Since I love to detail as a hobby and also as stress relief from running a business, I occasionally will clean up and detail a family or friend’s car. I only do a few of these a year and these are done for free and only as a gift to people who appreciate what goes into my details. For those of you who have this bug, you know the feeling of that urge to detail every vehicle you see that needs paint correction!
The problem for me is this takes a lot of time and energy – both of which are not in huge supply for me after meeting my other obligations. After many years of lurking on this forum and improving my skills (and spending way too much money on products! ) I decided to try an experiment to see if I could do a “production” detail that, while not up to my normal levels, would still provide the “wow” factor in a reasonable amount of time. Could it be that maybe not every job needs to have the LED lights come out and get to 95% paint correction for me to enjoy it??
The test subject--- 2007 Jeep Rubicon in dire need of attention! 10 year vehicle with high miles
This is my neighbor’s daughter’s vehicle. They know I’m the clean car freak on our street and I happened to be talking to them one day about the “dreaded black plastic fade” on Jeeps. They asked my opinion and I told them it was quite a challenge and would require something like Solution Finish to bring it back ( blank stare from them..oops, used detailing lingo!) . They then told me they bought some Wipe New to see if it would work. I told them I didn’t think TV products would work but if they used it the key would be to prep the plastic.
The next thing you know I offered to give the jeep a “quick wash” and prep the plastic and apply the Wipe New. I should have known better as by now I was sucked in to bringing the jeep back to life! However, I vowed to approach this somewhere between a production job and full out correction project to see how good I could get this without going “way deep” like my usual details. No paint correction, no endless hours chasing perfection.
The bottom line is this project came out very nice. The Wipe New surpassed my expectations ( for now anyway) and I caught myself from getting too caught up in paint correction. I am glad I was able to pound out a freebie that (a) satisfied my OCD and detailing bug (b) produced stunning results (c) did something nice for a neighbor and (d) did not leave me crippled for two days after a grueling session
Also did interior but forgot to take pics. It was nasty as the hardtop had been off for a while and we had a dust storm this week. (lots of leaves and dust )
PROCESS:
pressure wash wheels, wheel wells, tires, bumpers and hard top
Wheels cleaned with WB. various brushes including large daytona and mothers wheel brush. Sealed with a product not sold on this site ( used for aircraft and had it left over )
Tires cleaned with Mothers Tire Renew and Tuff Shine Brush. One application. this stuff works! Two applications of Hyperdressing 3:1. Soaked it up like a sponge
Aggressive wash method.
Clay towel paint and windows
Paint work - HD Speed. Flex with orange Uro-cell. GG6 with 4" tangering hydrotech. Hood hit with Adapt. Spot worked scratches with M100 with GG6 with cyan 4" pad
Black Plastic Fender Flares and Bumpers - Wipe New ( As seen on TV!!!) Please do not flame me on this.
Neighbor gave it to me and asked me to use it. Required multiple applications
Hardtop - Wipe New
Wheel wells and parts of undercarriage. - Hyperdressing 3:1
Interior. LOTS and LOTS of compressed air to blow out interior. Vacuumed carpet. Cleaned dash and other plastics with combo of OPC 3:1, M40 and Ultima Interior Shampoo Gel
Glass - OPC, clay, Sprayway with glass MF's
Total time - longer than planned, but way less than my usual projects.
Jeep as I received it. Side view
View attachment 55948View attachment 55949View attachment 55950
Notice faded fender flares and nasty wheels
View attachment 55954View attachment 55955View attachment 55952View attachment 55953
Wheels cleaned up. Plastic fender flares were treated with Wipe New
View attachment 55958View attachment 55957View attachment 55956
After shots. Front and rear bumpers as well as hard top were treated with Wipe New. Neighbor was blown away and VERY APPRECIATIVE!
View attachment 55962View attachment 55961View attachment 55960View attachment 55959
Thanks for reading this write-up. Hope you enjoyed looking at it as much as I enjoyed doing this project. I now know I can get satisfaction on a lower level detail!!
The problem for me is this takes a lot of time and energy – both of which are not in huge supply for me after meeting my other obligations. After many years of lurking on this forum and improving my skills (and spending way too much money on products! ) I decided to try an experiment to see if I could do a “production” detail that, while not up to my normal levels, would still provide the “wow” factor in a reasonable amount of time. Could it be that maybe not every job needs to have the LED lights come out and get to 95% paint correction for me to enjoy it??
The test subject--- 2007 Jeep Rubicon in dire need of attention! 10 year vehicle with high miles
This is my neighbor’s daughter’s vehicle. They know I’m the clean car freak on our street and I happened to be talking to them one day about the “dreaded black plastic fade” on Jeeps. They asked my opinion and I told them it was quite a challenge and would require something like Solution Finish to bring it back ( blank stare from them..oops, used detailing lingo!) . They then told me they bought some Wipe New to see if it would work. I told them I didn’t think TV products would work but if they used it the key would be to prep the plastic.
The next thing you know I offered to give the jeep a “quick wash” and prep the plastic and apply the Wipe New. I should have known better as by now I was sucked in to bringing the jeep back to life! However, I vowed to approach this somewhere between a production job and full out correction project to see how good I could get this without going “way deep” like my usual details. No paint correction, no endless hours chasing perfection.
The bottom line is this project came out very nice. The Wipe New surpassed my expectations ( for now anyway) and I caught myself from getting too caught up in paint correction. I am glad I was able to pound out a freebie that (a) satisfied my OCD and detailing bug (b) produced stunning results (c) did something nice for a neighbor and (d) did not leave me crippled for two days after a grueling session
Also did interior but forgot to take pics. It was nasty as the hardtop had been off for a while and we had a dust storm this week. (lots of leaves and dust )
PROCESS:
pressure wash wheels, wheel wells, tires, bumpers and hard top
Wheels cleaned with WB. various brushes including large daytona and mothers wheel brush. Sealed with a product not sold on this site ( used for aircraft and had it left over )
Tires cleaned with Mothers Tire Renew and Tuff Shine Brush. One application. this stuff works! Two applications of Hyperdressing 3:1. Soaked it up like a sponge
Aggressive wash method.
Clay towel paint and windows
Paint work - HD Speed. Flex with orange Uro-cell. GG6 with 4" tangering hydrotech. Hood hit with Adapt. Spot worked scratches with M100 with GG6 with cyan 4" pad
Black Plastic Fender Flares and Bumpers - Wipe New ( As seen on TV!!!) Please do not flame me on this.
Neighbor gave it to me and asked me to use it. Required multiple applicationsHardtop - Wipe New
Wheel wells and parts of undercarriage. - Hyperdressing 3:1
Interior. LOTS and LOTS of compressed air to blow out interior. Vacuumed carpet. Cleaned dash and other plastics with combo of OPC 3:1, M40 and Ultima Interior Shampoo Gel
Glass - OPC, clay, Sprayway with glass MF's
Total time - longer than planned, but way less than my usual projects.
Jeep as I received it. Side view
View attachment 55948View attachment 55949View attachment 55950
Notice faded fender flares and nasty wheels
View attachment 55954View attachment 55955View attachment 55952View attachment 55953
Wheels cleaned up. Plastic fender flares were treated with Wipe New
View attachment 55958View attachment 55957View attachment 55956
After shots. Front and rear bumpers as well as hard top were treated with Wipe New. Neighbor was blown away and VERY APPRECIATIVE!
View attachment 55962View attachment 55961View attachment 55960View attachment 55959
Thanks for reading this write-up. Hope you enjoyed looking at it as much as I enjoyed doing this project. I now know I can get satisfaction on a lower level detail!!
