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Time for an official introduction. Long time wagon lover but first time MB and AMG owner. Looked for a nice E63 for a year. Wanted CF interior (required), brown leather (almost required), warranty (MB or after market) and not black (last car was black and I got tired of the always dusty look).
Lots of nice cars reviewed and then the right one showed up, and with full CPO warranty until mid '22. All records since new from prior owner. Has the Driver Assistance, AMG Parking Assist, and Exterior Night packages and black wheels. And luckily had yellow, not red calipers (which matches the interior much better!)
The Magno Alanite Grey (flat) paint was a negative at first, but grew on me over time.
Car is dirty - apologies!
Car was fully debagded, stil tinkering with the side V8 biturbo badges. Not sure if to keep or not..
Have to say I love the yellow calipers!
It's hard to take good pictures of the flat paint - the above attempt of using sun and shadows tries to highlight to interesting way light plays in the paint.
Interior is perfect for my taste, designo light brown Nappa leather.
The flat paint does have one HUGE advantage - dust simply does not show. Period. It's fantastic!
Car has claerbra (Xpel stealth (=flat) hood and front fenders, then entire car was coated with ceramic coating. Detailer used a special version that is flat as well (since a normal coating would be gloss).
Besides ALP install, hardwired Escort, and ski sack installation (to be covered in separate thread),nothing else done nor planned for now.
Look forward to joining the community!
Looks fantastic, and I’m super jealous of that matte paint! Yellow calipers means it has ceramic brakes? If so that’s great as well as they produce very minimal brake dust, along with the performance advantages
Nice find!
Awesome Wgn, OP. Congrats! I am on the fence with regards to matte paint... I have a matte white sedan. Yes, dust doesn't show AS MUCH. However, if your car is dusty and there is a drizzle, it'll look like you drove through a construction site where had been pouring concrete and it got all over your car. One tip when it comes to cleaning the outside of your car... be VERY careful NOT to scrub an area with stuck on grime too hard/much... you'll end up polishing the spot and it WILL show later when you look at the spot at an angle... I am speaking from experience
Originally Posted by Boostaddict
Looks fantastic, and I’m super jealous of that matte paint! Yellow calipers means it has ceramic brakes? If so that’s great as well as they produce very minimal brake dust, along with the performance advantages
Nice find!
Yes, "Gold calipers" = Carbon Ceramic Brakes (at least for this generation AMG's anyway)
Looks fantastic, and I’m super jealous of that matte paint! Yellow calipers means it has ceramic brakes? If so that’s great as well as they produce very minimal brake dust, along with the performance advantages
Nice find!
Thank you!
Actually not ceramic brakes, normal steel disc and OEM pads, but the calipers are gold/ darkish yellow. Not aftermarket paint either.Original owner made the order.
.. be VERY careful NOT to scrub an area with stuck on grime too hard/much... you'll end up polishing the spot and it WILL show later when you look at the spot at an angle... I am speaking from experience
Yeah - that is one issue, sorry to hear you experienced that!
Another is if you get a scratch. Supposedly there is only one way to fix - re-paint that panel....
Ugh.
Actually not ceramic brakes, normal steel disc and OEM pads, but the calipers are gold/ darkish yellow. Not aftermarket paint either.Original owner made the order.
Oh, Cool! I didn't know that was an option. Well, you now have the option of replacing rotors with aftermarket ones when you are due
Yeah - that is one issue, sorry to hear you experienced that!
Another is if you get a scratch. Supposedly there is only one way to fix - re-paint that panel....
Ugh.
Hey, live and learn! That's why I come here religiously and read what I can and soak up these people's car wisdom, lol. Yeah, NO paint correction. Either repaint or WRAP when damage. Oh, yeah! If you get stuck on crap on your paint, a lil' rubbing alcohol does the trick. Just make sure you rinse the hell outta that panel when you are done
Yeah, NO paint correction. Either repaint or WRAP when damage. Oh, yeah! If you get stuck on crap on your paint, a lil' rubbing alcohol does the trick. Just make sure you rinse the hell outta that panel when you are done
That's good to know! Thanks!
Hopefully the ceramic coating will help a bit as well. Makes the paint very hydrophobic.
I love that interior! Seems like I have seen it somewhere before. Lol
My SA was telling me that these matte finishes are a b*atch to to fix even with a simple bird cr*p after sitting in the sun. He claims repainting the panel is required usually. I am not familiar with the ceramic coating you speak of. Does this help with such issues? Is it like a clear ceramic of some kind? Just curious.
Lastly, I hear your point on black showing dust. Been driving black AMG’s for 20 years now and they do require TLC. However, when you get the paint perfected with no holograms or swirls, I feel nothing beats it in beauty. My preference of course.
My SA was telling me that these matte finishes are a b*atch to to fix even with a simple bird cr*p after sitting in the sun. He claims repainting the panel is required usually. I am not familiar with the ceramic coating you speak of. Does this help with such issues? Is it like a clear ceramic of some kind? Just curious.
Yes, the problem is that you can't use a normal wax (since that will make it gloss), and hence many early owners of flat paint had no protection for the paint at all. Which meant that if you left contaminants on the paint for a while, esp baking in the sun, it was hard to remove. Same thing is true for normal paint as well, under sim circumstances. Today there are a number of waxes that are flat, so you can use that. The cermaic coating is like a super sealant for your paint. It's like you waxed your car every week and lasts up to 3-4 years, depending. They are usually only applied by professional detailers, since for it to look right, you want to have a paint correction done first.
Bigger issue is scratches, deep ones. Swirls and shallow ones actually show LESS on flat paint. Deep ones are a ***** since you can't "rub it out" or use all the standard tricks (when you rub the flat paint, it gets a shine). That's likely what SA is referring to.
It's also why many owners of flat paint cars do a full car clear wrap.
That said - you can now buy touch-up paint for flat finishes from MB, so things are changing.
Originally Posted by Vrodman
Lastly, I hear your point on black showing dust. Been driving black AMG’s for 20 years now and they do require TLC. However, when you get the paint perfected with no holograms or swirls, I feel nothing beats it in beauty. My preference of course.
The car before this was a black A8 W12. Barely had time to leave the garage before it was dusty....
BTW - I had it covered with CQuartz Finest and after 3 years it was still like you had waxed the car the day before. Water just jumped off the paint and the shine was, like you say, incredible and beautiful. But in the summer it should be washed twice a week....
07-29-2018, 02:19 PM
