Recent Details - v. Overcoming Arachnophobia x 2 and a Horse Trailer

S

stilez

New member
First up, 2001 VW New Beetle. This car had more swirling than I'd like to see for a vehicle that age but it had to be dealt with. Never did I think such a little car would take soo much time (~6 hours). The engine and interior only took 2 hours total so the exterior topped out around 4 hours. Anyways, no befores on the interior or engine as they were pretty mild, so here were the processes:





Engine

-Rinsed and Degreased with Costco APC full strength

-Agitated with a Meguiar's Wheel Brush as well as a spoke brush too for the tight areas

-Rinse and let car idle for 10 mins

-Meguiar's Hyper Dressing cut 3:1 on everything

-After soaking in for 4 hours, wiped down, and everything painted got Race Glaze Gloss Highlighter



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Interior

-Vaccum and dust out everything

-Costco APC cut 10:1 to clean leather, vinyl, rubber, and plastic

-Carpets pretreated with Folex, scrubbed with Costco APC cut 10:1, then extracted

-Adam's VRT on vinyl, rubber, and plastic

-4* Leather Conditioner on seating

-Meguiar's NXT Glass Cleaner on glass and clear plastic

-Pinnacle Liquid Souveran on painted door pieces

-Race Glaze Gloss Highlighter in jams after being degreased with APC cut 10:1



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The fun part was the exterior :). Heavy swirling throughout which lead to an overall dull appearance at certain angles as well as a decent amount of bonded contaminants. Final processes:





-Meguiars' NXT Wash

-Poorboy's Clay with NXT Wash as lube

-Menzerna Powergloss via rotary and Lake Country Cutting Pad @ 1500 rpm (x2 on the hood)

-NXT Wash to clean the surface

-Menzerna Final Polish II via rotary and Lake Country Polishing Pad @ 1500 rpm

-Pinnacle Liquid Souveran by hand

-Race Glaze Gloss Highlighter before pics (to remove pollen)





-Rims cleaned with wheel acid cut 50/50, then NXT wash, finally topped off with Liquid Souveran

-APC cut 4:1 to clean tires and wells

-Meguiar's Hyper Dressing cut 3:1 for wells

-Poorboy's Bold N Bright on tires

-Meguiar's Trim Detailer on any plastic trim

-Meguiar's NXT Glass Cleaner on Glass







Before

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After

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Onto the winner of the year so far for dirtiest and most abused, a Mitsubishi Eclipse.





To give you an idea of the paint condition...After washing the clay moved over the surface as if you drove down a muddy road, let it dry, then took clay right to the car, no wash. I couldn't believe it. Next, swirls out the wazoo! R.I.D.S (Random Isolated Deep Scratches) EVERYWHERE. The roof was very oxidized and the hood/trunk were mildy oxidized. I certainly had my work cut out for me and the final processes were:





-NXT Wash

-Acid Wash (still working on this, more when I try it out more)

-NXT Wash

-Poorboy's Clay with NXT Wash

-Menzerna Power Gloss via rotary and LC Cutting Pad @ 1700 rpm (x 2 in many areas)

-Meguiar's # 66 via rotary and LC Polishing Pad @ 1500 rpm

-Menzerna Final Polish II via rotary and LC Polishing Pad @ 1500 rpm

-Banana Wax by hand

-Optimum Car Wax by hand





-Rims got cleaned with Acid cut 50/50, then NXT wash, then topped off with Banana Wax and OCW

-Tires and wells were cleaned with APC 4:1

-Wells dressed with Hyper Dressing cut 3:1

-Tires dressed with BnB

-#66/Banana Wax on lighting and exhaust

-NXT Glass Cleaner on all glass





Before

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After

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After

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Before

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After

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Lastly, the horse trailer. What a big job it was! It was ~20 ft long and VERY tall. The staining did NOT come off with the wash and was on there very good. I tried a bunch of different polishes before deciding on the Detailer's Pride. It proved to have the strongest combo of light cut and heavy chemical cleaning. Washing and degreasing took about a full hour and polishing/sealing took just under 4 hours. Final processes:





-NXT and APC Wash

-Roof and Stainless Steel soaked with Eagle 1 Wheel Cleaner before agitating

-Detailer's Pride Final Finishing Polish via rotary and LC Polishing Pad @ 1500 rpm (cleaned pad after every panel)

-Meguiar's # 20 Polymer Sealant via rotary and LC Finishing Pad @ 1000 rpm

-Optimum Car Wax by hand





Before

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After

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Before

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After

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Before

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After

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Enjoy!
 
at first i was going to ask you about the spiders but then it hit me: spiderwebs. ah. awesome details. the beetle's color is trippy: at different angles it can look either blue, purple, or black.
 
well I'm glad you got to use everything i given ya. You as always do amzing work and that dude will rot in hell for being a butthole. Anyways they came out looking realy good and that banana wax is great isn't it.
 
Everything looks top notch.



You really "paid some dues" on this round. At least that is how I like to look at things when I get a "beater." :D



How the hell did you book a horse trailer? Referral???? :D
 
Sean . . . you’re truly a master of swirl removal. First sight of those ‘before’ pics made me cringe. Fantastic work as always :bow
 
That Beetle's swirls look exactly like that on my teacher's dark purple Beetle. Wonder what did they do to cause such severe swirls.



Good job!
 
Sean, another impressive work. I am still amazed at how fast you do your job. 3.5 Hours for the Eclipse is really quick. Do you mind one day you make a small downloadable video of how fast you work with your Rotary?
 
I'll chip in and say great job, too. I haven't been on Autopia for that long but to see the work on the Horse Float is something different. :)
 
Huge improvement on all three! The guy with the Eclipse should not only have not complained about the price but should also have let you 'borrow' the most attractive female member of his family for the outstanding work you did on his car. With the condition it was in, I have no idea how anyone could reasonably expect it to be returned to perfection. You definitely got it as close as possible without repainting.
 
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