Man shares how he turned 'beat-up' Mercedes SL550 into a 'supercar'
- This TikToker transformed his Mercedes SL550 into a ‘supercar’
- He did it all for under $12,000
- The bright yellow wrap is just the beginning of the edits he made
Published on Feb 16, 2024 at 4:00 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Feb 16, 2024 at 8:10 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
No supercar budget? No problem. This TikToker transformed his Mercedes SL550 into a ‘supercar’.
And he did it all for under $12,000.
It’s an upgraded engine – bright it’s the yellow wrap that’s the true key to its glow up.
Popular Tiktoker, Grant Sloan, has a bio that says it all: “Just Building Cars n’ Stuff” at his apparent location of ‘Motor City’.
With an upgraded engine, custom headlights and the eye-catching yellow wrap – it may come as a surprise that the entire project came in at under $12,000.
Sloan has revealed to his 516.3K followers that the Mercedes SL550 set him back $8,000.
The battered Mercedes had done 140,000 miles and has a 5.5L V8 engine.
It’s a great engine, made rare by the fact that Mercedes is now focusing on electric and hybrid powertrains.
Aesthetically, a huge key mark sat on the right rear with its white paint crying out for attention.
Meanwhile the wrap, which covered most of the issues in the wrap after covering the key marks in paint and sanding them down, came in at $400.
Fixing the rest of the car cost an additional $3,600.
Despite yellow accounting for just 1 percent of US car sales, this shade, picked by Sloan’s girlfriend is simply perfect.
Aside from the new shade, the car’s trims were repainted black and it was also treated to customized headlights, new fog lights and brake lights.
What’s more it got a set of wheels, grill, tires and splitters.
At the rear, the back bumper’s trim was replaced with a carbon fiber diffuser.
The TikToker’s transformation has over a million views.
And the comments were full of ideas of what he could do next.
“Put a V12 twin turbo in it,” said one.
“Brown leather seats with matching dashboard and steering wheels would kill it,” said a second.
Bolder requests including asking Grant to add an exhaust such as “the SLR 722” or a fresh spoiler.
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All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
