This car belongs to my neighbor, who has seen me out and about detailing and working on cars in the past year I've lived in this building. She's been in her apartment for the past 17 years, and keeps to herself for the most part. She's an older woman who lives alone, and lately she's had me help her out with a few things around her apartment and we've been talking. She's mentioned having her car detailed a few times before, and since I move out in less than a week, she decided to go ahead and have me do some work on it. She just wanted the interior wiped down and some of the stains removed from the carpet that were there when she got the car. She smokes in the car so the biggest challenge was getting the nicotine film off all the interior surfaces. Other than that the interior was relatively clean. She also requested that I try to do something about her headlights, which were hazed over. The dealer had told her that she just needed new ones...naturally I proved them wrong :thumb: I started with the headlights. Since the 3M kit that I have left over from my BF's Passat only worked with a drill, I was forced to use my crappy cordless drill that doesn't hold charge very well. It also only spins at a maximum of 600 RPM, so the work took longer than I thought. I had to stop after doing one side, do the interior, and then finish the other side. For the interior I used Optimum Power Clean at 3:1 dilution, and lots of Costco microfiber towels. I used Stoner Invisible Glass on the windows, and my Bissell LGM on the carpets and seats. Once the headlights were finished they were wiped down with an IPA solution and then protected with Opti-Coat to prevent future hazing. The owner stated that she was "tickled" with the results and insisted on paying me considerably more than I charged her. I insisted that she didn't...I know she doesn't have a ton of money. But she insisted so I had to take it. She wants me to wash and maybe wax the car sometime in the future. And now...onto the pictures! Before/during: There was a chance of rain all day...so this was my setup: One side done, the other not: Sure enough...it started raining. Bask in the glory of our shabby apartment. Has nothing to do with detailing, but I had a spectator the entire time...our cat. The top of the dashboard was by far the worst part of the car...after only one wipe down my clean microfiber looked like this: It took several wipe downs to get the top of the dash clean. The headliner was also stained with nicotine, but I didn't want to do something too harsh to clean it. I opted to dampen a microfiber towel with OPC, and then wipe down the headliner. The microfiber after wiping down about a quarter of the headliner: Clean headliner: Afters! This was a really rewarding detail...to see my neighbor light up at the sight of her car and her headlights She even took her car out for a drive at night just to see how much better her lights were. haha. Though I'd love to work on some nicer cars, customers like this keep me going. Thanks for reading! -Clark
Really nice job Clark, glad she was ecstatic about it, always a rewarding feeling. Damn, Kia's have come a long way.
Night and day difference between the new model and old model Kia's, huh? And the smoking mess must be awful to clean up. Think for 5 seconds about how your lungs look after a few years of inhaling that crap.
Excellent work on the headlights and interior. I bet she was so glad she didn't have to buy new headlights. I'm sure she loves driving it again. Feels good to help out a neighbour huh.
