My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320 aka The Benz

[packman]

Ugha!!! Probably the potholes doin' your balljoints. That's one of the reasons why I hate DD'ing my MGM. At the very least, your Cedes looks pretty

[sly]

My wife's car needs the headlights polished. meh. Still brighter than the box (not saying much, it needs new bulbs).

[gadget73]

The fade is one of the various things I truly hate about integrated headlamps.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Why I like glass housings... Fawk this polishing mess, I just wipe the crud off my housings at the gas station and they're back to new-looking again... H4 inside too, with the proper cutoff pattern up front on the lens, it ain't quite a projector but it does the job well enough.

Btw there was some urethane-base coating that is perfectly clear and does not mess up with the light spread pattern yet is UV-resistant and keeps your lights fresh-like for a while long. It's actually made for patio decks and stuff, not anything remotely vehicle-related, but it supposedly works quite well on composite headlights as well.

[BigMikeIT]

Ugha!!! Probably the potholes doin' your balljoints. That's one of the reasons why I hate DD'ing my MGM. At the very least, your Cedes looks pretty

Alas, the MGM is "Ride Engineered"

[87gtVIC]

Beginning stages of paint chip repairs....







My set up:











Degreased everything with plenty of wax and grease remover and claybarred the areas as well as leveled out the paint if there were any high edges.

Dotted/dabbed the paint in with a touch up brush (with the fuzzy end removed so it was basically like a toothpicks point).

More to come after I let it all dry. Lots of wetsanding and buffing!

[sly]

That's some dedication. My cars would drive you absolutely insane.

[87gtVIC]

That's some dedication. My cars would drive you absolutely insane.

If they are past a certain point I wouldn't bother as it is just impossible to make it right again. This car is pretty good so I continue the endeavor.





Cleaned up the interior and washed down the engine bay this morning

For the interior just some glass lovin, plastics lovin, some magic eraser on some trim pieces from shoe scuffs, vacuuming, air freshening and leather cleaning and conditioning…

















First time I ever cleaned the engine since owning it (owned since 2014).



Some gently water and simple green with brushes agitating everything made it turn out pretty nice. Cleaned the underside of the hood as well as the engine plastics. Did not focus much on actual engine parts. Finished off the plastics with 303 aerospace protectant.

[sly]

The bumper covers on the 93 are pretty sad, but the 2000 has at least 5 times what your bumper cover has. The rest of the car is pretty mint though.

[87gtVIC]

Finished her off today.

After cleaning and claybaring the entire car I started by sanding all of the touch up spots I preformed Wednesday with 600 grit wet, 1000 and finally 3000. Buffed all of those locations with the coarse cutting pad and 3m HEAVY duty compound on my HF special orbital. I then went over the entire car with my 6” dual orbit palm buffer and Meguiars Ultimate compound. Finished off the paint with Meguiars Ultimate paste wax. She’s perty again.

[sly]

ooo shiny

[gadget73]

If you ever fancy a career change, it seems like you could make a business out of detailing cars.

[87gtVIC]

Some updates…

Placing an order for rear discs and pads as well as front hubs soon. Hubs are a smidge noisy and the rear discs are warped. No bueno.

Also ran over a road cone. Actually slowly turned over it leaving a parking spot. Scuffed the passenger side door trim and practically obliterated the rocker…okay I am over selling that a bit but after all of my repairs the clear coat still remains spidered by how deformed the rocker became once the cone was sliding under it. Also cracked the underbelly pan by the gas tank. The cone also came into contact with the rubber fuel filler hose. Took out a clip securing ABS lines right in the same area.

Made me sad. But zipties and some claying, wetsanding and buffing made it presentable.


The damage:



A lot of deep scratches that went below the clear coat exist yet after the repair.

The damage to the pan:



And my fix:





Heads out so they don’t rub into the plastic gas tank.

All of the black shit off before wetsanding:









After wetsanding with 2k and 3k papers…ready for compounding:



Complete:



Was easy to work on the rocker by jacking the car way up on the passengers side:

[sly]

that was a damn stout cone. I've never had anything less than a construction barrel do anything to any car I've had.

[87gtVIC]

Stout cone or weak car? The rockers are plastic covers. Adds to their fragility.

Spider cracking in the clear.