Attempting to detail, tons to do... help! (eek!)

[MisterSpoot]

Where can I start.

It's a black 2001 Eclipse, that has seen 4 New England winters complete with road salt, has had to been parked under a tree virtually every day (plenty of sap and pollen), and I never have the time to properly wash or detail.

Here's the problem areas:

1) Sap all over the hood and front-fenders. This needs to come off.

2) Surface-bonded contaminants. Pollen. Stains. Dead bugs. It's everywhere.

3) ScratchesFormer co-workers at my last workplace made numerous key gouges measuring up to 9-feet in length. One is to the sheet metal. I think I have no option on these but repainting, so I'm not very worried about "fixing" these.

4) Swirl marks Family decides to do you a favor of washing your car -- and swirls it to death with terrycloths and mitts that should've been thrown out 100+ washes ago.

5) Wheels Painted aluminum, mostly in very good shape. However a family member scraped one a bit on a curb leaving grime in the scratches, and one has a funny stain (brake fluid I'd hazard) that's been quite stubborn.

6) Interior Aside from leather conditioner, it's never really been detailed. Being a Mitsu, it's mostly cheap textured plastics, but it could look better.

7) Sun No garage, no cover. It just bakes in direct sunlight. So I've always wondered just how I can properly wax or polish it when it's blazing hot.

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Basically, I want my Eclipse to be my "practice" detail. I have a new Evolution VIII MR that'll be delivered in about a month and I'm bent on maintaining that properly.

What do I need for each step? I guess I'll need advice as to the cleaner's themselves, as to the applicators. I'm a bit of a detailing newbie (to say the least). I'm going to be going through the entire site for ideas, but I'd appreciate the words of experienced vets.

I have a date for the first time in YEARS on Tuesday, so I'm bent on giving the car 12-16 hours of my attention tomorrow to make sure it looks presentable.

I realize this post is rather long, but thanks to everyone for reading it and responding thoughtfully. Thanks!

[scottabir]

Ok man, here it goes.
1. wash car
2. clay car
3. bug tar remover Try on sap that didnt come off w clay
4. Polish- with what depends on by hand or machine
5. wax.
6. kick the **** out of old co-workers.
7.vacuum interior and whatever has to be done, im guessing a good vinyl cleaner with a bug sponge will work good on the textured vinyl.
8. go back and re-kick the **** out of old co-workers.
9.dress vinyl with some protection.
10. clean stains carpet to your liking.
11. just to be sure go back and punch old coworkers again to make sure they get the point.

[Don]

@ scottabir

The only thing I would suggest is some 3M Adhesive Remover for the sap if the Clay/bug & tar remover doesn't work

And give the ex-coworkers a few for me while you're at it.

[MisterSpoot]

I don't think I'll be able to polish today. Going to be starting 3 hours late, and I have a fair amount of other things which need to get done this weekend. I'll probably just wax twice if possible.

As for the co-workers, they were over twice my age. I let it be their problem, and my employer wasn't keen on me pressing charges or having police officers visit as a scare tactic. It's done and over with, and I changed jobs to a place with better folks and much better pay.

I'll be posting some before and afters though.

[scottabir]

Hmmmm, ever see what brake fluid can do to paint?...Just kidding I would never recommend doing that to someone elses car.

just for the future I wouldn't recommened letting your job keep you from pressing charges because they would frown on it. It is your personal property that was vandalized, you can be certain that if it was a company truck or whatever they would have pressed charges.

[MisterSpoot]

First, the place where my car was keyed I left about 18 months ago.

Anyways... 7 1/2 hours later... I've learned to buy many more Meguiar's products (guess I'll be ordering online more).

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Mr. Clean's Auto Dry again proves useful. I did wash twice since the car was a mess, but it dried without spots as it did last time. This is definitely a pretty good product.

Turtle Wax's Bug and Sap Remover wasn't that great. Took a LOT of elbow grease. Never buying it again.

Wheels you could eat off of. Tires I got pretty clean, but wondering how much the Meguiar's spray shine (applied with a foam applicator) will go for.

Doing the claying in the sun was a bad idea. Getting rid of all the lubricant streaks was hell. Good thing the sun went over the house later. I didn't use Meguiar's here though (wasn't available, so I used Clay Magic).

The cheap random orbital buffer died during the application of the NXT wax. I only got the hood with it. I did the arches and the spoiler. The spoiler seemed to "fog up" after about 90 minutes -- what did I do wrong here so it doesn't happen again? I plan on getting a Porter Cable in the future.

Glass. Inside it's streaky on the rear windshield, which is heck to clean. I'm chalking this up to using Armor All Glass Cleaner, but I couldn't get the Meguiar's goods. Any recommendations on technique?

Didn't do paint prep. Didn't have the time, nevermind the proper place to do it, so I didn't purchase any of it. Car is getting traded in 4 weeks anyways.

Door jambs -- best way to tackle these? I drizzled water, soaped, and gently tackled them, changing towels often.

Didn't vacuum either, but it actually didn't need it -- everything was on the front mats with nothing underneath (carpet seems new!). I wanted to shampoo the driver's side mat, but couldn't find a shampoo today. Vinyl and rubber was dressed, and the leather was conditioned.

Needs air freshening now though, since inside smells a bit chemically.

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Overall, I give it a 4 of 10. Good enough to really wow the neighbors, but that's about it. For what I wanted to accomplish, I give it about a 7.

Suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Don]

One of the best ways I have found to remove the streaks from "clean" windows is to take a MF cloth and get it wet. Then wring it out until it's almost dry and wipe the windows down with that

[scrub]

2nd the microfiber and water to clean windows.

Agree with the Turtle wax bug stuff.

Door jams I use detail spray and MF to clean and quick wax to wax.

Where's the pics??

Sorry about the key marks to your ride. I had a similar problem a few years ago.

Sounds like your off to a good start. That's important to remember. The more times you detail your car the better the end result will be. You fix the smaller problems you let go the first time.

[MisterSpoot]

Camera was loaned out apparently, so I didn't get to take photos. And now it's a bit dirty again, so it isn't worth photographing necessarily. Though I guess I can still use the car as a mirror, might not be a bad idea to take photos.

I'll need to pick up a microfiber towel I guess. Any brand recommendation in the event I can't get any Meguiar's stuff locally? The streaks aren't bothering me much for aesthetics, but more so the glare I get at night. Ick.

As for this car, I'm not too worried about the other bits. It's gone in a matter of weeks. The Evolution though I'll attempt to take care of from the start -- though winter is going to be tough with all the salt and junk. My pipes freeze, so I can't wash here at the house. I guess my best bet is a "touchless" car wash every few weeks. There's no brushes, it's all sprayers.

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Any idea as to why the spoiler fogged up though? Maybe just humidity?

One thing I am wondering about is keeping the Evolution's engine bay clean. The heat shield in my Eclipse has a wee bit of rust. The Evolution has an open hood vent -- there are louvers to guide water so it falls straight to the ground, but the thing is bound to get wet inside eventually. Best way to keep all the metal bits inside nice and rust free, even when there'll be times I go outside to find a foot of snow piled up on it?