My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320 aka The Benz

[87gtVIC]

Washed her last Wednesday......



And this morning I decided to treat the headlights as they were getting slightly discolored again..

Below are them masked off and ready for clay bar, sanding (3000 grit), compound and sealant:



Below you can see the drivers side complete with all steps BUT the sealant...the passengers side remains untouched after the 3000 grit sanding..



Here are both sides complete and ready for another season:



I then took out my summer floor mats and dropped in the winter rubber ones....The summer mats shown some wear from the season so I decided to use my upholstery extractor on it:



It pulled up A LOT of dirt from the mats:



The drivers side mat turned out great. Ready for next year:

[87gtVIC]

Some milestones and fun mileages the car reached:

[jaywish]

Nice.

[sxcpotatoes]

Nice.

'Nice!' is what the kids say online now when they post a picture that has 69 in it. The numbers, not the act.

[87gtVIC]

Did an ONR wash with ammo hydrate wipe up today and spruced up the wheels with a foamer and some gold class soap. Finished the wheels off with some flash grape gloss spray wax and the rubber with ammo mud. She needed it. Now I am a happy camper again...













Anyone spot the new jewelry on her?...Anyone. Kinda hard to see but I popped this on.......I kinda like it the way before though...lol





I paint matched it a while back. Anyways bring on winter....




EDIT. A few weeks back I pulled off the bling bling chrome grille. I did not want it to go through a winter. No idea how it would have fared so I put the stock one back on.

[87gtVIC]

Getting up there!

[sly]

Long ways to go.

[Rodentkiller]

A merscedes they are bullet proof reliable but you pay dear for the parts and serviceing if you do not work on your car yourself.

[BigMerc96]

A merscedes they are bullet proof reliable but you pay dear for the parts and serviceing if you do not work on your car yourself.

That is true of most German cars. I know my 2006 Audi with 131k miles still runs and drives like a new car. However I also have a 1" thick folder of service records from when the PO got it in 2009 with 27k till I got it in 2018 with 129k, and I bet if you add all that up its over $10k (big ticket was a trans rebuild @ 57k miles because all Audis built before midyear '06 had faulty CVT control modules that make the CVT eat itself). Hell, routine stuff like oil changes cost the PO $150 because it takes 7 quarts of synthetic. I would not have ever bought the thing if it didn't come with such complete service records, I would never buy any German car out of warranty without service records.

[87gtVIC]

Winter update...All is well.

[87gtVIC]

Swapped out the winter shoes for the summers. As well as the stock grill for the bling one. While I was in there I washed out the wheel wells. I also added new used center caps to the wheels to match my hood ornament/badge.





My rear window spoiler was getting tired looking. I dont know what happened to it other than it being finished poorly. SO I bought another. lol Figured it lasted about 4 years so its not too bad. The old one was all dried up and the material looked like it was cracking. It did come off the rear window in one piece without shattering much to my amazement.





I washed out the engine bay from winters nastiness:





I also threw in the summer floor mats...which are just the original material Mercedes ones.

[87gtVIC]

Decided to get my winter wheels redone.

Last May I sanded out all of the corroding aluminum on them and reclearcoated them. Somehow after sitting for 6 months and then driving them one week the finish decided to degrade and crack. Whatever.

Sunday I tried to strip the coating off the wheels and I was having no luck. I kinda made a mess of things. I said f it and brought the wheels into my tire place Monday and picked them up today (Tuesday(next day)) finished up.


Here is how they looked just before I started my attempt at refinishing:




I got the faces redone in one single color of powder; medium hyper silver.



The backside are even finished in black to make the fronts of the wheels stand out even more.





They even look like a dark chrome in certain lighting:



I am pretty happy with the outcome.

[gadget73]

Looks good. Your tire place does nice work. What did that run if you don't mind my asking?

[87gtVIC]

Looks good. Your tire place does nice work. What did that run if you don't mind my asking?

Yeah they do okay. Cant complain with the turn around.

150 per wheel. Dismount tire. Sandblast, powder coat front and rear, new valve stems, remount and balance.

When I had the Crown Vics HPPs redone two years or so ago it was 125 per.

[gadget73]

Not too bad really. Especially if the turn time is that fast.