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My grandmother is gone on vacation for 2 weeks, and she is letting me use her car while she is gone. So, naturally, I had to clean it because quite frankly, it never gets cleaned. I don't really have any before pictures of the exterior because once I picked it up, I headed straight to the coin-op to spray it off. I do have some before pictures of the engine bay, and this will give you an idea of what the car looked like.
To clean the engine, I sprayed it down with the hose, applied Simple Green liberally, scrubbed with a brush, rinsed, and then applied CD2 Engine Detailer.
Engine Bay Before
Engine Bay After
I also went out and bought a new air filter, oil filter, and fully synthetic oil and changed all of those too for her since it was well overdo.
Air Filter- New and Old
Now onto the exterior. Take the dirty engine, and put it onto the exterior. That's about what the car looked like. The tires had never been cleaned, let alone dressed. The car rarely gets washed. I know it has never been waxed. There was a bunch of tar all over the bottom of the car. I took these pictures on the passenger side. The driver's side was about 3 times worse than this. The front had bunches of caked on bugs.
Tar Spots and Bugs
Exterior
I made the initial wash with Deep Crystal Car Soap and the Versa Angle Wash Brush. On the tar, I made 3 applications with Gold Class Bug and Tar Remover and scrubbed with a stiffer brush. I then rewashed the entire car again using Deep Crystal Car Soap and a microfiber wash mitt. I scrubbed the tires with Eagle One A2Z Wheel and Tire Cleaner and the wheel covers with the soap and water. Glass was cleaned with a microfiber towel and Eagle One 20/20 Glass Cleaner. Tires were dressed with an ADS tire swipe sponge and Hot Shine Tire Gel. The headlights, taillights, and side view mirrors were polished with Plast-X and a foam applicator pad, then wiped with Plexus and a microfiber towel. There weren't really any bonded contaminants, so the car was simply waxed with Eagle One Nano Wax.
Interior
The interior had actually been vacuumed out by one of my younger sisters, so it wasn't too bad. Though, she doesn't know the tricks of cleaning glass and the dashboard and door panels. It took me 3 separate times with 2 microfiber towels each time, using Eagle One 20/20 Glass Cleaner, to finally get them clean and streak-free. The dashboard and door panels were wiped down with Quik Interior Detailer. The instrument cluster panel, radio face, and clock face, were polished using Plast-X and a foam applicator pad, then wiped with Plexus and a microfiber towel.
I really like the lighting of the instrument panel in these cars. I'm not sure why though, when the cluster looks so good, they make the HVAC panel, A/C controls, and the rear defroster button light up baby barf green? I wouldn't mind changing them out with white L.E.D. lights if I found out how.
To clean the engine, I sprayed it down with the hose, applied Simple Green liberally, scrubbed with a brush, rinsed, and then applied CD2 Engine Detailer.
Engine Bay Before
Engine Bay After
I also went out and bought a new air filter, oil filter, and fully synthetic oil and changed all of those too for her since it was well overdo.
Air Filter- New and Old
Now onto the exterior. Take the dirty engine, and put it onto the exterior. That's about what the car looked like. The tires had never been cleaned, let alone dressed. The car rarely gets washed. I know it has never been waxed. There was a bunch of tar all over the bottom of the car. I took these pictures on the passenger side. The driver's side was about 3 times worse than this. The front had bunches of caked on bugs.
Tar Spots and Bugs
Exterior
I made the initial wash with Deep Crystal Car Soap and the Versa Angle Wash Brush. On the tar, I made 3 applications with Gold Class Bug and Tar Remover and scrubbed with a stiffer brush. I then rewashed the entire car again using Deep Crystal Car Soap and a microfiber wash mitt. I scrubbed the tires with Eagle One A2Z Wheel and Tire Cleaner and the wheel covers with the soap and water. Glass was cleaned with a microfiber towel and Eagle One 20/20 Glass Cleaner. Tires were dressed with an ADS tire swipe sponge and Hot Shine Tire Gel. The headlights, taillights, and side view mirrors were polished with Plast-X and a foam applicator pad, then wiped with Plexus and a microfiber towel. There weren't really any bonded contaminants, so the car was simply waxed with Eagle One Nano Wax.
Interior
The interior had actually been vacuumed out by one of my younger sisters, so it wasn't too bad. Though, she doesn't know the tricks of cleaning glass and the dashboard and door panels. It took me 3 separate times with 2 microfiber towels each time, using Eagle One 20/20 Glass Cleaner, to finally get them clean and streak-free. The dashboard and door panels were wiped down with Quik Interior Detailer. The instrument cluster panel, radio face, and clock face, were polished using Plast-X and a foam applicator pad, then wiped with Plexus and a microfiber towel.
I really like the lighting of the instrument panel in these cars. I'm not sure why though, when the cluster looks so good, they make the HVAC panel, A/C controls, and the rear defroster button light up baby barf green? I wouldn't mind changing them out with white L.E.D. lights if I found out how.
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