1999 Toyota Sienna

[Nica]

This vehicle belongs to a co-worker who wanted his vehicle looking like new a gain. So I did my best.

1999 Toyota Sienna

Interior Process:

Vinyl and rubber:
I used Meguiars #40, but prior to it I gave the entire vehicle a nice wipe down with Meg’s APC mixed with water 10:1.

Carpet:
First I vacuumed the entire inside and then went with Meguiars APC. I scrubbed with a brush then extracted it with my shop-vac.

Exterior Process

Engine bay:
Used P21S Total Auto Wash full strength and dressed with Stoners Trim Shine.

Wash:
I used Meguiar’s Gold Class Shampoo two bucket method and the white ShMITT.

Clay:
The vehicle was in rough shape, lots of tree sap and bunch of other stuff stuck on it so I used my reliable Ricardo Clay.

Polish

This was the fun part, owner came over to lend a hand and brought his son with him so I got all my polishers out and showed them how to use them and away we went. The owner owns a Makita so he had an idea as to what to do. Here is how it was split up.

Owner of the vehicle used:
Makita – Menzerna Orange Pad with Lake Country 5inch backing plate – between 600 to 900rpm – Menzerna Power Gloss Compound.

Owners son used:
Cyclo – Edge green pads – Menzerna Power Gloss Compound

Me:
Metabo – Meguiar’s Polishing pad with 3M backing plate – Menzerna Power Gloss Compound.

The vehicle was split as follows:
Trunk was done by owner’s son, did a good job and enjoyed using the Cyclo.
Owner and I took a side each and split the vehicle in half and a way we went, this was fun. It was nice, I enjoy chatting with the owner of the vehicle and it was great having some help. In addition, Power Gloss Compound finished flawless on this vehicle so that was the game plan.

Prepping for wax:

I applied the Pinnacle Carnaube Finishing Glaze by applicator and owner removed with a microfiber towel.

Wax:

I applied 1 – Coat of Souveran Paste with applicator and owner removed with various microfiber towels.

Rims/wheel wells/Tires:

For the rims I just scrubbed with a brush
For the wheel wells I used P21S Total Auto Wash full strength
Tires and wheel wells were finished off with Stoner Trim Shine

Exterior plastic peaces/trim:

I used Black Again applied with a Microfiber towel and excess was removed with a Microfiber towel. This stuff is incredible, I’m not sure about its durability though. So I told the owner to keep an eye on it for me and let me know how long it lasts. The owner waxed the vehicle before and there was wax al over the plastic trims and Black Again completely removed all the wax and anything else that was on it, incredible results but you will see what I mean by the pictures.

Glass:

Stoners with glass Cobra micro fiber then one coat of Pinnacle Carnauba Finishing Glaze and topped off with one coat of Souveran Paste.

Observations/comments:

Vehicle was in need of a full detail, the owner of the vehicle was blown away with the results. He commented that he tries to take good care of this vehicle but after he has seen all the products I used he was blown away with the results. You see the owner is at the point where I was before I came to AutoGeek, owner asked me a bunch of questions as to the products I was using and I told him that most if not all of my products are not found locally, most of my products have been ordered from the US or from Europe. Oh then owner and I started talking about waxes and he was blown away with my collectin of waxes, he could not believe the amount of money I’ve spent just on wax but I explained to him what each one did and why they were so expensive and he agreed at the end that the products I had used completely blew him a way. Oh and this is the best part, this particular owner is hard to please and when we were done he said to me…”…I’m impressed with the results…” that was the best compliment I could receive from the owner.

1/7

 

[Nica]

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2/7

 

[Nica]

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3/7

 

[Nica]

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This is a picture of the water mixed with APC

After:

This is the water after I had completed the wipe down of the entire interior

4/7

 

[Nica]

Pictures of what I was up a against on the exterior

Sun Gun in Action

Once I knew what I was up against I picked my weapon of choice

Now comes the taping

Some pictures of during the polishing and the tag team action

Owner of the vehicle in action

Owners son in action

5/7

 

[Nica]

Mini review of Back to Black in action:

50/50 picture

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After:

Some inside reflection pictures

Wher’s the scratch? Well it’s still there but you can barely see it. I got a bottle of touch up paint and I finished the scratch off with touch up paint.

6/7

 

[Nica]

Some outside reflection pictures (sorry sun was going down)

To conclude here is something different, I got the idea from some of guys from the UK, let me know what you guys think of it.

Remix for Nica03151979 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Walk around the vehicle (video)

Hope you enjoy

7/7

 

[Gary Sword]

Looks great Nica! Nice to see you putting everyone to work. The sun sure looks bright in your garage. Did you turn the owner into any autogeek?

