April's Full Detail (56k Warning)

[martyp]

Okay, this really is bordering on obsessive, in total I spent ~70 hours detailing the WJ over a week.

Some work was already done before I started a few weeks before, such as apply Gliptone Liquid Leather Cleaner and Conditioner to leather seats, de-grease door jambs and apply 1x coat of sealant, and de-grease engine bay and dress the plastics. The last two had to be re-done; just a quick APC wipe over tho due to Menzerna polish dust!

I could type up the process and products used but I think it’d take up a page. So I’ll give you a quick summary of each stage then piccies.

Products Used (not showing Porter Cable, halogen lights, pressure washer, air compressor, towels/pads/brushes and a few other products):


The most important step was de-swirling the paint work. This took me about 2 days with Menzerna Intensive Polish 3.02 and a 4” Sonus SFX 2 pad on the PC (6” pad could be used on the hood only ) and about 1.5/2 hours to apply Menz Final Finish to redefine the finish and bring out more gloss/depth.

This pic, shows the difference between the polished door and unpolished rear quarter panel, notice the light on the door is much sharper than on the left.



Swirls before:



Swirls after:



Sorry, for lack of swirl before/after pics but it seemed like it was never going to end and I just wanted to get on with it.

Next up was applying Zaino, 3x coats of ZFX’d Z5-PRO then 3x coats of ZFX’d Z2-PRO and finally 1x coat of Z-CS 24 hours inbetween each product. Which gave a really deep, wet finish.






Then it was onto the finer details, the engine bay and door jambs were re-cleaned with Meg’s APC 10:1 to remove the polishing dust. A coat of Z-CS was applied to all the paint on these areas too, the engine was then dressed with Meg’s Hyper Dressing and Chemical Guys Fade2Black.





The wheels were in a horrible state, I couldn’t remove them due to a odd looking bolt in the center which was annoying. So out with Meg’s wheel brightener 4:1 and a brush. 3 hours later and they were spotless. I think it was the first time they had been cleaned since new. Arches were cleaned with Meg’s Super Degreaser 4:1 then dressed with Chemical Guys Bare Bones.

I forgot to take befores of the wheels/arches but here’s a older shot, the fronts were MUCH worse, to be honest this is how the they looked anyway! 2 wheels have the flaking clear and 2 are fine!




Finally the interior was done. Spare wheel was removed, cleaned as was its hiding place and tools, tyre was dressed. All carpeting was thoughly vac'd and meg’s APC 10:1 was applied to remove any spot stains. Plastics and door seals were firstly cleaned with APC then dressed with CG VRP. Glass was cleaned with AG’s Car Glass Polish. Leather was cleaned with Meg’s Quik Interior detailer. No before as it didn’t warrant them.



New Auto-Dim mirror now fitted, what a difference!


Yes, I like clean pedals, and that was before I cleaned the carpet to the left.

Last touches were, dress exterior plastics and tyres with Meg’s Hyperdressing 4:1 which leaves a gloss/matte finish which I’ve come to love. Finally Zaino Z6 was applied to all surfaces incl glass to remove any finger prints and dust.




Sorry for the huge post, but this was a huge detail. What a way to spend a week’s vacation of work, could have done with another to recover tho! Comments/questions very welcome and thanks for looking!
Appologies if this is in the wrong place - will try and get sun & scenic shots and post up in the Gallery.

[grandcherokee978]

this is obessive in my book jeez 70 hours of detailing thats a whole summer and fall for me almost

[w87will]

Wow you really know how to clean a car. Thats alot of time to spend just cleaning. Looks Amazing though, Great job. I spent 4 hours w/o doing the engine and Ill never do that again, to much work and it just gets dirty in acouple days.

[BOURBON]

70 hours..... i work more than that in a 5 day work week. to think people have that kinda time to clean their jeep. Looks amazing though... so uhhh, you gonna do mine next?

[Black on Black]

One word, awesome!!!

[BlackPepper]

Originally Posted by BOURBON

70 hours...... so uhhh, you gonna do mine next?

I'm after BOURBON!

[martyp]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

It's probably closer to 80 hrs if you tally in the 4/5 hours on the door jambs and engine bay a couple of weeks before...

