My Arizona detailing trip

[Scottwax]

Weather has completely sucked in the Dallas area this year. Rain, snow (including a Christmas Eve blizzard and 12.5" record snowfall 12 days ago) and cold. I've been lucky to work 3 days a week the last two months. Arizona crew has been asking me for a few years to come out when the weather sucks here and I decided to take them up on it. I grew up in Phoenix but haven't been back since 1987.



On the way



Ugly, cold start

Wind farm

Oil refinery in Midland

Glad they raised the speed limit to 80, boring, boring, boring.

Finally, some mountains to break up the monotony.

80 mph, 116 miles traveled, 386 miles worth of gas, a bladder busting 502 mile range.

Immigration and drug checkpoint near Deming, New Mexico. You can see the drug dog in the 2nd picture. As long as the dog doesn't hit on your car, all they ask is if you are a citizen and where you are heading. After I pulled through, I noticed the agents ripping into a Tahoe but was already accelerating and didn't think stopping to take a picture would go over well.

1000 miles in, almost there:

After arriving at one of my customer's house, who graciously put me up for 4 of the days I was there. Time stopped was actually closer to 1 hour, forgot to leave the GPS on when I stopped for lunch.

 

[Scottwax]

The cars



2002 Chevy Tahoe. He basically lives in it, he does a lot of high end home and business audio and security installs. Showed me how through his laptop he can contol anything in his house that is plugged in.



The Tahoe is 8 years old and daily driven so he wasn't that concerned with perfection, just a clean interior and a shiny and protected exterior. I polished it with Meguiars #205 and an orange Erasure cutting pad using my G110 DA polisher and waxed with Clearkote's Carnauba Moose. Some woman forced him into the curb a few days earlier, so please excuse the spare on the left rear.

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2007 Cadillac Escalade and 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP.



The goal for the Escalade was the same as the Tahoe above. Clean, shiny and protected. The interior was cleaned with Woolite HE/water (20:1 dilution) for the leather and vinyl, carpets with BioKleen's Traffic Lane Cleaner (32:1 dilution). All the interiors were cleaned this way. Leather was dressed with Leather Master's Leather Vital and vinyl with Meguiars Interior Quick Detailer.

Paint received the same process and products as the Tahoe. Pretty late in the day when I finished (dressed the interior at dusk), the sun shots were taken the next day.

The G8 was a correction detail, meaning the goal was to remove all possible swirls and scratches. The trunk lid was the worst part of the vehicle and really the only part of the car that the swirls would show up on my camera.



Before:

After:

I used Meguiars #105 with an orange Erasure cutting pad via my G110 using very slow, high pressure passes. Used in this way, a DA polisher can achieve pretty much rotary polisher results with only minimal hazing (as opposed to rotary swirls). Regardless of whether you use #105 with a DA or a rotary, you do have to make follow up steps to give the paint the best clarity and swirl free finish. I then used #205/orange like the Tahoe and Escalade and then to add more depth and wetness, I used Clearkote's Pink Moose (Vanilla Moose and Red Machine Glaze mixed) with a blue Propel finishing pad. I waxed it with Carnauba Moose. It was obviously near sunset when I finished, as evidenced by the long shadows and low sun.

The sun was so low I had to open the doors for these shots!

Interior cleaned as above but dressed with Meguiars Interior QD only at owner's request. He wanted zero shine on the interior.

 

[Scottwax]

2005 Ford Mustang. ITTURNS! It really does. I followed him to his g/f's apartment and his car obviously handles well. He posts his car all the time and said not to worry about hiding his plate.



Really in excellent shape overall. Interior dressed with Leather Vital and Optimum Protectant Plus. Paint was polished with Optimum Polish using an orange Erasure cutting pad using my G110, then sealed with Optimum Opti-Seal and then with Optimum Car Wax.

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My next customer had me do a couple basic details on his Mother's 2005 Chrysler 300C and his wife's 2006 Honda Odyssey. I overheard his wife tell her friend the details were her and her MOL's Valentine's Day gifts. He takes care of his wimmenz! :bow



205/orange on the paint for both, Opti-Seal to protect. Not a lot of pictures, it was a really, really long day, didn't finish until 7 PM. Had to bust to get them both done in one day.

They have 3 kids, had to attach a brush to my G110 to scrub out the floor mats!

