Ed's Shop Build Thread

[Ed Abbondanzio]

I finally took the time to fill up my degreaser dispenser. Since I kept trying new degreasers I never took the time to fill up the 5 gallon dispenser since it was still full of another degreaser I wasn't using anymore. I probably haven't used it since March? Well after playing musical chairs to get the old degreaser out into a spare container and the new purple magic filled up I set it up on the shelf and left it for the day. The next morning before turning on the lights I notice the floors wet. Turn the lights on only to find 4 gallons leaked out overnight due to a bad facet seal ugh.


I'm done with these containers. I remember purposely wanting the style that you remove the facet to fill them up as I feared having the easy fill style with the opening on the top would let debris fall in them. Had I gone with the easy fill style I wouldn't have lost so much degreaser lol.

Did what I call a money maker (medium sized 2 rows of seat suv) that had a pretty dirty interior. The back seat had a large ice cream stain on it.


Little folex and the extractor made quick work of it.


My shipment of new pads came in as well. Guess I forgot what LC white pads look like new as I had the special edition hd speed variants.


I also ended up buying a ton of brushes to try out for interior work. My two new favorites are these guys. I cut the smaller one's bristles shorter to make it firmer for areas like cupholders, or buttons. The longer bristled one is for deeper areas such as vents.


Not much progress to report on upstairs. I added a vapour barrier to the rest of the walls as I was tired of the insulation falling down in the hallway.


12' ceiling in the hallway so your tophat doesn't hit.

The axe is in case of emergencies

Also check out what was at the carwash.


It's the LL Bean bootmobile. Pretty infamous here in Maine. Figured yall might get a kick out of it.

[BudgetPlan1]

Eley hose reel?

"Get a kick out of it"...well played.

[hoyt66]

Thanks for posting all this. Always enjoy the updates. Very cool business you are building

[Ed Abbondanzio]

Eley hose reel?

"Get a kick out of it"...well played.

Yup, Eley hose reel. Expensive but well worth it. Haven't had any issues with it and I like the brake function.

And lol get a kick out of it was purely accidental. I didn't even think of it that way haha

Also thanks hoyt66!

[Ed Abbondanzio]

Man it already feels like fall all of a sudden. I'm wearing my Ugg boots again and drinking pumpkin spice with the Jeep nowhere near done. It's full of parts waiting to be installed lol.



All of the small dealers I do cars for have been teasing me about getting it done. One keeps offering to come over and finish it up lol.

If the civic sees snow the city will have to cut me a paycheck because I'll be plowing any snow higher than 3" off the road.

And some more bad luck struck. A week ago when I was running the G9 on a car it randomly died out on me. Nothing would get the bad boy to spin. I tried another outlet, checked the brushes, and finally tried another cord which got it to fire up. With it working again I tried the original cord it died on and the thing had no issues. I chalked it up as a fluke and forgot all about it until yesterday when the G9 stopped again.

This time nothing would get it to come back. RIP. I called up Griots and they instantly offered to have me send it in for a replacement. I can't believe they didn't even ask me any questions like did you try a different outlet, etc...

RIP


Thankfully I had ole reliable.



Yeah that's the G9 backing plate on it. Turns out the backing plate on it was so worn out it wouldn't hold a pad on it if you looked at it funny.

This is the car that killed the G9. Half had to be done with the GG6 (HD speed, white lc).



The death of the G9 was probably at the worst time possible as I had a special project to do that same day. A customer brought me this cool old Mercury Zephyr that had been sitting for 3 years and she was finally getting it back on the road. It had had a mouse in it, and the paint was as dull as a chalkboard due to being exposed to the sun. She just wanted it made drivable.




The interior cleaned up pretty nicely. The carpet could use some dye and the dash has seen better days but everything else was actually in really nice shape.



Ended up running the gg6 with HD speed all over the bad boy. This took about 2 hours longer than my normal jobs. Props to all you guys out there who run a polisher for hours. Two hours in and I'm bored out of my mind.




