Again I dive head first into the deep end of this knowledge pool.

The Smoke Silver paint on my 1991 420SEL has millions of tiny scrathes, they look almost like so many fine hairs. There is also some faint (blochiness?)


Have any of you with similar paint and vintage suffered from this unsightly problem?

Sounds like the standard cracking of the clear coat.

Steve, does that mean the car must be stripped before respraying or will a good sanding be enough?

I don't keep up with paint technology, but in the past the only way to get long term results was to strip. We have a separate body shop and that is how they used to do it but I haven't asked in years.

Sounds like something to check out.

Fred,
I'm pretty sure you need a complete repaint. My bro-in-law's 300TE has the same problem, so it's more common than it should be. I'd give Mercedes a call and look for some "good will" assistance.

Michael,

Please enlighten a little about "good will" assistance. Do you know anybody who has had luck with this? Where shoulg I start?

Mercedes corporate has the ability to help offset the cost of repairs they deem were required prematurely. One example was the steering wheel in my 500E....the covering was 'delaminating', for lack of a better description, and looked horrible. Well, MBZ picked up 50% of the cost of the rim, a not-insignificant $250.

In your case, I'd howl pretty loudly. Call 1-800-formercedes and let them know that you're quite disappointed in how the finish on your Mercedes has held up...unquestionably they used inferior materials otherwise this wouldn't be happening as frequently as it is.

Let us know what they say.

If you have a dealership that you are loyal to, a lot of times they will go to bat for you.

I had bought a "Starmark" 95 500SL with 28K miles on it last summer. Six months later, the plastic rear window on the convertible top cracked across the middle while it was being lowered. While the cold winter temperature may have been a factor anywhere else, it was 65 that day in Irving, Texas! Of course, it was conveniently not covered under the warranty.

The dealership had a MB corporate rep look at the problem and they agreed to foot the majority of the repair cost. It cost around $2000 for an interior shop to perform the replacement, which included the entire rear section, but our cost was $340.

I'm still surprised that the rear window broke the way it did, but at least my cost was more in line with the deductible costs of the warranty.

Our 96 E320 had a nice crack in the dash along the airbag crease. As picky as I am I missed it. We had a wierd vibration noise (fixed thanks to MBDOC) and our mechanic noticed the dash. Long story short MB replaced the dash under goodwill, it probably helped that the car was a MB Reps car.

Good Luck!

Shaun

One other thing-if you want to mask those scratches (folks, if you've ever seen this phenomenon you'll forgive this suggestion) coat the car in a protectant like Armor-All. When my bro does this, the scratches disappear ad the car looks 1000% better.

His car may be worse than yours, be advised-it lived in AZ for its first 7-8 years.