I had the opportunity to detail a family friends Town & Country today. I only had it for 4 ish hours so I did the best / most work I could in the time I had it. The owner requested I try and remove the marks left by a recent incident (someone backed into the van). I gave the car a good once over before starting, the interior was fairly dirty, dash covered in dust, doors scuffed up, plenty of lotion / make up stains on door panels and seats, coffee stains / gunk in cup holder area...your typical family halter. I started with the interior first, giving the dash and door panels a wipe down with water / mild detergent to remove most of the dust and loose dirt. Then wiped down the seats with the same mixture, I then went all around the interior of the car with a soft bristle brush and the detergent mixture and got rid of the imbedded dirt and grime. The owner is a painter so there were plenty of little white paint spots about the size of the head of a pin everywhere. These are nearly impossible to remove off rubber surfaces i.e. vinyl and leather, which this car has plenty of. I got most of the specs off but quite a few smaller ones remained. You would have to get pretty aggressive and use a rough brush to remove the stubborn ones and thats not worth the risk of damaging the leather / vinyl surfaces.
I spent at least 2 hours deep cleaning all the paneling and seating surfaces, once clean I wiped down with a dry cloth then moved on to vacuuming the carpet. This car has the aftermarket Weather Tech floor mats...VERY NICE! They fit perfect and are pretty easy to install. I removed these early in the detail process then later hosed down and scrubbed them. Once the majority of the interior cleaning was done I moved on the the exterior. I did a simple wash and dry then broke out the dual action and compound to tackle the damaged areas. I ended up finding plenty of other scratches that I worked on, and polished up the headlights as well. Once all the compounding was finished I topped everything with Meguiars Ultimate Spray Wax to leave some protection behind. I then moved on to the wheels to try and clean them up some more, this car must not get washed very often because there was plenty of build up on the wheels and it was very tough to remove. I didn't have any dedicated wheel cleaner so I did the best I could with car shampoo and elbow grease, once this was finished I moved back to the interior and gave the dash a coat of 303 for some UV protection, then cleaned the windows with a vinegar based glass cleaner (no particular reason I used this, its just what I had). The final step was to coat the tires in a long lasting tire gel, I like this product as it truly does last a long time even with frequent washing and it does not sling. Overall I was very pleased with the results, I crammed a lot into 4 hours. If I had the entire day to work on this car it truly could look showroom new once again, but that wasn't the goal. The owner was pleased with the results which is always a plus.
Here are the pics...
...they ended up getting jumbled up so I'll put before or after with each pic...
before...
before...
after...
after...
before...
before...notice the shine...
after...more of the proper matte finish...
before...
before...
before...
before...
before...again, shiny...
after...
after...
after...
after...
after...side note, only the centermost pieces are actual leather, notice crack in vinyl
the rest of the pics are "after"
[img:gal:55936580d6fb4d1cde]https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/attachments/usergals/2016/10/full-55936-1971-img_1953.jpg[/img]
I spent at least 2 hours deep cleaning all the paneling and seating surfaces, once clean I wiped down with a dry cloth then moved on to vacuuming the carpet. This car has the aftermarket Weather Tech floor mats...VERY NICE! They fit perfect and are pretty easy to install. I removed these early in the detail process then later hosed down and scrubbed them. Once the majority of the interior cleaning was done I moved on the the exterior. I did a simple wash and dry then broke out the dual action and compound to tackle the damaged areas. I ended up finding plenty of other scratches that I worked on, and polished up the headlights as well. Once all the compounding was finished I topped everything with Meguiars Ultimate Spray Wax to leave some protection behind. I then moved on to the wheels to try and clean them up some more, this car must not get washed very often because there was plenty of build up on the wheels and it was very tough to remove. I didn't have any dedicated wheel cleaner so I did the best I could with car shampoo and elbow grease, once this was finished I moved back to the interior and gave the dash a coat of 303 for some UV protection, then cleaned the windows with a vinegar based glass cleaner (no particular reason I used this, its just what I had). The final step was to coat the tires in a long lasting tire gel, I like this product as it truly does last a long time even with frequent washing and it does not sling. Overall I was very pleased with the results, I crammed a lot into 4 hours. If I had the entire day to work on this car it truly could look showroom new once again, but that wasn't the goal. The owner was pleased with the results which is always a plus.
Here are the pics...
...they ended up getting jumbled up so I'll put before or after with each pic...
before...
before...
after...
after...
before...
before...notice the shine...
after...more of the proper matte finish...
before...
before...
before...
before...
before...again, shiny...
after...
after...
after...
after...
after...side note, only the centermost pieces are actual leather, notice crack in vinyl
the rest of the pics are "after"
[img:gal:55936580d6fb4d1cde]https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/attachments/usergals/2016/10/full-55936-1971-img_1953.jpg[/img]
