You are correct, I do not have a garage, unfortunately. And yes, keeping it clean is not really doable when parking on the street. I definitely know the Mike Phillips technique will help for sure. I was just wondering how long it will last. Obviously, we can't really compare our situations since you're able to keep yours in the garage. Despite being able to garage yours, you must need to clean it up from time to time, do you just give it a simple car wash and you're good to go?

big chuckle...



I see your point.


If everyone post in one section and the mods don't police it
it will just get worse.

eventually someone will be posting about the uber they scheduled
did not arrive on time and they missed their flight

Once again, I do apologize. For the record, all of my other posts have been in the correct sections. I just know if I posted this in the 'Bodywork' section it would most likely have gone unnoticed.

Hey I understand...

no one wants to eat in a empty restaurant
and you can't ask for advice in an empty bar.

Yeah, just a simple waterless wash and it's good to go. Spraying it with a hose, especially a pressure washer, is not ideal if you want to preserve the car for as long as humanly possible in its original state. Similar to not driving it in the rain/snow etc. But on a daily driver that isn't so much of a concern.

Single stage paint tends to revert back to a chalky state the thinner it is. Its more unstable, so if you have a lot of paint left on your car I bet it'll stay looking nice for a while long as you wax it repeatedly in between seasons.

__________________

Exactly! Thanks for understanding. I know the sections are set up for a reason but at the end of the day we are here to have discussions, ask questions and hopefully get some answers/advice so Ideally it would be nice for people to see the posts.

That being said, I won't make a habit of it.

Cool, I have already been using a waterless spray and stay away from hoses so I'm on the right track then. And yes, mine is a single stage paint but not sure how thick or thin it is to be honest.

If you really want to be lazy, use Nufinish. It will shine right up by hand with minimum buffing, then some type of wax to keep it going longer

__________________
97 e300d, 78 300Dt, 95 E300d, 94 E320 estate

You guys are kind of missing my point though. I know that I can buff it out and make the paint look better but my main concern is whether or not it's worth it after I do touch ups and pull the dents. I finally took some pictures to give you guys a better understanding of what I'm dealing with. My car fits in the category of "looks good from 10 feet away" but when you get closer you start seeing all the little dings, scratches and a few bigger dents, like you probably would on most cars pushing 40 years old.

A few opinions regarding the dents. One is having the dents pulled, which is not cheap considering the sizes of them. The other option is actually replacing both panels and then having them repainted to match. Also not cheap. That's why I was wondering, after all that would it have just been better to have the whole car repainted?

Which option sounds better?

Option 1: Have the dents pulled or replace the panels and have them painted, then attempt to touch up the scratches and then do the extensive Mike Phillips (or something comparable) buffing job?

Or...

Option 2: Have the body work done and then have the whole car repainted?

I'm leaning towards option 1 since I can't really afford a really good, quality repaint but is option 1 kind of delusional? Am I just spending a lot of money to band-aid over the problem?

In the second photo you can get a better idea of the dullness. In photos 4 and 5 you can see a few of the scratches with 6 is a little rust bubble/scratch.

Attached Thumbnails

         

.... and these two photos are of the two bigger dents.

And yes, I know it sounds like I'm going for perfection but I know it will never be a show car. This all started because I wanted to remedy the dents.

Attached Thumbnails

   

You're probably a perfectionist like me and I can see your quandary. It is really up to you, but I would go for option 1 personally. I wouldn't have any panels replaced but have the current ones dent pulled best as possible.

Those dull areas will come back 100% for the record. You'll want to get that rust bubble addressed for sure but the paint looks great all around to be honest. I'm sure theres more blemishes you haven't shown but the ones you posted aren't too bad. All in all I think preserving the originality is priority especially with that kind of paint which is not replicable.

To have it painted wouldn't be the end of the world but you'd better have a garage to keep it in (which you don't)

The euro setup is looking good however, looks just like my car but a little more red.

cheers

__________________

Yes, that's another good point you bring up, even if I did have it repainted I wouldn't be able to garage it anyway so that would be kind of be pointless I suppose.

The trick now is finding a paintless dent removal service that's affordable. I spoke to a guy about a year ago that I came across on Instagram. I saw an image of him removing dents on another W123 and it looked great so I reached out to him. He was very nice and knowledgeable but he was really expensive. I don't remember the price but I remember it was a lot. He's probably worth it though. To be honest, at that time the dents were pretty low on the priority list of things that needed to be done to the car but now that I've been able to get through most of the other stuff on the list it might be time to reach out to him again. Also, at the time, I contacted a few other places but none of those places were interested in working on a car that old because they didn't want to deal with old paint. I'll start looking around again though.

Agreed with Sonnymorrow. Pull the bigger stuff but embrace the patina. It's a good look.

The paint's in fine condition. I did the number 7 thing and was astonished.
I've got a lighter car so difficult to photo, but it did make a hell of a difference.
You can even pick up a touchup stick in your color, and it works well enough to read from a few feet away. And absolutely zero other people who do not own your car will ever notice.

In general, unless you're going for a real deal revival (don't drive the car), lean into the wabi sabi. Otherwise, the oldest part of your car will always bother you. Imagine a fresh factory finish. Now think about your interior. You'll be chasing your tail forever.

__________________
1981 240D 4sp manual. Ivory White.

I’ve been questioning painting my black TD. It’s all original paint except for the drivers front fender. One of the previous owners loved it so much they buffed the paint down to the primer below the back window and along the body lines.

__________________
1985 300CD, CA
172 Anthrazitgrau/Palomino 154

1985 300TD, CA
040 Schwarz/Palomino 154/3rd row seat

1985 300TD, CA
473 Champagner/Palomino 154/Cargo cover

Another vote against repaint.
I was looking for a W123 for years, and original paint was always more desirable in my eyes - even less than perfect.
So, from a resale perspective, I bet you'd do better with original paint and a few dings vs. a respray.