July Entry, 2000 Malibu **56 k warning**

[ScubaStevo]

Well this is my first 2 day job. I spent close to 12 hours on this car, and I must say, I now hate it. The customer dropped it off at 5 PM yesterday, I worked on it till 11 pm when I went to sleep. Work up at 6 am today and went at it again. Finished around 12-1 o'clock, but was doing small trims ect till around 2:30. To give you a idea about the weather, lets just say one of my bads melted to the backing plate. I had to throw both out. +32oC with 100% humidity reading about 43 oC with the humidex. How fun.

The car: 2000 Chevy Malibu, from the rich side of town. Now, even though its from the rich side of town, it hasn't been washed in 3 years explains the owner. Interiors only been vacuumed once a year.

Swirls were the worst I've seen, and the pictures just don't show how bad they really were. I said in my head, "fine, I can handle a bad exterior, I've done similar jobs before". Well I kicked myself hard for the $150 price quote over the phone once I opened the door and hood. (Note to self, don't give quotes over the phone).

The interior may not look like a complete mess, but I had removed most of the big junk as to not compleletly embarrese the owner.

Engine bay was one of the worst I've ever seen. How can such a new car, look so bad?

I did the interior first, then went to go and move it up the driveway to wash it and put it away for the night. Well lucky me, the thing wouldn't start. It cranked over, revved up and then fell well below idle and stalled. I wondered what was going on, but didn't call the owner. I finally got it going and pulled it up to wash it. Ya, today it started no problem, so I dont' know what happend there.

Interior processes were:

Remove junk and owners possesions
Take pictures
Vacuum carpets
Steam clean with "little green bug"
Scrub the carpets for about 2 hours with high concentrate carpet cleaning solution.
Extract waste water
Clean vinyl with "spot remover, NOW FOR FABRIC!"
Removed gumbo with house hold degreaser
Dress with Poorboys Natural Shine
Apply carpet scent

Exterior processes:

Wash
Attempted to dry, but the cloth just snagged on all the junk on the car
Attemped to clay, but it seemed to take over 2 claybars. I had to resort to driving to the store to buy two more.

**the next morning**
Began polishing with SSR 2.5 on spot cutting pad. x5 later, the car looked representable.
Worked out what ever was left with SSR 2 on a polishing pad. x1
Cleaned the surface to check for any other defects with alchohol
Found some buffer trails, so polished those out.
Cleaned everything once again with Klasse AIO.
Topped with NXT

Tires got Diamler Chysler tire dressing
Wheel wells wouldn't come clean, but I dressed them with Armor all anyways
Trim and mudflaps got Poorboys Trim Restorer
Glass got some RainX
Plastic lenses were polished with SSR 2.5 and sealed with the rest of the vehicle

Engine bay:

Washed down engine with misted water
Engine wouldn't start
Left engine over night
Started good. (Damn that scared me)
Began degreasing with HotRims and a toothbrush
Didn't risk misting the engine again, so I just dressed everything with Armor All and tire shine.
(The marks you'll see in the pictures were not removable, due to no maintenence.)

Ok, now for the twenty some pictures, by now they should have loaded up.

Befores:

[ScubaStevo]

Befores:






After the 5 passes of SSR 2.5:



Glass before and after:

[ScubaStevo]

Afters:




Interior Afters:







I thought this was a nice touch: (Don't mind the little gravel. I vaccuumed it up before he came)

[ScubaStevo]

Exteriors afters:

[ScubaStevo]

More exterior afters:



Products:

I used a whole thing of this:




I had a couple casualties, this pad being one of them:


Thats it folks, thanks for looking, I know it was a long read.

[JDookie]

Anymore before pics of the whole car, after washing? This would help members see how bad the swirls are and stuff. Great job by the way, looks much better.

What kind of pad is that in the last picture? It has certainly seen better days!

[ScubaStevo]

Originally Posted by JDookie

Anymore before pics of the whole car, after washing? This would help members see how bad the swirls are and stuff. Great job by the way, looks much better.

What kind of pad is that in the last picture? It has certainly seen better days!

Its a pad from 3M. Its in the trash now, along with 3 other pads.

I am uploading some half half pictures right now:

This one is in the middle. The before side had received SSR2.5 x1 on them already when I realized that what I was doing. (Early morning)


Here is one more, which was before washing, at night time, with the flash. I was hoping it would bring out the swirls more, but I had a very hard time gettin them to show. I started too early this morning to get any good full sun shots:

[guapsnaman]

Great Job. Looks like the freaking bra on that crap came with the delivery of the car and was never removed. I respect that you can take that many pics while detailing.

[becks]

Good job Steve, but you really need to start charging more then $150

[Scottwax]

Originally Posted by becks

Good job Steve, but you really need to start charging more then $150

Waaaaaay more!

Outstanding work! I agree it is stunning how bad people let their cars get. Sad thing is, in a few months, it will probably look pretty rough again. Job security, I guess.

[ScubaStevo]

Originally Posted by Scottwax

Waaaaaay more!

Outstanding work! I agree it is stunning how bad people let their cars get. Sad thing is, in a few months, it will probably look pretty rough again. Job security, I guess.

Thats how I look at it. As long as there are cars, there will be work for me.

[becks]

Originally Posted by ScubaStevo

Thats how I look at it. As long as there are cars, there will be work for me.

Ya but you should be making more coin, that detail should start at $300cdn