Paint correction - 2018 MB GLE-Class

jagdriver727

Site Donor 2021
Joined
Oct 30, 2018
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585
Location
Gainesville, FL
I forgot to take ‘before’ photos but the results should speak for themselves. Much to my dismay, this car is driven through an automatic wash tunnel on an almost daily basis. She likes the idea of always having a clean car for $25 a month but doesn’t comprehend how it’s ruining her paint :rolleyes:
It was BAD. Used Meguiar’s M105 heavy cut, followed by M205 finishing polish, M9 swirl remover, M7 show car glaze and finally M26 Yellow Wax. All done with a Porter Cable rotary between 1100 and 1400 RPM, using Harbor Freight pads.
Didn’t touch the interior; I’ll worry about that another week.
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(Not my business card; just what I happened to have in my wallet)
 
VERY well done. You've got a permanent customer as long as the swirl o matic car wash process continues. Hard to tell in that lighting but finishing with a rotary without holograms takes talent.
 
VERY well done. You've got a permanent customer as long as the swirl o matic car wash process continues. Hard to tell in that lighting but finishing with a rotary without holograms takes talent.
We have fairly good lighting inside the building and it looked great; I haven’t gotten to see it in the sunlight yet as it’s been cloudy all week. If need be, I’ll hit it with the DA and finish it again.

Unfortunately not a customer— it’s the girlfriend’s car. So this one was on me
 
What's the point if she is going to run it back through the car wash? It will look like garbage with the next wash. I applaud your work but you can only do this so many times as you well know.
 
How many times can you do this until the clear coat/paint is compromised?
Without a paint depth gauge who is to say. Every time you do a full correction clear coat is sacrificed, making the underlying paint more susceptible to UV damage.
 
Without a paint depth gauge who is to say. Every time you do a full correction clear coat is sacrificed, making the underlying paint more susceptible to UV damage.
Most of the UV protection is contained within the first 1/3 (or so) of the clearcoat as well.
 
Curious, how could this be? Why isn’t it unified throughout the whole clear layer?
Supposedly there is some mitigation of the UV Inhibitors in the clearcoat - they tend to float towards the top.


There have been a few TSB's by OEM's and various paint suppliers stating that paint warranty is void and/or there is a risk of premature failure if more than a certain amount of clearcoat is removed. Seems like the industry standard is to never remove more than .3 mil (at least for Ford and Hyundai) or else "repainting is required," which I assume is due to the UV issue mentioned.
 

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Without a paint depth gauge who is to say. Every time you do a full correction clear coat is sacrificed, making the underlying paint more susceptible to UV damage.
Next time he only needs to use the finishing polish or show car glaze before the final wax.
 
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