O.C.Detailing (Lynchburg, VA.) 1987 Land Cruiser 110 (England import RH drive!)

adrock2003

New member
Okay, so this next vehicle is a pro-bono job that I wanted to do for free for my "portfolio" as the befores and afters would be so incredibly dramatic. I wasn't fully prepared for what I'd gotten into, but for free, this machine received 24 hours of labor and a pretty incredibly dramatic transformation!!! I ruined 4 orange pads and went through 1.5 bottles of Optimum Compound... At the end of it all, the owner tipped me $200 for my time, even when I refused payment several times, he wouldn't let me say no.



So we have a 1987 Land Rover 110 imported from England by the owner. It sits on the street just up the road from my house, so I knocked on the owner's door one day and presented my proposition to him. I asked if he'd let me detail his Land Rover for free in exchange for allowing me to use it as a before and after vehicle in my portfolio. He agreed, and I found that this would be my first run-in with single-stage paint.



Process:



- Foamed with AG foam gun and Meg's Gold Class Shampoo and allowed to dwell to loosen the mud.

- Washed Via 2-bucket method using Meg's Gold Class Shampoo and genuine Lamb's Wool washing mitt.

- No claying, so I just let it air dry and then started messing around with the front passenger's side (Right-hand drive vehicle, remember!).

- Correction was achieved with Meg's Diamond Cut 2.0 Compound and Optimum Compound on LCC 4" Orange pads to remove the oxidation.

- LSP was Optimum Poli-seal applied with 6" LCC Orange pads

- Rims cleaned with degreaser and dressed with silicone spray to darken the black as the truck isn't used much.

- Tires dressed with Meg's Endurance Tire gel.



ON TO THE BEFORES!!!:



All of these first pictures give you an idea of the level of oxidation I was dealing with and the challenge set before me.

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Whole lotta reflections in this fender eh?

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That hood's rocking some awesome shine too!!

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Mold or mildew growing on the white paint on the roof...

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For clarification, the front driver's and passenger's side doors and the rear door are all new. The driver's and passenger's rear doors are original.

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So not ALL the mud came off during the wash...

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Mmmmm, rust and brush scratches, my FAVORITES! That rust spot and several others were the culprits who ate my pads...

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Someone got REALLY excited all over this fender...didn't come fully out even after wet-sanding.

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Straight on shot of the hood!

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Mmmmm, roof petree dish? Growing a new species up there apparently.

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This is a 50/50 done with compound on a terry cloth towel to show the owner what lay beneath all that powdery blue.

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This is what came off...

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And even bled through the rag...I knew I was in for some fun.

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50/50 of the fender flare with PC7424 and compound on an Orange LC 4" pad on the left.

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I actually wet-sanded this fender to see how it would turn out. Surprised myself as this was insane compared to where I started.

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A few more of the wet-sanded section.

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I actually did remove and repaint all 3 of the front grill pieces on the truck.

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The victims of carnage. I did NOT use yellow cutting pads as they were a bit too aggressive for the single-stage. I just tried it to see what it could do.

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And NOW THE AFTERS!!! I did try to wet-sand the entire truck, but after 18 hours and only getting 3/4 of the passenger's side done, I decided to call it quits on the wet-sanding. Not to mention, my mother's funeral was held in the middle of detailing this, so my heart was a little broken as well.



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Yeah, I got a little shine from the hood, what do you all think?

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Here's a better shot of it.

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Please note how the sides and the door actually MATCH now!

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My favorite picture of this detail. Show's almost every panel that I wet-sanded except the rear passenger's door.

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I evicted the mold/fungus colony from the roof too...wasn't fun buffing on an 8' ladder, I'll tell you that much. lol

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And that's the end!! It looks a little different now eh? heh Thanks for looking and PLEASE leave me some comments on my work. Your comments and criticisms drive my passion for what I do.



Adam
 
sorry to hear about the funeral, hope you are doing well in that regard.



great job on the rover! that thing is a tank!
 
I am a very big fan on turn arounds like this. That was really great work. I see you posting alot an I'm checking out your threads. Keep it up. Now if I may say something with no disrespect. Its obvoius you can sand a little and remove the scratches. Now I'm gonna tell you this, if you started to wetsand my vehicle and got lazy and didn't finish it. I would be so mad. Now the reason I say this is because you leveled only half a vehicle. Woundn't you be upset if half your car had orange peel and the other half didn't? Please by no means am I trying to come down on you or anything like that. I just want you to understand what your doing when sanding. Anyways nice work though.. good luck
 
First off, thank you SOOO much everyone for your kind words! :D I figured you all might like this one, even though I'm pretty disappointed that it couldn't all come out like the fender. :(



Now, I have some 'splaining to do. :D



I totally understand where you're coming from Barry. This was a no charge detail and I was 16 hours into it. Here's the real reason why I stopped though, and I informed the owner as well. There are rust spots and extremely thin paint sections ALL OVER the truck. So thin, that even if I touched it just one time with the 2500 grit paper, it was cutting through all of the paint straight to the primer. This has been repainted to this blue. It was originally a forest green type color and the body shop in England didn't do any repairs to the rusty spots nor did they spray the color on very thick. There were runs and many other defects in the paint.



That being said, I wanted to finish wet-sanding so badly that it was driving me nuts, but I believe that wet-sanding would have caused more damage than good, overall, so I quit before it started costing me money. The fender was easy to do as was the driver's door, it's when I started getting to the passenger's rear door (SUPER thin paint and painted-over rust spots) that things started to get really wrong, and I still had 3/4 of the truck to detail. It wasn't worth the amount of risk I was taking to wet-sand the rest of the truck just to potentially cause more damage than was present when I started. Trust me man, I'm O.C.D like crazy, so not finishing drove me nuts, but I just couldn't allow myself to cause any other issues with an already messed up paint job. I hope that clears up why I couldn't finish sanding and helps you understand a bit more as to my reasons why I stopped. The owner was very happy with the results and still tipped me $200 for the work even though I told him he owed me nothing.
 
I am loving the turn around. I am sorry to hear about your Mom. I am sure she would be quite proud of you.



Congrats on the car and keep up the work :)
 
Im glad the owner was fully happy. Me I'm retarded at times and didn't think the other half was that bad. I do apologize. Like I said earlier and I will say it again. great work. keep it up!

Barry
 
bufferbarry said:
Im glad the owner was fully happy. Me I'm retarded at times and didn't think the other half was that bad. I do apologize. Like I said earlier and I will say it again. great work. keep it up!

Barry



No Barry, don't be sorry man. I welcome criticisms AND compliments all the same. I just really did have a good reason for not wanting to wetsand the entire vehicle on this one and wanted everyone to know all of the information.



If you guys see me messing up, for the love of GOD, please tell me! I'm here to learn AS WELL AS show what I've been doing. If you know something that'll make my work better, I hope you share so I can apply that knowledge the next time I need it.



Thanks Nikku and Sludge for your comments. :D I appreciate it.
 
adrock2003 said:
No Barry, don't be sorry man. I welcome criticisms AND compliments all the same. I just really did have a good reason for not wanting to wetsand the entire vehicle on this one and wanted everyone to know all of the information.



If you guys see me messing up, for the love of GOD, please tell me! I'm here to learn AS WELL AS show what I've been doing. If you know something that'll make my work better, I hope you share so I can apply that knowledge the next time I need it.



Thanks Nikku and Sludge for your comments. :D I appreciate it.





Thats one of those turnarounds where you dont have words to express how good it looks.

Spine tingling.

Sorry to hear about your loss, btw. A true soldier to be able to produce that result with that kind of heartbreak.
 
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