# Poor paintwork



## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

Almost two years ago Mercedes kindly paid for two new front wings on my S-Class.

The job was done by Evans Halshaw in Glasgow. I was told when I handed the car in it would take 2 weeks as this was what Mercedes allocated them for the work involved, sadly it turned into almost 4 weeks and would have been longer if I had not put pressure on them to get the car back.

I went to collect the car and almost started crying when I saw the state it was in. There was overspray everywhere including the dashboard, headlamps, roof I mean everywhere, there was score marks on the rear lenses where the sander had touched them, the paint finish could only be described as heavy orange peel. Before taking the car away they told me that if I wanted to book it in they would rectify it, this was after almost 4 weeks in their custody. There was no way that I was going to let them do another thing to my car, I wouldn't let them paint a barn door let alone a Mercedes. There was no way that it could ever be polished up without doing major surgery.










Last week when I had the car up on the ramp I saw for the first time just how bad the shoddy work of Evans Halshaw was, the orange peel was some of the worst I have ever seen. I knew that it was repairable but it did mean that I would have to cut the paint back using wet & dry. I took a sheet of 1200 grade and soaked it for about 10 minuted in warm water which I had added a small amount of car shampoo as a lubricant. I then cut the wet & dry in half and then rubbed the two halves together to remove a lot of the cutting power. This left me with an almost glass like cutting paper which wouldn't remove too much paint from the start. I removed the top layer of orange peel working the wet & dry carefully until I thought I had cut in enough. Mercedes cars do have a slight orange peel effect to their paint and if I had cut too far it would have looked out of place against the rest of the car, this I was trying to avoid.










Once I had removed enough orange peel with the wet & dry I started cutting the paint with Farecla G3 which removed the wet & dry marks. When that stage was completed I applied Farecla G10 which removed the G3 marks. Next I started polishing, by machine using a polish that has a very slight cut until I got to this stage










Now if I was any good with the machine I could have finished the polishing a lot quicker, but I like to finish by hand. That way there is less chance of me damaging the fresh paintwork










I'm usually pretty good at spotting a car that has been repainted, but I would really struggle with this car now that the rectification is completed properly. I'm now happy with the finish and the car should be easier to keep now that I have brought the paintwork up to this stage



















If I had been paying for the work there is no way that I would give Evans Halshaw my money or my car. When MB say they are paying and you will take it to our recommended repairer you really don't have much choice.

I did complain to my MB dealership about the poor quality of the work and all they said to take it back for rectification. That's fine if they are going to give me a like for like car, but when they offer me a Ford Ka, well you know where they can stick that.


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

Shocking job...Nice ramp!!


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## caledonia (Sep 13, 2008)

Very nice work John.
You are becoming a dab hand at this now.
Hope you are well.

Gordon.


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

Cheers Gordon, I'll need to attend one of Dave's weekend courses to get the machining side of it just right.

Tilly will soon be out and about again, the first show will be The National Museum of Rural Life at EK on the 2nd May


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

Grizzle said:


> ...Nice ramp!!


I'm quite chuffed with my ramp


















So what does it look like underneath a 63 years old car?


















One for Gordon :thumb:


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## caledonia (Sep 13, 2008)

Just checked your bookings and crap we have a booking on that day.
I was looking forward to seeing her again.
Keep me posted on future shows.

Look forward to seeing you also, we will be running days though out this year. Just keep an eye out on the post.
Gordon.
Gordon.


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## spitfire (Feb 10, 2007)

Love the garage and the ramp. You've put that space to good use with that correction. I might be able to make it on the second and finally see Tilly:thumb:


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

Hope you can make it Dougie, it's usually a good day with 200 cars on display


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

I'm not sure if I've posted these pictures before and if I have I apologise.

This was my old V-Class which I had for almost 11 years. Someday the S-Class paintwork might look this good :doublesho
Here are a few pictures of my old V-Class after it had been polished. 
The pictures must have been taken a couple of years ago as the garage wasn't built, but the 10 trees have been cut down
The Audi is now deceased after it had an argument with a wall in the Highlands.


