mjhawkins2346

I just had to have some minor work done on the bumper and had to have it repainted. I did some research and discovered MB uses a special hard clear coat with Fulminated Silica in it. It apparently floats to the top when hardening. My shop said, "Don't worry, we give you a lifetime warranty on our work."
I explained that this isn't the issue. If I end up with hard (MB original) clear coat and "regular" clear coat I will have a mix of hard and soft making my polishing work a patchwork of different products to get a nice finish.
Anyone had this issue? I got the shop to use the right clear coat and they were happy to order the right stuff but I feel I dodged a bullet on this one.

rocketd55

I do not know the answer to your question.

From experience, the BM original clear coat is very thick.

I dented my bumper backing up into a pole. Rather than take it to the shop, I bought body filler and did the whole repair myself. I bought a $20 sander and sanded it done. I then primed it and sprayed it with original spray paint. It came out a little darker than the original paint, but this is probably because I sprayed it too close or sprayed too many coats on. I bought the clear coat from Automotive Touch Up. It's a nice clear coat and despite spraying about 20 coats on it, it is still not as thick as the original coat on the GLK.

The lifetime warranty the body shop gives you is bologny. Because all auto bodies ensure their work. But they give you a hard time when you bring the car back.

mjhawkins2346

Well I insisted he use Deltron 8150 Cerami Clear which meets Cali VOC limits and is apparently spec'd for this. I hope it was the right call.

mercedes4ever

No paint shop can achieve the same result as an MB factory, as the MB Factory oven is baking the clear coat on at 1,200 degrees!!

After four years of development work, a new clear lacquer is set to go into series production at Mercedes-Benz at the end of 2003. What the company terms 'ground-breaking nano-technology' ensures that the new product is substantially more scratch-resistant than conventional paint.
The E, S, CL, SL and SLK-Class model series are the first cars in the world to be available with this new paint system - other models get the new nano-paintwork from spring 2004.
The newly developed clear lacquer, which contains microscopically small ceramic particles, hardens in the paintshop oven, forming an extensively cross-linked network. According to Mercedes-Benz, the paint is more effectively protected against scratches caused by mechanical car-washes, for example. The nano-particles provide a three-fold improvement in the scratch resistance of the paintwork and ensure visibly enhanced gloss over an extended period of time.
Following extreme tests in a laboratory car-wash, Mercedes engineers noted an around 40 % improvement in paint gloss compared to conventional clear lacquers.
Mercedes-Benz carried out extensive testing on the nano-particle clearcoat both in the laboratory and under everyday conditions. Even after several years of use, the more than 150 test cars involved in the long-term testing programme displayed significantly greater scratch resistance and enhanced paint gloss compared to vehicles with conventional paintwork. Added to which, the newly developed paint system also meets the stringent Mercedes standards in terms of the protection it offers from chemicals in the environment.
New nano-particle clearcoat will be introduced as standard for both metallic and non-metallic paint finishes.

fabbrisd1

Well, a bit of overstated dated info, and "no" MB's are not baked at 1200 degree's unless it was a attempt at humor.

The German Glasurite tech is licensed avail in US licensed by Glasurit - there are is surit, R-M, Spies Hecker, Standox, and Globaus by Dupont.

If you are interested in "correct" work then give Roadside or MB Customer Service a call for closest Mercedes Certified Collision Center.

Frankly a compentent and experienced shop - such as the shop your Mercedes Delaer uses - if they don't own a Certified Collision Center like my guys do - will probably be fine rather than shopping on your own.

3.5L

I have no idea which after-market shop or brand applies the best clear coat. Having said that, I've never been a fan of clear coats. I see so many cars on the road with flaky, nasty looking clear coats that I go, why bother. Seems like an expensive disappointment.

mjhawkins2346

All manufacturers went to a clear coat 2 step paint process starting in the early '80's. Prior to that some companies used Enamel (Ford comes to mind) and others used a multi-layer lacquer process (mainly GM as I recall). There are some one step paints that can be mixed up but they aren't recommended for final automotive top coats. They just don't have the finish. The modern urethanes spray a base coat with the color (which looks like flat wall paint in a lovely color) and then a top clear coat. The nasty clear coats seem to be on 80's cars but I see a lot of Honda's with the clear coat burning off. Not sure what memo they didn't get, but you're right it looks pretty crappy. You can't just re-shoot the clear coat either. It's a complete re-do.

They had to do this to use a paint that meets EPA standards but it speeds up work too.

I think this is worth understanding because if it isn't spec'd as the Cerami-Clear type clear coat, when you have paint work done, you could end up with 2 different clear coats with 2 different surface characteristics and leave you with a nightmare when you go to detail the car.

I'm interested in how mercedes4ever is going to get body work done, if needed. Send the car to Germany (to get melted at 1200 degrees) ?

3.5L

I've seen some fairly late model cars with flaking clear coats - likely less than 10 years old. To me, that is totally unacceptable.

On a minor note, I don't buy the 1200 degree thing. After all, solder melts somewhere around 700 degrees, and that is bloody hot.

94civicEX

Where did you find that the clear was 8150?

When looking at the Catalog tab here under clearcoats (http://us.ppgrefinish.com/getdoc/12d...ish-System-reg) it looks like the 8126 is the ceramiclear?

n5160u

When I was shopping MB Certified shops to get some paint work done on my W211 I found that NONE of the MB dealers in the San Francisco area would guarantee that their recommend or in house paint shops would use the nano-ceramic clear coats.

fabbrisd1

Well, European Collision Center in SF is Mercedes Certified..

n5160u

To be listed as certified does not automatically mean they use nano-ceramic type clear-coats since only MB cars made after 2004 have that type of clear-coating.
I had my work done at an independent luxury car shop that specialized in aluminum bodied Jag's and Audi A8's.
I had damage in the form of a sharp crease near a welded seam that had stretched the sheet metal badly.
This would have normally required the replacement of the affected areas after welding braces to the structure to keep everything in alignment after the body panel was removed along with removal of those braces and evidence of their use after the replacement panels would have been welded in place.
They used the techniques developed for repairing collision damage to Audi A8's to shrink the damaged area back to its original shape. I watched every step of the process and I know the finished repair did not require any filler or Bondo to restore everything to pre-collision standards.

This took a lot more time and labor than any other type of repair proceedure, but the chief tech at the shop said luxury car owners had different expectations regarding the quality of repairs compared to owners of lesser automobiles and were willing to pay for those differences.

Their paint booth which set the shop back over 1.5 million met all CARB requirement for VOC emissions and they were one of the few shops legally allowed to use ceramic nanotech products.