My first attempt(s) at detailing (Non VAG content) – Part 1

[Rally1]

I did most of this work in November and December, but I only found time recently to put some words down. I also decided to copy alink of this thread to the CrazyDetailer forum section, seeing that I purchased most of my products from them. If you guys don’t like this, please feel free to remove the link! I also welcome any feedback or comments, as this was basically my first attempt.

First up was a 1988 W124 230E Mercedes. (See also Part 2)

This is a very old car (used until recently by my grand parents in law, whom are more than 90 years of age and can not drive it anymore. My in-laws asked me to give the car a “once over” as they wanted to move it down to their beach house in Langebaan - to use it as a spare car there.

Firstly some random before pics

Exterior

Some body damage and scratches were already visible.














I also can’t understand why the older people like putting all sorts of stickers all over the windows?

















The engine bay was in a bad state…







Interior

The interior was a bit of a mess. The door trim panels and carpets were very dirty and seemed like it wasn’t cleaned in years!



The driver’s door trim panel was broken and repaired very badly at some stage…



! I also decided to bin the covers as the seats were looking very good for a 22 year old car.

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Detailing:
1. 1st Wash Down

Following what I learned from reading some of David’s awesome detailing threads, I started with a complete was down of the vehicle using a diluted APC solution (CYCLO CM30 CYCLONIC CLEANER). The paint work looked pretty good for such an old car, except for the odd “battle scar” here and there…

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2. Interior Clean

After the wash down I moved the car into my garage as it started getting dark. I decided to take the front seats out to clean the carpets properly. I used a very mild Cyclo APC solution to clean the trim panels.











I found some bad stains on the driver side carpet which seemed like blood! (Most probably from an accident some time ago)





















I vacuumed the complete interior and used Adams Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner to clean the carpets. I was very impressed with this product as it got rid of most of the stains, including most of the blood. I cleaned the seats with Adams Leather & Interior Cleaner (which I can also recommend) and I finished them off with Chemical Guys - Leather Conditioner Restore. I also cleaned the loose carpets and removed the stickers from the glass





Some after pics of the interior

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3. Chassis & Wheels

The next day I moved the car out of the garage and removed the wheels. I cleaned the suspension components and wheels with Sonax Extreme Rim Cleaner (Awesome Product!). After drying, I sprayed a generous amount of Adams - Invisible Undercarriage Spray on all the suspension parts. I had to clean the wheels a few times with the Extreme Rim Cleaner, where after clayed them with Four Star Detailing Clay. I finished the rims off with Smartwax Rimwax and the tyres with Megs Hot Shine Tyre Gel. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take after pics of the wheels before re-fitting

























I also cleaned the engine bay with APC

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4. Panel damage correction

I moved the car back into the garage and removed the outer side trim panels. I tried removing most of the scratches with the detailing products which I purchased from CrazyDetailer: Chemical Guys Cut 1.5, followed by CG Laser Buff, followed by CG All in one Polish followed by CG Butter Wet Wax. This removed most of the scratches, but some were too deep. I decided to respray all the side trim panels and the bumpers, as it seemed that the colour of all parts was not the same.

Some random shots:















A 50/50 shot showing the improvement on the scratches





















(The bottle of Klippies was shown just to frighten the in-laws)

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5. Part replacement
While waiting for the paint to dry, I also gave the engine a good service, replacing all filters, oil, wiper blades etc. I also gave the air filter housing a new coat of black while it was out.





I also replace the damaged grill and driver side inner door trim panel with parts that I found at some scrap yards. I had to build new parts from the scrap parts and the parts on the car, trying to use the best usable parts where possible. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of the “new” door trim panel, but it came out much better than it used to look. I also replaced the rear chrome wheel arch trim strips.

Some random shots:

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6. Polishing & Waxing

I decided to detail the rest of the car before replacing the spray painted parts, as this was the easier way to do it. I followed a 4 step process using Chemical Guys Cut 1.5 where required, followed by CG Laser Buff, followed by CG All in one Polish followed by CG Butter Wet Wax. The results were pretty amazing. At this stage I still used Megs detailing pads (the manual way) and a Shield Orbital Polisher. I later (see part 2) upgrade to the Megs G220 DA polisher which was a great investment.

















Product of choice:









My garage was a bit of a mess

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7. Final touches

After re-fitting the painted panels, I gave the car a final wash down using Megs Gold Class shampoo. After drying, I used Megs Gold Class Trim Detailer to make the black parts look nice again. I also used Megs Plasti-X to sort out the faded number plates. I could not find a centre cap for the rim, and had to make one from polyprop which I sprayed silver. Finally, I used Mothers® Glass Cleaner to clean and polish the windows.

Some random final after pics.






















































Summary:
This work took me about 5 weeks to complete (only working weekends and some evenings). The most time was spent on the spray painting and preparation, and looking for parts on scrap yards. I was impressed with most of the products, which I purchased, especially all the stuff from Adams. The CG okes can definitely improve their packaging, as the bottles do not work that nice, but the products are good.

Thank you for looking!

[EX-DOHCTOR]

Mate, truely excellent work here.
That car looks amazing!

[dood786]

Great work Paul

[Rally1]

Thanks Scott & Naseem

It's actually crazy what a man needs to do to get into the good books of the in-laws

[Crawler]

Really great work on your detail

[magsta]

Wow
amazing stuff....

[SA MK5]

Job well done sir,

Hope it was worth it

[mk2fanatic]

nice wrk there bru .... try mr muscle oven cleaner to get rid of of those really tough areas on yr mags

[Rally1]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

@mk2fan: I will try the oven cleaner next time, but I was very impresed with the Sonax Xtreme Rim cleaner - it got 95% of the old black stuff off

[Djin]

AWESOME !

I love these types of threads. Well done Paul, it takes allot of time and effor to drop what you doing and take pics and then to post it up.

Car is looking sweeet ! I'm sure you going to get quite a few requests from the rest of the family/friends after this detail.


I agree with what you say about the Chemical guys stuff. Top products but yeah, the packaging could do with a bit more work .

HAve you buffed the golf as yet ?

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Hi Pravin,
Thanks for the kind words!

You are right - lots of friends want me to help them now - for a few beers

I did the GTI also, but Zaa from Autospa also did if for me a while back so I did not have to put so much effort into it. Basically just gave it a good clean and a wax (and did not take any pics )

Thanks again for your advise and excellent service.