2007 Trailblazer SS FULL CORRECTION
11-12-2013, 04:49 PM
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2007 Trailblazer SS FULL CORRECTION For the past few years, basically since the day this truck was bought, I've been bugging the owner to let me fix it for him. He's had it for 4 years at this point, and finally gave in.
Started off with Meguiar's Car Wash, just the regular $3.99 purple bottle stuff to get this as "clean" as possible. Degreased the inner fender wells, which had clearly never been cleaned in nearly 5 years or 100k miles of service. Scrubbed the wheels with Meguiar's All Wheels cleaner. Used a Daytona Speedmaster brush to get the wheel barrels as clean as possible. I'd like to take a moment to point this out. Guys. Seriously. Clean the wheel wells. It takes a few minutes to spray in some degreaser and brush em out. I think it's like $6 for a long handle wheel well brush, and the results are well worth it!
I didn't get as many "before" pics, because we were in a rush to get started. However, to give an idea of what I was working with, this is the claybar after HALF the hood.
Finishing up claying/taping
This was going to require heavy correction. There were many swirls, rids, some paint transfer from rubbing parking barriers, and the front bumper had killed a road cone at some point. Started making passes with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound on a Meguiar's maroon Soft Buff 2.0 7 inch pad on my Porter Cable 7336 (Speed set on 5). Most of the vertical panels only needed one well worked pass, lower doors and hood needed the most work.
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound finished down very well. Very little if any hazing was present. Wiped off clean after being worked. All around, very easy to use. There are literally hundreds of competing products in this arena. Find what works best for you and use it!
This is just after compounding, and you can see how much gloss has already returned! Tires had been given their first coating of Meguiar's Hot Shine aerosol, applied with Eagle One Tire Swipes. Best part about the Eagle One Tire Swipes, is that they are only $2.50 for a 3 pack. Most of the enthusiast detailing sites want $3 for a single applicator!
Time for another wash. Typical 2 bucket deal with a good quality microfiber wash mitt. Once again Meguiar's regular purple bottle Car Wash was used to remove any dust or left over compound. I guess I'm old school in believing that suds are our friends...
While I had the hose out, I figured it was a good time to clean up the K&N that had been on the truck for 3 years and probably 30k miles. It was completely black when removed. The owner swore there was no way for it to be cleaned and had resigned himself to ordering a new filter. I sent him this pic after soaking the filter in K&N's cleaning spray, agitating with a small brush, and rinsing. No other soap or chemical was used. It came out looking like new.
I re-oiled it, and set it to the side while I started polishing. Meguiar's Ultimate Polish was used with a yellow Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 pad on my trusty Porter Cable (Speed 5). Here is a reminder to work slowly and retain pad rotation. Just jiggling the pad on the paint does not work the product. You're only wasting your time! Quick shot I sent to the owner after polishing.
Even with the crap quality iphone pic, you can still see that the paint now looks a mile deep. Also applied a 2nd coating of Meg's Hot Shine.
We had moved into the interior at this point. This 6 year old truck was showing it's age inside, and it was not good. Coffee stains caked on the center console, soda, old fries, dog treats, boogers, you name it, and it was inside this truck. Sonax Dashboard Cleaner was the weapon of choice on the inside plastics. There are MILES of plastic inside a TBSS, and they all came out looking lightyears better.
Ugh, I really wish I had some before interior pics. Words just can not describe how completely filthy this truck had become. Every inch of the interior was scrubbed clean. There was probably a solid 4-5 hours spent on the inside. Leather was cleaned and treated with Lexol, and the stains did come off the leather and faux suede inserts.
Under the hood was also well neglected. Cleaned with a degreaser, and dressed with CD-2 engine dressing. It goes on heavy, but wipes off well. I like the way it looks after being wiped down. This is before wiping the CD-2 down.
And this is after.
So it was time to wash again, for the third time in 3 days. My neighbors were starting to wonder about my mental health, and were beginning to ask questions.
We're in the final stretch here. Last step was to apply protection! Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax on a Meguar's black 7 inch Soft Buff 2.0 pad. Applied by my Porter Cable (Speed 3). Wow. Can not say enough good things about Ultimate Liquid Wax. Spreads on great, wipes off easy, doesn't leave white wax marks on black trim, where has this been my whole life. I have an $80 tub of BLACKFIRE Midnight Sun I've been using on my car, and the Meg's Ultimate Wax blows it away in every catergory. I'll save that gripe for another thread...
Here we are with the final product. 25 hours of labor went into restoring this truck to nearly showroom new, if not better. What do you guys think?
