n0rm

iTrader: (6)

The vehicle is an old Ford Expedition with 192K miles owned by an old lady that is a very good friend of my mom. She is so close to our family that I call her "tia" which means aunt in English.

I was visiting my parents and noticed the truck parked out in the driveway. It was filthy, chrome 20's covered in brake dust, water spots on the whole vehicle. It looked like it had been living under water sprinklers for awhile. I went in and teased her about the condition of her truck and offered to clean it for a special price. She told me that she paid someone to "detail" it for $160 and they gave her back the truck looking the way it is right now. Eventhough they weren't able to do anything to it they still took her money. The goal wasn't 100% correction as the truck is too beat up, both rear quarter panels have holes in them, lower gray panel has paint chipping etc. She said she just wanted to have a truck that looked decent.

Anyways here are the before pics:

Severe water etching on hood, notice the cherub that is glued to the dashboard, I was like WTF??!!



More water etching rear of vehicle.



The sides



All the glasswork was etched too. It looks like I have my work cut out for me.



The wheels, It took me about an hour to clean each wheel using CG Grime Reaper full strength. How I wished I had some Megs Wheel Brightener!



Engine bay pics





Exterior process:
Washed with CGCWG via Gilmour Foam Sprayer, Microfiber Mitt.
Engine bay cleaned with CG Grime Reaper diluted 4:1 agitated by my new EZ Detail brush.
Wheels/Tires cleaned with Grime Reaper at full strength, agitated by various brushes and a whole lot of elbow grease.
Paintwork polished 2 passes of M105/Orange pad, 1 pass of Opt Polish II/White pad, finished with XMT Finishing Glaze/Gray Pad. Topped off with some DG AW
Glasswork polished with M105/Orange pad, finished with Klasse AIO.

Interior
No work done.

After Pics:

50/50 shot after 1 pass of M105/Orange Pad





After I'm all done:








Reflection shot of me and my ML550 in the background.



All in all it took me about 16 hours of work, all for the price of $0. What made this detail so satisfying for me? The look on her face after she saw her truck, her smile was just
priceless.

Thanks for looking!

777mycoolangelo

Nice work! Cool of you to do it all for free of course its family.

Rhlieu

GREAT job! You went above and beyond for a $0 cost detail! It just cracks me up thinking of a old lady driving on 20's chromes

teopeht

iTrader: (2)

heck that car looks brand spanking new! and is that a bronzed cherub angel chilling on the dash?

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

What is there to say but, "Awesome!"

This is kind of like a mini "Overhaulin'" episode.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

I wish you could've done something with the lugnut cover bolt, though, she might never be able to properly get her wheels off now.

DAiNiUS

Great detail! Now tia will look more ballin than ever with those sparkling 20's

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

freakin amazin work... i can't believe the detail shop that charged her 160 left the car like that.. she should drive the car there now and say that 160 should at least get her half of what you did for free!!!

those shops give detailers a bad name...

mrclrider

Outstanding results!

exceldetail

Wow, theres a 110% improvement. Is the exteriors lack of attention indicative of the interior as well?

TSXinSouthBayCalifornia

n0rm

iTrader: (6)

It wasn't exactly free, she gave me a $20 tip and a "Double-Double" from IN-N-OUT. It was all worth it!

Don't ya know? This is how we do it in LA!

Yes, it is. It's glued permanently with a hot glue gun.

I was going to use my dremel with the wire brush attachment, but she forgot her keys. So I gave her a coupon for next time.

What would have been better, if they told her they couldn't do anything to the vehicle and just not charge her.

Thanks!

Pat, the exterior was worse, the leather was in such bad shape, I thought she had cloth seats! The Camry that PortlandRL did actually had a cleaner interior than this one!

TSC17

That was a very cool thing you did for her...bravo!

rtlltj

The one area I have never tried cleaning has been my engine bay. I've always been worried about putting water where it shouldn't go. Is it perfectly ok to use a hose and sprayer?

CocheseUGA

I'll be trying it tomorrow on my dad's Durango. I'll be sure to post a beginner's how-to....or how-not-to.

OP - best detail story I've read so far, and I'm not talking about your technique.

n0rm

iTrader: (6)

Actually Todd(TSC17) did a how-to at Detailed Image's website. Here is the link:

http://www.detailedimage.com/Pro-Det...es/Engine-Bay/

Thanks, my parents always told me if you're nice to someone it always comes back ten-fold. I already have 5 referrals from just doing this freebie.

hANDYcaptd

iTrader: (5)

^ Well you technically need 5 more referrals for that to be true

But awesome job! Can't beat the feeling of seeing family satisfaction, very cool of you

PortlandRL

Looks much better and that's nice of you to do for free.

I too would demand she get the $160 back from that "detail" shop. Hacks like that give the entire industry a bad name.

n0rm

iTrader: (6)

Thanks!

Unfortunately, there are a lot of "hacks" in my area that do "full" details for $75.

nf3d0149ab

iTrader: (5)

EDIT: aunt in Spanish... I'm not sure which statement is correct...anyways.

Terrific job cleaning it up and that's so cool that you did that for her...I bet she really appreciated it.