2004 Carrera 4s Detail - Lots Of Pics

[Dylan06SS]

Tag teamed this beauty all day today along side my neighbor and good friend, Anthony. Since the car belongs to a friend of his we figured we'd give it the royal treatment and restore this baby to her full beauty. It was purchased used just a few days ago and it showed ever bit of its 66k mile odometer reading (including a history of VERY bad wash techniques)

 

When we were done, outside of a few minor flaws that would require much more extensive work/repair, it came out stunning. From about 10ft it didn't look too bad, farther down you'll see the swirly horror that awaited us up close!!

 

 

Started with the interior:

The carpets were pulled and scrubbed down with Adam's Carpet & Upholstery cleaner + a stiff carpet brush. They were then extracted using the LGM pro heat. We then sat them out in the sun for the rest of the day as they had become awkwardly shaped sitting in the car (the mats are not specific to the car, but are just filling the need for now)

 

The seats and interior panels were treated using a combination of woolite/water and leather & interior cleaner/water 1:1. The reason we chose the diluted mixture and milder cleaner was due to the heavy sun fading and discoloration on some areas that was allowing color to come up from the surface. Rather than push the limits of what was left on the seats we chose to clean mildly and then condition very liberally.

 

All interior panels were conditioned with Adam's Leather & Interior Conditioner, a few scuff spots along the center console and door sills were cleaned using Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

 

Radio controls, vents, gauges, etc were cleaned using MF + detail spray and assorted interior detail brushes. The vents were dressed with a 1:1 VRT mixture, all glass was cleaned with Adam's Glass Cleaner and Glass towel.

 

Moved to the wheels:

The wheels were cleaned with Adam's Green Wheel Cleaner and a boars hair brush. The inner wheel hoop was cleaned using the Powerstick and full strength APC. Tires were cleaned with full strength APC and a fender brush. Some road paint transfer on the passenger side was broken down using full strength APC and a little scrubbing.

 

At this time the exhaust tips were sprayed down with full strength APC and allowed to soak due to extremely heavy carbon buildup. The were later scrubbed with a boars hair brush and then polished with Adams metal Polish.

 

 

Let the decontamination BEGIN!!:

My boy Anthony went to work with the foam gun and an undiluted canister of Adam's Car Soap. The car was hosed off, foamed, and the mix was allowed to dwell and run down all the panels. The car was then blasted again and refoamed. We washed using the NEW & Improved Adams wash pad (separate thread coming soon) then pulled into the garage. Claybar... claybar... more claybar... this thing was rough. Spent some extra time working on the lower rocker panels where there was still some heavy road paint and tar contamination. All glass was clayed as well. The car was then pulled back out and treated to yet another heavy foaming and wash, pulled in and dried using Great White Drying Towels and Detail Spray.

 

Dressing:

The trim was disturbingly dry, so before beginning any other steps a liberal helping of VRT was applied to all rubber and plastic trim. While we were at it the trunk and engine bay were wiped down using detail spray and microfiber and also treated with VRT. Invisible Undercarrige Spray was then applied to all the wheel wells.

 

The wheels were treated to a coat of Machine Superwax to keep them protected and the tires were dressed with full strength VRT.

 

Correction:

A few choice areas were marked off and spot buffed using the 4" pads and the drill attachment. One area in particular was really bad, someone had actually keyed a swastika into the door!! I spent a good amount of time on this, but it was too deep for buffing and will require wet sanding to correct. I blew the exposure out to capture it and after working it with the yellow pad + Swirl & Haze Remover it was reduced to barely noticeable.

 

Each panel took approximately 2 passes with the orange pad + swirl & haze remover (some areas required as many as 4 passes) at 5000opm. This was followed by 1-2 passes per panel of the white pad + Fine Machine Polish at 5000opm. Smaller areas around door handles were hand polished using the orange flip pad + swirl and haze remover.

 

Lastly we did a pass of Revive by hand with the blue flip applicator to add a little more clarity to the finish.

 

After Revive was removed we chose to do a wipe down with waterless wash, partially to remove the trace amounts of dusting left behind by the polish, but also to cut the static charge on the paint.

 

Lastly the glass was sealed by Anthony using the new Glass Sealant while I applied a coat of Americana over the entire car. It was buffed off using the new double soft microfiber and delivered to a very happy customer

 

Total time (minus a couple of food and beer breaks) was 8 hours. Enjoy the pics!

 

INTERIOR BEFORE:

 

DURING:

 

AFTER:

[Dylan06SS]

Continued....

 

EXTERIOR BEFORE:

 

(the swastika)

 

DURING:

 

(the swastika GREATLY reduced)

[Dylan06SS]

Worth all the work...

 

AFTER:

 

Little curb rash still, but other than that, better than they've ever looked:

 

Super happy owner driving away with his 4oz bottle of Adams Detail Spray!

[houston05tx]

damn nice work

[04CHASE]

nice work man , did you get to take it for a spin dry after ??

 

btw when is the new detail "shop" coming ?

 

hopefully it has high clearance and you have some scaffolding for the truck , ss soon as i get my line x im coming down .

[KJT13]

excellent work as always Dylan!!

 

every one of your threads like this makes me want to go out and devote all the time I can to making my truck's paint look as good as I can and hope it's half as nice as your pics when I'm done. Then I realize I live in an apt with no external water hook-up or outside electricity and come to the conclusion that it is all a pipe dream and maybe someday I can do this. Until then, I can only be envious of your work and the finished products. I just wish more detailers put the time and effort into a job as you do.

[detjoe]

what kind of foam gun do you use? autogeek? air compressor or power washer??

I must have a foam gun this summer

[alex.t]

very nice work as always dylan, and i belive he is using the foam gun that adams sells.

[delay18]

Beautiful work as alway Dylan! When are you heading to the east coast?!

[f1ss]

I used this phrase before on his detailing, "he brought that car back from the dead."

I wish we could get a group of owners to pay for his trip and get him out to the northeast.

[stg313]

Yeah man, great work! Its a shame you live on the opposite coast!

[idahoBLKss]

crazy good!!