Started off with Meguiar's Car Wash, just the regular $3.99 purple bottle stuff to get this as "clean" as possible. Degreased the inner fender wells, which had clearly never been cleaned in nearly 5 years or 100k miles of service. Scrubbed the wheels with Meguiar's All Wheels cleaner. Used a Daytona Speedmaster brush to get the wheel barrels as clean as possible. I'd like to take a moment to point this out. Guys. Seriously. Clean the wheel wells. It takes a few minutes to spray in some degreaser and brush em out. I think it's like $6 for a long handle wheel well brush, and the results are well worth it!
I didn't get as many "before" pics, because we were in a rush to get started. However, to give an idea of what I was working with, this is the claybar after HALF the hood.
Finishing up claying/taping
This was going to require heavy correction. There were many swirls, rids, some paint transfer from rubbing parking barriers, and the front bumper had killed a road cone at some point. Started making passes with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound on a Meguiar's maroon Soft Buff 2.0 7 inch pad on my Porter Cable 7336 (Speed set on 5). Most of the vertical panels only needed one well worked pass, lower doors and hood needed the most work.
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound finished down very well. Very little if any hazing was present. Wiped off clean after being worked. All around, very easy to use. There are literally hundreds of competing products in this arena. Find what works best for you and use it!
This is just after compounding, and you can see how much gloss has already returned! Tires had been given their first coating of Meguiar's Hot Shine aerosol, applied with Eagle One Tire Swipes. Best part about the Eagle One Tire Swipes, is that they are only $2.50 for a 3 pack. Most of the enthusiast detailing sites want $3 for a single applicator!
Time for another wash. Typical 2 bucket deal with a good quality microfiber wash mitt. Once again Meguiar's regular purple bottle Car Wash was used to remove any dust or left over compound. I guess I'm old school in believing that suds are our friends...
While I had the hose out, I figured it was a good time to clean up the K&N that had been on the truck for 3 years and probably 30k miles. It was completely black when removed. The owner swore there was no way for it to be cleaned and had resigned himself to ordering a new filter. I sent him this pic after soaking the filter in K&N's cleaning spray, agitating with a small brush, and rinsing. No other soap or chemical was used. It came out looking like new.
I re-oiled it, and set it to the side while I started polishing. Meguiar's Ultimate Polish was used with a yellow Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 pad on my trusty Porter Cable (Speed 5). Here is a reminder to work slowly and retain pad rotation. Just jiggling the pad on the paint does not work the product. You're only wasting your time! Quick shot I sent to the owner after polishing.
Even with the crap quality iphone pic, you can still see that the paint now looks a mile deep. Also applied a 2nd coating of Meg's Hot Shine.
We had moved into the interior at this point. This 6 year old truck was showing it's age inside, and it was not good. Coffee stains caked on the center console, soda, old fries, dog treats, boogers, you name it, and it was inside this truck. Sonax Dashboard Cleaner was the weapon of choice on the inside plastics. There are MILES of plastic inside a TBSS, and they all came out looking lightyears better.
Ugh, I really wish I had some before interior pics. Words just can not describe how completely filthy this truck had become. Every inch of the interior was scrubbed clean. There was probably a solid 4-5 hours spent on the inside. Leather was cleaned and treated with Lexol, and the stains did come off the leather and faux suede inserts.
Under the hood was also well neglected. Cleaned with a degreaser, and dressed with CD-2 engine dressing. It goes on heavy, but wipes off well. I like the way it looks after being wiped down. This is before wiping the CD-2 down.
And this is after.
So it was time to wash again, for the third time in 3 days. My neighbors were starting to wonder about my mental health, and were beginning to ask questions.
We're in the final stretch here. Last step was to apply protection! Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax on a Meguar's black 7 inch Soft Buff 2.0 pad. Applied by my Porter Cable (Speed 3). Wow. Can not say enough good things about Ultimate Liquid Wax. Spreads on great, wipes off easy, doesn't leave white wax marks on black trim, where has this been my whole life. I have an $80 tub of BLACKFIRE Midnight Sun I've been using on my car, and the Meg's Ultimate Wax blows it away in every catergory. I'll save that gripe for another thread...
Here we are with the final product. 25 hours of labor went into restoring this truck to nearly showroom new, if not better. What do you guys think?
11-12-2013, 05:58 PM
#3
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Thanks! The owner was quite pleased. He was terrified of getting it dirty again! I don't believe he drove it in 3-4 weeks after the detail.
11-12-2013, 10:06 PM
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Yeah, this was a rush job for a friend. I'm picking up an 08 Avalanche from a buddy in the next day or two. I'm gonna take a silly amount of pics of that!