1957 Mercedes 190sl paint restoration

[Guest JeanClaude]

Hi there, new member here. After finishing this car I figured many here would enjoy the read and pictures.

I feel it's important to state that the owner was not looking for 100% on the paint or the chrome bits worked on. But rather, a price point with good bang for the buck. I would rather remove bits and work on them, but given the circumstances I must do what is requested of me and I do happily!

Enjoy and feel free to ask me any questions!

This '57 190sl has 25 year old paint, 25 year old leather and the original 50+ year old chrome. It received a level 2 treatment along with an interior detail and a few bits got polished.

When we arrived she sat in fairly clean condition. Though, as you will see, the paint was in need of heavy correction.

Lower body, door jambs and seals and wheels were treated with p21s TAW. I didn't feel comfortable using a wheel cleaner on the painted wheels.

The emblems on the deck lid could be removed. Due to the condition of the hardware of emblem on the hood and hardware for the latch on the deck lid the owner and I decided it would be better to work around them.

Body was washed with ONR.

Read lamps and rubber seals were removed. Rubber seals were cleaned with 1z Deep Plastic Cleaner and conditioned with 1z Vinyl-Rubber Care and Protectant prior to being reinstalled after the polishing process. Many years of grime build up behind those seals.

Clayed with Detailed Designs clay.

Top was bagged off and bits that needed protecting were tapped off.

Now was the time to find out how she would really clean up. I could see everything from heavy marring, scratches to that heavy stuff(between marring and heavy scratches) that tends to take multiple passes. Through the correction process we used a Flex 3401 and Makita rotary along with purple wool pads, orange pads, white pads and gray pads. The cocktails used were SIP, m105, m205 and p21s 100%. This client did not ask for any wet sanding but there were a few key spots that really bothered me. So I went ahead and cleaned up 2 different spots. I will note the location as well as describe what it appeared to be. Not all areas that could use wet sanding got it as it would cost more than the client wanted to spend.

Enjoy.

Bit of 50/50

[Guest JeanClaude]

This was one of the areas that need some extra attention. Notice the quite large spot towards the middle. It appeared to be a very large, and in charge, bird spot. Polishing put a dent in it but it was still a nightmare to see. 2,000 grit paper was able to fix it.

Another spot where there was heavy scratches. The paint was not original yet it still read only 130~145 microns. I did not feel comfortable getting very aggressive. So I hit it will one pass of 2,000 grit paper and polished. It removed approximately 97% of the scratches.

More 50/50 love.

Tail lights removed and then chrome taped off.

The difference is a little subtle but it did improve the overall look. Left side was polished and right side is before polishing.

Rear emblems had years of hard water spots. Amazing what Menzerna's metal polish can do with metals.

Before

After

Menzerna metal polish getting to work on interior.

Dropped the ball a bit on the photos here. I already started on polishing the top half of the blinker wheel(metal ring on the steering wheel) prior to taking photos. The bottom half is how the whole thing looked prior to starting.

[Guest JeanClaude]

After

The client was not looking for absolute perfection on the chrome. We discussed removing parts for polishing but he was happier with the 80% price with parts in place. Not all bits were polishing either. It was more of a situation where the main bits were taken care of...hot spots if you will.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Interior got leatherique, the full line of 1z interior products.

Finale

[MarrsCars]

That's a lot of work for no responses! I love cars that still show their original patina but clean up well. I'd rather have that car than one that's been restored to 100-points, call me crazy.

I think detail work is interesting, especially on high-end exotics or classic cars because you really get to spend time on them and by the end of the job, you know the cars (literally) inside and out, maybe even more so than the owners!