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2006 Mercedes C230 SPORT Restoration
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Introduction - I bought this C230 from a kid who's father was a Big Fish catcher for the local High End Casino. The little car was parked under a tree, broke, for almost 2 years before I bought it. Numerous repairs have been completed already but all the headlight wiring was shorted (the insulation within the lens dry rotted), numerous times it was drove over a parking stop (very low front end) tearing the bumper cover up, the sun has eaten the clearcoat to the point of burning in several places too. Now my Healing Hands are resurrecting this cool little ride for a Grocery Getter. This will reduce the mileage on my Silverado's both of which I bought new, have high miles, I have taken meticulous care of, and don't want to go out and buy a new one with the market as upside down as it is. More to come on this as I started the plastic bumper repair today.
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Repairing Bumper Cover Tears & Headlight Fixture Replacement
I had to put my little car in the shop a couple of weeks ago the Computer was Toast. Well only a Shop that licenses the Mercedes software can replace a computer with all the anti-theft programming involved. Mercedes Dealers will not work on a Mercedes older than 2008 so that forces owners of older cars to Secondary Tier shops for anything connected to the Anti-Theft system.
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The reason the front bumper cover had to be removed was to remove the two Headlight Fixtures. Since I have a fresh Computer I ran a diagnostics with my I-Carsoft MB 3.0 Scanner. It returned shorted wiring in the lighting circuits. Well when I popped the cover off one of the fixtures and positioned my mirror so I could see inside the crumbling internal wiring insulation was revealed. Also a code was set on the Fog Light wiring and LED turn Signal wiring in the two Side View Mirrors.
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The Mirror Covers were scorched from the sun, peeling Clearcoat, burned Basecoat, I wanted to fix while they were off. These have been repainted with PPG Deltron DBC Pearl paint, color match mixed and 2 coats of 2K Urethane Clear. After a few days I will scuff the Clear and shoot on 2 more coats. The Basecoat - Clearcoat paints have all the UV Inhibitors in the Clearcoat. Since by inspection these show more damage extra clear will be applied so I don't have to do it again.
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Front Bumper Cover Restoration
I had a Call Out this morning early so I didn't get in the shop till this afternoon. A replacement AMG Bumper Cover that fits my car from Mercedes is over $700. Aftermarket (Rock Auto) $250 both before freight. Since all the damage is so low to underneath the bumper repairing the cover seems a better use of resources and time.
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So I never liked the front license plate holder it takes away front the front body lines. the mounting holes must be wiped. You can see the Sunburn, the mirror covers were worse. On the Passenger side driving in Diamondhead I went down a steep driveway straight and the bumper scraped off quite a bit of the cover. That must be built back up.
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I stripped the bumper cover first, then not seen (started the blog after this point) is all the tears and deformation to the bumper cover since I took a heat gun and reshaped everything. You can see in the picture a pair of vicegrips flat flange type clamped on the bumper cover. That is holding the last of the heat gun work straight while the bumper cover cools. A Finishing DA (very tight orbit) with 80 grit was used to gently rough everything up where epoxy would be added.
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I keep empty water jugs for mixing containers, cutting in half with scissors, works well. The first skimming needs to be wet and sticky so 406 thickener is used as well as 410 Microlight. The 410 is used sparingly but helps make the resin sand reasonably well.
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Tomorrow I will sand and skim coat again. Repair the front license plate holes too.
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Working the Frist Skimming and Filling Bumper Screw Holes
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Continuing the Bumper Repair & Building up Missing Areas
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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New Headlights, Radiator Fan, and Hood Ornament
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.
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Priming Bumper Cover and New Fog Lites
Since the rest of the small stuff primer would fill I brought the Bumper Cover out to my "Backyard Body Shop Spray Booth" LOL. I had a spray booth inside here till I added the Metal Building addition. Now its wait for a hot humid day and spray before the bugs wake up. Isocyanate cured 2K Urethanes love the heat and moisture. I keep all open catalyst can in the fridge.
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After a good wipedown with Acrylaclean and tacking I mixed up some PPG Refinish Shopline JP375 Epoxy Primer. Usually this is just used as a adhesion coat or millage for corrosion but here I'm using to fill too. After mixing you let the paint sit for 15 minutes Induction Time then it's spray time. After the first coat I let it sit for 15 minutes and you could see it soaking or burning into the Epoxy repair work. second coat to 4th coat each time increasing drying time 15 minutes. With the heat we had that was plenty.
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I allowed it to sit outside covered for 3 days for the Epoxy to really harden then sprayed "Guide Coat" sanding guide coat to all work. This makes it very easy to see any imperfections while sanding. Since this is Basecoat/Clearcoat I will sand with a 500 grit.
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Painting the Bumper Cover Today
After seemingly 1/2 the day water sanding I prep sanded about as far as I was willing to take it. I sanded in the air conditioned side of the shop because it's Hot outside here.
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After sanding I washed the part super thoroughly using a soft bristle brush to get every bit of dirt out of the crevices. Back on the stand to air dry while I put the PPG Refinish Deltron Basecoat in the paint shaker. The paint is so loaded with Pearls no chance for the Pearls to remain settled was allowed. I left the can in the shaker for 45 minutes. While all the shaking was going on 2 wipe downs with PPG Refinish Acrylclean Wax & Grease Remover. Then Tacked the whole cover off lightly finishing with a clean blow down from the paint gun itself.
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Anywhere plastic is showing thru after sanding you have to spray Adhesion Promoter over it right before applying the Basecoat. This is spray glue for paint.
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With so much Pearl I put 3 coats of Basecoat on. The picture really doesn't show much. Basecoat is flat anyway.
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Ok the first Clearcoat you really are not looking for Wet Shine. This is the glue coat. You want enough material on the substrate so after it flashes really well the remaining coats can be shot very "Wet". I allowed this coat to flash for a full 15 minutes before topcoating.
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With the glue coat well solidified now I can pump on some material. Not too much material and air as that will load the bumper cover up with "Orange Peel". The Air pushes puddled material creating the peel effect.
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You can see in the 3rd coat how much more material I have pumped on. Being the front bumper cover the more Clear the better. Of course a bug landed in the clear, walking around. This is the "Backyard Body Shop Blues" you get bugs in the jobs.
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Storms Today Had to Pick Up the Bumper Cover
Kinda what the title says I was allowing the heat to bake the Bumper Cover. Usually a paint booth with have the temp turned up to 145 degrees or so to bake a refinish repair for 45 minutes or so. Well 2 days, 10+ hours close to 100 degrees same thing. Storms arrived this afternoon so I hung it in place, on the car, still must actually put it back together with the new light fixtures (all were trashed).
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Got the Front End Back Together
So I finally received the clips I needed to finish putting the front Bumper back together with all the new light fixtures. I have a couple of Gremlins like Slab is running into, no power to the passenger side marker lite and a short somewhere in the wiring harness inside the Passenger Mirror causing a intermittent operation of LED Turn Signal in the Mirror. Wiping that front license plate holder really makes it look better. Mississippi only uses a rear license plate.
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I still have to repair the fiberglass splash guard the tow truck cracked. Working on that tomorrow.
