2009 Odyssey, spring detail

sportscarhiatus

sportscarhiatus

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Time once again for the yearly detail of the wife's daily driver. After a harsh winter of salt and dirt and other nasty crud, along with tons of cheerios, sippy cups, goldfish, and other snacks from our 2 year old (all of because of family trips too!)...it was time once again to clean her up. To point out though, since we got it new 2 years ago, I never really gave her a thorough polish/de-swirl. This is technically speaking, its "first" time under the knife :)

This process took over 12 hours, over a span of 3 weeks...darn minivan is so biggggg!!! I had to work on it an hour or two a day, mostly evenings. Sometimes, it would be every other day. Most of you fathers/husbands out there who work full time (not a detailing business of course) and have a demand for family time, all know what I mean...... there's just not enough time in the day.

How did I make it work over 3 weeks with her driving it everyday? The key is to work 1 panel at a time. I'd go from start to finish, ONRing it, claying it, polishing, glazing, sealing (then next day wax). Since the panel in question is completely "sealed" so to speak, then no big deal getting it hit with the elements.:props:

So I finally got her 100% done today, inside and out...:dblthumb2: finally, after starting back in early/mid March. Minivan is finally SWIRL-FREE!!!! My steps were as follows:

Exterior:

  • ONR wash (panel by panel as needed)
  • Meguiar's clay / ONR lube
  • Menz SIP via LC orange CCS pad - Flex
  • Menz PO85RD via LC gray CCS pad - Flex
    • pads cleaned on the fly via XMT cleaner
  • CG EZ Creme (love this stuff) via LC blue CCS pad - PC
  • 4Star UPP via LC red CCS pad - PC
  • Final hand wash via 2 bucket/grit guard/DP extreme foam
  • Collinite 845 (starting to be my favorite LSP for daily drivers) via red CCS pad - PC
    • this I applied over the entire car today, not panel by panel
Interior:

  • DP interior cleaner (mmmm banana scent...)
  • Aero 303

Oh, and tires and rims cleaned with Amazing rolloff... sealed with OCW.

Voila.... all done. Yes, I know it's a minivan, but hey... our love for detailing is not vehicle dependent ;) On to the pics... enjoy.Feed back please

SOME BEFORES:

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50/50's:
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Nice transformation. The Odyssey is a great minivan. I have to do my father-in-law's 2008 soon. I had a 2001 and loved it. I do agree that the Odyssey is a large "canvas".
 
AFTERS:

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after2.jpg




FINISHED (cloudy though, not full sun...sorry)

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NO MORE CHEERIOS!!!
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^ carpet mats are underneath my "cheap disposable" rubber mats that get all the crud.

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MONEY SHOTS!!! (yes, though a minivan, I still get those! :))
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Thanks for looking!!!
 
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Great job on the detail! That NHBP paint looks crazy! I love seeing the clear blue pearl flakes!

Only 12 hours?! That's pretty fast! How'd you do it?
 
Looks really good!!! 12 hours for that, you must have your process down to a T, especially if you were able to only spend a couple of hours on it a night, panel by panel. Very impressive outcome.

One thing, spray a bit of tire shine or undercarriage dressing in those wheel wells, it'll be the cherry on top! I only started dressing my wells about a year and a half ago, but I always make sure they're dressed now, makes the car look so much better!
 
Looks great! :dblthumb2:

Money shots are money shots no matter what the vehicle type is.
 
Marc08EX said:
Great job on the detail! That NHBP paint looks crazy! I love seeing the clear blue pearl flakes!

Only 12 hours?! That's pretty fast! How'd you do it?
Click to expand...

Hi Mark. Yes, the nighthawk black pearl is one of my favorites. I have had 3 hondas/acuras in that color now. Looks plain black from about 4 feet outward, but upon closer inspection, you see blue flakes! :)

12 hour comment will be addressed below:

Matt said:
Looks really good!!! 12 hours for that, you must have your process down to a T, especially if you were able to only spend a couple of hours on it a night, panel by panel. Very impressive outcome.

One thing, spray a bit of tire shine or undercarriage dressing in those wheel wells, it'll be the cherry on top! I only started dressing my wells about a year and a half ago, but I always make sure they're dressed now, makes the car look so much better!
Click to expand...

