Matte Grey, Mercedes, SLS, AMG, Black Series

Detailing a Matte 2014 Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series

We deal with high end cars all the time. But sometimes a car comes in that we have to step back and admire because it is truly special. Such was the case a couple weeks ago when a customer of ours stopped by with his brand new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series. Now, I’ve never seen one of these before in person, because, really, there’s only a handful of them in the US.  And this particular example is painted in Designo Magno Alanite Grey (matte grey), which means it’s even rarer than your ‘standard’ SLS AMG Black Series.

Needless to say, we had a bit of a field day detailing this thing. Anyway, this customer of ours, being the smart guy that he is, picked his SLS up from the dealer and brought it straight to our detail shop. He didn’t make a single other stop. He knew that the most important thing to do with a car like this, especially with the matte paint job, is to make sure that it’s completely protected. When he showed up the car still had tape covering all of the carbon fiber trim, and plastic over the seats, steering wheel, and other interior pieces. We had to carefully remove the protective plastic and tape and start working on getting the car ready for the road. It was covered in snow, dirt, and water spots.

The side was splattered with mud that had slung up from underneath the wheels. There were salt deposits all along the roof and hood. And it was our job to clean it up and get this beast up to her true potential.

Here’s what it took… First was washing the car. We had to use our Matte Body Wash to get all of the dirt, mud, and salt off the exterior before we could go into sealing the car and protecting it from the elements. More on washing a matte car here.

Before we could apply any surface protection products, however, we needed to address the carbon fiber. There is just a ton of carbon fiber on this car. The hood scoop, rocker panels, and rear wing, in addition to many other trim and accent pieces are all coated carbon fiber. There was a hazy residue left on much of the carbon fiber because of the protective tape applied at the factory so we had to polish it up with Carbon Glaze. This removed the haziness, filled in any hairline scratches, and added a deeper shine to the resin coating the carbon fiber. Once that was done we sealed the carbon fiber with Formula 1201 to seal in the surface and add gloss.

Now it was time to tackle the paint surface. Because the car was brand new there wasn’t much prep work to do before sealing the paint. Simply washing it did the trick just fine. After adding a few drops of Matte Paint Coating to an applicator we were off. We worked from nose to tail, making sure to carefully cover each inch of the paint surface. After wiping up the coating we were all finished with the paint and ready to move on.

Matte paint prep isn’t necessarily a difficult task, but it is a very important one if you want to avoid staining, etching, UV damage, and other contaminants which can harm the paint. The last thing to do was to protect the plastic inside the engine bay with our Plastic Sealant and we were all finished. Checkout the video and check out the gallery to see for yourself the transformation the car took.

One thought on “Detailing a Matte 2014 Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series

  1. Pridedetailing says:

    Amazing car, Nicely capture a video about the car detailing and agree with you car detailing change the complete look and feel.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *