detailing a friends pickup soon! yikes.

[whatevah]

was doing a few test spots of Super VRT on my friends F150 to try to get him into Adams and he asked me how I felt about working on a pickup his wife needs to sell. Oh boy...

 

It's a Chevy Colorado, white paint and supposedly no big scratches or dents, low-ish miles... only problem is that the owner was a very heavy smoker, but they think the seats are canvas or vinyl and the floor is rubber, not carpet. So, I'm hoping the interior won't be that hard to repair.

 

I'm thinking for the paint... wash, clay as needed, wash again, FMP to take care of any acid rain and clean up any obvious swirls, then maybe BG (as a cheater step, remember... doing this to sell) before Buttery Wax? The wheels are supposedly plain steel wheels, so I'll have to wait before I see them. Super VRT and I&O Spray for the tires and trim. Maybe clay the windshield and side windows... For the interior, lots and lots of the L&I cleaner spray, too.

 

I guess my questions are.. any advice??? lol and what do you guys generally do for the pickup beds? This one doesn't have a liner or anything in it. I'm iffy on the headliner, too. No idea how bad it is. Guessing I should use the Carpet & Upholstery cleaner for that?

 

I'm shooting to do this next Tuesday, so I'm gonna look over the videos again and review some of The Junkmans youtube stuff before putting in the order tonight to get the stuff I don't have yet.

 

This will be my first big project since I keep my own car very clean, so it'll be a bit of a learning experience for me.

[whatevah]

As the saying goes... Too good to be true.

 

Got the truck late this afternoon instead of last night as planned. a 2008 Chevy Colorado 2 door. There was a bush in the bed, which we left at my friends place, but a ton of leaves still in the bed. Which DOES have a liner in it. Exterior is filthy, a thick layer of dirt and mold/moss in a couple places. No scratches that I could see, but a couple rub marks I think will buff out with FMP.

 

After giving it a good wash, saw that there is no wax left on it. Still no scratches just the rub marks. Also some dirty spots I couldn't wash off, but clay should remove that easily.

 

Interior... the worst I've ever seen. Didn't smell too bad, but for a 2008 pickup with only 12,500 miles on it, it's horrible. Needs a good vacuum and probably hose off the floor mats. The drivers seat is very dark, and the center arm rest is almost black.

 

The engine compartment was dirty but mostly dusty. Sprayed liberally with APC and brushed everything, nice and clean now. Same with wheels, tires and fenders. I think I may have slightly overused the APC, only 3 or 4 ounces left in the bottle! I need to get a gallon of that with my next order.

 

Killed a store-bought microfiber towel on the drivers door with CUC and a little edge of the seat and arm rest. I'll try to get a photo of that tomorrow. I'm so glad I ordered the CUC gallon kit from the daily special last week. I'm using a deodorizing spray from Glade behind the seats to fight the stale cigarette smell. I'll try charcoal tomorrow if the smell isn't reduced.

 

Started at 5pm so didn't have much time tonight, stopped around 7:30 when the mosquitoes started carrying me away... stupid hurricane spread them around, I usually don't get very many at my house.

 

My plan for tomorrow is check the interior smell and spray more Glade or run to the store for charcoal. Then, get the exterior done first... clay, FMP, BG and BW. Planning around 3 hours for that. Dress the tires, fenders, front bumper and engine compartment then move to the interior. Shopvac the carpets, then elbow grease the drivers seat, arm rest, drivers sun visor and cupholder. Then wipe down the trim and dash. Finish up cleaning the windows.

 

Final thoughts... wow, Adams Car Wash Shampoo is awesome! First time using it, the suds are better than anything from the parts stores and of course the smell is wonderful as well. And... I'm not charging anywhere near enough for this. lol told my buddy I'd do it for $50. I'd better get some awesome referrals from this.

 

Eeeewwww... as usual, the photo doesn't show how dirty it really was.

 

Pics here... Detailing - 2008 Chevy Colorado | Facebook

[Bill-V8V]

Great turnaround Jerry :rockon:

[whatevah]

"after" pics from my cell phone last night.

hey, even with a cell phone and white paint you can see a reflection off the hood!

 

and here's the mostly-clean interior.

[mc2hill]

Wow Jerry, that engine compartment looks like it's from a different truck!

[ChargerMatt]

Great job man.. funny about how she asked if you replaced the carpet lol

[whatevah]

it actually belonged to my friends father-in-law who recently passed away. This was his mess. My friend and his wife had me clean it to sell to a local dealer. I think I just raised the value by a good $1000. lol I thought they were trying to sell it person-person, otherwise I wouldn't have spent so much effort on the seats.

 

No "after" pics yet, I'll stop by their house (one block away) tomorrow. It's a white truck, so... the exterior shots won't really show much. I did remove all of the rub marks/scrapes and really smoothed out one scratch I found on the hood. Also removed some paint transfer on the front bumper. I only used FMP, if I used SHR I'm sure I could have completely removed the scratch, but I couldn't even find it to show my friends when they picked it up, so I think it's good enough.

 

The interior is still icky, but muchas better than it was. My friends wife asked me if I replaced the carpet! She was the one who drove it from her parents home to my house for the cleanup so was keenly aware of its previous condition.

