1974 Mercedes 380 SL

[Bellydawg]

I plan on detailing my mom's 1974 Mercedes 380 SL as a birthday present to her within the upcoming months (I'm a little anal in preplanning). The 380 SL is a convertible with the hard top option (similar to the Mazda Miata). The car has been well cared for and has original paint but has not been detailed in over 20 years. It is a medium to dark brown with leather interior.

My question has to do with whether the paint is clear coated or not. Or is there a different process to use on older vehicles other than what appears to be the standard process of:

Wash
Clay
Wash
Swirl Remover
Polish
Sealant
Wax

I figure to have the car several days to a week for the work since she only drives it on the weekends. The wheels need to be repolished, so I plan on pulling them and have the car on jack stands in the garage for the work.

Lastly, since the car does have a convertible roof, what would be the recommendation for cleaning and detailing.

Thanks for all of the help.

Jim

[GregCavi]

Since it is a 1974 car it will not have a clearcoat. It will have a single stage paint job. Your process you laid out looks like it will work. I woudl highly reccomend a pc to aid your work. You can buy a kit from any of our sponsers that will have a cleaner and a dressng for your top. It will also come with some mf towels so that is always a plus. YOu will need alot of tiem to restore the mercedes but it looks like you will have time. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Make sure to take pics.

Greg

[JaredPointer]

Since you're moving to a polish after the intial wash & clay, I would skip the second wash. I feel that it's a wasted step. Use your time wisely - the polish will remove any (if there is any at all) residue left from the claying step. You may also want to use the chemical polish first, as to get a better "view" of what you have to work with paint-wise. Boss 429 had a good write up on that a few weeks ago. Other than that, your plan looks fine.

[AMDin93103]

Here is a picture of a 73 Merc that I worked on last week. Its rear had a new paint job after a rear-ends worth of work. The front was a quality repaint at one time but had some serious issues, and unfortunately still does. I worked on the front 1/2 for almost 2 hours! Mind you this was a repaint and is now CC; I used my rotary, Green Excel Pad and SSR2 then moved to PC/Megs Hand Polish on speed=3.5. S100 as an LSP. Chrome was fun.. . cough. The top (black SS) looked to be original. I was able to polish out 90% of the blemishes with DACP and a PC/Yellow Excel pad. Embarrassingly enough, I don;t even know the model. Someone??? It had no badges. Some pics:

[Bellydawg]

Originally Posted by AMDin93103

Here is a picture of a 73 Merc that I worked on last week. Its rear had a new paint job after a rear-ends worth of work. The front was a quality repaint at one time but had some serious issues, and unfortunately still does. I worked on the front 1/2 for almost 2 hours! Mind you this was a repaint and is now CC; I used my rotary, Green Excel Pad and SSR2 then moved to PC/Megs Hand Polish on speed=3.5. S100 as an LSP. Chrome was fun.. . cough. The top (black SS) looked to be original. I was able to polish out 90% of the blemishes with DACP and a PC/Yellow Excel pad. Embarrassingly enough, I don;t even know the model. Someone??? It had no badges. Some pics:

The pictures look great. I was looking to start with Klasse AIO before moving to SSR2 or 2.5. All of this will be done with a PC.

I believe the model of Mercedes in the pics is a 1967 280SL. The 1968-1972 models had an amber lens in the front. Not to say that this one didn't have a replacement done. I looked on EBay Motors for the references.

Thanks for the replys. I will take pictures during the process. My 13 year old son is interested in helping do this project. Maybe I can help him to develop detailing skills so that he can make some money in the future as a part time job.

Jim

[matthiasj]

your process looks fine, but i would skip the 2nd wash cause it would be overkill, and it would save some time. Good luck.