Progress on mom's car. Lots of pics.

[Opiy]

I wanted to do this as a birthday gift for her even though it is now a late one. It has never been detailed before and only the occasional drive through car wash. I went out tonight and bought two 5g buckets and a ridgid shop vac. My poor planning has left me a little short on stuff needed for the interior but that is ok. I ran out of time today to finish so I will finish it up sometime tomorrow.

Here are the before pics:
I was thinking of buying some flat black paint to paint the wheels since they are rusting some behind the hub caps.

Various dings on the door

The pin striping is very rough so I guess it is trying to come off. The rubber is in bad shape.

You see how rusty the wheel is? I will see if I have some flat black paint in the shed tomorrow or if not I will get a rattle can.

That used to be a black plastic piece on the bumper. It is very sun faded now. Maybe the 303 will bring it back? I will find out soon. I got the "Pat Peck" off with some thumb nail and TarX.

This is also very faded like the bumper piece.

The bumper has a lot of damage from rocks, sand, and maybe hard bugs hitting it over the years.

I don't think this will be to bad.

Sorry the focus was off.

All I was able to do tonight was:

• Rinse vehicle
• Optima APC wheels, tires, wheel well. Scrub and rinse.
• Wash vehicle with Dawn
• IronX wheels and body
• Clay bar the whole vehicle
• Meg ultimate wash again
• Towel dry

In the morning I will do a quick wash again since it is an outside vehicle. Use Meg Ultimate Polish, NXT 2.0 liquid wax, paint the wheels, dress the tires, 303 protectant on all the vinyl exterior, go to the interior, then clean up the engine area. 303 in the interior and engine detail. I think that is it. :buffing:

 

[cartman57]

Won't she be surprised when it's done!!

 

[BobbyG]

Looking good so far! Keep up the good work and I'll bet your mom will be very surprised when it's all done......rops:

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

That is great. Your mom is going to be floored.

 

[Big Boi]

Subscribed!

 

[Johny B]

Great job .

 

[vet]

Nice work!

I've been noticing the rust behind the hub caps on a lot of cars lately. Wondering what kind of coating is used on them.

 

[Opiy]

I have spent around 10 hours on this job. I am sore! I took some really crappy pictures tonight but I hope I can get some good pics some time tomorrow afternoon to share with everyone. I made some mistakes in the process that I hope to do differently next time. When I do this again I think I will detail the interior first, clean wheels and wheel wells, detail engine, wash, polish (or something more like a swirl remover first), and wax.
My process was clean wheels and wells, wash, ironx, wash, polish, wax, interior, get rained on, detail engine, and hope I didn't get APC on my wax I didn't get to paint the wheels so I hope to get that done soon.

I kept on getting caught in rain while doing this so that messed me up some.

This wasn't a surprise for her but she seemed to like the finish product. :xyxthumbs: She says she doesn't want to use the car now because she doesn't want to get it dirty. LOL I hope she keeps it cleaner from now on. :buffing:

Some things I found out in the process of this:

• The Ridgid shopvac portable Shopvac was very nice. Good strong suction and with the upholstery attachment (paid extra), it cleaned up the carpet and seats very good I though.
• The 303 Protectant wasn't nearly "black" enough for me. I like a little shine or blackening and this really didn't do it for me.
• I need more towels, pads, and power tools to make this quicker and more efficient.
• IronX smells absolutely horrible and it burns very bad on cuts, and TarX smells kinda nice.
• I need to find a better way to clean interior upholstery and carpet. The spray can stuff from the local autoparts (Turtlewax) was ok but I am going to have to find something on Autogeek instead.
• Maybe with the right applicator it is better, but applying tire dressing gel to tires with the ribbed (right terminology?) side walls sucks. It was so spotty and hard to spread. I will have to get a spray.

Ok here are the crappy pictures
Before

After (sorry I should have gotten closer)

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After ( I have a problem with getting far away it seems)

Before

After ( The carpet did look better but I had to get in the car while it rained on me, grassy shoes)

An extra

That flash really brings out the missed spots
I ordered a hook and loop upholstery brush for my PC so I hope it will be a good buy. Anyone have any feedback on that?

Any ideas or suggestions? Feed back please

 

[Father87]

Great job. Exterior shots coming soon? I'd like to see dressing issue on tires. Usually the foam applicators mold in to the ribbing.

 

[Opiy]

Great job. Exterior shots coming soon? I'd like to see dressing issue on tires. Usually the foam applicators mold in to the ribbing.

Yea I will try to get them today. I don't know if I will have time or not since I will be working overtime. I don't have a foam applicator so that is likely my problem.

 

[ziggo99]

In regards to your carpet cleaning observation
Sometimes all you need is a foaming carpet cleaner like the TurtleWax you used. My favorite is Tuff Stuff, as the smell it leaves behind is very pleasant. If you need something more heavy duty, Hi Tech Industries make a product called Orange Pop that we use at the shop. It cleans very well. Another similar product is Distinctive Detail's Orange Muscle. Great foaming cleaners that can break up the tougher stuff. (hint hint AutoGeek...)

And you talked about getting the IronX in your cut...get some of the black nitrile gloves that AutoGeek sells. It'll save your hands and something every detailer should have in stock.

 

[Opiy]

I got home late yesterday so no pics of the exterior yet. I hope to get it today. Thanks for the replies everyone.

The carpet and upholstery cleaner worked pretty good from what I could tell but the scent wasn't all that pleasant. I ordered some things to try to scrub the drivers side better.

I will look into those gloves.

 

[Opiy]

I haven't forgot about this thread. My 10 hour days don't give me any daylight when I get home.

I did order a few things to see if I can improve on the results.
Black Nitrile Gloves
CG Carpet Brush for DA
CG Upholstery Brush for DA
CG New Car Scent
4 CG Chemical Resistant Bottles
CG G6 Hyper Coat
CG Tire Applicator
CG Black on Black Aerosol
CG Fabric Clean

After I bought those brushes I wondered if they will actually work in my PC 7424. I might should have bought the drill brush instead.

I am going to get all this by Saturday so hopefully Sunday I can finish up what I started. I will keep you posted :xyxthumbs:

 

[cartman57]

Carpet brush for the DA will help a lot, you'll be surprised how easy it works. Good choice of CG supplies.

 

[CM8 6MT]

Carpet brush for the DA will help a lot, you'll be surprised how easy it works. Good choice of CG supplies.

Would you say DA carpet brushes are more tailored for spot treatment?

 

[cartman57]

Would you say DA carpet brushes are more tailored for spot treatment?

Both, spot and area, just takes getting used to how it grabs.

 

[DaveT435]

Looks good. Let me know if you find anything to turn that piece on the bumper black again. I've been looking for a product that will do that.

 

[Rsurfer]

Would you say DA carpet brushes are more tailored for spot treatment?

It's good for cars and small area rugs, I wouldn't try doing wall to wall carpeting with it.

 

[Rsurfer]

Looks good. Let me know if you find anything to turn that piece on the bumper black again. I've been looking for a product that will do that.

Ultima Tire and Trim Guard, but do your prep work well.

 

[cartman57]

It's good for cars and small area rugs, I wouldn't try doing wall to wall carpeting with it.

Or shag carpeting!
Used it on a light gray carpet in the back of an suv, small ink spot, cleaned it so good I ended up doing the whole thing then extracted.