You are correct on the 12 hour error. It's actually around 14.5 total. I did not count the interior clean up and the final wash and blow dry in the original 12. But the secret (at least for me) for how I'm able to be efficient at it, is mostly due to my FLEX!!!! I love that thing. I can do about 95% correction in about 4-5 passes only versus more passes on a PC. So I can divide a panel into 3 or 4 mostly, sections and go to town on it immediately. Also, using the PC for glazing and sealing is a lot quicker too (than by hand or the Flex).

I also think, that breaking it up to 1 to 2 panels a night leaves me "fresher", meaning I am not as tired. Imagine going straight at it for 8 hours (which I've done before)... your arm just feels like jelly... and your back too, from those awkward positions.

But yes, been doing this for a few years, so getting better at it all the time. Making my "time" count, so to speak. Less errors, less experimenting, equals quicker results. I'm not saying I'm an expert... I still learn everyday. I also learned it all from this forum. Love it.

As for the wheel wells, yes, I got "lazy" with that, but since it's our daily driver, and it's not really going into a show per se, as soon as I take the time to clean the wheel wells (other than spraying ARO which I did), as soon as I drive it the next day, it's gunked up already anyways :( If it helps you any, I do dress my 370Z (in my avatar)... that's my weekend toy.
 
I noticed you used Optimum Wax as a tire dressing. Is that something you use regularly? What do you think of it in that application?
I use it for my exterior plastics over a dressing and it lasts much longer than a dressing alone, but I've never used it on a tire.

Bill
 
BillyJack said:
I noticed you used Optimum Wax as a tire dressing. Is that something you use regularly? What do you think of it in that application?
I use it for my exterior plastics over a dressing and it lasts much longer than a dressing alone, but I've never used it on a tire.

Bill
Click to expand...

Bill, sorry, but I wanted to edit my errors in the first post, but this forum is not set up to allow edits after 20 minutes :(

but anyways, regarding OCW, I used that on the rims. Tires I used PB Bold n Bright. Again, sorry for the error/omission in my 1st post. It was late last night when I posted.
 
Who knew a mini could look so good?? Very nice. Question about the 303. I've used 303 on about everything rubber and vinyl in my cars and i think it protects great. However, mine makes the interior smell like I'm stuffing old men in the back seat for weeks. I mean really strong musty B.O. smell. I've read others have this experience, but did you? It is possible I have an old bottle or something? Not trying to hijack your thread, just wondered if you noticed it when you used it on your interior.

Great job again.
 
07 z-oh-6 said:
I'm just givin' ya a hard time! ;)

The minivan looks outstanding! :props:
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hehe... thanks Mark. But you know what the sad part is, especially on black, all that work, and after 1 or 2 drives, it's pretty much shot, with dust ALL over it. Black shows EVERYthing... :(

Trevor said:
Who knew a mini could look so good?? Very nice. Question about the 303. I've used 303 on about everything rubber and vinyl in my cars and i think it protects great. However, mine makes the interior smell like I'm stuffing old men in the back seat for weeks. I mean really strong musty B.O. smell. I've read others have this experience, but did you? It is possible I have an old bottle or something? Not trying to hijack your thread, just wondered if you noticed it when you used it on your interior.

Great job again.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the props! Yeah, if anything, my wife has the best looking minivan in town :) at least after 1 day of driving ;)

NP on the question on 303. No sir, I do not have any issue with a bad odor with the use of 303. It smells just like the contents itself, which is pretty much any other "rubber protectant" type of smell. It goes away pretty quickly too, after application/drive. A thing to note though, the "B.O."/musty smell is sometimes coming from the vent (I've seen this before), especially after using the AC after a long time of not using it (i.e. winter). They say it's just moisture within the vents that clears out after a while.... hopefully no mold/etc????

I hope that helps.
 
sportscarhiatus said:
hehe... thanks Mark. But you know what the sad part is, especially on black, all that work, and after 1 or 2 drives, it's pretty much shot, with dust ALL over it. Black shows EVERYthing... :(


.
Click to expand...
Hence, my reasoning for ONLY buying silver or white cars! ;)
 
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