A BIG Black Suburban From Hill City Auto Detail & O.C.Detailing

[VR8]

The Duo strikes again in Lynchburg. All I can say is, "I'm glad there were two of us". Suburbans are BIG beasts!

A local used car dealer decided to try our services this week. Enter a 2008 Chevy Suburban with 45k+ miles and some sort of front end collision that had been repaired. The previous owner had to have lived down a dirt country road with briars growing on both sides ... this truck had tons of scratches! And plenty of hidden red clay dust!

Anyway, because we were doing an introductory job for this dealer, I guess we were a little excited and missed a lot of the picture taking (sorry Mike). Initially it didn't look too bad anyway so I think we weren't looking for a huge correction factor.

- So we washed: ONR (Optimum No Rinse)
- And we clayed some of the rough areas
- Turtle Wax Bug & Tar remover
- Then it was Meguiar's #105 on Hydro Tech Cyan cutting pads (our new fav pad)
- Adam spent extra time with a rotary on his side due to the extra scratches (still #105 & Cyan pad)
- Second pass of polish was Meguiar's #205 on the Hydro Tech Tangerine pads
- Last step was Poor Boys sealant

Here is the test area on the hood. Center line is where the painters tape was. I tried an orange Lake Country pad on the left of the tape and the Cyan Hydro Tech on the right of the tape. Similar results but the Cyan was the clearest.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_002.jpg

Here are a couple more examples of swirls on the roof while the sun popped out for a second.
BEFORE:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_003.jpg

AFTER:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_007.jpg

BEFORE:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_005.jpg

AFTER: (bird poo etching still there)
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_006.jpg

The whole truck was typical of these swirls and my Flex and Adam's (adrock2003) Griot (plus rotary at times) took care of them. The end result, a BIG black pool of wetness!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_009.jpg
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_010.jpg

A pretty slick side door reflection.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_011.jpg
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_012.jpg
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_013.jpg
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_014.jpg

You can see across the parking lot in this reflection!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_015.jpg
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_016.jpg

The BIG black pool of wetness!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IAS_Chevy_Suburban_018.jpg

Did I mention how BIG this thing was? :doh:

Pretty much took us a day and a half to finish. We weren't in a hurry and we really wanted to make a good first impression (which we did). No interior work was done other than door jams and trying to clean out tons of red mud dust from inside the rear tail gate.

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions. :cheers:

[Meghan]

Nice job, bet the dealership was happy they called you guys!

[2011wahoo]

Nice work on that monster. The dealer better sub-contract you guys after that job.:dblthumb2:

[O.C.Detailing]

heh I have to give John a TON of credit on this one. He took the majority of this beast and knocked it out with the Flex 3401 DA. I spent a lot of time on the passenger's side trying to rotary out what appeared to be brush scratches. Not all of them came out totally, but the passenger's side had been repainted VERY thin as there were spots where the paint was sprayed so thin you could actually see primer (Not sure how thick the clear was, but you could see primer)...so wet-sanding out any of the scratches was an absolute and RESOUNDING "not a chance in hades"...

I was completely unsatisfied with it, but the lot owner was extremely happy with how it came out. After the sealant went on, I was a bit more pleased, but the scratches took away from the over-all appearance for me. I know there wasn't much I could do about it though, so I guess I'll live.

This was the first full-size SUV I've actually done. We did take a full day and a half to get it to the point you see in the pics and there was no sun out for sun pics, but I'd rather you saw the inside pics anyway as the sun shots would probably only make me feel worse about not being able to get any more of the scratches out. :(

[Fred114]

Nice job John and Adam....you guys are tearing it up! :xyxthumbs:

[sullysdetailing]

Great job guys

[craigr]

Wow, Great work on the burb and I feel your pain on that roof. When I removed the swirls from the roof of my van it felt like I was trying to to polish a football field compared the smaller cars I've worked on.

Nice to see the dealer put it in good hands.

Craig

[detaildave]

WOW that's alot of real estate to clean in one day & it was BLACK!!! Excellent Job guy's!!! :dblthumb2: Interior "not a chance in hades" Haaaaaaaaaaaa I feel ya on that one!!!

[VR8]

Thanks for the support gang. The dealer gave us the invite to check by his lot often and look for cars that we thought would make a big impact after cleaning. Score!

[SRHTX]

I've done a black one like the one you did. They are a PAIN IN THE BEHIND!!!!!!! Especially those wheel.

Nice Job