Claying

Mike350

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Apr 22, 2018
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Your Mercedes
350 2004 3.7 V6
Anyone used clay to give a really superb finish to their Merc? I was put on to it by a fellow SL owner. Thought it would take hours to do, but it doesn’t! Literally no sweat, as only very light pressure should be applied to the clay and lots of water. Produces really great results, wash the car 1st, then clay it, then dry and polish for a really great shine and colour restoration
 

Wighty

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Sunny Essex
Your Mercedes
W211/E320cdi/2009 and CLK200k 2009
Welcome to the party pal (finally :D) everyone here has been doing it for years .
 
OP
M

Mike350

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Apr 22, 2018
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Your Mercedes
350 2004 3.7 V6
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Not surprised Wighty, but I’ve only just discovered it!
 

vtaylor78

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Jan 5, 2012
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Northamptonshire.
Your Mercedes
E350 CDI Coupe C207 2010 \ SLK 250 R172 2011.
If your going to splash out on a good quality polish and wax it’s a must.
It’s amazing what crud it gets off, leaving the panels ready to receive the wax.
Personally I would have done a 2nd wash after Claying .
 

Binnedit

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Stoke on Trent
Your Mercedes
CL500 W216
Thing is, with clay, its very aggressive to your paint. You are basically dragging all the contaminants which are embedded on the paintwork, out & over the paint, until you fold the clay to a nice clean bit. It will inevitably marr the paint.

Best to do a chemical decontamination beforehand, and try to get as much contamination off prior to claying.

Then follow up with polish & protection :D
 

Chrishazle

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Nr Ashford, Kent
Your Mercedes
S204 2008 C220CDI Elegance Estate Auto, 2008 R171 Facelift SLK280
You're starting the long downhill road of detailing, be prepared for your wallet to suffer! As sort of stated above, for a superb final result preparation is the key. First big mistake all of us have made in the past is using the traditional sponge instead of wash mitts and 2 wash buckets - sheepskin (hand wash only) for the upper bits, microfibre (machine washable at 30C) for the dirtier bits. Then Iron-X or similar to remove brake dust particles and similar, another wash, maybe a specialist tar spot remover and another wash, then clay and another wash - BTW do NOT use a blade to remove the rinse water, just a microfibre drying towel or air blower if you haven't invested in a water filter for the rinse water. Then it's time to inspect the paintwork for swirls etc and possibly/probably invest in a DA polisher, pads and paint correction fluids before you can finally polish, wax and top coat the car.

The results can be spectacular - i returned a 1994 968 coupe I'd owned for many years and routinely washed/ AG SRP waxed from Guards Red Purple to showroom fresh Guards Red, but it took me a couple of weeks doing a little at a time. Benefit was that 4 years later (with "normal" maintenance between) it still looked that good and helped me get a good price when I sold it.
 

vtaylor78

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Northamptonshire.
Your Mercedes
E350 CDI Coupe C207 2010 \ SLK 250 R172 2011.
Detailing can get very addictive!!
I’ve been down that road, when I had more time and cash on my hands.
I occasionally visit “Detailing World” now and then as I enjoy the showroom part of the forum.
There are so many different products out there to spend your hard earned on, but these days I usually stick to Autoglym or Meguiar’s both supply everything you could possibly need at a reasonable price, and are freely available.
 

brian bray

Active Member
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May 20, 2018
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Your Mercedes
1991 300 sl
My '91 300 SL sat outside in the Arizona sun most all of it's life. Sometime earlier it has had a marginal single stage repaint. The red paint required extensive correction beyond removing tar, etc. The paint had faded badly and there was junk piled all over the car (old paint cans, chemicals, etc. I think claying would not have been sufficient. If you want professional quality glass smooth paint that will exceed a new factory paint job, you can achieve that by cut and buff. Be prepared to invest a lot of time.

From a suggestion on this forum, I bought a random orbital buffer, several sets of 6" foam pads, Mequire's #105 and started in. My Tucson garage isn't cooled, so I haven't been able to work more than 20 minutes straight. Bottom Line: For less than $150 I was able to cut and buff the car; but one more time: it requires a substantial labor commitment. The red paint came back and now looks great. We were able to resurrect the A/C (leaking Schrader valve), repair both remote side mirrors (mirror motor not engaged to the glass), and a galloping idle problem (WD loosened everything). I am replacing the hood insulation and installing the restored grill this weekend. There were 2 dents in the driver's door repaired with an $11 dent repair bridge (lots of pulls).

Slight progress every day! Brian Bray
 
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