Detail Auto: 1994 Dodge Caravan

eyezack87

New member
Short Intro

This detail was a gift for my dad for Father's Day. I think this was a great present seeing the condition of the van and what it means to him in terms of memories. This was sort of a respring of memories on myself as well since this thing was the vehicle we took our roadtrips when I was super little :headbang:. Anyway, the van had a TON of oxidation. In fact, there was so much oxidation that the paint underneath was in better condition than my ES was, which meant oxidation was better for this car than mine? :uh:. Anyway, it had the works: bird crap, oxidized surface, oxidized plastics, crappy engine bay, oxidized headlight, etc. Besides correcting the 14 year old neglected paint, this was also an excellent opportunity to give him the Poor Man's Paint Job on the hood. All in all, this took one hell of a long time due to the 6 hour drying time for each coat and sanding and polishing. The bumper couldn't be fixed unless I respray it with some primer or something. Anyway, enough of my rambling, I'll let the results speak for me. All work was done with a PC



Process (Body)

-2 bucket wash with Gold Class and P21S TAW (received that day :woot:)

-Dried with the yellow Vroom towels (damn they're big)

-Clayed with Megs Mild Clay and 50/50 Gold Class Wash and H2O

-Taped the van to prep for heavy polishing

-6 inch Orange LC pad w/Menz IP @ speed 6

-6 inch White LC pad w/Menz FP II @ speed 4-5

-Wipe down with 50/50 mix of alcohol and water

-Wax with NXT 2.0

-Tires dressed with Megs Endurance Gel



Process (Interior)


-APC 4:1 on stains (14 year old stains :wall)

-Megs Quik Out on verticle surfaces

-Wet Vac carpets

-Megs QID on dash

-303 Protectant on dash/plastic trim



Process (Hood)

-1 bucket wash with Gold Class

-Tapped off surrounding panels, windshield washers and emblem

-Citrus based paint stripper

-Metal paint scraper to get rid of old paint

-Sanded down primer coat to prep for paint

-Painted with High Gloss White Rustoleum Paint (multiple coats with 6 hour drying time each)

-Sanded down with 1000>1500>2000 grit sandpaper

-4 inch Yellow LC pad w/Menz Powergloss @ speed 6

-4 inch Orange LC pad w/Menz IP @ speed 6

-4 inch White LC pad w/Menz FP II @ speed 4-5

-Mother's Cleaner wax to remove hazing caused by Menz FP II

-Megs #7 Show Car Glaze for "protection" since I'm not allowed to wax for a couple days



The Van(Notice how little reflection there is. Thats due to the oxidation in the paint)

DSCN5015.jpg




DSCN5016.jpg




Befores


Hood OMG

DSCN5001.jpg




DSCN5013.jpg




Notice the 0 reflection in the paint and baked on water spots

DSCN5004.jpg




DSCN5006.jpg




DSCN5008.jpg




DSCN5009.jpg




DSCN5011.jpg




DSCN5012.jpg




During

Emblem fell off when I was taping it

DSCN5024.jpg




DSCN5026.jpg




DSCN5028.jpg




DSCN5030.jpg




DSCN5036.jpg




DSCN5037.jpg




DSCN5052.jpg




DSCN5068.jpg




DSCN5070.jpg




DSCN5072.jpg




50/50 shot

DSCN5031.jpg




After

DSCN5099.jpg




DSCN5076.jpg




DSCN5078.jpg




DSCN5088.jpg




DSCN5089.jpg




DSCN5079.jpg




DSCN5080.jpg




DSCN5082.jpg




DSCN5086.jpg




DSCN5084.jpg




DSCN5083.jpg






Thanks for looking. My Dad loved it
 
lol, fantastic. I love looking at details involving older DD's rather than looking at new cars getting detailed. Not only are the results more drastic but the effort put forward is so much higher for a vehicle worth as much as the labor invested. hah.



Great job on something that you wouldn't expect to see detailed.
 
I'll bet your dad was sure surprised to see his van turn out like that!



Pretty impressive job you did on a well deserving driver that has served your family well. The hood looks great, what are your impressions on how the hood turned out, since seeing it in person is sometimes a lot different than in pictures. How did you apply the Rustoleum (paint gun, spray can, roller, etc.)?
 
Goodness, these are the kind of details that I LOVE!!! Nothing better than bringing something old back to new!!! Great work, especially on repainting that hood!
 
