Thread: 2006 Mercedes C230 SPORT Restoration

Originally Posted by Slab

Wow, that's some detailed detail work. Which I am terrible at. I do about everything, except finish work. I paint things just to stop rust. Wifey wants to paint the inside of the house, I ask, why, is it rusting!

I started working in Body Shops at 13 years old. I love to paint, I hung out with the Airbrush Artist back in the day Love Vans were all the rage. My Airbrush work is mostly all graphic art. Here I'm staying with the Factory Pearls but adding much better Clearcoat.

Originally Posted by rojoguio

I started working in Body Shops at 13 years old. I love to paint, I hung out with the Airbrush Artist back in the day Love Vans were all the rage. My Airbrush work is mostly all graphic art. Here I'm staying with the Factory Pearls but adding much better Clearcoat.

I know where I went wrong, I was delivering newspapers on a bicycle when I was 13 years old. But I was also making minibikes out of lawnmowers too! lol

Originally Posted by Slab

I know where I went wrong, I was delivering newspapers on a bicycle when I was 13 years old. But I was also making minibikes out of lawnmowers too! lol

Yeah, there was no safe place back then for a side shaft Briggs & Stratton to Hide!

I got the first skimming of epoxy sanded and shaped. The area I had to build up left numerous pinholes, that's air I mixed in making the wet repair compound. Also removed the pliers, today a heating iron for welding plastic is supposed to be delivered. The tears will get a little welding attention this afternoon.



When working on plastic body parts I have found using very sharp sandpaper with less pressure does a better job cutting plastic. A slower speed helps too. I first went after the old License Plate mount holes with a grinding stone in my Dremel tool opening them up a bit. Then mixing the Bumper Repair Epoxy on a mixing pad a bondo spreader was used to apply the repair epoxy to the holes.



Going after the first sanding of epoxy with my favorite sandpaper I noticed when sanding the Drivers Side with the 180 grit a real uneven scratch pattern was revealed. You read the scratch patterns to know it you're cutting level, have high spots, low spots or waves developing. This odd scratch pattern told me to stop with the DA, the bi-directional radius of the panel was all bad for DA sanding. I pulled out my trusty rubber block (I've had it 45 years) and blocked the wave out before it got good and started.



With everything blocked I could move on the another skimming. Here the compound is just resin-fast hardener-410 Microlight. Since we have epoxy down I don't need to add the 406 Thickener. All we are filling here are 80 grit scratches, pinholes, and 2 Holidays. You work yourself out of a job quickly, this is part of the reason panel repair takes time. Curing Time.

Sanded the second skimming down, it took care of all the pinholes. The plastic repair welding kit arrived. 3 spots needed to be built back up past the original edge of the bumper so enough can be sanded down kinda straightening everything out. You can't see it unless you jack up the car, it sits that low in the front from the factory.



The areas needing plastic welding are buffed with a 2in surfacing pad and die grinder back to clean plastic. Reinforcement SS Screen is cut to fit the repair areas. The Welding Iron is then used to melt new plastic into those areas till a excess build up occurs. Then holding the reinforcement in place the Iron is used to melt the reinforcement in encapsulating the reinforcement.



Now from the outside the SEM Bumper Repair Epoxy can be used to finish filling and building out the rest of the bumper cover damage.



A final sanding to level and even out the edges. It's not a "Like New" repair but I'm saving over $700 fixing somewhere you can't see without a mirror.

Managed to sand the Bumper cover and found it needed a few spots glazed so while that is curing I installed a new Radiator Fan (Not Shown), new Hood Ornament and new Headlights. Still waiting on the new Fog Light fixtures. I opened the Hood one day and the Ornament just fell off.

Ya got bling!

I fooled around in body shops in my late teens and into my early twenties. The only work they wanted me to do was tape and remove tape that had gotten wet with dew and didn’t want to come off. Grunt work. Some of what they were working on rubbed off on me and came back around when I built boats for correct craft, the ski nautique people and now bass cat also. I learned that I knew more than I was told I did. Overbuilding and grinding and sanding is tedious but not as hard as some folks think with the right materials and techniques. Materials have changed greatly since my day. That’s a neat project and some nice work you’re doing. Satisfies that inside urge to keep the hands and the brain busy.