh? Car looks great. So have you converted from CG WSR to MV Splash or do you find that each has it's own merits?

 

Time for "Sun pics" before the rain.

 

Without the "Splash" I would have been up S**tcreek as I could not not level anymore than I did due to 80-100 micron levels so I had to correct "Chemically" thanks to the dealerships detailers with "Rocks in a bottle" with a wool pad that had not been spurred in who knows how long.

I have found the Mark V product to be a little stronger than the CG, but the CG product still works very well and if you have do not discard it unless you really want more strength.

 

Cool thanks for the heads up. I guess I'll use the rest of this up then order Splash. I had some bad waterspots on my side mirrors and I would up using GS Glass Scrub on a red foam applicator with glass cleaner as lube and it actually cleared it up pretty quickly.

 

fantastic job. Those red calipers are an eye sore on a Benz.

 

Well Mercedes obviously did not listen to your input................(lol).

 

Love the car, hate the colour.

 

Another person Mercedes forgot to get approval from..............:whistle: I know that opinions vary... thus the addage " YMMV" as I think the color is beautiful and remindes me of Ferrari's color "Azzuro California".

 

Great job I enjoy reading your write ups every time Bob.:thumb:

 

great job, i think the color really helps bring out the lines in that car. it looks great.

 

Great turnaround, that must have been overwhelming to see that car and know the work you had in front of you. Awesome work as always.

-Kody-

 

i think the cat was a detailer in his previous life.

 

If he was.............his business went under because all this cat likes to do is eat "Snacks" I put out for him and get snoozetime at all times (lol).

 

The Benz looks fantastic great turn around

 

how do you like the mark v splash? I never knew anyone else out there really encountered water spots. I almost thought that was a only in hawaii type thing. Nice to see even the good guys using such a product. Doesn't make me feel so bad. I personally have never used it but have used similar products.

Car looks great for sure though.