benzbell

Here's the scoop from a family member who used to be in the biz and did a lot of high end custom work. All the talk/myths/theories about how expensive matte paints are to repair. Most of it's not true. Magno paints are a lot less susceptible to showing scratches/chips/swirl marks because they are non-reflective. There is no light to reflect off the scratch. So it is more difficult to see. Repairs/costs are generally the same as gloss and it's actually easier to color match a magno color. Let's say you get a ding in the middle of your door - gloss or magno. Repair procedure is fill/prime/sand. You paint the primered area while blending (thinning) out the color over the repair. When you are satisfied with the blend. You clear coat the entire panel. Again whether gloss or magno. Remember magno is a flat clear over the basecoat.

If you take it outside and can tell the panel has been refinished. You need to sand/prep the front fender and rear quarter to extend your color blend further on to these adjacent panels and clearcoat everything. After that, the repair should look good. It's actually harder to blend a gloss color (because of the clear) then magno. Here's why. On a metallic basecoat (that is to be gloss clearcoated) if you are not thinning/blending the color properly and have the air pressure on the paint gun too high or low. The metallic flake can embed to deep or lay more on the top - (sidecast). It's difficult to know or see this until you apply the gloss clearcoat. Gloss brings out all of these imperfections. Ever own a black car - lol. Most painters will take the car outside in natural sun light before they clearcoat to avoid having to redo or extend the repair. I'm sure you've seen cars in the right light where you can tell this has been done. Sidecast is off because color doesn't match and/or paint gun air pressure is too high or low, thus causing metallic particles to not lay properly. This is all magnified even further with a gloss clearcoat. With magno, it is way more forgiving because of the non-reflective nature.

As far as care goes. Now that I've had a magno color for over a year and almost 10k miles. I think it's actually easier to care for then gloss paint. By the mere fact that you don't have to worry about polishing/swirl marks (think gloss black) because of the non-reflective nature makes it much easier. Granted, I have PPF. I feel that is something of a must - magno or clear. PPF will stop 99% of all road debris from penetrating through to your paint. Of course I do the obvious as well, and don't park right up front next to mini-vans at Wal Mart - lol. I go to the coin operated spray car wash. Soap it up and rinse it off. Towel dry with micro fiber and done. Paint looks amazing one year later. I read a post about a guy with a G63 in Dubai with magno paint. He did almost nothing to it and really had no issues. Even with all of the sand and everything else.

I purposely left PPF off the rear hatch and bumper on my Green Hell Magno to check a couple of things. One was the difference in color, with and without PPF. Very negligible at best. Next, was is it easy to care for without PPF - yes. I had planned on going back to finish the job. However, never did because I felt no need to. I would be confident in not having PPF on magno paint. Except for one thing. Whether, you have gloss or magno. You WILL eventually get chips on your hood and the frontal area of the car. Tis unavoidable. So at the very least - hood, mirrors, fenders, headlights and the frontal area. I didn't do this on my last C63 S and when I got rid of it after 2 years and 24k miles. It was noticeable - the chips. As I said, PPF will stop 99% of all road debris from penetrating, and damaging/chipping your paint. So it doesn't really matter, if it's gloss or magno at that point. It's about protection.

Carlo Cc

Thanks for the latest scoop! Most body shops and dealerships have no experience administering Magno paint. With it's growing popularity, more matte paint repair specialists should emerge. Along with a wider selection of matte paint care products.

Maintenance seems quite simple. Planning to apply Matte Ceramic Coating annually, and reinforce it with Advance Coat Matte every 3 months. I would only hand wash the car with Matte Cleansers as regular soaps contain silicones and glossing agents. Would not bring it to a public car wash.
​​​​​​
​​​PPF isn't a must for my summer weekend, low mileage car. Maximizing the brilliance, sheen, and clarity of the Designo finish is a higher priority for me over protection. Though my daily driver isn't PPF'd either and it's already accumulated a few chips.

Uga Uga

C6Jeff

I drove a 2015 CLS63S in Designo Magno Alanite Grey for 3 years and found maintenance to be much easier than any glossy painted car I've ever owned and it always looked great because it doesn't show water spots, swirls or scratches. I now drive a 2018 C63S Cabrio in Designo Magno Cashmere White and it looks awesome all the time and is a breeze to keep clean. I've never had to do repairs on my cars so I can't comment on that but as far as maintaining it goes, I wouldn't own a glossy paint job ever again! I hate the swirls that are inevitable in clear coat so now I never have to see them because my paint doesn't get them or show them. I love Magno paints and wouldn't consider owning anything else.

benzbell

+1

KJ

Have you ever tried taking your car to an automatic "soft touch" wash?

mrguitar

C6Jeff, did you PPF your C63 though? This is my last consideration as I'm getting the same color as you...TIA

C3504matic

Ok...hate to break the bad news but the OP is wrong . I work for Mercedes Benz in one of their Body Shops , a newer 32 million dollar facility . We paint more mango coloured vehicles in a month than most bodyshops see in a a year . For us these colours are a very difficult as it's far more work and we never paint just one panel we paint the entire side including up into the roof rails if doing a scratch on 1 panel or multiple . Saying you can blend within the panel and single panel paint is just plain wrong at this time .I am in a area that has one of the highest percentages of high end Mercedes in all of North America and I have yet to see a shop that can panel paint it without the colour being off or noticeable . We see lots of repairs completed by other shops and end up at ours .......99% of painters cannot just panel paint the colour . There are newer techniques that have come out but again we have failed to find anything better than what we are already doing . The charge is also 50% higher than standard base/clear .

