Mom is very active in the community, so this is another car from a member of her networking group. Goal was to do a polish and protect like I usually do since that's about where my skill level is right now. Not a full correction. Just for the heck of it I tried to see if I could remove the water stains on the hood with compound but was unsuccessful. interior wasn't that bad but needed a good vacuum and I cleaned/conditioned surfaces. I work at too slow of a pace, took me a long time on the inside, and failed at getting good finished shots. This car is nicely equipped. Radar cruise control, rear seat upgrade with massagers/recliners etc..don't get to drive these often at the dealership much anymore..fell in love with it again. Collected these golf tees and vacuumed out the spare tire area. Sticky substance on one of the trunk panels underneath the cargo mat: Steam took care of it shifter gate cleaned out I reclined the back seats to check for hidden issues, found these green stains on both passenger and driver side seat bottoms. Steam took care of it someone used the cooler box! working my way around, remembered to check the lil storage boxes on the bottom of the front seats tool kit was not properly stored in the trunk, and covered in grease/grime. Cleaned it up and properly stored it later outside was in ok shape, metal trim hella oxided, both bumpers need paint...as well as the hood most likely since the front edge around the grille is peppered bad with rock chips. needs paint Engine wasn't bad, I just steamed it. Propped up the sunroof to clean that, and then opened it all the way to clean the trim area and metal edges. tire degreasing then wheel cleaning I just like the way it looks with a lot of foam on it. decon gel, next I autoscrubbed and dried. 50/50 strip trying to show a lil bit of clarity restored to the trunk with polish. not 100% corrected. There were some holograms that showed up after stripping old protection on the lower doors (that have the painted body cladding) but I was able to polish them out. I spent a long time trying to deoxodize trim. Some of it cleaned up well...like the front and rear bumper strips. This is the front bumper...as evidenced by the tag bracket hole. The trim around the back window and front windshield didn't correct as well. Going around removing tape and wow I was surpised at how good it looked, even though 100% of imperfections weren't removed with just polishing. Hit all the crevices with steam to make sure they were cleaned out. After crevice cleaning, then I gave the car a wipe down prior to powerlocking in the house tonight. I hit the tires with dressing after powerlocking so I could get some sun shots real quick before sunset. Afterwards I waxed it and dressed wheel wells, exhausts, etc. Outside windows were also rain-x'd. By that time sun was down and getting good photos was impossible with my camera. Had to make sure the battery was charged up before bringing it back. Overall it turned out pretty good, however I'm considering only doing exterior work for awhile, I'm never happy with the job I do on interiors even though customers are...I also take twice as long as I believe I should. --- Update 12/30/12: Customer is returning from vacation tonight and will see the car for the first time since I took it home to clean it. I decided to stop by her place and redress the tires due to rain and snow we had over the past week so it would have the freshly done look. Heavy wind was blowing leaves and debris all over the paint so it really wasn't worth trying to safely wipe down the paint again. Getting protection on the paint really helped though, car still looked amazingly clean. I was also able to get a few more pics. Here's a before pic of the exhaust, never posted it before since I didn't get a good after pic. Fine steel wool and CG metal polish. Now I can post it!
Looks great man. Did you happen to snap any photo's of the water etching on the hood? ALso what steamer were you using to help you clean that up?
Nice job man. That is one of my all time favorite cars. And one of my favorite colors for it too. Gotta love the ride in one of those.
I tried but my camera wasn't good enough to get an up close shot. I have this Wagner 915 from Lowes. Actually works pretty good for basic stuff if you can't afford something like the vx5500. Most of the time I just steam the hell out of a microfiber (wearing gloves) then wipe the surface and stuff comes pretty clean, like on those seat stains. For cupholders and what not I hold the vacuum in one hand to suck up excess vapor right away before it turns to water. Wagner 915 1, 500-Watt On-Demand Power Steamer and Cleaner - Amazon.com Yes thank you! I love the radar cruise control so much...earlier in the year at the dealership I went on a dealer trade to get an LS460 that was loaded...got on the highway and never touched the pedals for 40 miles until I got to our dealer's exit! so nice thanks! thank you very much.
Turned out really good. What polish did you use? BTW, that's an Ultra edition which is somewhat rare as it was almost an 8,000 option (cooler/power rear seats/and other goodies I forgot). I was looking for an Ultra a few years ago and never found a clean/low mileage model.
i used menzerna 4500...and i tried using menzerna fg400 on a test spot on the hood to see if I could remove the water stains. thanks!
Very nice. Interior was nasty! LOL Don't worry about taking too much time. You get good first, then you get fast. First full interior I did took about 9 hours.
thanks folks. yes this took about 9-10 hrs especially since I spent some time trying to polish the wood/metal trim on the inside but didn't have much luck
Here's a longtime favorite of mine for these pieces. Since the wood is sealed with a polyurethane and not just an exposed stain or oiled finished you can safely use it. As with any product try in an inconspicuous place first: Simichrome
thanks a lot i will look into that. thank you! I just wish the steamer had an attachment I could wrap a microfiber around, it would make it easier. thankfully the headliner on this car was pretty clean and I didn't have to mess with that too much
