From $hitty to Pretty - Extreme Dealer Detailing

David Fermani

Forza Auto Salon
Thought I'd share with everyone this pile of style Subaru Tribeca we worked on that was tore up from the floor up & beat up from the feet up. We do a ton of crappy cars, but this one was a bit dirtier than most. It didn't have to come out perfect and in fact it didn't, but I thought you'd get a kick out of the transformation we were able to salvage out of it. After checking out these preliminary pics, it's pretty obvious that this vehicle lived most of its life on a dirt road. In fact it looked like they hauled dirt inside of it from how much ground in dirt & sand that was trapped in the carpeting. Many Detailers wouldn't even want to (or know how to in fact) attempt to tackle a car this brutally dirty, yet we have no problem rolling up our sleeves and getting things done!

Here's how it looked when it came in:












































It's 10,000% critical to not introduce ANY kind of wetness into this vehicle before trying to remove as much ground in soiling as possible 1st. (water + dirt = MUD). So instead of prepping this car in the wet bay like we do on most of our full details, we 1st pulled it into a detail bay to start working on getting as much ground in filth removed from the carpeting. We used a combo of 3 different types of Tornadors, compressed air, stiff brushes & vacuums to loosen up and remove the soiling that had been ground deep into the nap of the carpeting. It was so bad that while doing this there was a dust cloud surrounding this car! This recon would have been a cream puff if they would have invested in some floor mats before trashing it.

My shop Manager Ted suited up ready to go to battle:













Check out the transformation of the carpeting after just removing the ground in soiling. It was almost like all this dirt/sand acted like a insulator for the topical soiling.










After de-dirting the carpet, we 1st used our Mytee Lite II to remove even more soiling. Check out how much of a difference it made!






We then used a dedicated carpet shampoo (3D Carpet & Upholstery Shampoo) followed again by extraction. This netted some excellent results. (no, we didn't need to power wash this one) We then used 3D Orange Citrus Degreaser @ 5 to 1 on the rest of the interior. Basically spray > scrub > wipe > compressed air.
After doing the carpet, we started to pre-soak the engine, door jambs & body with 3D Orange Citrus Degreaser. We left it to marinate for about 10 minutes before blasting with our pressure washer.



Here's the mud that kept falling from the wheel wells as we power washed the exterior:







Not much could be done about the bleach damage although the soiling around it was just about gone...




 
And here's how everything came out....again, not perfect, but good enough to get dropped off at the auction so it could be introduced to its potential new owner.
































We used 3D Ultra Protectant on the tires (straight), Engine & Wheel Wells (4 to 1).













And HD Speed via green B&S foam pad with our Makita rotary on the exterior.



 
David and Team !

Stunning, absolutely Stunning turnaround !!!

Congratulations to a most well-planned process from the beginning, and the astounding results !!!

You and your team Rocked !!!

I am always surprised to see how some people literally USE a vehicle and never do 1, repeat, 1 thing, to maintain it... :(

As beautiful as you made it look, knowing the history of how it looked, and presuming the worst for any engine, transmission, differential/s, etc., maintenance, I would Never even consider buying this at any cost, unless they could produce perfect verified, maintenance records from the first day..

Thanks for an awesome review of what looked like a Detailers worst nightmare !
Dan F
 
That was thrashed!!! The HD Speed looks really good and wet on the exterior. I will have to pick some up soon to test out.
 
That's an amazing turnaround! I would of been terrified to even try to tackle that myself with the limited tools I have (mobile, no compressor or extractor) .

Great work!
 
David,

AMAZING!!!!! Ted is a brave man. So did the owners even recognize the vehicle?

I wish I had a bigger compressor for the Tornador.

Steve
 
Other than using this a marketing piece for your business I cannot see how you can charge enough that you made a profit, and that the customer was willing to pay?

Certianly my hat off to you for a job well done. I hope you charged by the hour (or lb of dirt removed)
 
Damn fine job on that one. I wish we could see more transformations like this. These are truly the jobs that separate the men from the boys.
 
Another interior pro!^(well pro everything) Haven't seen you in a bit mrclean

Thanks : )
I'm still around, but haven't had much to add to conversations as of lately. Went through a pretty bad back injury last year, and haven't done much detailing these past few months. Been taking it easy and working for the man until I'm 100% again.
 
Thanks : )
I'm still around, but haven't had much to add to conversations as of lately. Went through a pretty bad back injury last year, and haven't done much detailing these past few months. Been taking it easy and working for the man until I'm 100% again.

Hope ya feel better soon !!!!
 
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