1998 Dodge Dakota Sport - Lots of pictures

[Nica]

This is a referral from my good friend Steve (the red Mercedes SLK owner). I met with the owner of the vehicle as we live so close to each other, very nice person. First of all it was a privilege for me to detail his vehicle. The owner never lets anyone touch his vehicle and it was a compliment hearing him say that he would trust me with his baby. Vehicle needed lots of work to it, on with the show.

1998 Dodge Dakota Sport

As previously mentioned the vehicle needed lots of work, here is how I received the vehicle.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04897.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04915.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04926.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04920.jpg

As you can see I had my work cut out. Well on with the show.

I completed this vehicle in two days. Day one was interior, rims, exterior wash and clay in that order. Here is how day one went.

First I gave the interior a complete vacuum job with my shop vac. Once that was completed I proceeded to giving the interior a complete wipe down with Deionized water mixed with Maguire’s APC 1:1 (I needed it strong for this one).

How the Vents/speakers were cleaned:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04944.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04945.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04946.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04919.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05046.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04920-1.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05036.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04924.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05039.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04926-1.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04952.jpg

1/5

[Nica]

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04943.jpg
Water mix for the interior wipe down

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04955.jpg

Once the interior was completed the rims where next. For the rims I used P21S Wheel Gel, P21S Auto Wash for the wheel wells, a bucket of Deionized water mixed with Maguire’s Gold Shampoo and various brushes. The following pictures will illustrate the process better.

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04899.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04900.jpg

The brushes utilized:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04957.jpg

P21S Wheel Gel in action:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04958.jpg

EZ Brush in action:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04961.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04962.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04963.jpg

Once the inside of the rims where cleaned now came the face of the rims with the help of the Swissol brush:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04964.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04965.jpg

Once the rims were completely cleaned on to the tires, for this I used Maguire’s tire brush with the water/soap mix:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04966.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04967.jpg

Then rinsed the wheel wells, tires and rims and protected the rims with Jetseal 109. I protected the tires with Optimum Tire Shine along with wheel wells.

Final results:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05020.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05021.jpg

2/5

[Dust2Glory]

i know you got more pics loading... but if that's his baby?!?!? I'd hate to be his child!!! It doesn't even seem like he touches it... i think it has abandoment issues.

[Nica]

On to the wash. For the wash of the vehicle, I first rinsed the vehicle with Deionized water, then sprayed the entire vehicle with P21S Total Auto Wash. Let it sit for about 2 minuets and then proceeded to wash the vehicle with Deionozed water mixed with Maguire’s Gold Shampoo and the help of both the White ShMITT and the Black ShMITT. Dried the vehicle off with the Guzzler towel and Cobra towel.

Then on to the claying, the claying took me some time (2hrs to be exact). The vehicle had lots and lots off contaminants stuck on the surface. I ended up using two red Clay Magic bars. The vehicle had lots of tar on the lower panels so I used Tarminator. Never used this product before but sure made removing the tar easy. Once claying was complete I gave the vehicle a quick wash again.

Then the inspection of what I was up against and I discovered something interesting on this vehicle that I missed earlier.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04974.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04975.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04977.jpg

The vehicle had lots of deep scratches, lots of swirls, completely covered in oxidation but that was just fine here is what the surprise was

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04910.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04911.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04970.jpg

The roof of the vehicle had no clear coat left on it. The hood was in the same shape, the vehicle was suffering from clear coat failure. So once I saw that I decided to call it a day and go to bed.

Day two and the polishing process:

First of all the taping of the vehicle:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04982.jpg
My friend at the body shop supply gave me some new tape to try out, it’s the one that looks like masking tape. Don’t know the name of it but it worked really good and no sticky residue upon removal.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04983.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04985.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04986.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04988.jpg

Now came the fun part. I didn’t want to be too aggressive on this vehicle because of the clear coat failure so I went with my go to polish. Menzerna 85RD3.02 with a Maguire’s Polishing pad and my Metabo at 1500rpm. One or two paces and it was good to go.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05000.jpg

I knew that my pad would suffer on this one and I also knew that I would have to clean it multiply times so I brought out my System 2000 out to play. Filled it up with Reverse Osmosis water and a Snappy Clean powder and I was set.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04989.jpg

Here are some 50/50 pictures with the help of the Sun Gun

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04990.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04992.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04994.jpg

The pad after just the roof

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05001.jpg

3/5

[Nica]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05006.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05008.jpg

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http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05014.jpg
Clean side

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05015.jpg
Waiting to be cleaned

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05017.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05018.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05019.jpg

After the polishing process had been completed, which took a few hours I gave the vehicle a rinse with Deionized water. It was time to finish the job. Wax of choice was Victoria Concourse applied by hand and removed by hand with the help of the Tornado MF towels, prior to the wax though was ClearKote Red Moose Machine Glaze. Applied by hand with the help of a MF applicator and removed by hand with the help of Tornado MF towels. All exterior plastic trims received Black Again, applied with a MF towel.

