Yes this is my vehicle. My beloved Jeep. It’s been very good to me and I haven’t been as good to it as I should. I put sweat and love into everyone else’s cars but not mine. (Hey you don’t get paid to polish your own ride!)

This vehicle is 5 years old and the hood has been through a lot. Beach sand, off roading through woods, Florida sun with no protection. It has a few spots of clear coat cracking and I plan on sanding it down and having the hood resprayed. There’s also some gouges in the finish that has been coated with touch up paint that are still visible.

I used a high speed buffer and a Dual Action Polisher along with foam and wool pads and different cuts of Menzerna Polish. The color is now rich and deep and swirl free. I might reconsider that repsraying for a while!

I topped the hood with 3M Marine wax. This stuff is TOUGH! It has to be to withstand salt water. I noticed while waxing a boat with it how shiny it was a how the water beaded on my HANDS after getting some on them! Among other things. Its a new theory I’m testing out, (using boat wax on vehicles.) I’ll keep you posted on how it works and how long it lasts compared to other waxes I’ve used.

Here’s a Porsche I take care of regularly. It was pretty dirty! But being that it is well taken care of and garage kept, clean up is fairly easy and only a basic detail is needed most of the time.

The wheels and calipers were extra dirty so a Deluxe Wheel Clean was performed on each wheel. I recommend this service on all sports cars or vehicles with premium or after market rims for a few reasons; first, you can not properly clean the caliper without removing the wheel in most cases. They don’t paint it a bright color and tag it with “Porsche” (or whatever else) just so it can sit filthy in plain view. Another reason is that the wheel fills out 99% of the wheel well. Removing the wheel gives you a chance to properly clean the wheel well and inspect the wear of the tire.

Lastly, as you can see below, you cant not clean the entire wheel with it on the car. Most of these types of cars have an extremely wide wheel, and cleaning only half of it looks pretty bad.

These are all AFTER pictures. Notice the rims and the bright calipers.

Heres a recent detail. This is a client of mine that is extremely rough on her vehicle. Animals are transported almost daily in this vehicle and it gets pretty dirty inside and out. Unfortunately most of the outside “before” shots do not show just how dirty it was except the wheel shots. Interior shots will have to be re-shot next time.

Before: Notice the bad trim, the dirty wheels…

After:

When rain, sprinklers and hose water fall onto glass, the water will eventually evaporate leaving a deposit of minerals on the surface of the glass. Like anything else that sits on auto surfaces too long, it will eventually etch itself on/in the glass. After trying to remove with clay bar, vinegar, and other tricks, water spots like those below are still there. You cant always see them unless in direct sunlight but they are there and they are unsightly. This window was washed and cleaned well before this picture was taken.

Using a cleaning Polish (Meguiars M04 Heavy Cut Cleaner Polish) and a Makita Rotary polisher with 2″ abrasive pads, these spots came off in a few short passes. Hours of elbow grease alone couldn’t yield these results. The entire back window was completely free of spots and looked like brand new glass. Unfortunately, lighting was not ideal to get a clear shot but here is a picture of a tape line so you can see side by side the difference in the window.

This truck was a beast but fun at the same time. The owner has taken very good care of it in the past five years so by the time I got my hands on it, there wasnt much for me to fix besides some bad swirls/dullness and a lot of dirt to carefully wash off.

Before

Washing a black vehicle, especially a lifted truck, takes some time and care. The last thing you want to do is to grind all of that dirt into the paint.

This truck was washed using the 2 bucket method.

Bugs and contaminants were removed with a clay bar.

The inside was really not that dirty at all. A very thorough vacuuming, water and microfiber wipe down of entire interior, grime from steering wheel and leather removed, and floor mats cleaned with a hot water extractor and mild carpet cleaner.

Door jambs were cleaned and waxed.

For the exterior, a swirl removing polish took care of the swirls. A paint sealant was applied and then a final coat of wax. This was the most time consuming due to the large surface area.

Windows were cleaned, wheel wells were scrubbed and treated, rims polished, exhaust tip and running boards were polished and all rubber and trim was treated.

This whole truck took about 7.5 hours. Most of that was polishing the swirls out.

Here are the after shots: