Detailed: 1999 VW Bug

[FloridaNative]

Hello everybody! :) I have returned to the land of the living after spending 6 days in detail hell! This car was a mess! I wish that I could show you the before pictures of this car because it was just incredible!! I borrowed a digital camera for this detail, but me being the technological moron that I am must have pushed a wrong button somewhere and I deleted ALL of the before pics of the exterior of the car. :( But, the interior before pics and the after pics are still there so you can get an idea anyway, but nothing as dramatic as the before and after pics of the exterior would have been had I not deleted them all. :mad: Am I rambling?? Okay let's move on.

Why 6 days do you ask? Because this thing was a monster!! The car is black first of all so I didn't see alot of it's problems until I started working on it and by that time it was too late, I had already accepted the job and had to see it through. The whole bottom of the car was covered in thick black tar! The owner must have driven over wet asphalt or something because it was everywhere even on the insides of the passenger and driver's doors! YUCK!! Lots of scrubbing there!

The wheels were cemented with brake dust and junk. It took several hours to scrub them clean. The interior was all black carpet and upholstered seats, although the seats really looked like a brownish black with all the dirt and dust on them accumulated over the years. The carpets were disgusting! They looked like the bottom of a bird cage! There was so much dirt, sand and God knows what else ground into the carpets that I spent a full day cleaning them by alternating between scrubbing them with a stiff bristled nylon brush to bring the dirt and debris up to the surface of the carpet fibers and then vacuuming them up. Here are some shots of the inside...

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/interiorbefore1.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/interiorbefore3.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/interiorbefore4.jpg

The vinyl was also very dirty with stains and black smudges and there were sticky juice or something stains everywhere oh and did I mention the ants???

This car was a mess! I had to wash the exterior 3 times before I could even begin to clay it to get all the cemented bird poop and tree sap off. There were places where there were just globs of tar on the paint no doubt the same stuff that was on the whole bottom of the vehicle.

I really had my work cut out for me on this one, but, it is finally done now and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. This car was is very bad condition and it had clear coat failure in several places so I knew I could not make it perfect. I treaded lightly using an orange cutting pad and just did the best that I could to make it better.

Process:
Interior--
I vacuumed the interior and then shampood all of the seats and carpets with a Hoover Steam Vac.

I washed all of the interior pieces with Woolite and water 10:1 and then dressed the interior with Pinnacle vinyl protectant.

I used Invisible Glass on the windows.

Exterior--
I washed with DP Foam gun soap and the Shmitt wash mitt from Edge.

I clayed with Clay Magic and the clay lube. (I wasn't going to use my good clay on this one and it's a good thing too because I went through 2 full clay bars on the exterior!!)

For the wheels and wheel wells I used DP wheel gel cleaner ( I LOVE this stuff) and for the really hard stuck on places I used Bon Ami to clean off the cemented brake dust. ( Don't laugh, it worked and didn't scratch! :p )

For the tar I used baby oil and elbow grease ( note to self buy some Meg's body solvent with next AG purchase)

I used the Wolfgang plastiic lens kit on the exterior plastic pieces.

DP glass restorer on the Windshield.

And the entire XMT line for the exterior of the car.

My LSP was Souveran paste wax.

Since the car had such bad paint I used an orange cutting pad on setting 5.5. First I did the car in XMT 3. This is a great product! This detail was my first chance getting to use the #3 and I was very impressed with it. It cuts good, has great cleaners and it finishes down so far it is pretty much LSP ready! Awesome stuff!

Here is a half and half shot of the passenger side door with one side polished with the XMT 3 and the other unpolished.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/halfandhalf1.jpg

After the XMT 3, I went over the car with the XMT 1 with the polishing pad on speed 5.5. This polish really finishes up nicely and brings out the gloss in the car's paint.

After the XMT 1, I went over the car with the Carnaube Finishing Glaze at speed 4. I absolutely love this stuff!! This glaze really brought out the color and the shine to this poor car's paint and made it glow.

After that it was Souveran ready. And here she is now...

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/interiorafter1.jpg

[/URL]http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/interiorafter2.jpg

(http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/interiorafter2.jpg)http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/interiorafter3.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/exteriorafter1.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/exteriorafter2.jpg


[URL="http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/carafter3.jpg"]http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n106/FloridaNat1ve/VWBug/carafter3.jpg

Other products used were Clearkote's quick shine and Plexus on plastic pieces. And thats that!

Some final thoughts, I loved the Shmitt wash mitt and will do a full review on that product as well. The XMT line is outstanding! It cuts and cleans all in one product and leaves the finish glossy and shiny. The carnauba finishing glaze is a Godsend and it really saved this detail with it's bad paint. The pad cleaner rocks and the pad conditioner did a great job prepping the pads for the polish. The WG lens kiit was fantasitc and really brought those tired lenses back to life. I couldn't get them perfect since the rubber seals had worn away in places and there was build up on the inside of the lenses as well, but they look so much better than they did originally. The Pinnacle interior protectant left the inside nice and rich looking and left a nice fragrance in the air. The DP foam gun soap is just awesome! I love this stuff and it is my go to wash soap now. Thanks so much for reading my thread. I hope you enjoy the pics. :)

[GearHead_1]

Most excellent. Good write up and I see a digital camera in your future. I've gotta get around to trying the XMT line, you motivate me to do so. Very little dusting, right? Hey, that's pretty good, nothing motivates me anymore.:D

[Meghan]

Very nice job!!! I love the fact you actually got the pictures in the post too, very proud of you! Black is a pain in the butt but you tackled it well, Souveran did wonders for the car, that XMT finishing glaze is great for concealing whatever is left behind.
Great job, bet you are tired of looking at that car!

