Detailing a Mercedes 500 SEL
Detailing a collector-grade Mercedes 500 SEL
We were recently asked by a customer to prepare and sell his fantastic 1992 W126 Mercedes 500 SEL. The car has great history, being in the employ of former US Ambassador who owned the car for some 25 years.
Being therefore used almost exclusively within central London, the car had a very gentle patina, no doubt benefitted by a thorough going over by our friends at Supercar Detailing when the current owner purchased the car in 2019.
The work was evidenced when we got out the paint depth gauge – clearly the left-hand side of the car underwent more serious work, but the great news was that measurements taken meant every panel had original paint.
What we didn’t realise immediately was just how soft the paint was! The slightest touch of any object would leave a mark. This meant small marring was light work, but with this in mind we took readings between every pass, just to be safe. As you can see with the photos, the worst mark left my rectangular object came out with no problem – it took a mere 3 microns (that’s 0.003mm).
The car has done less than 1,000 miles since it’s last service, but nevertheless we researched the original service schedule and adhered to it, making the effort to get the period correct oil and sparkplugs specified by Mercedes.
It was a pleasure to be able to test drive this fabulous example of what was a technological tour de force, which featured safety equipment and features are still not standard equipment in cars today.
Most importantly, everything still worked, testament to this era of Mercedes. It’s fair to say the same can’t be said for some cars we’ve had that are a decade or newer. We know the existing owner is sad to let this SEL go, but hopefully the owner will have the time to put some miles on this unicorn of a Sonderklasse.