 

[Nica]

Thanks Gary, yup it comes in handy having your own portable sun lol

Oh the owner is hooked, tomorrow (Monday, August 13) I'll send him this link as per request and boy lets just say he was shocked by the results, just blown away...in fact so impressed that he kept the bra of the vehicle because he wanted to show it to his family. That's wicked. He literally drilled me on all the materials I was using and I loved every minute of it

 

[D]

Looks great as always bud! I cant believe that water after the interior wipe down! WOW!! Nice job on removing the seats. One thing Ive learned is you have to be VERY careful doing this. Sometimes it will trigger the air bag light, which will require a trip to the dealership. Which always equals $$$. Looks like you did a very thorough job, removing the license plates and everything, thats what I like to see!

That Cyclo looks a lot smaller then I thought it was. I might have to invest in one. How much faster does that work compared to a PC? I used my rotary for the first time the other day. Gotta admit, I was a little scared. But no holograms or burnt paint. It works 100x faster then the PC. A LOT harder to control compared to the PC. I can use the PC with my eyes closed, but the rotary requires 110% attention at all times. I need to fly you down here for some lessons!

Also, the new CR system is awesome!!!!

 

[Dust2Glory]

Nica you are the MAN!! every time you post i know it's gonna be something outstanding and i have yet to be disappointed

 

[Rey05]

Very nice!! The results are amazing! I really like the 50/50 shots and the difference back to black is insane! Very cool!

 

[klumzypinoy]

Oh man I love the abundance of pics Nica! It sounded like you and the owner and his son had fun . I also love the vid, really cool idea you had! You brought that Sienna back to life. The after bucket shot was just horrible

 

[07ImpalaSS]

That water was disgusting!

 

[alban61]

Awesome work, Carlos! That's really cool that you had father/son going to town on their own vehicle. I can see the 2 of them working together at their own house, keeping that minivan looking great. Great bonding time.
Thanks for the write-up and pics. Very informative. You're making me look at Black Again, now. Let us know the durability of it. I have problems with the trim just behind the rear tires on my Explorer.
Again, just great work from you, bud!! Awesome!

 

[Bigfoot]

Nice work Compa! Good you had help on that one big time!

 

[Nica]

D&D Auto Detailing - Glad you liked it, oh and I know what you mean about removing the seats, I think I read it here about triggering the air bag light....mmmm...can't recall who's detail that was...but yes extra caution was taken when I was removing the seats. It's funny because just the wipe down made a significant difference, but then again the water show’s it too lol. As for the Cyclo, it's okay I don't mind having it around but to be honest I don't think it's any faster then the PC. Best way to polish is with a rotary, now that I've got the hang of the Metabo it's hard going to back to a DA. But yes, rotary's require your full attention and like you said a PC you can pretty much do with your eyes closed. Controlling the rotary is easy once you get the hang of it, but I too noticed that controlling the rotary took some getting used to. When I first started using my Metabo it was as though it had a mind of it's own, felt as though I was fighting with the machine to make it go the way I wanted it to go...tired me out actually but like anything the more you use it the better you get at it. Oh I agree the CR system works great :righton: oh I didn't use it on this vehicle though, I used it on my Lexus on Sunday

Dust2Glory - Thank you Dust, glad you like it. I've learned lots from you and many others here and I'm glad you enjoy what I post.

Rey05 - Glad you like it. I agree that Back to Black is an incredible product. I'll be using that from now on.

klumzypinoy - Glad you liked the video, I got the idea from some of the guys from the UK. I've been doing some reading there and man I thought I was passionate about detailing those UK detailers are at a different level of detailing. I have ot admit it was fun having the owner and his son helping out. I enjoyed the conversations we had and owner learned a great deal about detailing. Thank you for the compliments buddy, very much appreciated.

07ImpalaSS - lol...yup I agree. It's funny though because as I was working I didn't really noticed the water. It wasn’t till the very end when I was about to just dump the water that I thought of taking the picture lol.

alban61 - Thank you for the kind words my friend, really appreciated. It was nice having the owner and his son help out. It's funny because the owner says to me "..are we making a difference..." so I told him I would show him the difference when he was done. He impressed him self when I showed him the results with the Sun Gun. Overall it was a good experience for all of us, owner just loved the results and his son had fun using the Cyclo. I told the owner to let me know how long the plastic trims last or if the previous wax residue comes back again. I have a feeling though that the wax residue will not be coming back because the towel I was using to apply the Back to Black was very dirty. But I'll keep you posted.

Bigfoot - Thank you for the kind words compadre, yea having the extra help was great and having someone to chat with was fun. I enjoyed it.

 

[matteo86]

WOW awsome job Nica. Really great turn around from the inside out. Im loving just the 106ff looks like ill need some of the abbrasive polish! What would you compare the powergloss too..only other abbrasive ive used is ssr3? ..


Wicked garage too!!! Keep up the great work!

 

[joe.p]

quite abit of work involved when doing minivans..you did so much work to this van i i'm not sure where to start..you did a great job as always Nica..The dash and enginebay appear to be better then new..great write up

Good job buddy

 

[Tonya]

Very impressive work Nica! I love all the pics. I too will need to get some Black Again. Get 50/50 shot of that. :applause: