Picked up a new car!

[TTQ B4U]

Picked up a new car for my son today. 84k mile 2014 Corolla S with everything but the heated seat option. Friend of mine called and said it came in on trade yesterday so I got to drive and see it before the dealer did much to it. Just had new tires and brakes put on it and overall it's perfect. Took delivery just as it shows here.....no dealer clean up. It's a swirled out mess already but they knocked an extra $300 off to not detail it so I was good with that.

I spent the better part of tonight cleaning up the interior. Tornodor and steam extractor went to town and it turned out great. Had to use the steamer to remove the "dressing" they slopped on inside it but overall it wasn't too difficult. I put a big fan in it with the windows part way down to help ensure it's fully dried come morning. I'll run a few Ozone treatments on it and then get ready for the outside.

More to come!

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[SWETM]

Nice and a great first car! Maybe more suitable than the Jeep which where in a great condition when you had worked your magic on it though. Will be interesting to see your magic on this too.

/ Tony

 

[TTQ B4U]

Nice and a great first car! Maybe more suitable than the Jeep which where in a great condition when you had worked your magic on it though. Will be interesting to see your magic on this too.

Thanks! Yeah, I see where my son was coming from. Old-School-Cool to me is lame to him and while a Corolla isn't exactly all that and a bag of chips, it does look nice and brings some important safety features to the table. Air bags on the knees even! Stability control, ABS, etc. and not to mention a pretty nice sound system with Bluetooth and auto climate, etc.

Project Corolla Makeover is underway. Here's what's done so far. Car was clean so I ceramic coated and brought back all the exterior trim around the windows, mirrors and windshield cowling to new. LOL at the faux Carbon Fiber on the lower part of the rear valance though. (no pics of this stuff yet)

Interior is completely cleaned and funk free. Steam extracted seats, carpet and trunk area. Once fully dried, early this morning I ran the first of 2 or 3 Ozone treatments. The leather and trim is all dressed up and coated now too. May just have to polish up the dash trim pieces but that's easy enough.

New wipers, New Floor Mats, cabin filter and HVAC System treatment tonight, then off to clean and polish the door jams, deck lid area and hood. Maybe a full engine detail later if I'm energetic. Thankfully it's actually pretty clean.

Full exterior is set for this weekend. Decided she is going to be wearing GYEON's SYNCRO 3 layer ceramic coating system. 2 layers of 9H Hardcoat for protection and gloss, followed by a single layer of "Skin" which is there crazy hydrophobic super-slick top coat layer. It's held up very well on Tamie's Lincoln and still sheets water like mad.

More to come for sure....

 

[DasTurboWagen]

Smart choice and a good car. Can't wait to see the finished results. That generation of Corolla has a really clean design. I don't know what happened on the current generation...Lol

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Congrats on picking up a great first car. I see you wasted no time and hit the ground running getting it back in shape.

 

[bofh]

Wait, what is going on there with the ozone treatment?

 

[bfielder32087]

I always thought this generation of Corolla looked pretty good. Looked more expensive then it is. Didn't these come standard with either HIDs or LED headlights?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Autogeekonline mobile app

 

[FUNX650]

•IMO:
-So far the “Project Corolla Makeover” is
coming along pretty daggone good. And:
-I’m sure that your Son will be very appre-
ciative of all the detailing you’ve already
done to (t)his vehicle.


Even so:
I can’t help but wonder: where’s your Son
been during this makeover of his Corolla?

(Just poking my nose; no harm intended.)


Bob

 

[Rsurfer]

•IMO:
-So far the “Project Corolla Makeover” is
coming along pretty daggone good. And:
-I’m sure that your Son will be very appre-
ciative of all the detailing you’ve already
done to (t)his vehicle.


Even so:
I can’t help but wonder: where’s your Son
been during this makeover of his Corolla?

(Just poking my nose; no harm intended.)


Bob

:iagree::iagree::buffing:

 

[TTQ B4U]

Smart choice and a good car. Can't wait to see the finished results. That generation of Corolla has a really clean design. I don't know what happened on the current generation...Lol

Thanks! Yeah....funny thing is it was on my "list" as I shopped but I never really noticed it until the day I bought this one, there happened to be one parked next to me as my wife and I returned from lunch together. I noted to her that perhaps Nick would like one.....then I got the call about the one I bought. Ha!

Congrats on picking up a great first car. I see you wasted no time and hit the ground running getting it back in shape.

I know right? My wife knows I'm a nut like that.

Wait, what is going on there with the ozone treatment?

Getting rid of any and all funk. Wasn't funky just has 84k on it and I wanted it fresh. Usually takes 2-3 treatment. Done and smells new again.

I always thought this generation of Corolla looked pretty good. Looked more expensive then it is. Didn't these come standard with either HIDs or LED headlights?

Sadly, I don't know. Haven't even turned them on yet. As I was polishing them tonight I thought about it but then forgot to check. If they are standard halogens I'll likely be looking into upgrading them.

•IMO:
-So far the “Project Corolla Makeover” is
coming along pretty daggone good. And:
-I’m sure that your Son will be very appre-
ciative of all the detailing you’ve already
done to (t)his vehicle.

Even so:
I can’t help but wonder: where’s your Son
been during this makeover of his Corolla?