 

I had to wipe down the windows and dash several times to remove the nicotine, even had nicotine film on the door jams. My shopvac sucked up around 10 cigarettes in various stages of being smoked, found 4 empty packs and one pack with 4 or 5 cigarettes left. All under the seats. A bunch of gum wrappers and such.... yuck The cupholder had about 1/8" of matted ashes in it.

 

I spent 2.5 hours on it last night, and around 6 more today. Yesterday was mostly wash and engine compartment, but probably spent 30 minutes on the drivers seat and door. Today I dressed the engine, buffed the exterior, waxed and VRT'd over the course of 3 hours. First time using a PC, so probably could have done it quicker but most of that time was spent with the claybar. Then spent around 3 more hours on the interior. I guess 8.5-9 hours in total and I still wasn't happy with the interior, but it was the best it's gonna get without an extractor. Even then, I think you'd still have some stains left over on the seats. Adam's carpet brush was a big help, glad I got it, there's nothing like it in the local parts stores.

 

Again, pics here... but the only "after" pics are from the engine compartment. Detailing - 2008 Chevy Colorado | Facebook

 

Engine before..

engine after...

 

I never did go out to buy anything special for the interior smell, but kept using the Glade spray, brought out 5 dryer sheets (heh) and removing the trash from the interior and cleaning it helped a lot. My friends wife said it smelled "8 times better" than before. Still not perfect, but... a chain smoker who drove with the windows closed...

 

Thanks everybody for the suggestions, and Adams for the great products

[Golf for Life]

The source of the offending oder must be eliminated or no amount of deodorizer or charcoal etc. will make any difference in the long run.

[Team Adam's]

I read a thread in the tips section about putting a bag of charcoal in the cabin while your cleaning it and leaving it in there for a bit. Tons of ozone cleaners are charcoal based so this makes ridiculous amounts of sense to me - have I tried it? No, but logic says it will work great.

 

Ozone generators don't use charcoal... they us UV light to purify the air.

 

Charcoal and baking soda will do roughly the same thing, absorb the odor from the air around them. Problem is this does't address the issue at its source or clean the air inside the HVAC system or remove the cause of the odor.

[whatevah]

Still smells about as bad as it did yesterday. Guess I'll have to get some charcoal. Bummer!

[ArmyAcadia09]

would be easy just dilute the vrt to like 60/40 or 50/50 and spray it, works the same

[whatevah]

There is no bedliner on this, just a plain bed. Not sure if I'd really want to spend that much time applying VRT in all the grooves even if it had one, though. lol

[ArmyAcadia09]

And VRT on the bedliner will make it super hot when in the sun..I applied it to my dads bedliner and it roasted my bare feet one day..

[whatevah]

they want to sell it, not trade it, so I need to do what I can on the smell. I forgot about the charcoal trick, I usually use a spray from Glade. It took care of some serious marijuana smell from a Cadillac with a lot of thick carpet and carpet on the back of the seats, too. Open the door and you could smell it 15 feet away! I'll have it for almost a full day, so I'll try charcoal and see what happens before I give it back.

 

Thanks, Chris for the tip to dab instead of rub. I was planning on scrubbing it!

[ChargerMatt]

I read a thread in the tips section about putting a bag of charcoal in the cabin while your cleaning it and leaving it in there for a bit. Tons of ozone cleaners are charcoal based so this makes ridiculous amounts of sense to me - have I tried it? No, but logic says it will work great.

[Z71_Denali]

don't waste too much product inside the cab trying to get the smoke out. clean it as if the smell isn't there, then recommend them have it o-zoned if they're trying to sell it privately. if they are just trading it in, the price they're offered won't make a lick of difference to be honest!

 

after it's o-zoned i would go back and redress all the plastic and leather parts with LIC to get that new car smell inside it

[Chris@Adams]

was doing a few test spots of Super VRT on my friends F150 to try to get him into Adams and he asked me how I felt about working on a pickup his wife needs to sell. Oh boy...

 

It's a Chevy Colorado, white paint and supposedly no big scratches or dents, low-ish miles... only problem is that the owner was a very heavy smoker, but they think the seats are canvas or vinyl and the floor is rubber, not carpet. So, I'm hoping the interior won't be that hard to repair.

 

I'm thinking for the paint... wash, clay as needed, wash again, FMP to take care of any acid rain and clean up any obvious swirls, then maybe BG (as a cheater step, remember... doing this to sell) before Buttery Wax? The wheels are supposedly plain steel wheels, so I'll have to wait before I see them. Super VRT and I&O Spray for the tires and trim. Maybe clay the windshield and side windows... For the interior, lots and lots of the L&I cleaner spray, too.

 

I guess my questions are.. any advice??? lol and what do you guys generally do for the pickup beds? This one doesn't have a liner or anything in it. I'm iffy on the headliner, too. No idea how bad it is. Guessing I should use the Carpet & Upholstery cleaner for that?

 

I'm shooting to do this next Tuesday, so I'm gonna look over the videos again and review some of The Junkmans youtube stuff before putting in the order tonight to get the stuff I don't have yet.

 

This will be my first big project since I keep my own car very clean, so it'll be a bit of a learning experience for me.

 

When you clean the head liner with CUC I would dab not rub. And if the paint is descent in the truck bed I would wax it, and for the liner a lot of guys use SVRT but be careful it will make it slick!