BOURBON and blackpepper - OK if you pay for the flights and labour!

Black attak - yeah, clean door jambs really do transform the look of the car. Once the paint is sealed its dead easy for them to stay that way too!

[blackattack182]

It looks great. The door jambs are the thing that impress me the most. The exterior always looks clean, but that door jamb just looks fresh off the factory line clean.

[TheBackRoads]

you be driving on the wrong side boy!

looks amazing though!

[Elvis Presley]

Bro that is the best detail I have ever seen. I thought I was good.

[BlackPepper]

How'd you clean the carpets? Do you have a personal steamer?

[martyp]

Originally Posted by blackpepper_wk

How'd you clean the carpets? Do you have a personal steamer?

Carpets were cleaned with Meguairs APC diluted 10:1 (or 4:1) and dirt was lifted with a clean microfibre towel. Then it was vac'd againg.

Z88Z - Yeah the engine bay is a bit of a PITA, once I order my engine goodies (superchips PCM & K&N CAI) next month I'll get the airbox and secondary air box out to clean underneath them. It is a koi pond under the bridge too - it's about 6ft deep and 8 or 9ft wide, hell of a lot of digging!

Dreamer - the paint is super smooth, your hand just glides over the surface. Tape was used to cover all rubber, plastic of delicate edges of painted surfaces to ensure they don't get damaged by the buffer.

Thanks again for all the great comments guys, it may have taken ages but its a doddle to keep it that way now!

martyp, that is one slick looking jeep, i try to do that with the two I have, and yes it is a job, doesn't pay well, but the self satisfaction of a super clean car is vey gratifying. my question is what do you clean the glass with, I mean the outside glass, to get the scum and water spots off. I haven't found any real good solution and just wondered what you used to clean yours. thanks, and again, sharp job.

[martyp]

Originally Posted by logistics

martyp, that is one slick looking jeep, i try to do that with the two I have, and yes it is a job, doesn't pay well, but the self satisfaction of a super clean car is vey gratifying. my question is what do you clean the glass with, I mean the outside glass, to get the scum and water spots off. I haven't found any real good solution and just wondered what you used to clean yours. thanks, and again, sharp job.

Hi, sorry for the delay in responding. Its been a few weeks since I've been in this section!

To clean my exterior (& interior) glass I use a product from AutoGlym called 'Car Glass Polish'. Its a cream you apply to the glass, let it haze, then buff off. Leaves a really clear finish and removes spotting etc. See here for more info - great community there too!

Thanks again to all the awesome responses to this thread and its still looking great!

[Overlandin]

Good deal man, you do real nice work..

Where'd you get the woodgrain ashtray piece from? I'm talking about the piece where the heated seat switches are.

[ChrisWK]

Looks Clean ,I use ZAINO Product good stuff.

Chris

[Puppetmaster_sr]

Very nice.,.,., wish I had the time to spend cleaning up my WJ like that!!

[dreamer1213]

OMG! LOL...70 hours...thats a long time...I don't even know what to say...lol...it is shiny and smooth, and wet looking...does it feel like glass when you touch it?

That's true...its gonna get dirty again...almost immediately after you drive it just once..but, if you keep up with it...like a wash/wax every 2 or so weeks..you'll save yourself a lot of extra work, and some major time too...lol!

Do you tape around everything each time you detail it? Also some stuff I've noticed bout the Euro WJ is: small brake pedal, things between the headrests and seats, and off coarse the reflectors and back up sensors in the rear bumper...

[Black on Black]

Lol, i don´t see it before, but the brake pedal is no stock and that´s not a euro thing

[Z88Z]

Looks like you have more into your cleaning supplies than I have into my ZJs! OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration but...

Your Jeep looks fantastic!

I did a ton of stuff like that on two of my ZJs. Went into my door jams and even 'lifted' a lot of stuff in the engine compartment to clean the paint underneath but it didn't come out looking anywhere near as good as yours! Only did it by hand with Meguiars Cleaner wax though.

And yes, after the winter the DD ZJ needs to be done over but it's still better looking and easier to clean again than if I didn't do it at all.

Love the bridge in the backyard supplies shot too. Koi pond underneath it?