Got the windows tinted yesterday and it turned out really good as usual. Anyone in the Sacramento area I would highly recommend Genisis Window Tinting for anything tint related. I went with 5% on the rear window, passenger/driver rear windows and the panoramic roof. Went lighter up front and did 40% to make it look more like Oem tint in hopes to keep from getting harassed for tint. Also while I was there they showed me how to correctly and easily remove clear bra from a car which was cool since I need to remove it from my car.

Also my Oem side rocker “night package” trim pieces arrived and I installed them as well last night. They’re painted nicely in gloss black and came with 3m adhesive already attached. Popped the silver ones off, cleaned the residue, wiped it down with alcohol, used adhesive promoter and installed them. Surprisingly easy to do and looks wayyyyyyy better imo. Then I was looking around at how the original owner installed the Brabus front lip spoiler and realized he had the lower grill “eyebrow” pieces wrapped in silver vinyl. I heated it up and peeled it off stat lol. While I was on a mission to kill the silver, I removed the lower silver trim pieces and ordered “night package” replacements for that as well. It’s coming along nicely for only having the car 4 days haha.

Started removing the clear bra yesterday! I was able to get the front quarter panels and the entire hood removed, cleaned and quick detailed before I had to take my fiancé and baby for holiday pics. Paint looks perfect underneath, but the clear bra was giving off weird imperfections with some haze so I couldn’t take it lol. I’ll be removing the rest of the bra off the front bumper today then give the car another good wash and apply some gloss enhancer.

Also I ordered a bunch of carbon pieces for the car last night!! I got an edition1 front lip spoiler, side mirrors, rear diffuser and a trunk lip. Did a bunch of reasearch and found a solid US company with exceptional products for a very fair price. Diffuser is in stock and will ship in a few days while the remaining items will take a few weeks while in production. Can’t wait!

I did the same with my clear bra. Except mine was a nightmare to remove til I decided to go get my steamer and that worked crazy well. But I 1000% feel u on it making the car look weird and the texture and haze being annoying. I remember getting it detailed and the front just look dirty to me.

Also curious on diffuser

I want to verify product quality in person next week when my rear diffuser arrives before I put the company out there just to be 100% sure they’re as top notch as they appear to be. Also, unlike all of the other current carbon companies most people use, this company was at SEMA with a booth showing off their products which says something imo.

Yea I could see it being a giant pita without some sort of heat to loosen the bond. Luckily my tint shop was doing a clear bra removal and was cool enough to show me how to do it using heat.

I’ll post up info on the carbon company once my diffuser arrives next week and I can confirm quality and fitment even though I’m 99% sure it’s going to be superb.

Been too busy to post about it, but I recieved the carbon rear diffuser Thursday and installed it that night. Quality of the carbon piece was on point and exactly what I expected! Fitment was really good, very Oem quality and installation was very easy. Once it was installed, I realized the chrome exhaust tips had to go so I painted them satin black. Car is dirty, but I needed some pics anyways lol.

Yooo that's awesome! How much and who sells it? Link me !

Thanks brotha!

The company is Future Design and they make lots of carbon parts for our cars. They have had EXCELLENT customer service via email through all my questions and provided an accurate eta as well as tracking info once the item shipped. Rear diffuser was $800 and the rest of the carbon parts were priced very fairly as well.

https://www.futuredesignusa.com/benz-w205-parts

Got some time yesterday to get a little exterior work done on the Benz!

Removed the chrome strip from the trunk and prepped it for paint, but we had to spend some time separating the original adhesive attaching the chrome strip to the trunk then remove the backside trunk liner to access two 10mm bolts to get the trim panel to release the chrome trim tabs that are pinched between it and the trunk.

Then we started working on removing the front grill with the bumper still on the car, which is totally possible with a few tools and took about 10 minutes. Started wiggling the tabs from the backside to figure out which was they needed to go to release and realized they just need to be lifted up while you pull from the front. Carefully worked our way across the top/bottom tabs, got it off and prepped it for paint with 800 grit scotch bright pad. My buddy (who works at a body shop) said painting the plastic mesh center wouldn’t turn out good painted because the paint wouldn’t cover right in the crevices, but then he had an idea to remove the mesh from the back of the piece. I started cutting at the stepped lip on the back of the center piece with a hacksaw and it actually separated the mesh from the solid part of the mold! Did all three sections, cleaned it up with a file and grinder then prepped it for paint as well.

Once parts are back from paint, I’m going to remove the raised circle section of the bumper foam that’s behind the grill Star which will allow more airflow through the grill star to the radiator and engine bay. We not only visually improved the grill, but made it more functional.

No we didn’t take pics of that but if you pop your hood and look down behind the front grill silver/chrome section you will see chrome tabs sticking through the black mesh of the bumper geared the radiator. Those are the tabs you need to lift up on while you pull from the grill side to slowly unclip it and slide it out. Hope that makes sense. I can post a few pics when I get the pieces back from paint.

Hey brotha! Yea I’m in the Sacramento/Roseville area. Congrats on the new car!! I haven’t taken the Benz to sac raceway yet, but I will as soon as some of my performance parts arrive in the next week or so. Saturday test and tune is usually the best option to get more passes and better track prep but it’s $50 instead of $20 on Wednesday. I will keep you posted on when I’m going to go and if you want to meet up at the track I can give you some basic info and pointers on making a clean pass. Feel free to pm me and we can exchange info to get in contact and coordinate.

Will

Picked up the grill and trim from paint yesterday!! It turned out really good, especially the center section of the front grill where we modded it to just have mesh behind the star. Before putting it back together we had to get rid of the piece of foam toast blocking the opening in the center. Used a mini sawzall to cut the big pieces out and shaped it with a razor knife. Once the foam was trimmed there was some of the raw aluminum bumper brace showing so I hit it with satin black so it wouldn’t be visible through the mesh. Once that was done we assembled everything for the grill, lubed the tabs with foamy windex and popped it back on. It is unbelievable how different the grill looks painted, but the open mesh without the bumper foam behind looks so clean and mean!!

Cleaned up the trunk chrome strip area then did a quick polishing to get rid of any marks from the pry tool and the etched C that was left after I removed the emblem. Prepped the surface with adhesive promoter, carefully popped it back on, and set the 3m tape. It turned out great and looks way better body color than chrome. Wanted to give a shout to edwardscollisionstudios.com for doing a great job on the paint and if anyone is local to the Rocklin/Roseville area and needs paint work done I recommend these guys!

My car is filthy from all the rain, but here’s some pics!

Hahaha that was the topic of discussion yesterday.

My Future Design carbon trunk lip spoiler showed up Saturday so we installed it yesterday and ended up debadging the trunk during install. Used some cutting twine from the body shop and it slid right through the adhesive on the Oem trunk spoiler like butter. Cleaned off the remaining residue, poilished, waxed then prepped the surface. Dialed in the gaps equally, peeled the backing tape off and attached it. Fitment was really good...it actually fits around and follows the curve of the trunk lid. Rear of the car is nice and clean now!