One of the worst feelings out there when it comes to detailing an interior is when you lift up a center console and the contents all spill out due to a faulty latch. I was detailing an Impala and lifted up the center to clean the cushion underneath when I triggered a mini avalanche. I felt bad because it was full to the brime of stuff and there's no way in hell I got them back in the right place. Worst of all I forgot to apologize to the customer.

I taped it for the remainder of the detail to ensure I didn't do it again.


Check out this dealer truck. Thing went so fast it broke the speedo needle off.


And lastly I splurged.


Dell XPS 9500 for my bookkeeping and website work. Nicest laptop I've ever had.

[PaulMys]

Awesome work, Ed. That Merc looks new again.

Sorry to read about the G9. But, I am not surprised about the GG response. Just about everything they sell is backed with a 100% guarantee.

That said, the guarantee does nothing for you when you have job to do that day. I have a G9, but have only put a few hours on it.

"Old reliable" is a great description of the GG6, though. I'm glad you had the little tank as a backup.

[Ed Abbondanzio]

Awesome work, Ed. That Merc looks new again.

Sorry to read about the G9. But, I am not surprised about the GG response. Just about everything they sell is backed with a 100% guarantee.

That said, the guarantee does nothing for you when you have job to do that day. I have a G9, but have only put a few hours on it.

"Old reliable" is a great description of the GG6, though. I'm glad you had the little tank as a backup.

Spot on, the only thing that really bums me about the g9 dying is I won't have it for a couple weeks. I honestly felt a little bad sending it back since Griots covers shipping both ways and it's not a very expensive tool. I debated buying a second one as a spare lol.

I was thinking of splurging on a flex 3401 from AutoGeek because I've built up some serious reward miles but of course as fate would have it, it's out of stock.

Had I not just spent a pretty penny on the laptop I would have dumped that money into a proper da. Could be worse though!

[Ed Abbondanzio]

Busy week due to my boss overbooking me. He's a bit of a pain sometimes. Least he gave me the holiday off.

When the sun hits just right even though the paint is swirled (post hd speed pass).


The workbench is taking quite the beating. For just steel flashing it's holding up pretty good. Some small dents, and scuffs here and there but no major damage. Ended up finally cleaning it after letting it go for 2 months or so.




The black spots are from me accidentally dripping paint on it. Eventually I plan to switch to a stainless top for it when I'm done saving up for a million and one things.

And hope y'all don't mind if the thread takes a dirty turn for a minute. In my desperate attempt to evict my XJ which has taken up residency in the shop I spent some time working on it to get it a little closer to "done".

Blasted and sprayed the valve cover. Had to get new ccvs and grommets.


Pulled the starter to replace the rear main seal. Yes, it still worked fine.


Engine is looking reasonable for 180k


Thankfully these motors have a two piece rear main seal which prevents you from having to pull the transmission to replace it. The only downside is you have to use a punch to tap out the halves while being extremely careful not to chip the crank. That orange thing sticking out is half of the rear main seal.


Removed.


Engine internals.


Due to the Jeep leaking for years everything is covered in an oily film. I had to wire brush just about everything including the power steering / transmission lines.




New oil pan too.


I've also learned the Jeep needs a timing chain. There's over 1/2" of slop in the existing chain. Still runs good but that might explain the occasional misfire at WOT. Looks like I've got another project in 2 weeks lol.

Whenever I do mechanical work I try to keep it on the down low. No one really seems to like when they show up at a detail shop and see the detailer covered in grease and oil.

My Dad and I spent more time doing the electrical upstairs. We completed the bedroom, and bathroom today. Just down to the kitchen and living room now. I try to get pictures but they never look that great.

Trying to get scheduled for spray foam in October. I'll be sure to share pictures of it.

[UncleDavy]

Congratulations on your journey into the business owner world Ed. I am really enjoying this thread and watching the shop transformation and your transformation. You are doing something that many of us dreamed of but never had the nerve to go through with it.

