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Whats up everyone,
been a little slow with getting the last few write ups done, been super busy, but thats a good thing
.
2 weeks back we were hired to do a Lexus ES 300...it was an 02' and had just been on a nice trip from Az...all the way out to the Mid-west and back...yes I'm sure you're all thinking the same thing, the bug population has gone down thanks to that trip
She originally just wanted it cleaned up, but after talking to her we explained if she didn't want perfect paint that a single-pass and a seal would really bring the car back to life...and since it was silver, defects were hard as hell to see anyway!
So she agreed on the wash/clay/single pass and seal as well as a full interior which it surely needed. She loved how it came out and hired us for a maint. wash monthly, which even thou its not a lot of money for us, it is nice to know all the hours my sis and I put into it wont go to waste by it getting all messed up again at a $3 wash where they'll dry it with rags as soft as steel wool. As she said "We drive cars, we don't just trade them in"....gotta love a car owner who takes pride in their ride, they're always more fun to work for
So heres what we used:
Washed with Dawn soap (it was bugged to death and we were going to seal it afterwards anyway)
Meguiars Mild Clay
APC + 4:1 to clean tires
Pinnacle XMT #2 Swirl Remover for polish (worked great on the Suburban we did and I had just enough left for a car, I just ordered a gallon of D151 thou so that's what I'm going back to for our next detail)
Sealed with Megs #20
Interior was deep cleaned with Megs #39 and dressed with Megs #40 (a lovely duo if i say so myself)
Leather was cleaned with DP Total interior cleaner and treated with Pinnacle Leather Conditioner
Carpets were cleaned with our beloved Oxyclean
Tires were dressed with Opti-bond and wheel wells with Megs Hyperdressing 2:1
If you've read my write up's before you know I like to post my before and after pictures side by side....so I hope you enjoy!
Here's a pic of the hood before...notice all the lovely little bugs that decorated the headlight area and the grill....that was the light stuff:
And here is what was just under the grill, my apologies to any bugs I may have offended... *insert horror film violin's*
It took a good soaking but the front came out quite nice if i say so myself...heres a full frontal after:
Thou the back wasn't bug riddled...it has seen its fair share of rain and dirt:
It too came out quite nice (the sticker was removed upon her request...just a freebie we threw in...we didn't accidently wash it off the window lol)
Here's a full side angle view before:
Anddddd after a few hours of love this is how she came out:
Oh silver, how you hide your flaws so well...hood sun shot before:
After all the dirt and God knows what else was removed and she was polished out real nice, here's what the sun showed after:
One more after, just for good measure:
And heres a brinkmann before...its silver so not a huge swirled mess kind of a picture...but the after will show just how much it improved, heres the drivers door Before:
and here it is after
You can see how it brought out the color in it much more, as well as sharpened the reflection rather than just having that sort of 'blah im silver' look in the first picture
And no photo shoot is complete without a 50/50...again not a swirled mess but the difference in clarity and brightness in color made it worth it, this one was just after polishing, not sealed....Left side just washed, right side polished
And of course after putting a couple thousand miles on them...the tires and rims were pretty ugly:
Here is the after (can't see it but the wheel wells were cleaned and dressed as well)
Now as bad as the outside was, it was only 1/2 the story...the inside wasn't lookin so hot either but my sis went in there, kicked some a** and took some names lol.
For starters, to let you see how dirty it was (gotta love lighter interior) here's a before shot of the center console:
Nothing a little TLC can't fix, here is the after
As bad as the leather was, it was no match for the carpets/floor mats...they were so dirty infact that the really deep stains didnt show up till after being shampooed lol...guess you could call em carpet RIDS ?