Great detail... I like lurking around the C&B forum, love to see vehicles like this that actually get used and abused unlike the exotics. lol



Good work!
 
The whole detail was very impressive, but I am amazed by the hood. How many cans of paint did it require?



Awsome to see an older car in the forum. Amazing turnaround--night and day!
 
Wow, great work! I have to say, this is one of my favorite C&Bs ever! Seeing show car details on new cars has almost become routine, so it's nice to see a neglected driver getting some love.



What did you use to strip the paint off the hood?
 
shine said:
Wow, great job! That hood was awful. Talk about turning back time.

:getdown

Chris330Ci said:
lol, fantastic. I love looking at details involving older DD's rather than looking at new cars getting detailed. Not only are the results more drastic but the effort put forward is so much higher for a vehicle worth as much as the labor invested. hah.

Yeah, I would love doing an exotic already, but I think dramatic differences are much

Great job on something that you wouldn't expect to see detailed.

better since its not too common :spot

Chris330Ci said:
By the way, did you polish those headlights or are they new!????

They were polished. The 3 pronged "teeth" destroyed one of my 4 inch yellow pads, which I received that day...

dbesins said:
WOW! a great way to repay dad's for what they did for us when we were young!!!

Great job mate

Thanks Man

Eliot Ness said:
I'll bet your dad was sure surprised to see his van turn out like that!



Pretty impressive job you did on a well deserving driver that has served your family well. The hood looks great, what are your impressions on how the hood turned out, since seeing it in person is sometimes a lot different than in pictures. How did you apply the Rustoleum (paint gun, spray can, roller, etc.)?

He loved what I did since he was smiling the whole day haha. The hood turned out amazingly well for the type of paint I was using. The method I used was a paint brush so there are some lines but in all honesty only someone like me would notice it lol

bwalker25 said:
wow that brings back memories for me too ;) lots of road trips with the family in a minivan.



P1et said:
Goodness, these are the kind of details that I LOVE!!! Nothing better than bringing something old back to new!!! Great work, especially on repainting that hood!

Thanks mate :D

netspec said:
Outstanding work! I bet that made you and your Dad's day!:goodjob

Definitely =)

kerrinjeff said:
Fantastic job. The Rustoeum hood turned out great!

It took a lot of work but it was definitely worth it in the end

connorb850 said:
Really nice job making the van look much newer! That was a great Father's Day gift.

Thanks!

dallas_zx11 said:
Great detail... I like lurking around the C&B forum, love to see vehicles like this that actually get used and abused unlike the exotics. lol



Good work!

Sweet. First post for you too. I'm honored ^.^

backwoods_lex said:
The whole detail was very impressive, but I am amazed by the hood. How many cans of paint did it require?



Awsome to see an older car in the forum. Amazing turnaround--night and day!

Thanks. It took about 1 pint of paint surprisingly. I was expecting around 1 quart too haha

Scottwax said:
:bow That is a lot more impressive than a lot of the exotic details I've seen here.

Thanks Scott. I'd rather work on old cars than any exotic anyday since the difference is so much :D

MrRumble said:
Wow, incredible job. Can't believe you had the guts to go ahead with it with just a PC :goodjob

Haha, it was only heavy oxidation and minor swirlage so it wasn't too bad. The hood was the problem area since everytime I polished it my polish would just group together on the hood and not move :rolleyes:

TSC17 said:
Great job on bringing his van back to life!

Thanks bud

Frito Bandito said:
Wow, great work! I have to say, this is one of my favorite C&Bs ever! Seeing show car details on new cars has almost become routine, so it's nice to see a neglected driver getting some love.



What did you use to strip the paint off the hood?

Haha, doing these types of cars are my specialty right now. I'll eventually get a higher end car in but I prefer these due to the differences of the befores and afters :)



To strip the paint off the hood, I used a metal putty thing and Citristrip

proj5prod.jpg
 
Oh, thought you guys wanted to know this update. Apparently some guy offered to buy the van while my dad was out for lunch :heelclick



I found that quite amusing haha
 
eyezack87 said:
Oh, thought you guys wanted to know this update. Apparently some guy offered to buy the van while my dad was out for lunch :heelclick



I found that quite amusing haha



Not surprised at all man, it looks pretty darn minty now. Lovin' the makeover, the steed has a new lease on life, props!
 
Back
Top