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I detailed my sister's 1999 Toyota Corolla. I want to emphasize that this is my sister's car and not mine (love ya, sis). I wouldn't ever let the inside of mine get this scary.
So I started by trying to get some shots of the outside and inside. Taking all the pictures is harder than I thought it would be. Kudos to you guys that are so good at it.
I need to study the best Show Off and extreme makeover posts on the board and see how they are done before I attempt this again. Specifically what areas I should be photographing and how. Also taking the pictures and getting the cobwebs to show up on light paint (in this case Gold) is really hard.
Anyways, here's what I used:
NXT Car wash with buckets for the outside.
NXT Tech Protect and soapy water on the inside plus a little Meguiar's Carpet Cleaner.
NXT Glass Cleaner on all the glass.
Speed Detailer and Meguair's Quik Clay for the claying.
#80 with my DA Polisher for the polishing and NXT Tech Wax for with the DA as the wax.
What I had left of my Tire Cleaner and Insane Shine on the tires and wheels (along with my Meguiar's tire and wheel brush).
My little 1 gallon Shop Vac for all the vacuuming.
Supreme Shine microfibers for removing the polish and cleaning the windows and removing the Speed Detailer after claying each area.
With all that said here we go.
Here's the passenger side front.
Here's the passenger side in detail so you can see the cobwebs.
Here's the front passenger tire (ugh).
And here's what the interior looked like before I started. The only thing I'd asked her to do before I got the car was to empty it.
Here's a shot of the interior and windshield.
This is where Cokes go to die.
After some cleaning.
After some vacuuming.
I threw away the floormats (I should've taken pictures first) and went and bought her some new ones.
Now on to the body. I washed it first. and use some Speed Detailer on the body first. Then...
Claying is fun.
So is waxing. Yeah, I forgot to take my watch off and tape up my wedding ring (oh well)
I took a break between polishing and waxing for the headlights. I decided to give PlastX a try.
Before...
After...
Yeah, PlastX rocks!!
I'm pointing out how shiny the car is after waxing.
Obligatory Reflection shot of me.
All Done from the front.
All done from the side.
Hard days work all done.
It's hard to get a good reflection shot when there are no trees
So I settled for clouds.
It's hard to tell from the photos but this car looked like a completely different car when I got done with it. I know Meguiar's is good but competing with my sister's ability to apparently trash her car (still love ya, sis) takes lots of work and Meguiar's was up to the challenge The weird goldy silvery color was really hard to work with but I managed to get some good reflectivity out of it and removed all the cobwebs. The car had some serious paint chips in the front bumper (as you can see in the "after" shot for the PlastX) but there is nothing short of a repaint that can fix all of that.
BTW, I did all this work over at my parent's garage. They let me use it for the day since they have an air conditioning unit in there and my own garage doesn't. We also had 5 fans going at one point too. The hottest it got in the garage was 90 degrees (the A/C was struggling to keep it cool). The hottest it got outside while I was working was 104 degrees. Gotta love Texas in the summer.
So I started by trying to get some shots of the outside and inside. Taking all the pictures is harder than I thought it would be. Kudos to you guys that are so good at it.
I need to study the best Show Off and extreme makeover posts on the board and see how they are done before I attempt this again. Specifically what areas I should be photographing and how. Also taking the pictures and getting the cobwebs to show up on light paint (in this case Gold) is really hard.
Anyways, here's what I used:
NXT Car wash with buckets for the outside.
NXT Tech Protect and soapy water on the inside plus a little Meguiar's Carpet Cleaner.
NXT Glass Cleaner on all the glass.
Speed Detailer and Meguair's Quik Clay for the claying.
#80 with my DA Polisher for the polishing and NXT Tech Wax for with the DA as the wax.
What I had left of my Tire Cleaner and Insane Shine on the tires and wheels (along with my Meguiar's tire and wheel brush).
My little 1 gallon Shop Vac for all the vacuuming.
Supreme Shine microfibers for removing the polish and cleaning the windows and removing the Speed Detailer after claying each area.
With all that said here we go.
Here's the passenger side front.
Here's the passenger side in detail so you can see the cobwebs.
Here's the front passenger tire (ugh).
And here's what the interior looked like before I started. The only thing I'd asked her to do before I got the car was to empty it.
Here's a shot of the interior and windshield.
This is where Cokes go to die.
After some cleaning.
After some vacuuming.
I threw away the floormats (I should've taken pictures first) and went and bought her some new ones.
Now on to the body. I washed it first. and use some Speed Detailer on the body first. Then...
Claying is fun.
So is waxing. Yeah, I forgot to take my watch off and tape up my wedding ring (oh well)
I took a break between polishing and waxing for the headlights. I decided to give PlastX a try.
Before...
After...
Yeah, PlastX rocks!!
I'm pointing out how shiny the car is after waxing.
Obligatory Reflection shot of me.
All Done from the front.
All done from the side.
Hard days work all done.
It's hard to get a good reflection shot when there are no trees
So I settled for clouds.It's hard to tell from the photos but this car looked like a completely different car when I got done with it. I know Meguiar's is good but competing with my sister's ability to apparently trash her car (still love ya, sis) takes lots of work and Meguiar's was up to the challenge
The weird goldy silvery color was really hard to work with but I managed to get some good reflectivity out of it and removed all the cobwebs. The car had some serious paint chips in the front bumper (as you can see in the "after" shot for the PlastX) but there is nothing short of a repaint that can fix all of that.BTW, I did all this work over at my parent's garage. They let me use it for the day since they have an air conditioning unit in there and my own garage doesn't. We also had 5 fans going at one point too. The hottest it got in the garage was 90 degrees (the A/C was struggling to keep it cool). The hottest it got outside while I was working was 104 degrees. Gotta love Texas in the summer.
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