Vacation Detailing Project - Take Seven

[DFB]

Ranger Full Detail.

The fact this car is supposed to be my beater or daily is not completely lost on me but it's just not in my nature to treat something I own such a way. And this is why you about to see a base model Ranger be paint corrected!

(You will see a couple of non-AG products used here so, again, use your imagination for suitable substitutes.)


The intention here was to lift the paint back to spec as well as attend to a few other items in preparation for the winter months.

This detail actually started yesterday with a wash out of the tray. Normally I would hose the tray and rubber mat out each week to remove lawn clippings, leaves and oil however I wanted to go a touch further. Using APC and a long handle brush, I scrubbed the base and sides of the tray.





After a good rinse, I used some Hydr02 to add some gloss and water beading.



Having had the head start yesterday, I set about washing the car in preparation for polishing. I did the wheels and wheel arches pretty quickly with some GSF and topped up the Hydr02 on them. It was then onto my new favorite product, Descale.



Pre-soaked, rinsed and then re-foamed and washed, it was onto the decontamination.

I actually combined the mechanical and chemical decontamination into the one step on this car.



After spraying the whole car down and allowed to dwell for a few minutes, I then went over the car with my clay block. Again, another car that produced little to no chemical colour change, I guess I wash the thing too often for it anything dare stick to the paint.



Having said that, owing to the daily driver aspect, I did need to use some tar remover on the passenger side door.

After all the chemical residues were rinsed away, I dried the car and started the tedious task of masking up. I'm getting better at this but still hate doing it. I actually had a visitor after doing this and he was somewhat stunned by the fact I was taping everything up.





From the outset I wanted to polish the glass on this car, meaning some additional taping was needed. I also wanted to do this first so as to not splatter Ceri Glass all over my freshly polished paint. I think I have the hang of Ceri Glass now, having struggled with it initially.



Up until this point things were going very smoothly. The paint on this car had some really weird oxidization on, something I have been aware of for a while now. Hence me saying a few times that the Ranger really needed to be polished.

My initial plan was to use Perfect Finish with the blue Shine Mate pad on a test spot and see what I would get. After wiping, it was obvious I was going to need more so I went to the yellow Shine Mate pad. This got it to where I wanted in the end, but I had to fight for it.

In hindsight and proof that I'm still learning, I probably should have gone to Sonax Cutmax, and then cleaned up with Perfect Finish as a second step.



It was head down until the final wipe down with Eraser. It's been a long time since I have seen the paint look so clear.





It was then onto applying some protection. I did actually contemplate using the Ranger as my first ceramic coated car. Something like Gyeon Q2 ONE EVO or Gtechniq CSL. In the end, I did not want to be left worrying about the prospect of water spotting on a car that is used in all weather conditions. Collinite 845 it was then.





After the wipe off, that's where I hit the pause button until tomorrow.



Flat white is such an unrewarding colour to work with, at least until you step back and look at the car as a whole. Without the metallic flake, you don't tend to have the same indication that you are achieving something.

To finish up tomorrow, I need to touch up the headlights and trim, apply a glass sealant and then a decent detail of the interior.

[Klasse Act]

Yeah I'm surprised you didn't coat the work truck, would've been a great candidate for a costing as I "think" it doesn't get washed/detailed like your fleet does. I mean IF you had water spots and/or didn't like it, you could've polished it off, good therapy, right...plus it's only half a vehicle to do anyways

Either way, it's very glossy for sure! Have you thought about trying Collinite #476S?

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[JDGolden]

845 looks so beautiful on white, especially the day after.

[Azure]

I'd been thinking about buying Descale now for a while and finally pulled the trigger. It was after seeing you use it outside on you vacation projects, since all my washing is outside as well. I bought a 500ml bottle from AG to give it a try. Does Descale tend to dry up any faster than your typical car soap? Sometimes I have to wash in the sun and one of the reasons for not trying it was because I was worrying about it drying before I was able to get my wash on LOL.

[Bosko]

look great....nice work on the photo coverage

[SWETM]

Nice work and it looks great!

Looking forward to use the Carpro DeScale. Have had it home since Black Friday LOL. Just waiting to be doing a decon wash before polishing. In some way I have got me 6-7 cars to be polished this spring. Cleaned up the garage yesterday so just sweep it clean to. Looking forward to the next month or two. But my body don't Will see if I can get started tomorrow or saturday.

You shared your work great. Think I will try to be doing some simualar. Your write up is awesome and thoroughly.