(Just poking my nose; no harm intended.)
Bob

Thanks and fair question. During the week we keep him focused on his school work. Would love to have him involved and perhaps I could have waited, but I couldn't help myself. He will very likely be helping me this weekend. Gloss black wheels......I forsee him finding out why I hate them. He may be doing the polishing and coating of those

 

[TTQ B4U]

Makeover continues......

Tonight continued the makeover work on Nick's car.

• Replaced wipers
• Installed a new cabin filter
• Ran the last ozone treatment. Now the car is completely fresh inside. �� Trim and windshield cowling work from last night turned out perfect. Just like new!

Started on the outside too.

• Polished out just a slight bit of hazing that started on the headlights. PPF on them later. Looking at ordering some 20% tinted PPF for them and on my car.
• Perfected the tail lights...bye bye swirls
• Washed and fully cleaned the door jambs and deck lid area.
• Stripped and polished all the windows and mirrors in prep for coating them
• Washed, decontaminated and fully prepped the car for the buffer this weekend. Thankfully temps in the 60's and 70's!! Again, looking to use GYEON Syncro.

Few more pics:

 

[dcjredline]

Do the 2014's have that SHITTY "carpet" in them that you can barely vacuum anything out of? Its more like trunk liner than carpet in some of the less expensive Toyotas (Yaris, Corolla) in the vintage Im used to dealing with (2002-2007)

 

[ntwillie1]

Congrats to you and your son on the car. My first car was a 1990 toyota corolla, bottom of the line, I think dE trim or something like that. Manual windows, cloth seats, terrible radio..... but I loved it cause it was mine and I used to turtle wax it every chance I got. . I picked up my high school sweetheart for a first date in that car and 25 years later I still have the girl but the Corolla is gone. My wife and I always joke that she married me for my car. Hahaha. Good memories.

 

[TTQ B4U]

Do the 2014's have that SHITTY "carpet" in them that you can barely vacuum anything out of? Its more like trunk liner than carpet in some of the less expensive Toyotas (Yaris, Corolla) in the vintage Im used to dealing with (2002-2007)

different but still the same quality. not carpet but some kind of fabric they call carpet The best purchase I've made all year is my Tornador Black and the Velocity Vac System. Makes vacuuming anything about as easy as can be.

 

[FUNX650]

My first car was a 1990 toyota corolla, bottom
of the line, I think dE trim or something like that.

Manual windows, cloth seats, terrible radio.....
but I loved it cause it was mine and I used to
turtle wax it every chance I got. .

I picked up my high school sweetheart for
a first date in that car and 25 years later I
still have the girl but the Corolla is gone. My
wife and I always joke that she married me
for my car. Hahaha.

Good memories.

^^^Cool story. rops:


Bob

 

[oneheadlite]

Nice choice in car!

Maybe I’m just jealous since the first car I had (that ran more than 600 miles - I’m looking at you ‘87 Nova...) was an ‘85 Chevette, but it drives me nuts when parents set their kids up in 300+ HP cars because they can be so readily had. He’ll be able to build up a solid driving foundation before hot-rodding down the road if that’s his thing.

I bet that thing absolutely pops in person. :dblthumb2: I’m always jealous of your work! I’m also glad I don’t live closer, or I’d never do anything on my own cars (and I’d have a lot emptier pockets...). :laughing:

He’s not going to be able to hide anything with the car when you’re done. I can see it now: “Son, we need to talk. I see you’ve been using quite a bit of pressure during your wash process...” :laughing:

 

[TTQ B4U]

I bet that thing absolutely pops in person

Did a test panel before work.......let's just say it's nearly the same color as my car and when I'm done we'll see if anyone can pick out which sample is from a 5-6 year Corolla or a 1-2 year old Infiniti

 

[Rsurfer]

Did a test panel before work.......let's just say it's nearly the same color as my car and when I'm done we'll see if anyone can pick out which sample is from a 5-6 year Corolla or a 1-2 year old Infiniti

Would you consider trading with your son?

 

[TTQ B4U]

Would you consider trading with your son?

Haha! He's been driving my car to gain more experience. Eco mode is his friend and mine too However, mom will likely be driving the Corolla at times. My wife runs some crazy long errands at times and while we love her SUV, and the 2.3 Ecoboost, it's certainly not Eco anything. Sucks gas with her right foot doing work. However, this little corolla shows 34mpg average on the trip computer so mom........get used to this and we and cut our gas budget. LOL Heck, I may take it to Michigan a couple times for giggles too. I have a couple trips planned and wouldn't mine seeing how it does.

 

[TTQ B4U]

Latest Project update though:

Project Corolla, night 3. Last night after work I finished up refining the paint work. Inside door jambs included. Nothing here is final as it needs a wipe-down prior to coating as it's layered in polish/compound dust. Wheels need polished out yet too. Should be finished up today or Sunday perhaps. There will be 3 layers of ceramic on it and I have to work on it around family time and at night so leveraging time for each layer to cure soaks up some working hours.

Here are a few cell shots before I packed up for the night. No good clarity shots yes, but it's 98% full correction. Few slight scratches here and there that just aren't worth chasing. I'd rather keep the clear coat thicker. Great news is it's nearly orange peel free. Super clarity in the paint and that will really allow the mica metallic paint to sparkle when light/sunlight hits it. I'm very pleased there.