[FloridaNative]

LOL I HATE this car now! lol Thank you for your kind comments. Ay!!! I just wish you could have seen the before shots, then you would have really seen the turn around. But the owner is ecstatic! He doesn't even want to drive it anywhere for fear of messing it up! lol He just goes out and looks at it. :) The carnauba glaze rocks! I know that the end result would not have been so good if I hadn't used it.

[GearHead_1]

I know you told me this guy was a neighbor/friend but out of curiosity was he a paying customer?

[Excessive Detail]

So did the shmitt live up to all the hype, I probably be ordering two soon, I just hate to stop using my sheepskins, I just orderd two recently, but after hearing everything abou the shmitt, it seems like the way to go. The car looks amazing, great work, I think I'd let you do my car. Did you have any problems with xmt 3 breaking down properly with the da?

[FloridaNative]

I know you told me this guy was a neighbor/friend but out of curiosity was he a paying customer?
He is a neighbor and yes he paid me! LOL I only do my mom's car for free. :) He actually bought this car used when it was 3 years old so he's never seen it look so good. I offered to maintain it for him with weekely washes so we'll see what he decides to do. :)

[FloridaNative]

So did the shmitt live up to all the hype, I probably be ordering two soon, I just hate to stop using my sheepskins, I just orderd two recently, but after hearing everything abou the shmitt,
it seems like the way to go. The car looks amazing, great work, I think I'd let you do my car. Did you have any problems with xmt 3 breaking down properly with the da?

The Shmitt definitely lives up to the hype. I washed this car either 8 or 9 times with the Shmitt and I looked very carefully and did not find a single new swirl with the shmitt. Then yesterday I washed my SUV with it. My car has very soft paint and swirls easily. No new swirls on my car either and best of all, I used alot less water and wash soap. I normally go through 2 gallon buckets of water and wash soap to do my whole car even with the foam gun. Using the shmitt, it soaks up the water but it doesn't run all over the ground while you carry it from the wash bucket to the paint's surface the way a sheepskin does. I wound up using only one bucket of wash water to do my entire car and that is going to save me some real money in wash soap in the long run. :)

The XMT breaks down fantastic!!! I really loved the XMT 3. Up until this detail I'd only used the XMT 1 and 2 so this was my first time putting the XMT 3 to the test and it passed with flying colors. I used it in full sun in the heat of the day on a black car that I couldn't even rest my hand on without getting burned and the XMT performed fantastically! :)

[Excessive Detail]

The Shmitt definitely lives up to the hype. I washed this car either 8 or 9 times with the Shmitt and I looked very carefully and did not find a single new swirl with the shmitt. Then yesterday I washed my SUV with it. My car has very soft paint and swirls easily. No new swirls on my car either and best of all, I used alot less water and wash soap. I normally go through 2 gallon buckets of water and wash soap to do my whole car even with the foam gun, using the shmitt, it soaks up the water but it doesn't run all over the ground while you carry it from the wash bucket to the paint's surface the way a sheepskin does. I wound up using only one bucket of wash water to do my entire car and that is going to save me some real money in wash soap in the long run. :)

The XMT breaks down fantastic!!! I really loved the XMT 3. Up until this detail I'd only used the XMT 1 and 2 so this was my first time putting the XMT 3 to the test and it passed with flying colors. I used it in full sun in the heat of the day on a black car that I couldn't even rest my hand on without getting burned and the XMT performed fantastically! :)[/color]


Well I thats settled, I'm getting shmitts, maybe two or three. Thanks for the insight, what do you think I should do with my sheepskins, there basically brand new?

[joe.p]

The interior was a mess you did a great job .The souveran makes the VW look like it was dipped in Clearcoat over all you did a fantastic job showing of your work, the pics look great..

[FloridaNative]

Well I thats settled, I'm getting shmitts, maybe two or three. Thanks for the insight, what do you think I should do with my sheepskins, there basically brand new?

You could always use them for wheels or wheel wells.

[FloridaNative]

The interior was a mess you did a great job .The souveran makes the VW look like it was dipped in Clearcoat over all you did a fantastic job showing of your work, the pics look great..
Thanks Joe. :) It was a mess! I only wish you could have seen the exterior before pics! Talk about horrors! :p I love my Souveran! I wonder if everybody in the world had a can of it if there would be world peace? They'd all be too busy looking at their cars to fight! :p

[Excessive Detail]

You could always use them for wheels or wheel wells.

Ouch, the poor sheepskins never saw it coming to that, but I more worried about my paint, so bye bye my hairy friends.

[GearHead_1]

Ouch, the poor sheepskins never saw it coming to that, but I more worried about my paint, so bye bye my hairy friends.

Before you run out and toss them in the dumpster make sure that the replacement is everything you expect under all circumstances. Sheep skin mitts have been used this long for a reason. I'm not knocking the Shmitt at all, I plan on trying it but will reserve judgment until I'm completely satisfied.

[FloridaNative]

Ouch, the poor sheepskins never saw it coming to that, but I more worried about my paint, so bye bye my hairy friends.

LOL maybe you should just give them to a friend. :) We all know somebody who still uses a dishwashing rag to wash their cars, I'd say they'd be a good candidate to receive a quality sheepskin mitt. :)