johnand

Some goodies that I dropped off at the body shop today:



Euro Impact Strips, and a new B-pillar cover for the driver's side door, that had a dent in it years ago, that I new got around to installing.

Took a look at the progress so far, and the car is looking good. They are painting today. If all goes well, I was told I could have the car by next Wednesday

johnand

Not yet Tommy, haven't had a chance to pull it apart. I will soon though, as I know there are a lot of you that are curious .
Yes, but I really don't like the way they look on dark cars, plus I was quoted almost $1000 for full bumper, lights, part of the fenders, and half the hood

I have a high end spray gun, and was thinking of doing it myself, but not quite skilled enough to pull off a good job on the MB. Just easier to have it all taken care of at once.

That is an upgrade. They wanted to give me a Chevy Aveo

Xhale707

http://triton.heritagewebdes********/...otic_cars.html

Check out this place about 20 miles from my house a lambo for 24 hours for 400 bucks isn't bad at all

Glyn M Ruck

A Daewoo Aveo - how awful!

cpbeasley

Before the pair of w203s, I bought my wife & I each one of these, new, about a year ago. We were trying to go "cheap", but ultimately we just couldn't subject ourselves to them anymore. I even put some cheap american racing wheels and eibach springs on mine attempting to make mine more tolerable. What a lost cause. Wife's A/C cycled on and off in such long duration that she would call me crying in the middle of most summer afternoons. I drove a 5 spd with the sporty appearance pkg, and got disgusted as my gas mileage was nowhere near what I was trying to achieve; my whole purpose behind buying the car. This also probably had something to do with the fact that I had to rev the little bugger out in each and every gear to keep up with the slowest pace traffic.

Enjoy your T&C

LILBENZ230

Just look at it this way.. the more horror you face, the better your C230 will seem the moment you get it back.

johnand

Just got the call and the car is done. Heading over there in about 2 hours to pick it up

Glyn M Ruck

Great news! Hope it's all fine.

Glyn M Ruck

How is the car?

johnand

Overall I am happy with the results. Not perfect, but pretty close: Sorry it is a little dirty, and the pics are from my Iphone, but you get the point. Clean shots with the DSLR soon.





Euro Impact Strips FTW



Rockchips gone from the bumper! Still have to touch up a few in the hood, but overall a VAST improvement.

The shop did say they had one small problem. They had to move the car with the door off, so I have this:



I told them I think I know someone with a STAR system to fix that

Glyn M Ruck

Looks pretty good to me. Like those Euro impact strips

Xhale707

man ur car looks really good im going to have to buy the star for the hood again

LILBENZ230

What part of the repair is not perfect?

It's a great looking car..

draz.amg

looks much better than before.. needless to say.

johnand

The rear door has an ever so slight wave in it. Still not sure if it is the blend line or not. The color is damn close, but not perfect, that can be seen at the passenger side bumper to fender line. They also forgot to put the "Sport" badge back on the front fender rub strip, but have ordered the parts to remedy that.

Plus, the buffer operator needs a little more training. The whole drivers side of the car is riddled with buffer trails and holograms. The good news is, I am very skilled at using a buffer and DA polisher, and have been wanted to do a full correction on the car anyway.

But, this is all coming from me, and I am about the worlds most **** perfectionist. 98% of the population wouldn't even notice.

Glyn M Ruck

I understand you - I hate buffing swirls. I'm sure you will remedy with a spotlessly clean buff & the correct technique!

MW_ATL

Blend as in blending paint in the middle of a panel?

splinter

That sparkling '07 we've come to know through your signature lives once again. Nice!

Did you stop off at Outback to celebrate the occasion?

Midnight Koop

+1

johnand

Yes. They blended the paint halfway on the rear door.

Nope, just a nice empty parking lot by work to snap some pics.

ontmiss

Do you miss a Town&Country?

CanadianSteel

John all i can say is wow! So glad i came across your thread while looking for info on my C230 i got a few weeks ago for a nice price. Been reading alot of hate towards the C230, i feel if people love it for what it is, it makes a great car. Mine has 45k KM on it so reading about the maintenance history and your personal experience with it has been a blast. Bookmarked and will check back again soon.

BTW, your car is looking good mate

Glyn M Ruck

The small V6 cars are misunderstood - They are great!

MW_ATL

Glad you got it back, and as always, it looks good.

I just hate the idea of paint blended on a panel. I have never understood why that would be better than painting the entire panel, assuming you can match the paint, of course. But I am sure there is an art to it that I don't understand.

cpbeasley

IMO blending is a way of cutting cost. it can be done nicely, but its unfortunate in this case as I assume his body shop charged the insurance enough to repaint the entire panels, but to decrease time and overhead and increase profit, they blended.
if i were paying out of pocket, the option to blend is nice. but otherwise...
tends to look better on darker paints....