First Engine Detail....

kleraudio

New member
Well I went a little nuts today. After work I was going to go and do a full interior only on my truck because I plan on quitting smoking on July 1st and want no remnants of cigarettes anywhere.



All went well, I did a full on interior detail on my truck and it came out awesome. When I was done, I wanted to do something else so I decided to detail my engine for the first time ever. I dont know why I never detailed the engine bay before. I think it has been a fear of it not starting up after I was done cleaning it.



So I grabbed my orange blast that I got from walmart, some megs APC 4:1, some terry towels and a little brush.



The engine was cold because of the interior detail so I was ready to go. I sprayed down the engine bay with the Orange Blast and let it sit for a few minutes. I brushed a few things to loosen some dirt but nothing extreme. I then proceeded to rinse. Most of the gunk came off but I decided to do one more step just to make sure. I sprayed it again with a mix of APC 4:1 and some more Orange blast. (Im really starting to like my APC by the way. I use it on carpets, floormats, dashboards, tires, and now engines!)



After spraying it down, i wiped off some excess water and ran the engine for 5 minutes. Then I sprayed the plastic and rubber hoses with Megs Vinyl/Rubber protectant.



Heres how it came out!



Before: Sorry I only had my camera phone:



enginebefore1.jpg




enginebefore3.jpg




enginebefore2.jpg




And now for the afters: (why on Earth have I never done this before!)



100_1946.jpg




100_1947.jpg




100_1948.jpg




I was veryhappy with the way it came out. This is the same feeling I got the first time I polished a car! Im pretty ecstatic about this. Now should I include this in my detailing packages...:nixweiss



After the engine I was pretty pumped up so I QEW'd the truck and put on a layer of XXX hardcore paste wax!



So an interior detail turned into a full on detail!



Hope you enjoyed!



Jim
 
You can do mine if you want to Jim, just kidding! I try to kick the habit but i almost have 3 airplanes crash into each other when i use to work in the control tower in the 80's and try so many times after and fail, Good luck on quitting hope you can do it!!! Also your engine looks sweet!
 
Great work...I gave my 94 Cherokee that I picked up a couple months ago the first engine detail of it's life. That was a lot of work.
 
SpoiledMan said:
Nice work! It's easy isn't it!?!?



Yea it really is! All this time I was so worried I just never did it. I cant believe how easy it was and the results it produced.



Thanks for the positive feedback everyone!



Jim
 
Yea I was seriously considering offering that from now on, now that I know how easy it is.



Whats a good rate you think, $30??



Jim
 
Looks great! I can vouch for the difficulty in quitting smoking. Three weeks now off the butts! (arrrgh!)



There's a quote attributed to Mark Twain that goes something like, "Quitting smoking is easy! I've done it a hundred times." I think that really lets non-smokers know what we're up against.
 
audicoupej said:
Nice Jim! :up



Did you bother to cover anything or just pop the hood and go at it?



ditto this question as I read you should cover up all the sensors, electrical components, etc. That's why I have hesitated doing it.



Howard
 
audiocoupej said:
Did you bother to cover anything or just pop the hood and go at it?



YankeeFan said:
ditto this question as I read you should cover up all the sensors, electrical components, etc. That's why I have hesitated doing it.



Howard



That is the exact same reason I hesitated doing it for so long, I was worried about the electrical components. All I covered up was the plate by my air filter that had all my fuse box connections running to it. I used tin foil. Other than that I didnt cover anything else up.



If you have an older car, you definitely want to cover the distributor cap, and carb, but all cars nowadays dont have either of those so its pretty safe. Honestly, I am very very happy that I went ahead and did this, the engine bay looks so damn good now. Cant believe I neglected it for so long.



The scary part was turning the key after I rinsed off all the degreaser, once it started, I had one big smile on my face!



SpoiledMan - Thanks for the pricing tip, I will definitely include this as an upsell in all future details.



Scottwax - Thanks for the compliment!



ninjalogan - congrats on three weeks being smoke free, my trauma starts on July 1st, this Sunday. I know I can do it, Ive lost 90 pounds of pure body fat before. If I can go through that, smoking should be ok too. Thanks for the quote from Mark Twain, its so true! He was an avid cigar smoker too IIRC.



Accumulator - Thank you as well for the compliment!



awahl63- wheres the pics????



Thanks again everyone for posting, I am now an engine detailer for life! :bounce



Jim
 
Back
Top