Thickness of Sheet Metal/Quality of Paint?

[jbol]

I just spent the past couple of days detailing our three cars, my Mag SRT-8, my wife's 97 MB E320, and our toy, a 94 MB E320 convertible.

(Since this is a detailing forum, I washed car w/Gold Class, clayed using soapy water as lube, polished w/PC using Swirl Mark Remover, one coat of Klasse All in One, two coats of Klasse Sealant Glaze put on over two days)

The difference in the "feel" of the cars is very noticable. The Mag just doesn't get as "buttery" a feel like my other cars do. Not knowing much about the painting process, is it the paint itself or maybe the paint process? Also, the difference in the thickness of sheetmetal is quite remarkable. The Mag's sheet metal defintely is softer than the Benz. Does anyone know the differences in the sheetmetal?

[pigpen]

I just spent 12 hours and my car feels like a baby butt, I hand polished my car also. I know the magnum sheet metal is like 18G

[DriveATransam]

the paint on the magnum is very crappy. i had a minor run-in with a mailbox with my old magnum, and the paint just chipped off the metal like nothing. the paint on the bumper was barely marked though.

i waxed my car yesterday as well. hand-waxing sucks. and i think this car is designed to get dirtier than any other car ive ever owned in the shortest amount of time.

[chaman]

the paint on the magnum is very crappy. i had a minor run-in with a mailbox with my old magnum, and the paint just chipped off the metal like nothing. the paint on the bumper was barely marked though.

i waxed my car yesterday as well. hand-waxing sucks. and i think this car is designed to get dirtier than any other car ive ever owned in the shortest amount of time.

Well Im thinking of doing some PC work today so I will find out.

DriveATransam, since I changed the pads the car does not get that dirty. Most of that dirt is brake dust, man! I mean now the car stays mostly clean.......

Im lovin it!!

[DriveATransam]

yea, i figured most of it was brake dust because its concentrated around the wheel wells.

[formerice]

MB charges more for their cars, so they probably can put more money into the paint. I'm sure if you want to pay for it a good paint shop could put more clearcoat on and hand polish it to perfection. I believe MB uses paint by Sikkens, not sure about our LXs. At least we have decent colors to choose from.

[GasGunR]

There are two German Companies that design, build and install the paint systems for the majority of the auto manufacturing plants in the world. They are Eisenman, http://www.eisenmann.de/ and Durr, http://www.durr.com/en/unternehmensb...t-systems.html

So chances are that the paint on the Benz car and your Mag are not all that different... infact the paint on that Benz is probably pretty much the same as the paint on a Yugo

Don

MB charges more for their cars, so they probably can put more money into the paint. I'm sure if you want to pay for it a good paint shop could put more clearcoat on and hand polish it to perfection. I believe MB uses paint by Sikkens, not sure about our LXs. At least we have decent colors to choose from.

[Rolls Royce 1]

Has anyone noticed the paint on the later MB?? The Magnum looks like a custom job compared to some of the Mercedes that I have seen. Full of Orange Peel. Absolutely terrible paint quality for a so called "luxury brand" car.

[redinorange]

I don't know what the gauge of the sheetmetal is on the Magnum, but the roof is so thin...
All together now, "HOW THIN IS IT?"

It's so thin, it only has one side...

[ZMagnum]

Have you every put a claybar to your Magnum? That smoothed mine right out.

I just spent the past couple of days detailing our three cars, my Mag SRT-8, my wife's 97 MB E320, and our toy, a 94 MB E320 convertible.

(Since this is a detailing forum, I washed car w/Gold Class, clayed using soapy water as lube, polished w/PC using Swirl Mark Remover, one coat of Klasse All in One, two coats of Klasse Sealant Glaze put on over two days)

The difference in the "feel" of the cars is very noticable. The Mag just doesn't get as "buttery" a feel like my other cars do. Not knowing much about the painting process, is it the paint itself or maybe the paint process? Also, the difference in the thickness of sheetmetal is quite remarkable. The Mag's sheet metal defintely is softer than the Benz. Does anyone know the differences in the sheetmetal?

[SmoovC]

The hood on the Mag is aluminum. First one I took off almost went flying through the air; I was expecting it to be alot heavier than it is!!

[jbol]

I have clayed the car and it does improve, but it just doesn't have that deep smoothness as the other cars. It could be that I am feeling the thinness of the car and not neccessarily the paint itself.

Nonetheless, I haven't seen any recent new car with a great paint job devoid of orange peel. Our 12 year old car has absolutely no orange peel whatsoever. There must be a reason, clueless me has no idea why.

[BrilliantBlackHemi]

Many people blame the EPA requrements that have reformulated paint over the years. I know I heard some paint quality guys at the Brampton Assembly Plant tell us that's why we see orange peel now a days. Not sure if I believe it or it's just due to speeding up the robotic painting processes.

Funny thing is that I don't see this on Mercedes cars. I wonder why?