# Enhancement detail on 1993 Mercedes E320 coupe



## H13BS M (Oct 9, 2008)

Hi there peeps, this is a friend of mines car that I done for him last week. It's a 1993 Mercedes E320 coupe, which was looking pretty tired.




























Unfortunately the sun was not out so you can't really tell how bad the car was. What I can tell you is that it had no old lsp, was very flat and pretty rough at touch. But then if it wasn't, what would have been the point of have a little TLC! At this point I should tell you, that the car in question was decided on having an enhancement detail with the zaino zfx sealant kit to finish it off.

Firstly I started off with spraying the lower half of the car with surfex HD in a pressure pump spray. I left this to dwell to help the removal of the obvious grime and traffic film that builds up on the lower half of the car.










I then moved onto using the surfex HD to degrease the door, boot and petrol cap shut's while using a detailing brush to agitate the grime and get them up nice and clean.





































I then prepared this small kit to use on the arches, tyres and alloys.










This consisted of:
-Dodo juice bucket.
-Bilberry wheel cleaner.
-Supernatural shampoo.
-Captain crevice wheel mitt.
-Ez wheel brush
-Meguiars wheel brush.
-Another detailing brush.

I then went and started by spraying the arches up with surfex HD, left to dwell and then scrubbed using the large meguiars brush until clean.



















Then it was time to re fill my bucket, and clean the tyres. For this I used the surfex HD, and then scrubbed also with the meguiars large brush until clean.



















Then what my bucket looked like after the tyres.










Then I refilled my bucket with a little supernatural, and started on the alloys. Firstly I sprayed the bilberry wheel cleaner on and left to dwell, to help me with the agitation.




























I then used the ez wheel brush to attack the backs of the alloys.










My bucket after attacking the back of the alloys.










I then emptied, cleaned and re filled my bucket to then attack the fronts of the wheels. I used the detailing brush for the smaller parts.










And then the captain crevice for the larger areas.










Much better!










But still the obvious trade mark tar, which I will attack later with clay and then an abrasive pre wax cleaner.










It was then time to snow foam. For this I used:

-Bilt hammer auto foam
-3m car wash soap
-HD foam lance on a karcher pro series.




























I then proceeded on cleaning the intricate parts with another detailing brush using the snow foam to its potential.














































Then a couple of pictures of the car after I rinsed the snow foam off. As you can see not much in the way of protection.




























Then it was onto claying. For this I used the following:

-Dodo juice gentle gray clay
-Meguiars last touch in a dodo juice spray bottle



















This was the clay after attacking just the bonnet!!










After I clayed the paint I then moved onto the windows and then the alloys to aid the removal of oxidations. Once this was done I gave it a quick rinse and moved straight onto washing. For this I used the following:

-Dodo juice buckets
-Meguiars lamb's wool mitt
-Dodo juice born to be mild shampoo




























Once the car was washed using the correct 2 bucket method, I then rinsed it off and proceeded with the drying. For this I used:

-CG Miracle drying towel (for paint and windows)










-Meguiars waffle drying towel (for wheels, shuts arches etc)










I would have also used DJ time to dry, but when there's zero lsp I find it really doesn't work well with the miracle towel. I think because of its 70/30 balance (which obviously makes it super absorbent) it just sticks too much for me. So here's some pictures of the car after clayed washed and dried. As you can see the paints getting better reflections.



















This was now the first day over after 7 hours. Rubbish I know. Then the next day came where I set up for single stage correction. For this I used the following:

-Meguiars G220
-Meguiars last touch
-CG Correction 1
-CG Hex-logic white pad (I know the yellow heavy cutting one is in the picture, for which I can't remember why, but I can assure you I used the white pad!hehe)
-Eurow towel for polish removal
-Dodo juice fantastic fur just to help with the dust etc










Once the car was clean I could take a better look at the paint, which was in a pretty poor condition. If you look carefully at these pictures of defects (which may I say was only a fraction that was on the car) you will spot the outrageous amounts of deep scratches from where it has been severely abused. May I also add the customer had only recently bought the car so it was not him who had inflicted the abuse.





































Anyway I proceeded in masking the car up in blue 3m tape and started the fun! This picture is a before of the bonnet. I do apologise for the poor quality, though I am sure I will get better.










A quick picture of the first section I worked on, with the polish spread ready.










The same section with 4/5 slow passes at 5 on the g220, then brought down to 3 for 2 passes, and wiped clean.










Bonnet above the driver's side headlight before.










Same place after the same process.










