Pictorial on preparing your Mercedes for paint
 

I just finished up a pictorial project in our 240d series that outlines what I did to get the car ready for painting. So far this is the biggest pictorial with the most pics of any yet.

Time span was about 2 months of off an on work. The finished product has me grinning from ear to ear.:D

I hope you enjoy it.

http://dieselgiant.com/mercedes_paint_preparation.htm

Very nice write-up!!! Thanks for doing this!

I will be doing something very similar, very soon to the Euro. It's singin' the clear-coat blues too.

ooooo...the best pictorial ever!...

this will help me do my paint.. one day.. my clear coat on my roof is gone and its in need of some minor body work... wish i had the time to do it


now DG, on the trim peices behind the C pillar i belive that matches the same color of the car, how did you remove those to paint?

Beautiful work. Don't tell the painter this, but a truly beautiful paint job is not what happens at the last step, but the prep work. You did it the right way.

As a professional who does this work every day, I must say, I admire your work ethic and perserverance. You now understand why a paint job can cost big bucks. The one thing I would have done different is pull the windshield and rear window and the rest of the trim that wasn't removed,,, but all in all, a VERY nice job. My compliments.

i plan on doing that when i do the prep work.. but keep the windows in and do the greased rope trick.

It looks like they matched the factory paint job perfectly. They even got the depth and thickness right.

I thought MB painted the car with enamel...


not just base/top coat.

Pete,
How do you get the "pinch" trim off the side windows? Block and mallet? Slim shim?

your thinking one stage....

only $1200? i was quoted $4000 from the supposed best shop in Akron, Ohio. since i live in Arkansas now, i might just drive to Ga to have him do the car. seriously.

Awesome pictorial DG, as usual. I am so glad I am no longer on dial-up......:eek:
That is not a color you see very often, which makes it desirable to me. Somebody will get a nice little car when you sell it.

Well truth be told the paint color is NOT an exact match. He had to get the formula from the DuPont library. Since the paint is in enamel and not a base/clear as the original was, I can tell a big difference. This paint looks like it has more brown in it as the old paint had more yellow. Single stage is the cheapest and enamel is just right under the base clear in price.

I may wet sand it and buff it in about 60 days to get rid of the orange peel, but then it will look like a show car and I wont want to drive it for fear of chips, dings etc. Oh well I will just have to get over it. :P

If I do wet sand and buff it I will do a pictorial on it also.

All in all it looks great and I am very pleased!

Questions for Diesel Giant
 

This is great and what I was looking for in terms of planning to do the prep work to get my 1983 300D repainted. I'm the original owner so I know all the details and this car is worth making pretty again.

I'm planning to do the same you did but wonder about:
1. Why did you remove only the rear bumper and not the front? Does it have to come off to get the black trim off?
2. You decided to leave some trim on such as the drip edge trim and the trim around the windows. I had hoped to remove this also. Can it not be removed and reinstalled without damage?
3. It looks like three bolts would allow the door handles to be removed but you left them in place. Am I missing something about this procedure?
4. Did you do anything to recolor the black bumper trim pieces before reinstall? I've found a product called 'Forever black' the looked promising.

Charles

Hi,
I want to get my 240D repainted. How did you learn how to remove the trim, and where did you get the replacement trim inserts?