C6Jeff

Put it away wet in the garage one evening.

Spotless the next morning without wiping.
Nope, never did anything but wash it with matte-specific shampoo. The paint looked as good at age 3 as it did on day one. I once took closeup pictures of the paint all wet from the rain and then the same shot the next morning after it had dried and there were no rain spots. I sent the pics to my brother-in-law to show him how easy matte paint is and how it doesn't show spots or dirt. If I can find those pics I'll post them.

C6Jeff

No, because they use shampoos with waxes that will fill in the fine grains of the matte finish and make it shine. That's why you must always use matte-specific car wash as they contain no waxes or polishes.

purplewidow

But you are in Florida... Ever see one in the winters up north? Salt rocks, salt spray, added road debris from the extreme weather changes and plows breaking up the road do real damage to cars up here. Just the salt and melting dirty snow alone how dirty it makes your car is unavoidable no matter the finish on the car. My Dealer and my detailer/bodyshop has nothing but complaints about matte finishes and steered me away from them and they all stood to make more money if i got it. They all said the winters up here take a toll on it. If a stone sneaks into the sponge or drying towel and you scratch the finish you are screwed with a matte finish.. on a clear coat you can just polish it out. There are plenty of reasons why it is more expensive for us up north to have a matte finish. If I was replacing this car with one i have in Florida i wouldn't be nearly as worried.. Sunny Florida with little road debris is NOTHING compared to a brutal Chicago winter and getting salt spray, rocks, broken up asphalt from plows and extreme temp changes all whipped on your car daily. it's a different world than Florida. If i loved it I would still get it.. but it lost that initial wow factor in 5-10 minutes for me.. the matte selenite on a c43 didn't have the depth the selenite clear did.. matte finishes mask that.. they put a filter over the original color. At the end of the day I just prefer the deep wet mirror look of a properly polished clear coat.. When it has that dripping wet look nothing compares imo. Same with the touch.. the rough feel of the Matte was also a negative.. like touching sandpaper. But if people like it get it.. just be prepared that in certain areas it is a lot tougher to maintain. Just call a body shop or detailer up north and ask.

Carlo Cc

I'm even more north in the coldest capital city of Canada. The C63-S is almost completely undrivable in winters here. Would never drive this car in snow or salty roads regardless of the paint finish. As a spring to fall car, maintenance should be as breezy as sunny Florida.

Zialex

Thinking about ordering Magno on my next car. Are paint repairs on a magno car more expensive compared to a metallic car (lets say its the exact same repair)?

mrguitar

tons of info all over this forum regarding this. short answer is "yes." you can even read through this thread and probably find the answer to your question.

Zialex

The paint is being offered on an increasing number of Mercedes models, I was wondering if over time it has now become cheaper to repair as it’s not longer exclusive to the “high end” models.

C3504matic

its not the cost of the paint its the process involved to duplicate the finish . I work in a Mercedes Body Shop and the cost at this time significantly more . We cannot panel paint the colour and always paint the side to get a even finish . Some are now saying the colour can be blended but we have yet to see one where a blend was done and was not noticeable .

mrgator_1

Had a question for all the magno paint owners. As I own an edition 1 with the magno grey paint, I chose to cover the entire car with excel matte ppf. My main concern, which I have never seen anyone bring up, is what happens 8-10 years down the line when the warranty for the film runs out, or even starts to degrade. How the heck are we all going to remove that film. I had ppf film on my 2004 BMW which I only put on the front part of the bumper and hood. At about 10 years it started to yellow and crack. Let me tell you, I spent hours removing that small section from the car, and that was over glossy paint. I abused that paint using plastic card-type tools along with rubbing the remaining glue residue. It came out fine due to the glossy paint. This is matte, and an entire car!! I really worry about this and would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this. I reached out to excel, but all they mentioned is how the film has evolved and about their 10 year warranty. I don’t think they’re going to pay for any paint damage which occurs when removing this film.

mrguitar

THIS. *Exactly* what I was imagining down the line and what I was trying to avoid in PPFing my car. To me, it’s more evidence for me not to PPF it...although i don’t plan on keeping it that long...

Profomo

Think you guys are worrying this more than you should.

Should you want to remove and/or replace the ppf after the warranty life, any installer and/or detailer would be able to do it.

mrguitar

The point I got from the post is not really the warranty on the PPF, but how the magno paint would react to 10yo PPF being removed. Can't imagine it would retain the finish correctly...? maybe i'm wrong, but it was one of my concerns.

has anyone ever removed PPF after 8-10 years on magno paint? any issues?

benzbell

I would venture to guess almost no one would keep a car that long.

Klinh

I do. Still enjoying my 2009 SLK55 w’ 165K miles.Will also keep the C63s at least that long or longer.

benzbell

I said almost - lol. Nice ride btw.

mrgator_1

Like I mentioned, I was talking from experience, having removed the ppf from my BMW. It was a NIGHTMARE! I’m definitely not an expert, but there isn’t that much info on the net in the best way to remove the stuff. Guess people aren’t keeping their cars that long. But for those of us who are, I’d love to hear your experience.

Klinh

10 yrs ago, I sold my SLK230 to my brother-in-law with clear bra installed. He try to removed it and the paint came off with it.