# First ever attempt with a Rotary on a Merc....13 years of swirls & RDS GONE!



## Matty77 (Nov 7, 2012)

Hi people,

I own a 13 year old Merc CLK55, and while it looks pretty clean from a distance...










...when you get up close and personal (especially in bright sunlight) the 13 years worth of swirls and RDS covering the bodywork were all too obvious!

The bonnet was the worse affected area of the whole car, not only for swirls, but thanks also to the neighbourhood cats who seem to take great delight in sharpening their claws on it.

So, a couple of weeks ago, when the weather was decent (I live in Manchester and decent weather days are few and far between) I decided to begin sorting the bonnet out.

Here's what the bonnet looked like when I began.

This pic shown a small selection of the 20+ cat claw scratches...










And here's one of the swirls, marks etc. It's not a great photo but you get the idea.










Now, when I set about this task I didn't actually own a machine polisher, so I decided to begin the correction process by wet sanding the worst of the scratches with 2000, 2500 and 3000 unigrit and then give it a rub with G3.

If you're interested, I wrote about my first wet sanding/hand polishing experience in my 'newbie' intro thread here http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=309637

After taking care of the worst of the scratches (one was over 12" long!)



















I continued until I'd wet sanded pretty much every scratch on the bonnet, leaving me with this...










Then the hand polishing stage began, and after polishing out one or two of these wet sanding marks I quickly realised my arm would likely fall off before I'd ever get the job finished, and it was time to get myself a machine polisher to finish the job.

I'd taken a machine polishing course down at Shinearama back in January this year so I'd had a little experience of the various types of polishers available. The Rupes bigfoot was my favourite machine on the course, but, having just shelled out for my family summer hols, there was no way I could afford a bigfoot, so I took a look on DW to see if there were any deals on 2nd hand rotaries to be had. An hour or so later a deal was done and I was now the proud owner of a Kestrel SIM180 rotary (thanks Adlem :wave

The Kestrel duly arrived on Tuesday morning and within a couple of hours I was knocking on the door of Shinearama. Phil kindly dropped what he was doing (coincidentally he was machine polishing a nearly new black Merc) and spent the next few minutes helping me out. After checking out my car he suggested I purchased some Scholl S2, Scholl S40, and three Scholl pads - an orange waffle cutting pad, a blue polishing pad and a black finishing pad.

Then I got home and set to work...taping up the bonnet edges, badges, washer jets and covering the windscreen to reduce clean up time afterwards.

Then I got to work, starting with the Scholl S2 on the orange pad before switching to the blue with the S40 and finally the black. The entire polishing process took a lot lot longer than I expected. It was late into the evening before I was done, but boy, was it time well spent because I'd managed to polish my swirled up, scratched-to-pieces CLK bonnet, into this...










...and after a couple of coats of PB wax I was more than satisfied with my first attempt at machine polishing with a rotary...










...but also well and truly knackered and more than ready to put my feet up in front of the TV 

Apologies for the lack of 'during' photos, but being my first attempt with a rotary I was more into perfecting my technique and concentrating on the polishing than stopping every five minutes to take photos.

Before I go I just want to give a big shout out to DaveKG for his rotary guide http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=66024 which I read, and re-read before I started. Invaluable information. Thanks fella :thumb:

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I also took care of the numerous stone chips in the bonnet while carrying out the bonnet correction, painstakingly filling them in using a toothpick with a mix of base coat/cellulose lacquer before leaving them to dry and wet sanding them flat. So I've also got to say a big thanks to the author of the stone chip repair guide in the paint and bodywork section on here.


----------



## will-i-a-m (Nov 4, 2010)

Cracking job!


----------



## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Great job. Bet you're pleased you got the rotary now aren't you


----------



## Natalie (Jan 19, 2011)

Excellent work


----------



## ImDesigner (Jan 19, 2012)

Excellent work there buddy!


----------



## Vossman (Aug 5, 2010)

Stunning finish - well done.


----------



## Matty77 (Nov 7, 2012)

Puntoboy said:


> Great job. Bet you're pleased you got the rotary now aren't you


Yes very. I owe you one buddy 

I was saving a bigfoot but now I'm loving the rotary and it's saved me £300+ :thumb:


----------



## deano93tid (May 8, 2013)

WOW! You have done an amazing job there.


----------



## Kenny Powers (May 29, 2013)

Top job Matty!
And fair play for taking the time to put up the thread - it might give somebody else the confidence to get stuck into a correction like yours.:thumb:


----------



## Matty77 (Nov 7, 2012)

Kenny Powers said:


> Top job Matty!
> And fair play for taking the time to put up the thread - it might give somebody else the confidence to get stuck into a correction like yours.:thumb:


Cheers Kenny


----------



## Shauna (May 1, 2013)

Such a difference!! Unreal reflection shot there, I'd say your more than pleased with results like that!


----------



## adlem (Jul 6, 2008)

Much improved! Great job Matty and I'm glad you're liking it :thumb:


----------



## Puntoboy (Jun 30, 2007)

Matty77 said:


> Yes very. I owe you one buddy
> 
> I was saving a bigfoot but now I'm loving the rotary and it's saved me £300+ :thumb:


I always try to help. I think I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for another one


----------



## D.Taylor R26 (Feb 5, 2012)

great work and nice write up. thanks for posting!

Dave


----------



## Foxx (Jul 5, 2011)

Fantastic work! That's a really awesome recovery. One assumes that the cat has now perhaps met with, shall we say, an industrial accident involving, oh, I don't know, perhaps a Mercedes offside tyre? 

I have to admit, when it comes to wet sanding I get to that halfway point with the rough patches and hit that wall of sheer terror that I have ruined the paint. I always forget that it get's better


----------



## NeilA (May 7, 2013)

Cracking job mate. Just picked up a rotary myself and very impressed with the speed at which you can make progress compares to that of a DA. I have a black CLK 55 plate which i'll be going over in the next week or so.


----------



## Matty77 (Nov 7, 2012)

NeilA said:


> Cracking job mate. Just picked up a rotary myself and very impressed with the speed at which you can make progress compares to that of a DA. I have a black CLK 55 plate which i'll be going over in the next week or so.


Cheers! I'd like to see some pics of your CLK when its done.


----------



## NeilA (May 7, 2013)

Matty77 said:


> Cheers! I'd like to see some pics of your CLK when its done.


No worries, had a go with my DA a few weeks back, first time, not a perfect fnish my any means, but feel i can now take it a stage further with the rotary.
How long did your bonnet take to polish using all three pads?


----------



## Matty77 (Nov 7, 2012)

NeilA said:


> No worries, had a go with my DA a few weeks back, first time, not a perfect fnish my any means, but feel i can now take it a stage further with the rotary.
> How long did your bonnet take to polish using all three pads?


About 3-4 hours in total but the paintwork was horrendous. If memory serves me right I gave it 4 hits with the orange pad + S2, 3 with the blue + S40 and 2 with the black with S40. Being my first time with a rotary I wasn't rushing and now, having worked the whole car, I could definitely do it faster now. You can see the end result in my Showroom post 'CLK55 My First Detail'.


----------

