My Tacoma (lots of before & afters)

[Slats]

Hey everyone,

Here is a detail I did on my truck. It's not really "extreme" but I thought it's worth sharing.

I bought this 1996 Toyota Tacoma Sport from my neighbor last fall. The truck had less than 100K miles and was in decent mechanical shape but looked like total ****. It had never been waxed and was faded & oxidized.

Anyway, I got busy on it and fully detailed the thing inside and out right away. I haven't had time to post pics and do a write-up till now.

**Detailing Process**

First, I drove to a car wash and pressure washed everything: body, underbody, wheels/tires, wheelwells, bed, engine, ect...

Next I removed the decals from the glass with a razor blade and scrubbed the glass with steel wool before appling rainX.

When I hand washed the truck the washwater actually turned as white as milk from the oxidation. Yummy.

After washing I used a clay bar to smooth the finish before waxing.

To clean, polish, and protect, I used Meg's Deep Crystal trio.

To make the underbody and wheelwells look new again, I spray painted them with some cheapo black paint.

The wheels had so much baked-on brake dust I had to use rather extreme measures: WD-40 and lots of steel wool.

I used Meg's Endurance to shine the tires and Gold Class Trim Detailer to do the mudflaps, trim, and door seals.

Once I bought the PC I used it with DACP finish bringing the paint back to life.

Well, that is about all I remeber doing for the exterior. For the inside, I detailed everything and even took the seats out. No after pic yet though.

Anyway, here are the results.....

Before


After


Before


After


Before


After


Here are some more after shots....









Rock on Meguiar's!

[Slats]

OK, why are my pictures so small???

If anyone wants to actually see them, you can go to my gallery

Slats

[radkonn]

The reason your pictures are so small is that you are right clicking the thumbnail to get the picture. Next time click on the picture first. You will then see a larger picture. That is when you right click it to get the image location.

Hope this helps.

[Slats]

OK, I fixed it. Thanks for the help!

Slats

[Tom Weed]

very nice work... i bet the guy you bought it from wouldn't recognize it. How long did it take you?

Tom

[gb387]

Looks Really good! Nice work.

[SprintKing]

Congratulations on a fine result.
I've no doubt the previous owner would be stunned to see it now.

[Slats]

Thanks guys.

I really didn't time how long it took me because I worked on it an hour here and two hours there whenever I had time after work.

As for my neighbor, yes, she was suprised to see how it cleaned up.

Slats

[corvetmike]

Re: My Tacoma (lots of before & afters)

Originally posted by Slats
Hey everyone,

Here is a detail I did on my truck. It's not really "extreme" but I thought it's worth sharing.

Looks like an "Extreme Makeover" to me. You did a great job. Did you follow up the #83 with some #80?

[Slats]

Thanks. No, I did not use #80. I followed the #83 with a coat of Deep Crystal #3 since that is all I had on hand.

[MattN03]

That turned out great!! What an improvement! What & how did you clean up the engine compartment so well? I need to clean my daily driver's engine ASAP!!

[Slats]

Hey,
The engine was actually one of the easiest parts. I used some special cleaner from my old job but I have no clue what it's called.

I can tell you that Purple Power dilluted with about 1/4 water works really well. Just try to keep it off the exterior paint as it will remove wax.

I usually drive down to the carwash, let the engine cool till it's just warm, spray purple power, let it sit a couple, rinse with pressue washer, and spray all the plastic and hoses with a 1:1 mixture of water and Armor All. That's it. And if you engine isn't too bad like mine, a garden hose works just as well.

Slats

[MattN03]

My engine bay isn't that bad, but I'm concerned I could easily ruin the electronic components.

[Stepinfetch]

Wow! Looks great!