Some of you may have seen my teaser for this car, in which case you know you need to stop eating now. For the rest of you, now you know. The vehicle in question is a 2002 Honda Civic LX, which belongs to a very close friend of mine. She's never been one to keep her car clean, and said that since this car was so grimy and full of pet hair when she got it a year and a half ago that she never really bothered to clean it. I've always been used to her untidy car, but it got to a point where I was actually concerned for her health. So, I had an intervention. Before I go any farther, this car is not, nor can it ever be 100%, as you will see. It's led a hard life--mostly from its previous owners or people running into it in parking lots (you'll notice it's missing the entire back bumper, the result of a snobby lady who "didn't see it in my backup camera"). I don't think the owner has been responsible for any of the cosmetic damage on the vehicle at all. It wasn't just dirt on every surface, it was dirt and grime combined with 12 years worth of cigarette smoke residue, which made everything much harder to clean. All the windows required multiple cleanings to remove this residue. Enough backstory. Onto processes and pictures. I kept it simple with this detail, utilizing only Zep Citrus on the interior, along with various brushes and my oldest microfiber towels. The exterior just got a quick wash with Megs Gold Class car wash and some more Zep Citrus, since we don't know the last time this car was ever washed. You'll notice that I didn't have much time to spend on the carpets...those will be done at a later date. I only had one evening to accomplish the task of cleaning this car. The owner was a huge help, and despite the state of her car, was pretty good at cleaning it. You ready? This is what I was presented with: At this point I'll go ahead and admit that I didn't even touch the headliner. As you can see, it could certainly use a good cleaning, but due to the state of it I didn't want to cause any more damage. So, we began removing stuff. This was after about five minutes of removing handfuls of stuff... It was shortly after I got to this layer of trash that I discovered that there were ants living in the car. Thankfully there weren't many of them, and they were all removed with the last of the garbage. Four large trash bags later, all the garbage was out of the car! There was mold and god knows what else on the floormat. I hosed them down and scrubbed them, but I don't have much hope for them...I could have spent a whole day on just the carpets of this vehicle. I wish I had got a picture of under the driver's floormat, it looked even worse than the passenger side. So much stuff. The first spritz of cleaner this car has probably ever seen: Now...for the afters! Like I said, I could have easily spent a whole other day on the carpets. I fixed the sagging door card fabric after I took this picture. There was only so much that could be done for the cupholders: The happy owner, posing with her clean (but not yet washed) car while wearing a mask we found in the car: Some personal touches... Washed! One last photo, photobucket was being weird and wouldn't save the blocked out license plate. She's got the best looking Honda civic with failing clearcoat, missing panels and mismatch wheels around! I know this detail is out of place with some of the truly fantastic work that a lot of you guys on here do to some truly special cars...the car is by no means 100% clean and I know there are areas that could have come out better. But given what I started with, I'm pretty happy with the results. The owner was over the moon, having never seen the car this clean before. Hope you enjoyed, I apologize if I made anyone sick.
Wow, I don't know how many boxes of gloves I would have needed to tackle that one! I don't know how you could stand to be in that car to drive it around!! I do lots of daily drivers, so the grimy steering wheel and console (minus the trash) did not look so bad, but how do you leave all that garbage in a vehicle you spend time in...
Great turn around. It is amazing to me and probably most of the members of this forum how someone can live that way. To each their own.
She put something on her face that was found in that car?. :gross: Anyway, great job! im sure her lungs will thank you for cleaning up all that mold and garbage.
Well, it has been hanging from the rearview mirror the entire time, so it was spared the grossness. haha. The owner said that the car seemed to drive better after being cleaned, like a completely different car...I said it was prolly because the four bags of trash we took out weighed like 40 pounds total. It certainly felt like riding in a different car. The owner has vowed to keep her car clean now that she has a fresh start as well.
Wow . . . how can anyone drive in something like that? It's unhealthy to do so. Anyways nice transformation. I really hope that you charged accordingly. I would have taken that challenge but it would have easily been a $300 bill.
Thanks for all the responses everyone! Thankfully I didn't have to tackle this by myself, the owner was a huge help throughout the process. She put on gloves and dug right into it as well. She's also been showing it off to everyone she knows
I give you credit, I would head for the hills or the hazmat suit. Not quite sure what I would do. Might be fun to pull up to a regular car wash and let them get the big junks out and then I would tackle it. I wonder if they would charge more than the 9-12 bucks. My guess is this is what they have in mind when you see a sign that says we reserve the right to charge more on exceptionally dirty vehicles. LOL WOW, Just WOW. Do you have a dumpster at your place?
The forums have seemed kinda dead lately...here's something to wake y'all up. The owner brought the car back, apparently her resolve to keep the car clean didn't last too long. Phone died halfway through the detail so no afters but just thought y'all would like to see what I've been up to. Just look at my afters from before it looked exactly the same.
Each time she brings it back, you should charge more and more! lol...and stop making excuses...You know you could do better on those cup holders...hahaha... I would NEVER, no matter WHAT it is, allow ANYTHING to be laying in the driver footwell, that is just dangerous!! I have had stuck accelerators and the sort...scary! If that were my car, and I were honestly going to keep it clean, I would just buy new carpet and seats, or have them redone, and all the little interior pieces like cup holders and stuff...just throw them in a dumpster, cover in gas, light on fire and install new. Probably cost the same as a good detail, and would have better results.
Assuming she's a halfway decent looking woman I say for every bag of trash you pull out of that car she has to lose one article of clothing while cleaning the car. That's only fair.. Now I'm worried if she keeps her car like that, her personal hygiene can't be THAT good..so maybe forego the previous idea of mine....
That's disgusting.....I can only imagine how that woman lives if that's how she keeps her car. I would be charging out the a$$ to deal with that kind of filth on a car....not to mention that car is a complete piece of junk to begin with.....some people should just take public transit. But on the bright side, you gave it some life again!
