Special Project II - Warning lots of pictures

[Nica]

Well just like the title says, this one is special. A good friend of mine has a company selling these units and well they (my friend and his partner) were interested on having this vehicle detailed. I turn down a challenge? Never, even though I literally lost some skin (you’ll understand what I mean). Well here we go.

2007 Pierce Contender Pumper, Firetruck

This vehicle is brand new, but was driven to Canada from the US so it did not look new, but that’s where I come in. Since I had never done such a vehicle I did some homework and phoned the manufacture to find out a few things about the vehicle, basically treat it like a normal vehicle. Well when I arrived I got my self set up and began with the rims and wheel wells just like a regular vehicle and it went something like this.

Exterior Process

Rims/wheel wells/Tires:

For the rims I used P21S gel formula agitated with my Swissol wheel brush and the black ShMITT. After rims where cleaned I finished them off first with a Coat of Jetseal 109 (that a good friend was kind enough to send me a sample)
For the wheel wells I used P21S Total Auto Wash full strength
Wheel wells received one coat of Victoria Lite Cleanse and finished off with Victoria Concourse Wax.
Tires and black trims inside the wheel wells received Optimum Tire Shine

Wash:
Prior to begin the wash I had to use PoorBoys Bug Squash twice on the entire front and side view mirrors due to the amount of bugs. Then the entire lower half received P21S Total Auto Wash. Then I proceeded with Meguiar’s Gold Class with two bucket method and the white ShMITT. Rinsed off with Deionized water, actually used Deionized water for the entire job (pre-rinse and final rinse, didn’t want to add/worry about water spots).

Clay:
The vehicle was in desperate need of a good clay, I also didn’t want to add any more micro marring so I went with the Ricardo clay bar. It was the hardest clay job I have ever done, not only because of the size but the bar had a tough time gliding across the paint. A lot of contamination attached on the surface of the paint. Claying took some time to say the least.

Polishing:
No polishing on this one.

Prepping for wax:

Victoria Lite Cleanse, applied by hand with a foam applicator and removed by hand with the Cobra Indigo Polishing Cloth.

Wax:
1 coat of Victoria Concourse wax applied by hand and removed by hand with the Tornado microfiber towel (gray mf towels I’ve posted pictures off).

Exterior plastic peaces/trim:

I used Back Again

Glass:

Victoria Lite Cleanse and then a coat of Victoria Concourse

Observations/comments:

This vehicle was the largest vehicle I have ever done, despite the size it actually wasn’t’ to bad to detail. You know what they say, the bigger they are the harder they fall in this case they bigger they are the better they look hahahaha. I still feel that polishing would have increased on the appearance of the vehicle, it has lots of swirls but the purpose of the detail was to make it look better then new for delivery. More mechanical work needs to be done to it before it’s delivered but both my friend and his partner were very pleased with the results. On another note, I enjoyed using the Optimum Tire Shine but I need to use it some more to get used to it. Not sure if it was just me but it felt as though it was streaking when I was applying it with a micro fiber towel. I remember my good friend Larry giving me some pointers on this so next time I’ll use his tips.

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[Nica]

Now for the pictures:

Rims where the first thing I detailed and here are the tools utilized on all the rims and wheel wells



Front Driver side:
Before:


P21S Wheel Cleanner Gel Formula in action:


P21S Total Auto Wash in action:


Afters:




Rear Driver Side:
Before:

Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the full tire





P21S Wheel Cleanner Gel Formula in action:


P21S Total Auto Wash in action:




Afters:







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[Nica]

Then the rest of the vehicle:


Tools utilized for the wash

Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:

This is just claying the entire fender directly behind my hand

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[Nica]

The waxing process:




Lite Cleanse applied on the entire hood


50/50


Then waxed

Now for some random pictures, lots of random pictures:

























4/6

[Nica]

Actually the fuel tank was full of diesel it was all black, really liked the turn around I forgot to take a before picture though.





5/6

[Nica]

This one is wicked






Nice lights


http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q...t=41c4efc0.pbr
Video of the lights it has when they are all on


http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q...t=43720c0f.pbr
Walk around video

To conclude, two items.

One, well the vehicle is large and I was drying it the old school method. This is what happens when you wring out your drying towel one to many time:



I literally left some skin on that vehicle hahahaha…oh but this is the kiker, I’m in a big shop and I totally forgot about the big compressor the shop has.



Felt like kicking my self hahaha oh well next time

Last item.

The location of the shop where I was detailing the vehicle, there is a hotel just beside it and look at what was going on in the parking lot of the hotel:



I think it was an old school car show, I didn’t go check it out as I had a monster to finish and that’s the only picture I got, just thought I’d share.

Overall a great experience and looking forward to the next one

Hope you enjoy, as always any feed back/comments/suggestions are always welcome.

6/6

[Tonya]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is one big job!
That must have been a great experience. A lot of hard work and it looks fantastic!

[Truls]

WOW.........that must bee the shiniest firetruck ive ever seen.

Superb work Nica

[Gary Sword]

Looks great Nice but you missed spot. J/K Love the wheel wells. I worked on a Fire Dept. one summer when I was in college. At least they usually keep the vehicle very clean. I use to have to wash the fire trucks every day if they were dirty or not.

[dengood1]

Whew....made me tired just looking at the pictures! lol......

EVERYONE should see that one coming now

You didn't have any help?