This is a referral from my good friend Steve (the red Mercedes SLK owner). I met with the owner of the vehicle as we live so close to each other, very nice person. First of all it was a privilege for me to detail his vehicle. The owner never lets anyone touch his vehicle and it was a compliment hearing him say that he would trust me with his baby. Vehicle needed lots of work to it, on with the show. 1998 Dodge Dakota Sport As previously mentioned the vehicle needed lots of work, here is how I received the vehicle. As you can see I had my work cut out. Well on with the show. I completed this vehicle in two days. Day one was interior, rims, exterior wash and clay in that order. Here is how day one went. First I gave the interior a complete vacuum job with my shop vac. Once that was completed I proceeded to giving the interior a complete wipe down with Deionized water mixed with Maguire’s APC 1:1 (I needed it strong for this one). How the Vents/speakers were cleaned: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: Water mix for the interior wipe down After: Once the interior was completed the rims where next. For the rims I used P21S Wheel Gel, P21S Auto Wash for the wheel wells, a bucket of Deionized water mixed with Maguire’s Gold Shampoo and various brushes. The following pictures will illustrate the process better. Before: Before: The brushes utilized: P21S Wheel Gel in action: EZ Brush in action: Once the inside of the rims where cleaned now came the face of the rims with the help of the Swissol brush: Once the rims were completely cleaned on to the tires, for this I used Maguire’s tire brush with the water/soap mix: Then rinsed the wheel wells, tires and rims and protected the rims with Jetseal 109. I protected the tires with Optimum Tire Shine along with wheel wells. Final results: On to the wash. For the wash of the vehicle, I first rinsed the vehicle with Deionized water, then sprayed the entire vehicle with P21S Total Auto Wash. Let it sit for about 2 minuets and then proceeded to wash the vehicle with Deionozed water mixed with Maguire’s Gold Shampoo and the help of both the White ShMITT and the Black ShMITT. Dried the vehicle off with the Guzzler towel and Cobra towel. Then on to the claying, the claying took me some time (2hrs to be exact). The vehicle had lots and lots off contaminants stuck on the surface. I ended up using two red Clay Magic bars. The vehicle had lots of tar on the lower panels so I used Tarminator. Never used this product before but sure made removing the tar easy. Once claying was complete I gave the vehicle a quick wash again. Then the inspection of what I was up against and I discovered something interesting on this vehicle that I missed earlier. The vehicle had lots of deep scratches, lots of swirls, completely covered in oxidation but that was just fine here is what the surprise was The roof of the vehicle had no clear coat left on it. The hood was in the same shape, the vehicle was suffering from clear coat failure. So once I saw that I decided to call it a day and go to bed. Day two and the polishing process: First of all the taping of the vehicle: My friend at the body shop supply gave me some new tape to try out, it’s the one that looks like masking tape. Don’t know the name of it but it worked really good and no sticky residue upon removal. Now came the fun part. I didn’t want to be too aggressive on this vehicle because of the clear coat failure so I went with my go to polish. Menzerna 85RD3.02 with a Maguire’s Polishing pad and my Metabo at 1500rpm. One or two paces and it was good to go. I knew that my pad would suffer on this one and I also knew that I would have to clean it multiply times so I brought out my System 2000 out to play. Filled it up with Reverse Osmosis water and a Snappy Clean powder and I was set. Here are some 50/50 pictures with the help of the Sun Gun The pad after just the roof Polished side Waiting to be polished side After the polishing process had been completed, which took a few hours I gave the vehicle a rinse with Deionized water. It was time to finish the job. Wax of choice was Victoria Concourse applied by hand and removed by hand with the help of the Tornado MF towels, prior to the wax though was ClearKote Red Moose Machine Glaze. Applied by hand with the help of a MF applicator and removed by hand with the help of Tornado MF towels. All exterior plastic trims received Black Again, applied with a MF towel. Now for some before and after pictures. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any pictures outside as I completed the polishing at night but my garage has plenty of light. Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Random reflection pictures: Conclusion/observation: The owner was very pleased with the results. As mentioned before the owner of this vehicle does not trust anyone with his belongings and it was a compliment for him to say he trusts me with his vehicle. As for observation, clear coat failure is a paint to work with. I’ve polished a vehicle that did not have any clear coat at all and that was easy compared to this one. I showed the owner the clear coat failure and said that one of these days he would get it repainted but for now he will keep bringing it to me. That was a satisfying compliment to me. As for the overall results of the vehicle, I would say I got the vehicle to about 90%. The really deep scratches are still there, I managed to remove majority if not all of the swirls. Some scratches I could have removed with the help of wet sanding but I didn’t want to risk it. So that’s why I say 90%. Well at end the owner was happy, I was satisfied with the results it was a win, win situation. As always any feed back/comments/questions good or bad are always welcome.
WOOOOOOOWW! Thats quite a beast. My God... Nice job dude.. I dont know if Id take on that!!! You are the man Carlos!!
:worship2: Amazing work Carlos, always a treat to see your work. Love those 50/50 shots. What no video? :applause2:
Very nice save Nica! :applause: You sure had your work cut out for you on that one. I know it bothers you that the vehicle couldn't be 100%, but sometimes you just have to step back and remember what you had to work with. :yikes: :tiptoe: I have worked on a few of those trucks, the clearcoat failure seems to be a common issue. :shead: :shrug: Again...great joib and thanks for sharing with us! :applause2: Dave
WOW what a transformation... Seems like a body shop visit is due for this one. Glad to hear you will be seeing this vehicle regularly because I noticed you said the owner doesn't allow anyone to touch his vehicle and I was going to suggest he modify that decision a bit based on the begining condition of the vehicle.. The interior was a bio-hazard like the stratus I did not long ago...
Great work as usual but am I missing something ... why does Carlos' post have a date of Oct. 6th, 2007? Did we all manage to miss this one somehow? Also its been a long while since I saw you use Victoria's Wax too. Just a little confused.:shead:
Dude, that's an awesome job! Just looking at those wheels made me think you will need Megs Wheel Brightener, but P21S did the job well! Well done, Nica!
Thats just nasty. He wouldnt let anyone else touch his stuff? Maybe he should. Great turnaround, Carlos.
"Would'nt let anyone touch it" geeze, this guy should have let someone "touch it" loooong time ago. Oh, very nice work.
Yes, this one is an old detail but to be honest this one was a good chalenge for me, I haven't been chalenged for a wile now...but I'm sure something will pop up shortly :whistle: Thank you for the feed back, oh and I've seen the truck a few times and regretably and the owner has not kept up with it :shrug: shame.
One of my favorite details by u! Amazing restoration! By the condition of the paint, he should consider letting other people touch his cars! His worst enemy is himself!
Thank you guys for the compliments, I was extremely satisfied with this vehicle and how it finished off. :nod: yes I agree, the owner needs to take better care of the vehicle but to each there own :shrug:
