the minivan that almost killed me...

S

Shelpster66

New member
Hello to all......I had a minivan that I worked on last weekend. It took me two days as I wanted to split it up due to the nature of the work involved. It was a buddy from work and he told before hand that it was bad. It hadn't been cleaned in almost 7 years and no wax applied. I wasn't real happy with the way the interior turned out, but it was in such bad shape that whatever I tried, it just wouldn't come clean. The driver and passenger floor mats are non-existent....so that was fun.

Here are some pics and the process I used.



Interior

cleaned with APC on all panels and dash

Original Armor All on plastics

303 Aerospace on rubber/vinyl

uphostery received Oxy Clean - wiped with MF and vacuumed

carpets were pretreated MANY times with Folex (used the entire bottle)

carpets fan dried



Exterior

Washed with Megs NXT car wash

Wheels cleaned with Megs wheel cleaner

Clayed entire van w/clay magic

OC w/ LC orange pad

FPII w/ LC white pad

NXT (2x's)

Glass used NXT glass cleaner (love this stuff)

Tires got AA



On with the pics....



drivers side before....there were no visible carpet fibers in the black area..





drivers side after





Back









Passenger side





Passenger side after





Side





Dash area









Mats (mid & rear)









Mats after...





Mid section before





After





Back





Back after





eewwwwwww...







Hood shot before





after...









Used almost a full bar of clay















I need to get better with my before and after pics. I think that van came out OK. The paint didn't really have any swirls because it never got washed. It cleaned up nice after I removed the contaminants bonded to the paint.:grinno:

Took me about 12 hours total.....comments and suggestions are welcome.
 
Sometimes you just have to settle for that. It really is major improvement though. Befores and afters are awesome. Be proud.
 
Very nice non-disgusting (thanks to you) minivan!



I still remember my first minivan. Black Chrysler, soccer mom, 5 kids, works in an exotic pet store and hauls the animals (and the pets) in the van.



I had to chisel a skittles/soda mixture out of the rear cup holder. She has another detail coming up, actually...
 
I like the fact that the stains didn't come out of the carpet. That's what they get for not taking care of their van. Overall it looks great. Good job.
 
Thanks to all for the kind words. It's really discouraging when you think to yourself "I can get this clean" and then no matter what you try, it doesn't happen. The red spots in the carpet is dye that was spilled.....so that wasn't coming up no matter what I used.



Wow. That doesent even look like the same car. Nice work. That water in the extractor is gross though!!
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I emptied that about 12-13 times.



Sometimes you just have to settle for that. It really is major improvement though. Befores and afters are awesome. Be proud.
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I know your right, but it's still below my expectations. The owner thought it looked great.



I still remember my first minivan. Black Chrysler, soccer mom, 5 kids, works in an exotic pet store and hauls the animals (and the pets) in the van.
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that is funny......this guy has 3 boys. I know what you mean about the soda and other crap....the other side had gum in it that took me a while to remove completely.





What did you use to make the wheels look new again?
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I used this and a lot of small brushes......it's pretty nasty stuff, but these wheels deserved it.

 
What a improvement on the minivan from hell, you did a awesome job on it, shine is great!:xyxthumbs :bigups
 
give yourself a huge at on the back, because that is a MASSIVE improvement!



I know exactly how you feel about those stains that refuse to come out. I did a corolla a while back that had some orange soda and curry stains that refused to come out. It sure ruined the look, but sometimes there are stains that just can not be removed.



Again, fantastic job!
 
Those before shots made me throw up in my mouth a little. :eek:



Definitely a huge improvement, I think you got it as good as it was possible for the abuse it had taken for 7 years. :up
 
You are a detailer not a magician. Although from the looks of it you might be a pretty good magician too.



Nice job on that van.



This IS the reason I could never detail for a living. If someone brought me some disgusting POS like that I would tell them to take a hike. People can be such disgusting slobs. Who in their right mind would even want to get in that thing. I wouldn't want to get in it to clean it.



Nice job considering what you had to work with.
 
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