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## Mick (Jan 23, 2010)

wow, nice work. some turnaround on the merc. paint. i would have been bricking myself to get in about a panel as big as that with wet and dry. but you good it looking well sweet :thumb:


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## Stevie---Boy (Mar 21, 2009)

Nice job mate, i would not let Evans Halshaw paint a fence. They had an old Focus of mine to put a wing on it and it came back covered in overspray and they had blended it with the front bumper and painted the bumper halfway across and a blind man could have seen the 2 different shades.To top all that all i got was attitude from the Bodyshop Manager and they are an authorised Merc bodyshop?????


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

*Second Instalment (the scary bit)*

Yesterday

When I put the S-Class in for the work to be done at Evans Halshaw I had a look at some of the paintwork they had done on other cars. I have to admit it looked ok(ish) so I thought I would let them paint my bonnet to cover the stone chips while it was in, killing two birds with one stone so to speak. This was supposed to be done again within the two week time frame, as they had a few days to wait on MB giving the go ahead for new wings to be fitted.

To give Evans Halshaw their due, the paint they used seems to be extremely hard as it does take a lot of work to remove any marks. However no matter how good a quality of paint they use, it's only as good as the person who applies it. I must have drawn the short straw and got the village idiot to paint my car as the actual paint job was up to their usual miserable orange peel standard and although they had buffed up the bonnet they had only half buffed it up.

The camera doesn't really catch the orange peel very well but you can just about see it on the bonnet where the overhead striplight is reflecting. 
The paint also lacks any depth and doesn't shine up well.










These two next pictures were taken a couple of years ago, before the bonnet was painted, you can certainly see the difference in the depth of shine










This is the same image rotated 180 degrees










I actually feel nauseous now that I see these two pictures

*Back to the story*

I decided tonight that I would tackle the bonnet. I was going to do this last week, but I bottled it and decided just to give it a cut and polish, but every time I looked at it I was getting annoyed.

With wet & dry to hand I started removing the orange peel as gently as I could. The fluted parts of the bonnet are not too bad and I decided to leave them well alone. I also decided to keep away from the edged as much as the orange peel would allow.










This next picture shows just how far I had to cut into the lacquer coat










I have decided to call it a day now a I don't want my neighbours complaining about the noise. I have started cutting back the paint with G3, there's still a lot more work that needs to be done and I'll tackle this tomorrow


















Today

I started today by cutting further with the G3 then G10

This is as far as I am going with the cutting stages









Next I applied the A grade polish which I am a fan of, hopefully itwill give me a proper shine.

This is the end of the machine polishing. Everything from now on is done by hand, thus eliminating any possibility of damaging the finish









I'm now about half way through polishing by hand, this is a slow laborious task but it really does put the finishing shine on the paintwork.

Here are a couple of pictures of the ceiling and door reflecting on the bonnet



















I'm liking the depth to the paint now









This was last night


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

Things are starting to take shape now. I've been hand polishing on and off tonight and the bonnet is almost finished. Tomorrow it's a case of cleaning up the mess from the machining and tiding up and minor marks I come across


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## caledonia (Sep 13, 2008)

You did not half cut that back john.
Severe correction indeed.
Have you any idea of how many micros of paint your removed in total.??

Please take care when carrying out such severe correction. You do not wish to compromise the finish.

Nice transformation though, and I do know you like the A glaze polish. :lol:
Gordon.


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

My PTG doesn't work on the bonnet Gordon, I'm unsure why that is so I don't know how much I removed.

I reckoned I had nothing to loose if it went wrong, the paintwork looked terrible as it was and if my correction hadn't worked I would have the bonnet repainted by the guy I use who is excellent.

Yes I do like the A Grade, did you try the bottle I left with Dave? If so what did you think. My only complaint is it's a little bit on the thin side for machining


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## caledonia (Sep 13, 2008)

From the limited time I have spent using it. I can see why you like it so much. I found the DA to be a better machine to apply it. Just a couple of drips and work it into the finish. Very nice and easy product to work with.

I could be that your gauge does not read Ali panels or it might just need calibrated.
Have a look at the manual it will give you an idea whether it does work on Fe and Nfe.
Gordon.


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

Finished off the polishing and gave the paint a coat of wax so that it is sealed from the elements, cleaned up the mess from the machining and took a few pictures of my efforts.

Some reflection pictures


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