I'm a weekend warrior, and decided to really test all these top-line chemicals that I've been reading about here on DC on the neighbors '96 Subaru. This car shows every one of it's 122,000 miles hauling dogs and mail in Alaska, plus several trips up/down the Alcan highway.
Without a DA (yet), this was going to be mostly an interior detail.
The hand sanitizer found in the crusty console was good for a laugh.
Interior:
- vinyl was cleaned with SG 4:1, x2 in many places,
- then dressed with PB NL
- Lots and lots of Q-tips and a couple toothbrushes died for the cause:
And yes, I agree with an earlier thread...details like cracks and crevices count
Upholstery was a big challenge:
Seats were spotted and vacuumed. Carpets got the Full Monty:
- Brush and vacuum multiple times.
- Stains were attacked with carpet foam,
- then laundry spotter as desperation set in
- then SG straight from the bottle, scrubbed with a brush and 'extracted' with my wet vac.
Several floorboard stains refused to budge but the mats illustrate the general improvement
The outside also told the story of a hard working car
Without a buffer this was going to be a test of my elbows and
PB's Black Hole. Anything approaching full correction wasn't in the picture. With dozens of chips and dog-scratches all the way through the color coat it's a 10-foot car on it's best day. Process was
- Dawn wash w MF mitt,
- Mothers clay bar with leftover Mothers Showtime QD as lube
- SSR-1 applied with an orange foam hand-applicator from AG,
- leftover Meguiars Paint Polish to catch a few more hairline scratches,
- then BH topped with EX.
Wheels and wells
- 3-4 applications of straight Simple Green, scrubbed with a stiff scrub brush .
- Brake dust was dug out of alloys with SG and 0000 steel wool gently applied.
- Poorboys NL was again sprayed over everything black and dried before I could get back to buff it...maybe why the tire gloss is so high, but it's an improvement.
The results are pretty good for now, and the neighbors are amazed. Wish I'd had more than SSR 1, but hand applied, it probably didn't matter. Black Hole did a great job with the fine scratches. The ones through the color coat will need Maaco. And after about 10 hours in 95 degree temps, I needed a beer. (pro-tip...choose a cloudy day?)
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