whjresq

Hello - Can anyone comment on paint - I am having my car painted - I want to ensure the best or same quality mercedes paint is used if such exist. Is there any particular paint, technique or process I should request? Its a small shop and I need to do my due diligence. Please help. The entire care is being paint with front bumper being replace plus grill - Walter

BTW ITS A BLACK ON BLACK INTERIOR

Vander

PPG

whjresq

Thanks!!!

dlbehrns

Knowing what I know now, and that is, for environmental reasons Mercedes paint is water based, I would/should have had the car sprayed with several coats of clear as soon as I got it to prevent chipping which happens quite easily. Live and learn.

MarcusF

Talk to Ash. He's having his shot.

The best advice I can give if you're not shooting it yourself is, let whoever the painter is - use the materials they are familiar with. For example, if they're a PPG shop, don't tell them to use DuPont. Different systems shoot a little differently and experience makes a difference. If you want a certain system, it may be best to find the painter based on the system.

If you're completely in the dark and have absolutely no idea what to use, you may want to go to a car event, find someone who's paint you like, and ask them who shot it.

VIPclk320

best method is to have the car completely stripped of parts including rear glass(front not so much). then have the dents PULLED!!! not filled, and then hand block the car. blocking insures even surfaces and an extra shine and also removed old material so paint wont clump up on top of each other. most shops use whats called a DA or orbital sander which makes the surface wavey but its faster and cheaper. hand blocking my car took 3 full days in the hands of a pro but DA takes 3 hours. after the primer, paint and clear are applied let the car sit for a few days under sun before doing anything. after a about 4 to 7 days have the car color sanded and then let it sit for a day(always under sun) to bake and let the bottom layer of the paint dry and harden. then another color sand and buff and polish and install parts.

jazzmammal

How much money are you talking about whjresq and where you located? It's a Benz and if you want it to look like a Benz then you're starting at $3,000 USD. If you're on a budget and trying to spend say half that then forget all the cool and very detailed things being talked about. Half the job is the prep work prior to the actual painting like removing things, proper taping, sanding etc.

Bob

whjresq

Hello Bob and thanks for the insight. I do not mind spending 3k however I am in El Centro near the mexico border so labor and competition appears to allow for a cost effective job ie on a budget lol. I am hoping to at least have 5 coats of clear with 2 buff and sanded leaving 3. The front grill bumper assembly are being replaced and the hood has some minor bend which is being repaired. The original black paint is in decent shape but I guess that does not matter. I thought about Mexicali but you have the gringo effect there especially with a benz.

whjresq

Hi do you mean have the ar sprayed after it has been painted?

Scott Simoncic

Honestly the magic is in the prep..... You can bury the car in clear coat and you can still end up with a terrible paint job no matter how much you cut and buff it. Shine is all about making sure everything is perfectly smooth and flat. Don't focus so much on how many coats of clear, but the quality of the job itself. Factory paint has very little clear, especially these days, and, though you will want more than that, don't just have a painter that will throw a ton of clear on it. If you have a few good flow coats of clear on it, cut and buff it out correctly once, and care for it properly after that, you should never have to cut and buff it again unless there is damage to the paint.

jazzmammal

Exactly correct, it's all about the prep. Every slight pimple in the bodywork will be amplified in great paint. My other car that I just sold was a 87 560 SEC. I had it painted about 7 years ago by a guy who did work for my mechanic. I saw his work and it was very good. He charged me $2,600 with me doing the color sanding. Years ago I ran several car dealerships and know detailing and stuff like that. The painter was going to charge me another $600 for the sanding, that's how expensive that is. I then took it to a good detail shop who knows how to properly buff out fresh paint and that was another hundred so that job would have been $3,300 if I didn't know how to color sand and had a connection with the detail shop. The guy used genuine Mercedes paint and that car still looks awesome today 7 years later. If you're not going to keep the car that long maybe you don't want to spend that much. You can get a decent job for maybe two grand that will look "Pretty Good" but not top notch. Realize at least a grand of the price is the hours involved in removing everything that can be removed and putting it all back again then really proper sanding, filling and prep of the old paint. A really good tape person can tape everything off and you can't tell until you pop the hood and look really close. Maybe you don't care about that level of detail and that's perfectly understandable, after all we're talking about a 13 year old $5-6000 car. Yes, CLK's are awesome looking Benz's and make you look great but really, it's worth the same as a ten year old Accord and nobody is spending three grand to paint that car.

Bottom line for me is do you really want to feel like you're driving something a cut above that and are willing to pay for it and keep the car for a while. It's a total waste to spend big money on paint and then sell it in two years.

Bob

Scott Simoncic

Agree with this 100%, believe it or not, Maaco can do a decent paint job, it's just that they generally aren't paid to, and, it varies from Maaco to Maaco. It's known that there is a very good one in the Bay Area. Also, if you do a lot of the taping, and prep yourself, shoot the painter a couple hundred under the table they'll do a much better job for you.. I know I'll catch hell for this, but I've seen pretty decent maaco jobs, and I've seen terrible $200 Maaco Jobs. FWIW, I've shot parts before with spray cans in a sterile, dust free environment, with good prep, primer, base, then clear... Cut and Buffed with 1500, 2000, 2500, then cutting compound with a wool and rotary, then polished with a microfiber pad and meguiars scratch 2.0, jeweled it down, then finished it with Mothers synthetic wax on a foam with the rotary, then hand polished with Carnuba, Looked like glass, as if I took it to a shop. I also smoked the clear part of my tails and cleared the entire assembly and used the same finishing process, they look factory and new. I'll post a picture to show that it's mostly about the prep and job over the actual product itself, especially, like Jazz said, on a car that's worth 5-6K at this point.

dave2001auto

How was your Mexicali paint job ? Do you recommend the shop ?

whjresq

I just dropped the car off last week in Calexico we will see

dave2001auto

I had a cheap US one done at a painter's home. Some spots are peeling after 3 years. Likely didn't use a silicone remover, so paint doesn't stick properly. Need to use flex modifier on bumper covers paint and clear
coat.

CurYousGee

Interested in seeing how it turned out