Showdown: Hammered Mercedes SLK vs. Cyclo and Adams Paint Correcting Polish

[Nick@Adams]

I'll start with this:



Not long ago, a good friend of mine mentioned his mother had been washing her car with "old t-shirts and dirty sponges." I immediately shed a few tears, and told him I wanted to get it into my garage for a little TLC.

Enter the previously mentioned blue SLK.

From 20' away, it's a cute little car. Upon closer inspection, this had some of the worst clear coat damage I've come across in quite some time. Swirls, marring, washing scratches, and RIDS galore, and they were EVERYWHERE:














Since it had been recently washed and they don't live far away, I did a quick Waterless Wash wipedown to get the driving dust off, and broke out the Clay Bar. Only going to post one picture here, but I think you'll get the point:



Post clay inspection, pretty much the same everywhere:



Time for some taping to see what it was going to take to take make an improvement. She didn't want perfection as I only had a few hours to work with, but I wanted to to get close.



This was the roof after one pass of Paint Correcting Polish and Orange Microfiber Cutting Pads on the Cyclo. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least:





All of the horizontal surfaces had quite a bit of solvent pop in them, which are the tiny dots you can see:







Deck lid 50/50:



This was the passenger side corner of the hood, near the windshield cowl after one pass as well. You can still see some deep stuff here as well that still remained after one pass of the Correcting Polish:




We are getting ready for a cookout (hence my limited time frame to do this one) so the garage was a busy place! My Mom and my little man James supervising:



My sister and daughter Azlyn "cooking" in her garage kitchen:



I went around everything with a quick pass of Revive Polish on Grey Sealant and Wax Pads to clear up any polishing oils, then laid down a coat of Liquid Paint Sealant, Super VRT on the tires, and away she went!













The Cyclo, combined with our Paint Correcting Polish and Microfiber Cutting Pads, correct very quickly and finish down great!

Thanks for looking, and if you have any questions, fire away!!

[P's_Z]

@ the awful paint and at the awesome job you did!

[Kenwoodturbo]

Looks great especially given the short amount of time you had to work on it.

I have to say I just received my cyclo and various items from you guys about a week and a half ago. I placed order after I had finally killed my old Porter cable machine. Anyway I used the cyclo on my wife's odyssey which looked Like it lhad bet hit with shotgun blast. It made your before pic look perfect....I spent more like a full day polishing it but the cyclo is smooth and coupled with the correcting polish I took a junkyard ready finish on the wife's car and made it look brand new. One of these days I'll upload the pics. Loving the cyclo and the products so far.

[Ubetit]

I've had a Cyclo for many years but that job would have been given to my rotary and wool. That usually requires more steps though and it doesn't seem like you had much time.

[Nick@Adams]

Originally Posted by Ubetit

I've had a Cyclo for many years but that job would have been given to my rotary and wool. That usually requires more steps though and it doesn't seem like you had much time.

This kind of correction and finish was achieved with a single pass of polishing. No need for a rotary, which is why I took the time to show how capable the Cyclo, pads, and polish are.

Technology has advanced rapidly in this industry in the past 10 years or so, and even more in the past 3-4. If this kind of correction can be done with an orbital that weights half as much as a rotary, and is so easy to operate anyone can do it, why even fuss with digging a rotary out of the cabinet?

[BigT]

I keep hearing good things about the cyclo, but I want someone to show me how they maneuver that thing. How do correct the curves or tight areas?

Nice job, btw.

[Nick@Adams]

Originally Posted by BigT

I keep hearing good things about the cyclo, but I want someone to show me how they maneuver that thing. How do correct the curves or tight areas?

Nice job, btw.

With two smaller pads, and flexible backing plates, it moves over curves in body panels much easier than a single, large pad does.

It's amazing on A and B pillars, for instance. Turn the machine sideways and let the pads follow each other vertically long the pillar...and you're essentially making two 4" passes at a time.