Escalade interior, BMW 325ci, F-150, Lexus SC300 (rare color)

Scottwax · 08-24-06, 10:38

2005 Cadillac Escalade. Weekly wash customer, the interior was showing the effects of kids home from school all summer. Nothing too bad, mostly minor spills, footprints, ground in dirt, etc. Since school started up here last week, I suggested it was time to detail the interior and they said "go right ahead". While I washed the Escalade, their H2 and SC430, my son got busy on this interior, cleaning all the leather, vinyl, carpet and fabric with our water/Woolite mixture, wet-vacced, wiped down all the carpets and then protected the leather/vinyl with Optimum's Protectant Plus.

Scottwax · 08-24-06, 10:44

2002 BMW 325ci. New customer, he had just bought the car. The trunk lid had several really deep scratches, like something had been slid across it, plus the swirls you'd expect from a 4-year-old vehicle that appeared to not have been waxed reguarly. The interior looked really good though so we just did a quick vacuum. The exterior got Meguiars DACP using green Propel lite cut Cyclo pads, #80 using green Propel pads and we finished with Meguiars NXT Paste, partially because of its light filling ability as the scratches on the trunk are too deep to remove completely. By the time we finished, the paint was noticably deeper and darker.

The owner looking over his car-

Scottwax · 08-24-06, 10:49

2005 Ford F-150. Another weekly wash customer. He is currently living in an apartment while his new house is being built and the truck is taking a continual bombardment from their sprinkler system. I used Optimum Polish with the green Propel lite cut Cyclo pads to remove a few areas with light water spots and then went over the whole truck with this combo. I followed with 'Pink' Moose (50/50 mix of Clearkote's Vanilla Moose and Red Machine Glaze) using white Cyclo finishing pads and my son finished the truck off with Meguiars #16 Paste.

Scottwax · 08-24-06, 11:02

1997 Lexus SC300. My understanding is Lexus only made a total of 54 SC's with color. Oddly enough, the owner also has a 1998 Supra with the same color!

This one was a challenge though. He found it in California and drove it back here. A quick inspection showed all the horizontal surfaces were on the verge of clearcoat failure, with it already beginning on the rear spoiler. In addition, the front bumper's color had noticably changed (more blue than the pics show) which is beyond a detailing solution. The rest of the car appears very solid though.

Anyway, I let the customer know about the horizontal surfaces and that would limit me how aggressive I could get since the car had moderate halo swirling and heavy water spots on the passenger side.

I started off with green Propel lite cut Cyclo pads and the new version of Optimum Polish-and yes, the initial cut does seem a bit more aggressive but still finishes down very nicely. That made a noticable improvement in the hood, which looked particularly dull and lifeless (my customer took a quick before and after of the reflections but as of right now, he hasn't e-mailed them to me yet) but on the heavy water spots, it was slow going. I switched to the yellow Cyclo cutting pads and WOW! what a difference, where the green Propel pads were taking several slow, heavy pressure passes to remove the water spots, the yellow pads were getting them in a couple quick passes and moderate pressure. I proceeded to use the yellow pads on the whole side to remove the water spots, then went over the hood with the yellow pads and OP and it seemed to remove a good 90% of the halo swirls. I then went back over the hood with OP and the green Propel pads again and then over the side I used the yellow pads on, just to make sure there was no hazing from the yellow pads. I then went over the whole car with Pink Moose and the white Cyclo finishing pads and my son waxed it with Meguiars #16.

The clouds had lifted and I was stuck with full sun so the pics look a bit flat. Wish I'd taken some befores, the horizontal surfaces, while not perfect, had a huge increase in gloss, depth and reflection.

jdhutchin · 08-25-06, 07:57

Nice work as always! How long does it take you to do the full interior (wetvac all carpets, etc)?

Bigpoppa3346 · 08-25-06, 08:02

All of them look sweet! The Escalade interior is immaculate, and the F-150 looks so dark and black. Great work.

awahl63 · 08-25-06, 08:10

Very nice job...

mikebai1990 · 08-25-06, 08:18

Did you use the wet vac on the leather?

I am amazed by your work... I wish I could be like that

SilverLexus · 08-25-06, 08:22

Nice work Scott.

That is a very rare color for the SCs. It looks good but it does stand apart from the normal SCs. The newer coupes with the Egyptian Sand copper color are my favorites.

evenflow · 08-25-06, 08:53

Nice work Scott. The paint on all of those cars look great, especially on the truck and SC300.

BlackSunshine · 08-25-06, 12:38

The cars look great of course, but how about some pics of said Supra? A RSP (royal sapphire pearl, I believe?) '98 targa TT 6 speed MKIV with <20K on the clock is my absolute dream car.

gav'spurplez · 08-25-06, 01:02

looks awesome !!

never seen an sc300 that color, so they must have only produced 54

where's the supra pics ?