Now for some before and after pictures. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any pictures outside as I completed the polishing at night but my garage has plenty of light.

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04897-1.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05023.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04911.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04998.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04916.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05054.jpg

4/5

[Nica]

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04938.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04947.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04981.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05025.jpg

Before:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC04980.jpg

After:
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05057.jpg

Random reflection pictures:

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05024.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05032.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05027.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05029.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05034.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05035.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05050.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05051.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05052.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q122/Nica03151979/1998%20Dodge%20Dakota%20Sport/DSC05053.jpg

Conclusion/observation:

The owner was very pleased with the results. As mentioned before the owner of this vehicle does not trust anyone with his belongings and it was a compliment for him to say he trusts me with his vehicle. As for observation, clear coat failure is a paint to work with. I’ve polished a vehicle that did not have any clear coat at all and that was easy compared to this one. I showed the owner the clear coat failure and said that one of these days he would get it repainted but for now he will keep bringing it to me. That was a satisfying compliment to me. As for the overall results of the vehicle, I would say I got the vehicle to about 90%. The really deep scratches are still there, I managed to remove majority if not all of the swirls. Some scratches I could have removed with the help of wet sanding but I didn’t want to risk it. So that’s why I say 90%. Well at end the owner was happy, I was satisfied with the results it was a win, win situation.

As always any feed back/comments/questions good or bad are always welcome.

5/5

[Dust2Glory]

plz tell me you charged like $500!! for two days!!!

[joe.p]

It doesn't even seem like he touches it... i think it has abandoment issues.well Dust..Nica did say the owner wouldn't let anyone touch his baby...I'm a beleiver :)

[Tonya]

WOW!!! great turn around!

[02CAMSS]

You did one hell of a job!

[Nica]

Dust2Glory - Well to be honest most vehicle I detail I spread the detail in two days so for me two days is normal, as for the the cash...it was something close to that ;). I had fun detailing this vehicle. I got to use some of my toys that I've been itching to use :D. You know getting vehicles like these is fun becuase you know the results are going to be drastic :righton:

joe.p - Yup, never been detailed. I'm not sure how long he has had this vehicle but it wasent new to him so not sure how he received the vehicle. Owner was happy to see the results though.

Tonya and 02CAMSS - Thank you for the compliments, means a lot to me.

[DantheMan]

Nica, you do amazing work, and I'm sure he's a nice guy, but he really shouldnt be so picky about who touches his truck..

I mean... Even the swirl-o-matic or local hacks washing it once a year would have been a HUGE improvement over what it was.. I guess I'm not hungry enough, but I wouldn't even consider touching that vehicle unless it was by the hour. And I don't mind dirty work..

But once again.. Your work and attention to detail continues to amaze me.

[joe.p]

Nica .if that truck was living a body it would have been on a respirator..lol...great job during the recovery process..you saved another one Doc ;)

[Gary Sword]

Great turn around Carlos. That truck was definitely neglected.

[Nica]

DantheMan - Thank you for the compliment buddy, greatly appreciated. As for the job, well I like testing my self, the worse the condition of the vehicle the better I test my self and while I'm at it I learn lots from trying things out. For example, on this vehicle I didn't want to go too agresive with the polishing as I was basically polishing the paint. So on spots that required two pases or perhaps that little extra I started "shaking" my Metabo on the particular spot that I felt required it...when I say "shaking" I mean moving it back and forth a few times...kinda like shaking chocolate milk with both hands and then went over the same area with a nice smooth action and not only did it remove what I wanted it to remove but it left that particular spot flawless (well close to perfect). It was interesting, I found this "shaking" technique interesting, so I did it through out the entire vehicle and sure enough one pass per panel with a few "shakes" and finished LSP :righton: so another little trick I picked up...well maybe others know this "shaking" but I just discovered it hahahaha.