Dedicatedperfection: Prep Silverado for customs clearance/ship back to U.S.

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Mike@DedicatedPerfection

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Dedicatedperfection: Prep Silverado for customs clearance/ship back to U.S.

This one came to me from a neighbor that needed his vehicle cleaned up so he can ship it back to the U.S.

This vehicle belongs to a construction worker and treats it as such. Also over here not many pickups are driving around and whenever someone needs to borrow it, it was always out on loan for others to use it. Think of it as the village bicycle. Everyone has used it and never returned it clean. He also mentioned after arrival here he more or less let it go and never kept up with it. Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me to remove all the filth and get it ready for inspection.

The owner of this vehicle is a carpenter and surely uses his truck just as if it was a work truck. You can see in the following pictures just how dirty the interior was. After getting started on vacuuming the interior I started to run across wood screws. I picked up a few of them but there was no end in sight. I decided to vacuum them out rather than pick them out by hand. I must have pulled up 100 screws. You can now hear my shop vac rattling around with a bunch of wood screws.

Anyhow this one really wore me out. I quoted 5-6 hours to transform the truck but it ended up being 10 hours. Boy was I whooped! No decontamination or polishing work when prepping for shipment unless customer pays extra for it. No polishing on this one!

Interior:
Vacumed out with Shop-Vac
Dash and door panels cleaned up with Pinnacle Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner Conditioner
Door jambs/crevices blown out with Tornador Black/BLACKFIRE WW

Wheels and wells:
Wheels & Tires cleaned up with Meguiar’s D143 Wheel & Tire Cleaner (2 rounds)
Wheel Wells Cleaned and tires cleaned up with Meguiar’s D101 APC

Wash:
HP chassis rinse with Kärcher chassis cleaner
Foamed chassis with Pinnacle Gel wash/Meg’s D101 APC
HP rinse to remove soap residue from chassis
HP body rinse to knock off loose dirt
Pre foamed with Meguiar’s Hyper-wash/D101 APC and left to dwell
HP rinse to remove soap residue
Bugs removed with Sonax Bug remover & Bug Scrubber
Washed via 2BM, Grit Gaurds, & Meguiar’s Hyper-wash
Blow dry with leaf blower
Dried/waxed with Meguiar’s D156

Engine bay:
Foamed with Pinnacle Gel wash/Meg’s D101 APC
HP rinse
Multiple rounds with McKee’s 37 engine degreaser
Various brushes to remove filth

Miscellaneous:
Tires, Trim, Engine bay dressed with Meguiar’s All Season Dressing
Windows Cleaned with Wolfgang Perfekt vision glass cleaner
Pictures taken with Nikon D3200 and hooded 18-55 kit lens


Here is what I had to work with










Boot mark on tailgate










Talk about filthy!
































 
First up the undercarriage




















Moving on to the wheel/tire assembly. First round










Second round








Next up wheel wells and tire again










 
That was (is) one beat truck. I guess all the folks that borrowed it had never drive such a wide vehicle so they just drove it toward the curb until it scraped. Poor wheels.

For what you were given to work with it turned out very nice. I wish you had a picture of what the carpet looked like under those rubber floor mats. I bet that was the real nightmare.

Unless it has no miles on it he should (now that it's clean and shiny) sell it in Germany where it is a fairly rare vehicle. And might just have a boost in value due to the rareness.
 
Nice work...believe it or not, I prefer doing vehicles like that over garage queens....the shock on peoples faces is worth the labor. Do not remember the last time I saw a window crank.....
 
Great job Mike. I don't think I could have typed the post after those 10 hours.
 
Now THAT'S a 10 hour "cleaning"! It looks great now. At least when he gets it home he may be the only one getting it dirty again and it won't get trashed so quick. There seem to be a lot less people borrowing the buddies truck back home...they all have their own.

Beautiful work, Mike. Thanks for letting us see it.
 
oldmodman said:
That was (is) one beat truck. I guess all the folks that borrowed it had never drive such a wide vehicle so they just drove it toward the curb until it scraped. Poor wheels.

For what you were given to work with it turned out very nice. I wish you had a picture of what the carpet looked like under those rubber floor mats. I bet that was the real nightmare.

