Bunch of basic details-Lexus, Accord, Altima, Tourag, F250

Scottwax · 08-01-08, 09:14

Every June, a law firm in Dallas has me out to detail several cars. One year it was 21 but the past two years they've had 8 of them done, said from now on they are only doing them for the people who actually appreciate it. Anyway, their parking lot is blacktop and from 10:30 AM to around 4:00 PM, I am pretty much in the full sun when working there. Good times. On top of all that, the first week of June was insanely windy in the Dallas area, pretty much the first week I was there, the wind was blowing 25-35 mph with gusts above 40. Ugh.

The law firm pays for a basic detail, which is a full interior cleaning and protection and one polishing step and wax. Nothing fancy, no major correction unless the employee wants to make up the difference. Usually can do two vehicles in around 8 hours with this type of detail. I'm obviously not achieving concourse level work, but the cars look noticably better even with one polishing step and the customers are happy enough with my work that this was the 7th year in a row they've had me out.

Oh yeah, the "June" part is right. I am that behind in posting stuff. Busy summer plus I've gotten into road biking pretty hardcore lately. Rode 462 miles in July. Looking to clear 500 this month.

For all the interior work, the leather/vinyl was cleaned with Woolite/water at a 10:1 dillution, the carpets cleaned with BioKleen Traffic Lane Cleaner. Vinyl dressed with Optimum Protectant Plus and leather with Leather Master's Leather Vital. The cars were all washed with ONR, fenderwells and tires dressed with NASCAR Ultra Shine Tire Finish (I think I finally bought out Big Lots on the stuff!). The paint was polished as follows:

LS460: Optimum Poli-Seal with a blue Soft Edge polishing pad @ 1000 rpm. OPS is a really nice light polish and will finish down hologram free, but it really isn't suited for full sun conditions with mid 90 temperatures.

Accord and Altima: Clearkote's Pink Moose (hadn't yet added the "plus" when I did this set of details) with a blue Propel finishing pad @ 1200, finishing at 1000 rpms. Hologram free but it flashes off pretty quick with the rotary. However, the Nissan has pretty hard paint and the Accord has single stage paint (note to self, never, ever buy a white Accord) so I needed the extra oomph of the rotary. Looking back, Ultrafina probably would have been a better choice.

The rest: Pink Moose via PC using a yellow Meguiars polishing pad. They were all in really good shape and needed minimal polishing.

All vehicles were sealed with Clearkote's Carnauba Moose. Works amazingly well in the full sun on the hottest of days.

I don't have pictures of one of the vehicles, the person driving it was the son of the owner of the law firm and he needed to leave 10 minutes before I finished it. Posted it when I did it last year. BTW, that was the car I found the rotting Stoffer's meat loaf dinner in the trunk. Been there long enough to make the entire car smell like death and for the coloring on the package to fade.

2001 Lexus RX300

2003 Nissan Altima

Before-thought I'd focused better than that...

Pink Moose via rotary:

Scottwax · 08-01-08, 09:21

2003 Honda Accord

2005 Lexus GS300

2007 Volkswagen Toureg

Scottwax · 08-01-08, 09:25

2000 Ford F-250

Ultima Tire & Trim on the mirrors.

2004 Lexus LS460

BigAl3 · 08-01-08, 09:27

another job well done on all of them...

p.s. how's the stadium coming along?

Holden_C04 · 08-01-08, 09:31

Great work!

I would bet that of all the quality detail work that gets done, about 80% of it is this type of work right here. It's a very rare breed of detailer that can focus alone on Concours/high end work.

Scottwax · 08-01-08, 09:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigAl3

another job well done on all of them...

p.s. how's the stadium coming along?

The stadium is a half mile to the west of the Ballpark in Arlington and you can see how it looms large behind the Ballpark:

Scottwax · 08-01-08, 09:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holden_C04

Great work!

I would bet that about of all the quality detail work that gets done, about 80% of it is this type of work right here. It's a very rare breed of detailer that can focus alone on Concours/high end work.

Absolutely right. Those type of details make the average person very happy. Plus, doing full correction after full correction can be a bit of a whip after a while.

Holden_C04 · 08-01-08, 09:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottwax

Absolutely right. Those type of details make the average person very happy. Plus, doing full correction after full correction can be a bit of a whip after a while.

Tell me about it. All I do right now is full corrections and it absolutely kills my back. The last job was 14 hours! I started at 9:00 AM, left to go home around 11:00 PM.

tdekany · 08-01-08, 11:01

Fantastic work once againg Scott! The white accord looks insane!

All the cars came out looking beautiful!

Quality Leather · 08-02-08, 02:08

Nice job!

I can't stress enough how much better it is to use a 3M delicate duty scuff pad to clean the leather. It gets into grain of the leather and pulls out all of the dirt.

autobahnshine · 08-02-08, 02:22

Great job, Scott !!!!

Scottwax · 08-02-08, 04:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quality Leather

Nice job!

I can't stress enough how much better it is to use a 3M delicate duty scuff pad to clean the leather. It gets into grain of the leather and pulls out all of the dirt.

Interesting. I've been using nylon bristle brushes for years and they seem to do quite well. I'll have to pick up the 3M pad and see how it compares. Thanks for the tip.