560SEC Improvements Part 2

Today I continued working on the 560SEC. I gave the car a quick wash to get a better sense of the condition of the paint. Overall it is pretty good for its age, with the usual minor chips and scrapes here and there. The worst is a small amount of damage on the passengers side in front of the door (behind the plastic lower trim). I still think this can be a good car with some improvements.

My plan was to remove the after market chrome wheel arch trims. I have removed them from both the 450SLC and my 300SE. […]

The DS is that little bit shinier

A few months ago I had started polishing the DS using Auto-glym paint pro and the cheap Chinese polishing machine I bought on eBay.

I achieved good results on the roof, but overall there was much to do.

Today I used stage 1 on the bonnet and front wings. Took a few hours but much better than before. In the first photo you can see the front 1/3 of the bonnet has been done – compare the reflection of the flurecent lights with the rear of the bonnet that had not.

In the 2nd photo, you can see the results […]

Polishing day

Today spend more time working on the paintwork of the DS. I finished wet-sanding the car, and the lower panels have all been polished with both stage 1 and stage 2 of the Auto Glym Paint Pro I have been using.

Overall the car is looking much better. Despite going through the paint in a few places where it was very bubbly, there is now some shine on the paint and the rear wings especially are not a matte finish anymore. I will do one more go of the stage 2 polish when I get some time.

I also spent […]

Almost Shiny DS

The DS was painted at home by the previous owner which resulted in the paintwork being extremely dull and rough. Today I had the whole today aside, so I wanted to get started on improving the paint.

I started with a wash as the car was a little dusty. From there, I used a clay bar to try and remove any contaminants in the paint before I wet sanded it. I started with 1,500 grit and then went to 2,000 grit. While many of the videos I found on YouTube used a sanding block, I found it easier without one.

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