Skickat från min SM-T736B via Tapatalk

[dgage]

DFB, is that the CarPro PolyShave clay block? I’d appreciate feedback as I need to grab a small clay block. Thanks.

[DFB]

The detail continued on the Ranger today.

First job was to remove the masking tape. As you can see, there is still some residue that makes it way past the tape which we will deal with later on.



It was then onto a job I'm not especially pleased to be doing. These early PX MK II Ranger's had a factory defect with the headlamps succumbing to UV damage prematurely. There was a TSB out for this fault but I didn't pursue it. The bumper and grill need to be removed to replace the headlamps, the prospect of the dealer pulling apart my otherwise pristine ute does not appeal, nor does me tackling the project myself.

I have polished the damage out a few times now. While this typically removes the protective UV coating, I really have no other choice. As such, I'm only polishing the damaged area anyway.

They were not as bad as I have let them get before though.









As you can see, I masked up around where I would be polishing owing to the fact I was going to get aggressive! Sonax Cutmax on a yellow Rupes pad fitted to the Nano in rotary mode.



Pausing for a moment, if you haven't got one of these Rupes Claw Pad Tools, get one! The make pad priming and spreading polish so much easier.



The result after a couple of hits with Cutmax was pretty good. I could have gone more aggressive with a Rupes blue pad but without having used Cutmax before, I wanted to see what the finer yellow pad would deliver first.





I could have left it there but decided to do a pass with some Perfect Finish to clean it up a bit more.





Of course, the UV damage will return again. I'm hoping this will at least slow it down a bit.







I'm happy with them now. With headlights forming the "face" of a car, they have to look perfect in my opinion. I also like the base model XL and XLS headlights better than the blinged up chrome versions they fit to the XLT and Wildtrack

With that taken care of, I went around cleaning up the black trim with Meguiars M39 to remove any polishing and tape residues.



I then went around applying Reload to the black grill insert, wing mirrors, scuttle panel, door handles and window rubbers.



The glass was next, cleaned very well with Eraser before an application of Quick View. The trays window protector limits decent access to rear windscreen, I did not want to attempt using this stronger sealant without proper working space. In this case, I used some OG drying aid instead. This has an element of SiO2 in it and should provide some protection and water repellency.



The interior was next, nothing too special here. I vacuumed, wiped everything down with CarPro InnerQD and added some Angelwax Eden. While I was in there, I decided to remove the waterproof seat covers and put them through the washing machine. Side note: Why are Ranger headrests so dam hard to remove? :doh



Back onto the exterior for some finishing touches. The engine bay got a quick spray during the wash process. It's wasn't too bad, just a little dusty, a normal person would have left it that. Keeping on top of and engine bay is the key though, removing the need for more tedious and time consuming cleaning.



My process here is pretty simple. Spraying the engine bay liberally with ONR, a microfiber and compressed air is then used to clean up the dust.







Once the 'cleaning' was done, I grabbed some Meguiars Hyper Dressing and sprayed the majority of the engine bay, being careful not to mist the product onto the freshly polished paint and glass.







There are two options from this point. Stop and walk away, possible due to Hyper Dressing's self leveling nature. However I chose to level it with a cloth and compressed air for a more instant result. In this case, you will need to use the towel to shield against any splatter from the compressed air.





Another quality of Hyper Dressing that I like is when appropriately diluted, it has a matte sheen to it.



Hyper Dressing was also used to dress the wheel arches. Again, walk away or level with a towel.





Tyres dressed with NV Onyx, the car was done!













All up including preparation and cleaning up afterwards, this was just over 10 hours of work. This would have to be one of the best bits of detailing, standing back and being proud of the hard work.

Show me another base model povo spec Ranger as well kept as this one!

[DFB]

DFB, is that the CarPro PolyShave clay block? I’d appreciate feedback as I need to grab a small clay block. Thanks.

The clay block is from a local supplier, not a CarPro item. I now prefer these to a traditional clay bar.

[DFB]

Yeah I'm surprised you didn't coat the work truck, would've been a great candidate for a costing as I "think" it doesn't get washed/detailed like your fleet does. I mean IF you had water spots and/or didn't like it, you could've polished it off, good therapy, right...plus it's only half a vehicle to do anyways

Either way, it's very glossy for sure! Have you thought about trying Collinite #476S?

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

I have seen 476 mentioned a few times but have never really looked into it much.

I will try a ceramic coating one day, at the moment wax's and sealants are still suiting my needs.