Pre Sale Cleanup

House of Wax

House of Wax

Active member
I wish this was something cool like a Vette or Ferrari, but it's not. I'm sharing anyway because it's probably the nastiest vehicle I've done yet (I'm sure it's nothing compared to what some of you have seen, but I only do this as side work for the past year or two). Back story is my wife's co-worker has an 18 year old daughter that is apparently a lazy slug and she was warned that if she didn't get a job, her mom was going to sell the car. Well, we can see how that turned out. She brought it to me to get it cleaned up, so we decided to give it a good clean inside and out and hit it with an AIO to get the paint shined up a bit without spending a lot of time/money. It didn't take long to figure out why she was spending the money to get it cleaned up to sell......the daughter was obviously a filthy pig. We'll take a look at the interior first:



Gotta admit, I had to waive the white flag on that stain. Seeing as this isn't my full time gig, I can't justify spending a ton of money on a steam machine or extractor, but I did try to spot treat it with about 4 or 5 different chemicals to see if I could get it a little better, but nothing I tried did much of anything. I later on found out the daughter was going to cosmotology school for awhile and the stain was hair dye.




















Let's just say I was glad I put gloves on. They supposedly actually "cleaned it out a bit" before they brought it over. I still found a half eaten cupcake and moldy napkins in the center console under the radio area and was coated it what felt like slime. Gave the interior a good vac'ing and went to work on all the hard surfaces with HD Total and spot treated the seats/carpet with folex. Certainly looks better than when I got it:



















 
On to the exterior. It's obvious from the pictures how dirty it is, but it was the most dry and crusty paint I've ever worked on. Beading??? hahaha. Even after washing it the water just sat on the car like it was stuck when I sprayed it. Here's some before pics of the outside and door jams:
























































Couple quick shots after washing of the swirls that covered the car:



 
Outside process:

2 bucket wash with Chemical Guys Glossworkz Gloss Booster and Paintwork Cleanser
Wheels cleaned with Sonax Full Effect
Tires and wheel wells cleaned with Opti-Clean
Paint decon with Nanoskin medium grade wash mitt (been awhile since I've had to bust out the medium grade lol) with UWW+ for lube
Polished with HD Speed via Rupes21 w/tangerine hydroshred pads
Trim treated with HD Protect
Glass cleaned with stoners
Armor All on the wheel wells
Meguiars Endurance Tire Gel on the tires

Results.....far from perfect, but that wasn't the goal:



I didn't tape a line, but you can see the right side looks better



HD Speed impressed me here. You can see all the scuffs in the before pictures. Speed took em right off. Door is done in this picture and you'll see in a bit it took the rest off the rear quarter as well.







My helper doing a little photo bombing......

























Scuffs are all gone!!
















































Mission accomplished. The customer was thrilled when she picked it up. My wife told me today she's been talking about it to everyone all week at work. All work was done in the evening after my regular job so i didn't get the chance to get any pictures outside. Overall I was pretty happy with the outcome. All things considered, Speed did an excellent job on the paint. Thanks for looking
 
Looks great. I always wonder if they hire a detailer to make it better even though it is already better than most.
 
Great job, House!

Great approach... I would encourage you to look at the B&S pads. I use them, mostly, when pulling out the Rupes 21. A B&S Orange, or LC Pink pad with HD SPeed are the combos I usually employ for this type of work. Look into those pads.

Steamer... get one! They make life much, much easier. Even if the steamer you get is less than $250... so be it. You will enjoy it and make your results/ time better. Apply an APC, diluted properly for interior use, and you will be amazed what happens.

Well done for what you were working with.

-Gabe
 
Nice turn around!
Dont get me wrong that one was pretty trashed, but If that's the nastiest one you've done I envy you, iv'e had some 10x worse than that here at the shop this season >_< Not sure how people drive around with there car smelling/looking that way.
 
colinpd137 said:
Nice turn around!
Dont get me wrong that one was pretty trashed, but If that's the nastiest one you've done I envy you, iv'e had some 10x worse than that here at the shop this season >_< Not sure how people drive around with there car smelling/looking that way.
Click to expand...

Oh I don't doubt it. I just started doing this last year for some funny money on the side, so I haven't had a large volume of cars to my name yet. I understand dirty, but the old food is just gross
 
Dellinger said:
Great job, House!

Great approach... I would encourage you to look at the B&S pads. I use them, mostly, when pulling out the Rupes 21. A B&S Orange, or LC Pink pad with HD SPeed are the combos I usually employ for this type of work. Look into those pads.

Steamer... get one! They make life much, much easier. Even if the steamer you get is less than $250... so be it. You will enjoy it and make your results/ time better. Apply an APC, diluted properly for interior use, and you will be amazed what happens.

Well done for what you were working with.

-Gabe
Click to expand...

The last pads that I ordered were orange B&S....very nice pad. Those will be be replacing my tangerine hydroshreds (nice pads, just tear up too quick).

I've been really torn on the steamer. I can't justify spending big bucks on one and wasn't sure if a "cheap" machine would even work well enough to be worth it. I did start to think about it a little more heavily though the other night when I cleaned up the inside of my wife's car seeing as we have a 5 year old and a 15 month old that she lets eat in the car......might get more personal use out of it now where I didn't really need it in years past lol
 
House of Wax said:
The last pads that I ordered were orange B&S....very nice pad. Those will be be replacing my tangerine hydroshreds (nice pads, just tear up too quick).

I've been really torn on the steamer. I can't justify spending big bucks on one and wasn't sure if a "cheap" machine would even work well enough to be worth it. I did start to think about it a little more heavily though the other night when I cleaned up the inside of my wife's car seeing as we have a 5 year old and a 15 month old that she lets eat in the car......might get more personal use out of it now where I didn't really need it in years past lol
Click to expand...

Car looks really good. Can't wait to apply effort to the wife's car. In comparison, my vehicles are much cleaner and based on what you did here, it should be a cinch!

Hmmm. Eating in the vehicle; one of my pet peeves. Especially after finding a left over ice cream cone smeared down the side of a seat a few years ago.
 
Those are rewarding jobs! The transformation is incredible, and you increased the value of the car a great deal.
 
Positively a TWO thumbs up on this one. Even though WELL used, this car now looks quite respectable. Excellent result!
 
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