occupant
Occupant Ilied Industries
I am NOT a pro. I am NOT done with this car. I am just a kid (a 34 year old kid) who likes to take care of his car. Which wasn't my car until recently, my grandmother passed almost two years ago and left her car to whoever needed it. My cousin had a need for a second car for awhile, and then her husband got a little used Acura TSX so my grandmother's car got parked. She called me and told me hey, you can come get Gram's car now, but be careful the brakes are out on it, you might want to trailer it home or fix it and then drive it. Ouch. I spent $1050 to have it shipped. It's not a high class car. It's not even a newer car. It's just a white 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, but it was bought new and is basically a one owner car. Behold, this is what showed up in my driveway two weeks ago:
Double ouch. It's been sitting out in the weather. It hasn't been washed in FOREVER let alone polished or waxed or anything really. I think the only time it got washed was when it was raining. What a mess. I'm just getting started but I wanted to click and brag a little bit and show how a little process and a little product can make something really nice out of something really nasty.
Let's go back to Christmas 2011. My mother in law bought me a Meguiar's car cleaning kit. It has a little bottle of Ultimate Quik Detailer, some yellow wash/wax stuff, a microfiber towel, and a few other things. I think this was $15 or so at Walmart that year. I didn't really get to use it right away, as I didn't have a car with potential to look good using it. I had a beater minivan, my old Gran Torino, and my wife's high mile Durango. So I put it up and didn't think about it until this Cutlass Ciera got here.
So the car is here. And yes, the brakes were SHOT!!!
So I got that taken care of, got the inside rear view mirror glued back to the windshield, and took it to get a state inspection sticker. Passed that with no problems, went and got my title and tags, paid my $10 gift tax, and came back home. Washed it, vacuumed out the carpets and seats, cleaned out the trunk, and it was better, somewhat. There's still nasties in the paint that didn't come out from a simple soap and water wash. So I remembered that kit my mother in law got me and thought, I wonder if that Quik Detailer and microfiber towel can do SOMETHING with this, or will I need to pick up a claybar kit? So here's an idea of the mess I had to deal with in the paint. This picture is from AFTER the washing session:
Ouch. So I grabbed the Quik Detailer and the little towel and got to work. It worked very well, not PERFECT, but from a few feet away it looks a thousand times better:
Up close it even looks good except for a few spots:
And compare again to a picture of the grille I took when it first got here:
A little more detailing work and this car will look terrific. Granted I still have rust repairs to make and touch up paint work to do (dry sanding, por-15, filler, primer, wet sanding, color, clear, etc not necessarily in that order and lots of sanding in between) and of course it'll still benefit from a good wash, claybarring, maybe polish, and wax, but this is a good start:
Double ouch. It's been sitting out in the weather. It hasn't been washed in FOREVER let alone polished or waxed or anything really. I think the only time it got washed was when it was raining. What a mess. I'm just getting started but I wanted to click and brag a little bit and show how a little process and a little product can make something really nice out of something really nasty.
Let's go back to Christmas 2011. My mother in law bought me a Meguiar's car cleaning kit. It has a little bottle of Ultimate Quik Detailer, some yellow wash/wax stuff, a microfiber towel, and a few other things. I think this was $15 or so at Walmart that year. I didn't really get to use it right away, as I didn't have a car with potential to look good using it. I had a beater minivan, my old Gran Torino, and my wife's high mile Durango. So I put it up and didn't think about it until this Cutlass Ciera got here.
So the car is here. And yes, the brakes were SHOT!!!
So I got that taken care of, got the inside rear view mirror glued back to the windshield, and took it to get a state inspection sticker. Passed that with no problems, went and got my title and tags, paid my $10 gift tax, and came back home. Washed it, vacuumed out the carpets and seats, cleaned out the trunk, and it was better, somewhat. There's still nasties in the paint that didn't come out from a simple soap and water wash. So I remembered that kit my mother in law got me and thought, I wonder if that Quik Detailer and microfiber towel can do SOMETHING with this, or will I need to pick up a claybar kit? So here's an idea of the mess I had to deal with in the paint. This picture is from AFTER the washing session:
Ouch. So I grabbed the Quik Detailer and the little towel and got to work. It worked very well, not PERFECT, but from a few feet away it looks a thousand times better:
Up close it even looks good except for a few spots:
And compare again to a picture of the grille I took when it first got here:
A little more detailing work and this car will look terrific. Granted I still have rust repairs to make and touch up paint work to do (dry sanding, por-15, filler, primer, wet sanding, color, clear, etc not necessarily in that order and lots of sanding in between) and of course it'll still benefit from a good wash, claybarring, maybe polish, and wax, but this is a good start:
