kiluminati616

I’ve been planning to ceramic coat my e55 since I bought it back in October and finally got the opportunity this week while visiting my parents. After tackling my dads badly faded red 4Runner last summer with a cheapo Walmart hand buffer I figured I’d step it up to a real deal orbital polisher. My process was as follows:
1. Wash with carpro reset
2. Clay with Adams fine clay - paint was pretty smooth. Didn’t pick up a whole lot
3. Iron decaminate with iron x. Probably could’ve skipped this step as it hardly picked anything up
4. Compound. I used a porter cable 7424 with chemical guys orange hex pad and Meguiars ultimate compound. I applied slight pressure and 6-8 passes for each section. Took about 3 hours and the pad was a bit clapped out at the end
5. Polish. Chemical guys white hex pad + Meguiars ultimate polish. 4-6 passes and no real pressure. Took about 2 hours and pad was still in good shape
6. Ceramic coating. Armor Shield IX. I was under the impression this stuff was the consistency of water but boy was I wrong. It’s like spreading maple syrup on your car. Apparently they’ve changed the formula to make it easier to apply and buff off but this was a bigger pain than I anticipated. It was about 60 out and I let the coating sit 2-3 minutes before buffing off. Took about 2.5 hoursAll in all I’m happy with the results. I’m an amateur with nothing but YouTube for directions so it’s not perfect but definitely looks better than before. The swirls are gone with only a few deeper scratches scattered about the paint. Below are a few before/after shots
Before


After

Before

After

maxusa

What a beautiful color and great job. My W211 is a somewhat similar Flintgray Metallic (368U) and can benefit from same treatment.

KAMG

Looks awesome. I need to do take a whole day and spend some time on my Obsidian paint...especially in the summer when there's lots of light to show all the scratches/swirls

JB88

Merc does silvers and greys like no other

Windowguy

I agree, great color and great job on the polish. I need to get my black E63 polished up for summer.

Rob.

boosted305

Love that color!! and it came out so nice...great job.

Fountain35

You did a great job. FYI: I called around and a local shop wants ~$1500 to do the car.

kiluminati616

Thanks guys - it certainly was a process but in the end I think it was worth it. Probably put about 10 hours & $250 in supplies into the job but hopefully makes keeping the car clean & protected for the next couple years much easier

tw2

Looks great, good job. I did this with my old C32, looked really good. Unfortunately now I can't bring myself to do it again and the E55 isn't exactly a small car. I might get a professional shop to detail, paint correct and ceramic coat it sometime.

C2 Turbo

Great job, looks beautiful. One tip though, do not use the same pad for more than 2 or 3 panels to avoid any swirl marks. Also in between stages, always use alcohol

wipes to clean off any buffing dust. I just did all that on my X5M minus the Ceramic coat.

kiluminati616

Thanks for the tips 👍🏼. I’d definitely use at least 2 compounding pads next time even though it didn’t appear to affect the results much if at all. I forgot to mention I used chemical guys wipe out before the ceramic coating. I didn’t get much dust from the meguiars compound & polish

kiluminati616

I’m not sure how much of this is attributable to the ceramic coating, but I’ve been pretty happy with how clean my car stays after the detail. It’s been about 10 days since it’s last wash. Of those 10 days it’s rained 6-7 and I drove in the rain twice. I’ve got a little bit of grime running down the door under the side mirrors but otherwise you’d have to be pretty ocd to think it needs a bath.

Yuille36

Your car looks amazing in the sun, I'm having my E63 done on July 5th, and I can't wait to see the results.

kiluminati616

thanks! i think you're gonna be impressed with the results - be sure to take some before/after shots.

i wish i had a more concrete idea of how quickly the car got dirty before i detailed it but it's not really something you track. certainly seems like after 2 drives/6 days in the rain it would be in need of a wash. looking forward to seeing how this holds up in the winter

Yuille36

Here are a few photos of my old E63 in Designo Graphite.

PJmak

Congrats the car looks awesome and thats one hell of a job.

You took all the right steps using all the right tools. Most people will use same pad for everything and usually skip claying.

I did exactly what you did on my obsidian black w202. The color looks amazing.

Ceramic coat will keep the car clean for a while and if it gets dirty you'll notice the dirt comes off like dust.

kiluminati616

@yuille looks great - what color is your interior? the e55 designo got a dark green leather that i'm not crazy about. i saw a really nice sl65 in designo that had a nice dark brown 'corteccia' leather that i wish my car had

@pjmacl hard to believe your c43 is over 20 years old. that black looks amazing.

Yuille36

Mine is green as well, and I quite liked it. As it was different from the norm. I wished that I had kept that car, but years later I bought another E63, but black on black below.





I absolutely love the green leather, as it is unique for the Designo package with the matte wood trim.

kiluminati616

Oh I like that way more than mine. It mostly looks grey until you get it in direct sunlight then the avocado comes out.

cfmistry

How could you ever sell that car?! The interior is gorgeous!

kiluminati616

seriously!! i think i'm gonna start looking out for an interior swap.

other than ebay are there any good sites to look for such?

Yuille36

I know, I know...but you live and learn. My current E63, below is staying put. I have so much money wrapped up in this one, it only make sense to keep it.
I just had every dent and ding removed last week. And upcoming Friday, I'm having paint correction and ceramic coating done.
And yesterday, I just got the car back after an extensive audio system upgrade with all new Focal RSE-165 speakers and Audison Controller and Digital Sound Processor, and Alpine Amps.
The Harmon Kardon system sounded good from the factory, but now.........woo hoo. And the new subwoofer bumps, and I can control how much bass I want.
Not cheap, but worth it, if you plan to keep your AMG. And if you look really close, you'll see the laser jammers from the Passport 9500ci. I'm definitely not getting rid of this one.

tlambert

Yullie I’m disappointed in the pic you posted.
You have better shots than that. Lol

Yuille36

The problem is, I only have a limited number of photos of my cars here at work.
I have a butt load at home, which doesn't do me any good, as 98% of my post are from work.

tlambert

Lol that’s bad you should be working!