Black C230 Kompressor

[OctaneGuy]

I visited a new client today to inspect his Mercedes. He's a coworker and friend of another good friend of mine, and she asked me to take good care of him.

The story goes like this:

A year after he bought this car, he got broadsided by a slow moving vehicle. The entire left side had to be repainted. Body reworking was limited to the doors and the rear quarter panel. When the owner picked up the car, he thought it looked great. A few days later, while at the local car wash, someone complimented him on the nice car, but wondered who wrecked the finish? Not understanding what he meant, they pulled the car into the sunlight and suddenly he saw all the machine swirls.

A visit back to the body shop didn't do any good. They told him that it's supposed to look all scratched, and that was perfectly normal. He consulted with another body shop who said he would have to repaint.

So I offered to pay him a visit, a 40 minute drive, and do a quick inspection. This is what I saw:











The hood had swirls too typical of a black car, but not like the buffer swirls on the side.


After having driven so far, I wasn't going to leave without having a bit of fun so I decided I ought to do a test spot, and taped off a section that was flat, and heavily swirled.



About 15 minutes later after using my rotary with M83, followed by the PC with M83 and M80 and M21 by hand, this is how it looked





The finish was darker, and swirl free and a day and night improvement. The customer thought it was an optical trick and said after he washed the car, would the swirls return? I assured him they wouldn't. He told me he also had an orbital buffer that he bought many years ago. He pulled it out--it was a single speed (Waxman???) with a foam pad that was disintegrating. He's like I also have a bonnet---it was a terry bonnet, very rough. I told him, if he wants to avoid those swirls, don't use this tool, and stick to the microfibers--which he did have a good supply of.

On Friday I will return to buff out the entire car, and will be posting the rest of this extreme makeover during the weekend.

[Tim Lingor]

Hey Richard,

I look forward to your write-up! I have a feeling from what I see in the pictures, that one is going to be a bit of work! But I am sure you can handle it!

Tim

[OctaneGuy]

Hey Tim!

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm looking forward to working on this car. After working on too many red and silver cars lately, black is a welcome change!

Richard

Originally posted by 2hotford
Hey Richard,

I look forward to your write-up! I have a feeling from what I see in the pictures, that one is going to be a bit of work! But I am sure you can handle it!

Tim

[showtime]

Is is just me or are body shops just horrible at buffing out cars? I don't think I've seen one person ever post a good buff job by a body shop. Just yesterday I was talking to a guy and he brought up how a bodyshop swirled up his Jeep after it was repainted. I do work for a dealership that has a body shop and sometimes the cars that haven't been touched in their lives look better before they went in there. Of course I get the pleasure of buffing them all out again.

Why are body shops like this and why the complete lack of knowledge? I know there's some excellent body shops but they are few and far between.

[Marcus]

Is is just me or are body shops just horrible at buffing out cars?

It's not only you, there's at least one more person - me. When I got parts of my car repainted last year the guy polished the car with some heavy cut 3M product (well, that's ok as such). The problem was that he didn't remove the leftovers before doing another paintjob (like, the clear coat or something) so there was huge piles of dust/goo painted in the cracks and such...

Well, he had to redo the work of course, but just to think that he can get away with such sloppy work? My god! (It actually ended up with him repainting the car 3 times and then had to return the money to me, I went to another body shop)

/M

[Rob66]

Hey Richard

Good job looking forward to seeing the end result! Talking of dealers detailing cars, was passing a SAAB dealer today while working in Sheffield and they were taking unregistered cars including the new 9-5 through an electronic CAR WASH .

Pointed it out to my colleague who couldnt see why i was so concerned eek: . Poor cars

Rob

[MandarinaRacing]

Originally posted by OctaneGuy

A visit back to the body shop didn't do any good. They told him that it's supposed to look all scratched, and that was perfectly normal.

Alex

[SiriusRIMZ]

Originally posted by showtime
Is is just me or are body shops just horrible at buffing out cars? I don't think I've seen one person ever post a good buff job by a body shop. Just yesterday I was talking to a guy and he brought up how a bodyshop swirled up his Jeep after it was repainted. I do work for a dealership that has a body shop and sometimes the cars that haven't been touched in their lives look better before they went in there. Of course I get the pleasure of buffing them all out again.

Why are body shops like this and why the complete lack of knowledge? I know there's some excellent body shops but they are few and far between.

Body shops and dealers most of the time have some kids or some bondo man do the quick detail job. They dont know how to use the products, the use the rubbing compound to remove any large defects and then call it quits.

On the otherhand, my Auto Body teacher take the time to fix any swirls, and cares about the result. Normal shops care about how many cars they can get in and out while maxing on profit.

Find the shops that care, and ask to see their procedure for detailing a car's finish.

[Buellwinkle]

Those old 2003 MB's had very soft paint, looking at it for too long will cause swirls. On a positive note, they come off easily with a PC and even #80. It's amazing how little many bodyshops know about paint care. That's why I scope out a bodyshop and see some of their recently completed work to see if it meets up with my standards, many don't.

[Big Ben]

SiriousRIMZ,
There are a few exeptions but unfortunately most people that work in body shops have very little training in detail buffing and polishing, most body shop are only interested in doing the job that you 'paid' for and get the car out the door ASAP.

Final detailing of a vehicle after refinishing is supposed to be part of the refinishing process where they are supposed to inspect the vehicle, finess sand paint flaws, touch up paint chips on unrepaired panels and final clean and detail the vehicle for "improved customer satisfaction!!!"

The problem is that all of this takes time and most shops don't have the man power to do all this, so the painter will inspect the vehicle, repair paint flaws and maybe polish some ajacent panels then turn over the vehicle to the clean up boy (usually someone in training) who's job is only to make the car look good which usually mean vacuum the interior and wash the exterior.

I have to emphasize that there are exceptions, and some body shops goes the extra mile for customer satisfaction. But then again you get what you pay for!!