And various pictures of the paint as I moved round the car doing single stage correction. As you can see with the defects in hand, and the sever amount of deep scratches the car was really in need of full correction, but I believe it look as good as it could with single. Keeping in mind this was non metallic.
































































After I had completed the correctional work, I gave the car an IPA wipe down and finished up till the following day. Today was 9 .5 hours as the paint seemed pretty hard. Then it was onto the last day, where I added the finishing touches and the zaino zfx protection. I started the day by pre wax cleaning the wheels. For this I used.

-Dodo juice lime prime
-Dodo juice finger applicator
-Dodo juice fantastic fur



















This was left to cure until I could finger wipe, where I then buffed off, and proceeded onto the sealant. For this I used the trusty fk1000p, which I left for 45 minutes and then buffed off.




























I then moved onto the tyre for which I used the following.

-Meguiars gold class gel
-Meguiars tyre applicator



















Then onto polishing the shuts by hand. For this used the following:

-Poorboys blackhole glaze
-Dodo juice finger applicator
-Dodo juice fantastic fur














































The sun then came out for a bit so I took a couple of quick picture.



















Then I moved onto protecting the door shut rubbers, and exterior trim. For this I used.

-Gummi pfledge
-Valet pro protector
-Zaino applicator



















Then I moved onto the choice of protection. For this I used Zaino zfx kit. As I'm sure you know it comprises of the following:

-Zaino z2 with zfx accelerators
-Dodo juice blue for z2 application
-Eurow towel for z2 wipe off
-Zaino z6
-Zaino z8
-Eurow towel for z6/8










A quick picture of mixing the Z2 polishes sealant with the zfx accelerators for application.










This was then applied in the following order.

-Z2 to all paint
-30 min cure
-Buff of Z2
-Wipe over with Z6
-Above applications repeated 2 more times.
-Final wipe down with z8.

Once the protection had been completed, I completed the detail with polishing all the metal up on the exterior trim.



















And as the sun was going down I took some final pictures of the finished product. As you can see I think I achieved what an enhancement detail is supposed to. (Though I'll let you guys decide that hehe!)























































And to finish it off, a photo to reflect on the detail. A car that arrived looking pretty sorry for itself, but left proud to be wearing its classic gun sight once more!










I hope you all enjoyed that and all comments are welcome. (Overall the time spent was 25 hours)

Best regards

Michael


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## PremierDetail (Aug 23, 2008)

Nice work, the coupes are still awesome looking cars nearly 20 years later.


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## H13BS M (Oct 9, 2008)

Cheers buddy:thumb:


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Awesome work m8, and also immense attention to detail.....love the labelled bags


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## Strothow (Oct 29, 2009)

Very nice!


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## marc-l (Mar 22, 2010)

Awesome Job, love old mercs


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## Chris CPT (Dec 16, 2009)

Great job :thumb: I used to have a 280E saloon in a slightly lighter Blue than that with the same wheels. Lovely car!


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## declanswan (Feb 27, 2008)

Cracking work fella on a classic. My old man was looking at these recently and they are worth a fortune these days.


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## rallyman1978 (Aug 8, 2007)

Great job there


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## H13BS M (Oct 9, 2008)

cheers everyone:thumb:


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## twoscoops (Mar 26, 2010)

Thats a brilliant write up and superb work mate. What is the stuff that you used on the door rubbers (Gummi)? Where do you get it and how do you rate it for longevity etc?


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

Nice work there mate, great old motors those.


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## H13BS M (Oct 9, 2008)

cheers guys, as for the gummi pfledge, i believe i ended up getting it from a company on ebay!Hope that helps.


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## Jorge (Oct 12, 2009)

I think some one said this...but....great atention to the details....and the report? Just magnific! :thumb:
That "Star" now is the right spot....a "Star" car...just lovely :argie:

Best regards,

Jorge


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## H13BS M (Oct 9, 2008)

cheers:thumb:


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## Andy300zx (Mar 18, 2010)

Thats is awesome job there mate, well done


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## ijaen (Oct 10, 2008)

Looks amazing! Nothing like a black Benz!


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## H13BS M (Oct 9, 2008)

Cheers! Its actually dark navy blue.


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## FrazzleTC (Jul 4, 2009)

That's a fantastic job on a beautiful car, very well done.


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## Divine (Jul 16, 2009)

Good job 

Just out of interest, did you clay the car before you washed the paintwork? If so, wrong way round buddy :thumb:


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## gmcd (Feb 6, 2010)

Love these cars and it's still looking good 17 years on.


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## n80krr (Mar 31, 2009)

immense attention to detail. lovely looking motor.


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## EliteCarCare (Aug 25, 2006)

Great turnaround there Michael. :thumb:

Alex


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