Driver side before:
And here is the after...the spots left were not coming out...she scrubbed and extracted this one mat at least 3 times...some things are just there to stay...but it still turned out much better :
The Passenger side floor was no light weight either...heres the before:
The after shot is quite awesome if i say so myself :
I've hit my picture limit! The write up is continued below
been a little slow with getting the last few write ups done, been super busy, but thats a good thing
.2 weeks back we were hired to do a Lexus ES 300...it was an 02' and had just been on a nice trip from Az...all the way out to the Mid-west and back...yes I'm sure you're all thinking the same thing, the bug population has gone down thanks to that trip
She originally just wanted it cleaned up, but after talking to her we explained if she didn't want perfect paint that a single-pass and a seal would really bring the car back to life...and since it was silver, defects were hard as hell to see anyway!
So she agreed on the wash/clay/single pass and seal as well as a full interior which it surely needed. She loved how it came out and hired us for a maint. wash monthly, which even thou its not a lot of money for us, it is nice to know all the hours my sis and I put into it wont go to waste by it getting all messed up again at a $3 wash where they'll dry it with rags as soft as steel wool. As she said "We drive cars, we don't just trade them in"....gotta love a car owner who takes pride in their ride, they're always more fun to work for
So heres what we used:
Washed with Dawn soap (it was bugged to death and we were going to seal it afterwards anyway)
Meguiars Mild Clay
APC + 4:1 to clean tires
Pinnacle XMT #2 Swirl Remover for polish (worked great on the Suburban we did and I had just enough left for a car, I just ordered a gallon of D151 thou so that's what I'm going back to for our next detail)
Sealed with Megs #20
Interior was deep cleaned with Megs #39 and dressed with Megs #40 (a lovely duo if i say so myself)
Leather was cleaned with DP Total interior cleaner and treated with Pinnacle Leather Conditioner
Carpets were cleaned with our beloved Oxyclean
Tires were dressed with Opti-bond and wheel wells with Megs Hyperdressing 2:1
If you've read my write up's before you know I like to post my before and after pictures side by side....so I hope you enjoy!
Here's a pic of the hood before...notice all the lovely little bugs that decorated the headlight area and the grill....that was the light stuff:
And here is what was just under the grill, my apologies to any bugs I may have offended... *insert horror film violin's*
It took a good soaking but the front came out quite nice if i say so myself...heres a full frontal after:
Thou the back wasn't bug riddled...it has seen its fair share of rain and dirt:
It too came out quite nice
(the sticker was removed upon her request...just a freebie we threw in...we didn't accidently wash it off the window lol)Here's a full side angle view before:
Anddddd after a few hours of love this is how she came out:
Oh silver, how you hide your flaws so well...hood sun shot before:
After all the dirt and God knows what else was removed and she was polished out real nice, here's what the sun showed after:
One more after, just for good measure:
And heres a brinkmann before...its silver so not a huge swirled mess kind of a picture...but the after will show just how much it improved, heres the drivers door Before:
and here it is after
You can see how it brought out the color in it much more, as well as sharpened the reflection rather than just having that sort of 'blah im silver' look in the first picture
And no photo shoot is complete without a 50/50...again not a swirled mess but the difference in clarity and brightness in color made it worth it, this one was just after polishing, not sealed....Left side just washed, right side polished
And of course after putting a couple thousand miles on them...the tires and rims were pretty ugly:
Here is the after (can't see it but the wheel wells were cleaned and dressed as well)
Now as bad as the outside was, it was only 1/2 the story...the inside wasn't lookin so hot either but my sis went in there, kicked some a** and took some names lol.
For starters, to let you see how dirty it was (gotta love lighter interior) here's a before shot of the center console:
Nothing a little TLC can't fix, here is the after
As bad as the leather was, it was no match for the carpets/floor mats...they were so dirty infact that the really deep stains didnt show up till after being shampooed lol...guess you could call em carpet RIDS ?
Driver side before:
And here is the after...the spots left were not coming out...she scrubbed and extracted this one mat at least 3 times...some things are just there to stay...but it still turned out much better :
The Passenger side floor was no light weight either...heres the before:
The after shot is quite awesome if i say so myself
:I've hit my picture limit! The write up is continued below
, either way you know what i mean!
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