Unless it has no miles on it he should (now that it's clean and shiny) sell it in Germany where it is a fairly rare vehicle. And might just have a boost in value due to the rareness.
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It was surely beat down. There was 130K on the odo.

The carpet under the matt was not ver bad. Luckily the matt captured most of it. It was only dirty around the matt.

I don't understand why he didn't sell it here. He could have made money here with it rather than taking it back home. He is going to Texas next.

briarpatch said:
Nice work...believe it or not, I prefer doing vehicles like that over garage queens....the shock on peoples faces is worth the labor. Do not remember the last time I saw a window crank.....
Click to expand...

I too sometimes like to take on vehicles in shape like this.

He thought it was another truck. Couldn't believe it.

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
Great example of a TOTAL Extreme Makeover!


:)
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike!

Wish he paid for some machine polishing. An AIO would have really spruced it up.

AZ Mike said:
Great job Mike. I don't think I could have typed the post after those 10 hours.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike.

I was beat for sure. I completed this one last weekend.

Puckman said:
Now THAT'S a 10 hour "cleaning"! It looks great now. At least when he gets it home he may be the only one getting it dirty again and it won't get trashed so quick. There seem to be a lot less people borrowing the buddies truck back home...they all have their own.

Beautiful work, Mike. Thanks for letting us see it.
Click to expand...

Thank you good sir.

My pleasure sharing.
 
Damn I have seen some dirty cars and this is one of them....that must have taken quite a while to finish! But as always, you are an incredible detailer!
 
oldmodman said:
That was (is) one beat truck. I guess all the folks that borrowed it had never drive such a wide vehicle so they just drove it toward the curb until it scraped. Poor wheels.

For what you were given to work with it turned out very nice. I wish you had a picture of what the carpet looked like under those rubber floor mats. I bet that was the real nightmare.

Unless it has no miles on it he should (now that it's clean and shiny) sell it in Germany where it is a fairly rare vehicle. And might just have a boost in value due to the rareness.
Click to expand...
sounds like a business opportunity there renting trucks .
 
Kamakaz1961 said:
Damn I have seen some dirty cars and this is one of them....that must have taken quite a while to finish! But as always, you are an incredible detailer!
Click to expand...

Thanks CJ! This truck was filthy no doubt. Boy did I have my work cut out for me.

Thanks for the kind compliment.

bill walsh said:
wow what a great job on that truck mike
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Thanks Bill!
 
Nice work Mike. :props:

I'm not sure what the story is for going through customs clearance up that way but I'm sure its pretty much the same as down this way - the underside of a vehicle HAS to be cleaned very thorough to get into NZ & looking at your pictures, c'mon through sir. :xyxthumbs: I do a few jobs like this a year, people moving across the ditch to Australia & taking there cars with them.

Hmmm . . . body shop orange peel, a world wide epidemic huh! :nomore:

Great post Mike, I know we all like to see swirl free paint & exotic cars but this is just as interesting. Nice!

Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:
 
Awesome work as usual Mike - thanks for sharing the products used, processes and for all the pics:dblthumb2:
 
Bigry18 said:
That thing was dirty man, good job hopefully he paid accordingly.
Click to expand...

Yes sir it was. Thanks.

Aaryn NZ said:
Nice work Mike. :props:

I'm not sure what the story is for going through customs clearance up that way but I'm sure its pretty much the same as down this way - the underside of a vehicle HAS to be cleaned very thorough to get into NZ & looking at your pictures, c'mon through sir. :xyxthumbs: I do a few jobs like this a year, people moving across the ditch to Australia & taking there cars with them.

Hmmm . . . body shop orange peel, a world wide epidemic huh! :nomore:

Great post Mike, I know we all like to see swirl free paint & exotic cars but this is just as interesting. Nice!

Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:
Click to expand...

Thanks Aaryn!

It is the same story here. Clean from top to bottom.

It is an epidemic! Thanks for taking the time to comment.

lawrenceSA said:
Awesome work as usual Mike - thanks for sharing the products used, processes and for all the pics:dblthumb2:
Click to expand...

Thanks Lawrence!
 
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