My new detail wagon in matte black and carbon!

Hi boys and girls! Despite being as naughty as I could possibly be last year, Santana Claus brought me a nice, new detail wagon for Christmas (and the cheeky bugger financed it in my name!)! Anyway, my previous detail wagon, Deloris the Detailasaurus, was in pretty bad shape physically and I decided that spending more money on her wasn't worth it. I sold her to a buddy of mine that has time and patience to fix her so she's found herself a good home. After combing the internet for about a month or so and weighing the pros and cons of each style of truck I finally decided on a Fiat Dobló... and I found one that was just perfect for me. He's a 2005 model and he had 49,000 km on him when I took him in. I know these are original kilometers because the factory tires are still on them and they're balder than a cat's a$$. He'd been in an accident sometime before and from what I can see he's had the entire passenger side replaced. I don't mind though because that just means he's a survivor... after all he is Truck Norris. I got a sweet deal on him too... Allow me to introduce you all to my newest partner in grime, Truck Norris the Detailasaurus >>









OK I'm sure the owner had it detailed recently, but Truck was a very clean boy.







He'll need to have the windshield replaced soon.



The weather was complete crap all December and got down to -17!!!!!!, but then finally it cleared up on the 26th so I decided to "get sick" and pass on the annual, mandatory Christmas gathering at the relatives' that nobody likes; I was on mission... Imagine my anxieties after having Truck for 2 weeks and not being able to detail him!! Then once I'd washed and clayed him I settled on a combo for the side with the factory paint, which was a finishing pad and Insta Cut #30 (strangely soft for a white SS) and then it started to rain!! :wall:



But at least it wasn't -17 anymore ! What a temperature fluctuation, huh?



Polishing all done but I wasn't very happy with the results at all. Being a white car, the scratches aren't so noticeable, but being as anal as I am I, was getting nuckin' futz because of it. There were a lot of deep scratches and you could see where some tool with a tool scraped off the previous lettering on the car... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Anyway, the LSP for that day was Collinite 855. I didn't go with 845 like I'd planned (because the following week it would be removed anyway), because I put some on the front wing and then tried to remove it with a 1:1 mix of Super APC and it didn't budge even after rubbing it with a microfiber... That's the wax that Jesus uses on his hotrods, so God bless Colly 845.







Where it wasn't scratched...



The doors on Truck are pretty shallow so we (me and Misi) had to make a spacer to install my 5 1/4 components.



The template we made



Him funny...



On another day we made the shelves for the back, so I'll show those later.



I decided not to flush-mount the tweeters, because I just didn't want to cut stuff up. Instead I used an existing hole on the pillars to mount them.



I drilled a hole for the wire on the back side of the screw hole so if Truck and I ever part (don't foresee that happening) I'll be able to take my tunes with me and not leave any traces of it being there.



Mounted and in quite a good position I think.



Time to put some thump in my ride... I had a 12" sub (SAL is a Hungarian brand and very nice indeed... my component set is also SAL Pro Line) Box all ready to be carpeted. I had to sacrifice some airspace to fit it into Truck so it peaks a little higher now, but still sounds great. Just enough to rattle my teeth a bit .







Wires run and amp mounted under the passenger seat.



I had to do a little rewiring when I mounted the deck. The ISO plug wasn't so "ISO". The ignition and constant wires were mixed up.



Taped up the RCA's just to be on the safe side.



The BIG day: I had washed Truck the day before but it decided to snow on Monday so there I was again back in the -5 weather washing him with some Quick n Easy Wash.









Everything that could be removed from Truck was removed before the wrapping started. This gave me the opportunity to clean under/behind all those crooks and nannies that I normally wouldn't get to clean. You can see my "Jeebus, how does all this crap get in here?!" face here.



Finally clean after about 4 microfibers and APC later... I slept better that night .



Before the wrapping I sprayed each panel with APC and let it site for a couple of minutes to remove the wax. After that the panel was cleaned with a 75% IPA wipe. I had to clean that front wing with the 845 on it 4 times!!



Lazy maggots! They didn't remove the badges before painting!! I sanded this part down with 2500 grit to smooth down the rough edges.



After sanding.



When wrapping the surface needs to be at least 15 degrees C.



Krisz doing one final wipedown before installation. The corners on this truck are the most difficult and crucial parts when wrapping a Dobló so these parts had to be 150% clean. They say that this truck is the most difficult to wrap because of the drastic angles and deep curves... I guess that's why this is the truck they use during the wrapping course .

















The big areas tackled here, time to get to the most tedious part of this wrap... the places where the windows would be on the cargo area. PITA...





These parts all had to be done by hand as you can see in the picture above. This window is almost finished.



To wrap this truck correctly and if we want it to last, we had to use the best film available. This is 100 microns thick and there's little grooves on the back of it... that's for air to escape! Cool .



Although there's grooves in the glue to allow the air to escape, it's not enough for this corner, which is why we gave it a "truckeotomy" ... it was a makeshift straw to let the air escape.



Me finishing up the lower part of the truck...





These 2 back sides took one day!









One back side finished, now starting on the next...



Now I know who the cowboys are that polished Truck's paint down to nothing... they left their sticker on my window.



After we were finished with the sensitive spots, they had to be heated to 90 degreed C to "cook and test". Not quite 90 yet, but getting there.



