2000 Nissan X-Terra A.K.A. The Shortbus

[tuscarora dave]

This X-Terra belongs to a new client and good friend of mine. He calls it "the Shortbus" I am sure you can figure that out. The Shortbus has been to every state in the USA including Alaska, it has also been all over Canada. The owner of the Shortbus is an avid cyclist, mountain biker, BMX racer, runner, hiker, camper, mountain climber, scuba diver and an excellent musician. The short bus has delivered him and his gear to all these venues for 150,000 hard miles. The owner also works around a lot of steel mills so it sees a lot of fallout and rail dust on a pretty much daily basis.

The color made it hard to capture all the defects in the paint in the way of swirls and scratches but it had plenty. The Shortbus also had tons if iron type fallout all over it. It took an entire 100 gram clay bar to get the contaminates out of the paint before the polishing began.

Washed with Meg's Deep Crystal wash

Clayed with S.M. Arnold purple medium clay and Clay Magic Red clay ONR as lube

Plastic, rubber trim and tires cleaned with Citra-Plus Citrus Cleaner full strength

Correction with M-105 Makita rotary Orange LC VC 5.5" pad for Flex Polishers 1000 RPM and yellow Genuine Cyclo 4" cutting pads 1200 RPM

Finished with M-205 Makita rotary Red LC VC 5.5" pad for Flex Polishers 1000 RPM then 600 RPM and Blue Genuine Cyclo 4" finishing pads 1000 RPM then 600 RPM

The stickers were all scraped off the glass except for one sticker then the glass polished with M-105 using my G110V2 and yellow Genuine Cyclo cutting Pad to remove all the oxidation and ghosting from the stickers.

LSP was DG #111

Plastic and rubber coated with Opti-Bond

Interior plastic and carpet was cleaned with Citra-Plus Citrus cleaner 20:1 dilution ratio

The duct tape adhesive was a bit of a challenge, I tried WD-40, Goo Gone and Prep-Sol with no success. I tested some naptha in an underdash area to make sure it would not dissolve the vinyl and it did not so I removed the adhesive with that. I would caution against using naptha though because it did disolve the coating on the black plastic piece that surrounds the instrument cluster so it was removed and painted black satin.

I tried a carpet extraction fluid made from ocean kelp that I picked up at a local discount store on the seats and it worked terrific at 5 ounces per gallon of hot water. I sprayed it on with a garden sprayer and then extracted with my wet dry vac. It took the seats forever to dry as the weather was cool with no real sunshine so I placed a space heater in the vehicle to assist in drying over night.

I lost track of the hours on this job but it was done over 4 days. If I had to guess I would say around 24 hours total.

Here are some before pics of the paint, note the specks of iron in the paint.

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/001-13.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/009-19.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/010-22.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/025-9.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/007-20.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/024-6.jpg

Here are a few before pics of the interior.

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/017-8.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/020-11.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/018-11.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/019-14.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/012-13.jpg

This job got to be very challenging so this little guy cheered me on.

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/045-3.jpg

Once the Shortbus hits the 200,000 mile mark the owner is donating it to one of his favorite charities. So I will have a 2011 Nissan Murano to care for soon.

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/043-4.jpg

This is the one sticker that I just couldn't bring myself to scrape off.

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/029-7.jpg

Here are a few after pics of the exterior. The weather was total clouds so no real sun shots but the correction was at around 95%.

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/030-4.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/027-12.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/029-6.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/0232.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/031-7.jpg

On to the interior pics.

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/016-10.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/021-13.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/022-9.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/023-9.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/018-12.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/019-15.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/025-10.jpg
http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/024-7.jpg

Thanks for looking, TD

[JonMiles]

Great turn around man, that thing was rough to start. Hard to believe it has almost 200k miles on it, it looks new again. :dblthumb2::dblthumb2:

Just out of curiosity, what kind of paint did you use on the gauge surrounds?

[tuscarora dave]

Great turn around man, that thing was rough to start. Hard to believe it has almost 200k miles on it, it looks new again. :dblthumb2::dblthumb2:

Just out of curiosity, what kind of paint did you use on the gauge surrounds?
Thanks, the person that gets this donated vehicle is going to be pretty happy. I used Rustolium satin black in a rattle can.

[Shane731]

Awesome job, Dave! :dblthumb2:

[poyo]

oh Gawd, super shitznit turnaround work u did sir!

[ESSO]

Good job ! .Dave
______________
esso

[MetaEnder]

Looks like one of the car's I always end up detailing! (from the nasty interior)

Great job, turned out awesome.

[SeaJay's]

great turn around!

[Setec Astronomy]

Ah now I understand the duct tape question...had that on a relative's car when the glove box latch broke...I can't remember if I got that off or not! Great job!

[Rhudeboye]

Very impressive inside out. A truck that has seen that kinda mileage in all conditions and cliamtes must've been a challenge. With the amount of dirt on that floor i guess you started with a rake. Can only imagine what was under the seat covers.

The end result- even the crevices of the shifters and around the cup holders, all look fantastic. The restoration of the carpet color makes it appear that its never been neglected. How did you do that?

[Porsche Pilot]

"The owner of the Shortbus is an avid cyclist, mountain biker, BMX racer, runner, hiker, camper, mountain climber, scuba diver and an excellent musician."

This guys bothers me! :) I have to get my hand out of this Cheeto bag and get more active.

[tuscarora dave]

Awesome job, Dave! :dblthumb2:
Thanks Shane!


oh Gawd, super shitznit turnaround work u did sir!
Thank you sir!


Good job ! .Dave
______________
esso
Thanks!


Looks like one of the car's I always end up detailing! (from the nasty interior)

Great job, turned out awesome.
Thanks, the owner is constantly on the go so it was just dirt and thankfully no Jolly Ranchers!


great turn around!
Thank You!


Ah now I understand the duct tape question...had that on a relative's car when the glove box latch broke...I can't remember if I got that off or not! Great job!
Thanks! I did forget to mention that I did install a new glove box as the one in the before pics was broken.


Very impressive inside out. A truck that has seen that kinda mileage in all conditions and cliamtes must've been a challenge. With the amount of dirt on that floor i guess you started with a rake. Can only imagine what was under the seat covers.

The end result- even the crevices of the shifters and around the cup holders, all look fantastic. The restoration of the carpet color makes it appear that its never been neglected. How did you do that?
Thank you! I thought the same thing about what might be under the seat covers but to my surprise there was nothing under them, that's unusual. As for the carpets I just sprayed an all purpose cleaner and agitated with a stiff parts cleaning brush and vacuumed up immediately.

[cnfowler]

No real sun shots? I thought this was a picture of the sun!

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd323/tuscaroradave/030-4.jpg



Colin

[detaildave]

Excellent work Dave, you earned your money on that one!!!:xyxthumbs: