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Hey eveyone,
I detailed my brother-in-law's Chevy Impala for him this past Sunday and I just got some free time to post the writeup and pictures. I did not think it would be a true Extreme Makeover but it was still an extreme change in the cars look. Just a bit of background on this vehicle. It was purchase new in 2003 and has NEVER and I mean NEVER been detailed,waxed, or maintained in any way shape or form except for trips through the swirl-o-matic car washes. A year after he got it he and is wife had their first child and he inturn gave the car to her due to it being the larger of the two cars they have(all of the baby stuff). Now they have their 3rd child on the way and they got a minivan for my sister-in-law to use for the kids. How he got his car back and wanted it cleaned up. The exterior had some bad scratches in places and the general look of a car that has not been taken car of(swirls,scuffs,gouges,rock chips, etc). I set out to give him his car back as close to new looking as possible. There are some scratches that are so deep I could not remove them due to the fact that they are down under the clear. I started off with a good washing with Hyper Wash and the 2 bucket method with grit guards. Wheels got a cleaning with Wheel Brightener and a Meguiar's Wheel Face Brush. Tires and wheel wells were cleaned with Super Degreaser at 4:1 and Meguiar's Tire Brush. The wheel wells got sprayed down with Water Based Dressing at a 1:1 ratio before I pulled it into their garage. The tires got 2 coats of All Season Dressing. The interior carpet had the usual spills from their children on the carpets. The leather seats surprisingly had not staining but got cleaned with APC+ at 10:1. The carpet was cleaned with APC+ scrubbed with A Meguiar's Interior Brush then extracted with my Durrmaid hot water extractor. I clayed the paint with Meguiar's Detailer Line Blue(mild) clay with Last Touch at 1:1 for lube. I compounded the hood with a wool pad on my Makita using #85, then the entire car got polished out with #80 via my g-100 and 3 8006 pads. I finished it off with 21 x2 for an outstanding final finish. Here are the before and after pictures.
Befores:
here you can see that the paint has a dull look to it.
All of these scratches plus some that I did not takes pictures of got reduce in visability but not totally removed due to their depth into the clearcoat.
Interior Befores:
I would like to apologize for not posting any interior after pictures due to the fact that I failed to take any lol. I can say that the stains are gone thanks to APC+ and my Durrmaid.
I could not believe what was on the paint after 5 years. The picture shows contaminants removed from 1/4 of the hood. I had to clay the hood roof and trunk deck twice to fully remove everything.
Afters:
The white specks are all of the rock chips in the paint.
I hope everyone like how this vehicle turned out. Any comments are welcome.
p.s. I got the best second hand compliment today. My brother-in-law stopped by today to see my son as it was his first day of kindergarden. He told me one of his fellow lawyers asked him if he got another new car. he told him nope my brother-in-law detailed it for me. That made me feel awesome that someone thought he got a new car and it was infact just my hard work that turned this car new again.
Andrew
I detailed my brother-in-law's Chevy Impala for him this past Sunday and I just got some free time to post the writeup and pictures. I did not think it would be a true Extreme Makeover but it was still an extreme change in the cars look. Just a bit of background on this vehicle. It was purchase new in 2003 and has NEVER and I mean NEVER been detailed,waxed, or maintained in any way shape or form except for trips through the swirl-o-matic car washes. A year after he got it he and is wife had their first child and he inturn gave the car to her due to it being the larger of the two cars they have(all of the baby stuff). Now they have their 3rd child on the way and they got a minivan for my sister-in-law to use for the kids. How he got his car back and wanted it cleaned up. The exterior had some bad scratches in places and the general look of a car that has not been taken car of(swirls,scuffs,gouges,rock chips, etc). I set out to give him his car back as close to new looking as possible. There are some scratches that are so deep I could not remove them due to the fact that they are down under the clear. I started off with a good washing with Hyper Wash and the 2 bucket method with grit guards. Wheels got a cleaning with Wheel Brightener and a Meguiar's Wheel Face Brush. Tires and wheel wells were cleaned with Super Degreaser at 4:1 and Meguiar's Tire Brush. The wheel wells got sprayed down with Water Based Dressing at a 1:1 ratio before I pulled it into their garage. The tires got 2 coats of All Season Dressing. The interior carpet had the usual spills from their children on the carpets. The leather seats surprisingly had not staining but got cleaned with APC+ at 10:1. The carpet was cleaned with APC+ scrubbed with A Meguiar's Interior Brush then extracted with my Durrmaid hot water extractor. I clayed the paint with Meguiar's Detailer Line Blue(mild) clay with Last Touch at 1:1 for lube. I compounded the hood with a wool pad on my Makita using #85, then the entire car got polished out with #80 via my g-100 and 3 8006 pads. I finished it off with 21 x2 for an outstanding final finish. Here are the before and after pictures.
Befores:
here you can see that the paint has a dull look to it.
All of these scratches plus some that I did not takes pictures of got reduce in visability but not totally removed due to their depth into the clearcoat.
Interior Befores:
I would like to apologize for not posting any interior after pictures due to the fact that I failed to take any lol. I can say that the stains are gone thanks to APC+ and my Durrmaid.
I could not believe what was on the paint after 5 years. The picture shows contaminants removed from 1/4 of the hood. I had to clay the hood roof and trunk deck twice to fully remove everything.
Afters:
The white specks are all of the rock chips in the paint.
I hope everyone like how this vehicle turned out. Any comments are welcome.
p.s. I got the best second hand compliment today. My brother-in-law stopped by today to see my son as it was his first day of kindergarden. He told me one of his fellow lawyers asked him if he got another new car. he told him nope my brother-in-law detailed it for me. That made me feel awesome that someone thought he got a new car and it was infact just my hard work that turned this car new again.
Andrew
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