The hood was a ROYAL PITA. The vinyl's paper backing had to be cut in the middle so we could peel it from the inside out. Starting from the middle of the hood you have to work your way out and it ain't easy at all... especially around the lines in this hood.







Sides, hood and back finished on day 2... continued on Friday.







Friday: Roof and lettering.





Me painting the "cargo" emblems that go on the side of Truck. I couldn't find a matte orange spray that matched the lettering so I bought glossy orange and pulled a MacGyver on it. If you spray from the right distance, the glossy paint will dry just enough to stick to the surface while it's tacky, not wet. Therefore it doesn't "settle" like wet paint and gives it a matte finish because it's sort of "rigid".









The rockers had to be spray painted. It's too much of a risk to have vinyl there because of rock chips and other potential scratches like jacking up the car. This is Krisz taping things off for me to spray.



On with the lettering. "Cargo" logos back on.



OK so that's a "wrap" (pun intended )! Here's the fruits of our labors! The shelves first... Top shelf: pads, chemicals Middle shelf: tool box #1 is waxes, #2 is Makita and DA and #3 is tools, sandpaper, steel wool, clay, etc. Bottom shelf: polishes and rags. 120 liter water barrel behind the shelf, generator next to it.







My LG head unit. Nice and it's got pretty flashy lights on it and stuff . And Bluetooth.



Temporary seat covers to hide the hideous factory blue ones.. :barf: The seats and rest of the interior will be the next project in the Spring.



You can see on the left where the previous owner glued something to the dash... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! :wall::wall: Still haven't figured out how to remove it safely.





Fiat's lame joke... why can't they put a REAL friggin' cup holder in here?????



Even all of my speakers are black and orange .



Today Truck got a very thorough sealing with Opti Seal. No nubas for him, because I don't want to ruin his finish. With all the lettering it's best to use a clear, synthetic wax anyway. I was going to apply Collinite 845 but it acted up on my in the cold the other day so I'll settle for Opti Seal until it gets warm. I'm curious how it will fair on this wrapping...

















Front "Fiat" badge wrapped in carbon and blessed with my company logo . A steel logo will replace this one soon.



A little carbon on the gas tank lid.



Yes, I know he needs new shoes... I've already made arrangements for new rims and tires in the Spring... bartering is cool .













Thanks for reading and to all the Playboy subscribers, thanks for "reading"!

- Jesse O'Connor
Apollo Auto Hungary

 

Amazing workvan!

Is that the 3M "Dinoc" CF Vinyl? I'm thinking about doing that to my roof since I've got a CF hood and trunk

 

Looks very nice Jesse!

 

Thanks! I know the carbon is from these guys APA s.p.a. - print&film technologies - Promo and I think the matte black is also. They told me that the 3M stuff wasn't strong enough to hold up on the edges and corners of this truck!

Thanks Denzil!

 

Is it textured or flat and printed?

 

Looks great man!!!!! Talk about a transformation!!!!!!! The component setup looks sweet. Love the 5 1/4 speakers. They look really nice!!

 

It's 3D ! I had a coat of Opti Seal on it until last week... OS disappointed me a bit because it didn't hod up to the salt on the roads , so now I've got a coat of Colly 845 on it and it beads like a madman despite being 3D! God bless Colly!!

Thanks Heath! Yeah, it makes driving even more enjoyable :wicked:!

 

looks great. good job on vynil
hows cleanning vylin? is it gona be easy? and can you put wax on it?

 

very nice!

 

Great work on warping it, end product looks amazing! Should get some attention on that road, and hopefully some more customers.

 

I did NOT expect that to turn out that way looking at the initial pictures. That looks awesome. :applause:

 

Wicked van Jesse!

 

cool!

Learned a lot. So that's how you do it

thnx for sharing.

 

came out very nice!

 

Can't wait to see this baby with new rims and such. Looks outstanding Jesse. We've been looking into wrapping our truck, but still have some things to sort out. I tried to poke around your website, but i can't understand anything

 

Looks Great...Love the carbon fiber wrap it looks sick

 

Looks great!!

Why did you correct it if you were going to wrap it?

 

Thanks buddy! It's pretty easy to clean and I don't have to worry so much about scratching it as I do with a normal finish. I had Opti Seal on it at first then the salt on the roads killed it with the quickness. I used OS because I was a bit unsure how a nuba or any other wax would affect it, but then after the OS went kaput I slapped a coat of Colly 845 (my fave) on it and even some Swissvax Concorso in some places to test the waters... no change in the surface at all and beads like crazy, even on the 3D carbon!

Cheers Phil!

Thanks mate! According to Analytics I have about 2-4 people per day searching for my company by name now!

Thank you very kindly, sir!

Thanks, I dig him too!

And thank you for the comments!

Thanks!

Thanks Marc! I can't wait to get the rims on him either . It's in God's language, too Apollo Auto - Mobile auto detailing The English part is pretty out of date, but I'll get to that soon!

Thanks matey!

Thanks man! Because I have an OCD... I knew he would be wrapped, but I also knew that the scratches were there so it irritated the hell out of me. Plus I wanted to make sure that any deeper scratches were smoothed out because I was afraid that they would have shown through the wrapping :buffing:.

 

That looks very nice! Great work on getting it to look that good.

I would personally take the hub caps off, and spray paint the steel wheels black as well!

 

Thanks buddy! That will be done when he gets his new shoes this Spring . It was also on the list but with all the wrapping, etc. I missed about a week of work so back in the saddle! :mounty: