It’s time to collect my completed SLS AMG Black Series in Mystic Blue! The newest car added to my garage is now finished and ready to be brought back home from the full respray that has transformed it from grey to my choice of colour. The result is absolutely perfect, I cannot believe how good it looks!
I bought the SLS AMG Black Series a few months ago always with the intention to change the colour to one of my own choosing. Of course as a model that launched 7 years ago, it was not possible for me to ever spec one from new so it became a case of finding the perfect car to turn into my permanent Shmeemobile. Fortunately I happened upon such an example at Schaltkulisse in Germany, a car I had filmed myself 6 years ago and with a perfect history at the right price. After bringing it over to the UK, and completing the import process, it was off to Chartwell to begin the process to transform it.
Initialy the car was in Himalaya Grey, a shade that I liked a lot more in person than I expected but didn’t obviously fit my usual preference for bright and bold colours. I choose Mystic Blue as a colour I’ve often considered in the past, an original Mercedes designo paint colour that’s currently available on the G63, and a colour of which just 1 SLS Black Series was painted in from new. (I chose not to buy that car due to it having 0 miles and being located in the UAE so commanding a premium price plus taxes to import).
With regards to the decision to paint the car in my own colour, Mystic Blue, no doubt there are plenty of questions. Naturally, I spent a lot of time considering the decision and the various options; from wrapping to a Topaz Skin. The gut instinct screams “don’t respray it because you’ll destroy the value”, however , I did not buy this car to be a collector’s garage queen! I will drive it to Vmax top speed, I will do laps of the Nurburgring and track days, it’ll be on show stands, I will fly it around the world, and I will drive it with plenty of miles. As such, from a ‘value’ perspective, it’s largely irrelevant as I have absolutely no plans to sell it and will make the story of the car my own.
A wrap was never going to work, typically those last 2-3 years before they start peeling away and looking poor, while never having a paint quality finish from the start. Topaz Skin was heavily considered like on my AMG G63 and in many cases would be the right option, however there’s no knowing how that holds up in 10 years, or how it could work with PPF on top – which is absolutely compulsory for the amount and type of usage I have planned. What would even happen with rally stickers over the top of the Skin is totally unknown and plenty of other queries. Ultimately why pay for what is technically a respray, to maybe have to do it again down the line? The decision here is a full respray paint job, and then Topaz PPF on top to protect it in future.
The good news though, is that the result is perfect! I could not be happier with how it has turned out, a truly special colour for the SLS AMG Black Series and one that will look fantastic in my garage going forwards.
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Thanks for watching, Tim