[Ed Abbondanzio]

Congratulations on your journey into the business owner world Ed. I am really enjoying this thread and watching the shop transformation and your transformation. You are doing something that many of us dreamed of but never had the nerve to go through with it.

Thanks Uncle Davy!

I'm a little overdue on an update so I figured it's time I sit down and write one. Last week was a weird week. One of my jobs was a 96 Corolla with only 49k miles. No that's not a typo!



Overall the car was in excellent shape. The interior had almost no wear minus some staining on the carpets and seats. Exterior wise the paint had seen better days but there was almost no rust on it which is rare for this area.

The owner of the car said it was his mothers who passed not long ago and he wanted the paint shined up so they could sell it.

Upon drop off, I suffered a mere 20 minute existential crisis wondering if I was in over my head as just a production detailer and debating how easy it would be to skip town and start a new life undo a pseudonym I decided to give it my best shot.

Instead of using my classic white Lake Country pads with HD speed combo I opted to use the orange! Lake Country pads with HD speed. Who woulda guessed?

This provided a good level of correction with about 4 - 6 passes per section. The flat areas including the roof and hood needed some spots to be done twice. It took a much longer time than normal (for me) to work the car due to moving at a slower speed since I needed to get a good amount of correction.

Here's a 50 / 50 shot of the hood. This is actually my first 50 / 50 I've ever tried in the shop.


Hood done.


All done.


Straight outta 96'.


The best part was that the owner was extremely happy with how it came out. When he picked it up he mentioned his wife was starting to think that they should hold onto it since it was in such good shape. Funny enough, the owner actually stopped by today with it wondering if I knew of a good tinter in the area and mentioned that they decided to keep it. He said his wife liked how good it came out that it was basically a done deal once she saw it.

Another odd job I did was a carpet someone pulled from a truck their restoring. He just wanted it vacuumed and shampooed. Moderate amount of stains but no salt.




Also I got a life pro tip for everyone. Don't scrub things with fluid film on them. It'll get stuck in your brushes and basically ruin them. I ended up throwing out three brushes.


Honestly though, it was like perfect timing as all my brushes were due for replacing. I ended up buying some new ones to try out.


And lastly, until today none of my vacuums had any wheels on them. I finally caved and ordered a new one because I was tired of dragging my vacuums around.

Why did they have no wheels you ask? Because in a stroke of genius I had back in March I concocted this amazing idea to put some upgraded wheels on my vacuums. I wanted vacuums that could glide across my shop like figure skaters on fresh ice.

Ridgid doesn't sell upgraded wheels though, and the provided casters were subpar in my opinion. I pondered on this for a few days before realizing I could buy generic caster wheels with threaded rods and get them to thread into the vacuum.

It took a bit of trimming with the hackzaw but my crazy contraption worked.


My vacuums rolled smooth as a caddy and thanks to the large diameter of the wheels, handled cords like nothing. It was pure bliss until I realized how bad of an idea this is.

Whenever I'm done with the vacuum I like to wrap up the hose real fast around the vacuum similar to when a cowboy performs a hog tie right after lassoing the pig at the rodeo. I think my speed record was about 1.5 seconds for a 12' hose.

Well when your vacuum has extremely low friction wheels the the entire vacuum will spin just about as fast as you can wrap the hose around it. So instead of wrapping up the hose you end up doing that ballroom dance move where the male holds his and his partners hand high above her head so she can twirl. Which may look elegant at the ball, it's utterly useless in a shop.

That wasn't the worst part of it though. About 5 days after modding out my vacuums I picked one up to move it over the water hose and set it down a little too fast. When it landed on the concrete it snapped the plastic molding that was holding the caster wheel in one corner. My pimped out vacuum now had a permanent lean due to the broken wheel and was less useful than how it was stock. In a fit of frustration I ripped out every wheel and decided to live with it.

6 months later here we are .



I ended up going with the red and grey series Ridgid offers online. It's got two large wheels in the rear and a nice handle so I don't have to bend over to move it. I used to be very against this wheel style but honestly I regret not switching to it sooner. I even got a nice upgraded filter to try out on it.