Near sunset when I finished applying Opti-Seal to the paint:

It was dark by the time I got the interior dressed and all the mats put back in. Not enough light for good interior pics but enough for one more exterior shot:

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After finishing up the van and 300C, I visited a friend from high school and then headed down to Tucson for the final leg of the trip. The warm, sunny mid to upper 70s temperatures were long gone and replaced by on and off rain showers and temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Even the mountains around Tucson received a dusting of snow.



2003 Ford Mustang. Has a lung sitting on top of the engine. :spot



205/orange, Opti-Seal and Optimum Car Wax.

 

[Scottwax]

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2003 Audi A4. Really nice car, not typically a fan of carbon fiber hoods, but this one looked good half painted and combined with a red car.



205/orange, Carnauba Moose on the paint. Interior cleaned same as the rest, Leather Master and Optimum Protectant Plus to protect.

Leaving his place, I drove past the Pima Air and Space Museum. Not time for anything other than a quick pic.

On the way home, cops were out in west Texas:

Forgot to reset my nav as I left Tucson, this is from Benson, AZ to home:

 

[desertdetail]

very nice! ill keep an eye out for these scottwaxed cars!

 

[thump_rrr]

The yellow car is an 03 Cobra commonly known as a Terminator.

 

[Pats300zx]

Fantastic job Scott. It looks like it was a great trip

 

[nyyankees22]

Nice work, you did a beautiful job on that yellow mustang...now where's the pics of how dirty your car got on that trip! haha

 

[Scottwax]

I had an absolute blast. One of the supermods on OT put the whole thing together, I was ready to hit the ground running when I got there. I ate a ton of proper Mexican food when I was there, I like AZ style much more than Tex-Mex.



I'm hoping to be able to do this twice a year and if the weather in Texas continues the crap we've put up with the last year, I might end up moving to Phoenix.

 

[Hey Moe!]

Texas or Arizona--Either way, I'm sure you would have plenty of business.



Thanks for sharing. It's like going through my mail. If I see "Scottwax," I open it first!

 

[Innovative Detailing]

Now thats what I call Mobile service!!!



Awesome write up and some great photos, keep up the great work!

 

[Autogeek]

Awesome Scott, thanks for sharing!

 

[Frito Bandito]

Excellent work as usual! You came through my neck of the woods (Midland/Odessa), I bet the "boring boring boring" picture was in this area.

 

[Scottwax]

Nice work, you did a beautiful job on that yellow mustang...now where's the pics of how dirty your car got on that trip! haha

Actually, I was able to wash the sand and other nasties off from the snow in Dallas and the drive out to Arizona while I was there...and to show my customer (with the silver Mustang) how much confidence I have in ONR, I used the ONR solution I used on his car to clean mine!

Oh yeah, here is a driving video (exciting, eh?) while going through New Mexico at a little over 75 mph and getting an indicated 30.1 mpg (which as usual, was optimistic!) although doing the math showed 26.4 mpg-not bad considering the speed and that my car is EPA rated at 26 mpg and that isn't at 77 mph!



Talking Heads playing on the stereo in case anyone cares.



[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KGi_7H6mAw]YouTube - Driving through New Mexico[/ame]

 

[Concourswanna b]

Really enjoyed reading through it! Man, nice job. The G8 was a pretty damnd slick car, as was the Audi (yeah, the hood did look right, somehow, and those intercooler ducts...). Cool idea to document your trip that way.

 

[imported_d00t]

Great, work Scott! What a trip!

 

[ShineTech]

Wow, looks like you did have a great time. All those cars look great. Thanks for sharing and by the way the Talking Heads are pretty cool.

 

[Scottwax]

Excellent work as usual! You came through my neck of the woods (Midland/Odessa), I bet the "boring boring boring" picture was in this area.

:tumblewee <--- a lot of that minus the saguaro cactus



I am seriously looking into taking the show on the road 6-8 weeks each year. Nice change of pace and a good way to combine work and vacations. Helps that I know a ton of people on off-topic.

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Great write up and fantastic work as always. :bow :bow

 

[Labster]

:tumblewee <--- a lot of that minus the saguaro cactus



I am seriously looking into taking the show on the road 6-8 weeks each year. Nice change of pace and a good way to combine work and vacations. Helps that I know a ton of people on off-topic.

I hear ya man. If I wasn't getting married, I would take my business down to St. Augustine FL for 4-6 weeks every year. My friend's parents know enough people to keep me busy 5-6 days out of the week. I guess I'll have to settle for the work/vacation for 1-1.5 weeks a year.