Week 3 With My New Baby

[tresola]

Today begins week three of the cleanup. I have 25 new pictures uploaded to my new Solara Album 2 on Photobucket. Here's the link: http://s635.photobucket.com/albums/uu74/tresola/Toyota%20Solara%20Album%202/

Since the mats had smelled so strongly of carpet solution, I decided to rinse them off with just water, and then suck it up with the bissell thinking I'd get a few last pieces of dirt. WRONG. I've got pics to prove it- just by Bisselling the carpets and mats with clear water, I was coming up with so much filth still the water was BLACK. Ew! I borrowed my neighbor's professional carpet cleaning machine and solution, and I plan on recleaning everything for now the 4th time. I did spray some special spot cleaner & odor remover everywhere yesterday, so it does smell better, but the crap still remains (obviously).

My 2nd project will be since the claying is now completed, going over everything with a paint cleaner, then a polish, then a wax/sealant. I've got a few swirls to contend with as well, my favourites! I picked up a nice but cheap orbital polisher at Costco and I'm pretty excited to try it out. The nice thing was it came with 10 bonnets. I keep losing the darn things...

And hopefully this morning we can get the rear sway bar in! I got the Moog end links since I couldn't find anything else that was decent & cheap. My next project will be to replace the front sway bars with TRD as well.

I'll probably be posting pictures again tomorrow night when I'm done. Let's hope I get past the carpet problem and get to finish the exterior! Its going to be upper 50s low 60s all weekend, and it may put a little damper on the exterior work since the chemicals really should only be used when its over 60 degrees.

[stereopaul511]

Nothing works better than natures cleaning oil known as "elbow grease."

[ralphredimix]

What happened? You bought a flooded out Solara from a dog breeder? How did your interior get this dirty?

[makethemusic72]

the real question is if the person before you had a fetish for seeds. I've never seen that many seeds. I'm a neat freak when it comes to my car, this would make me puke haha.

tresola, car looks awesome after clay! keep working it, and er...changing the bissel water? hah

[tresola]

Ah, yesterday was so much fun! Let's see... I found more seeds, this time in the window jam! I took pictures of that for your viewing pleasure. I also used the professional extractor but I cannot save the mats, they stink! The interior smells better but I won't know for sure until I put the defogger in there tonight. And I got lots more dog hair... UGH.

I think this guy was a driving circus, personally. Maybe its not dog hair I'm finding, it could be monkey hair, I mean, I did find peanuts & seeds after all. Let's not forget the empty underwear wrapper that was with the spare, or the empty box of butter stuffed in the side of the trunk.

Anyways, I got the claying done, then I decided to use a compound, followed by a polish/sealant and glaze. I'm not sure what I'm going to put on top of that, perhaps another sealant level. The car's getting pretty smooth and the pearl is a lot more pronounced, but its still not to my satisfaction. I have a few more swirlmarks that refuse to budge on the hood, and that rear bumper is so scratched up! I think I'm going to possibly wet sand it, then try some more compound and polish. I got a super white touch up bottle and actually it works great! The only difference is its not sparkly white. So for any of you who need minor touchups on your white pearl, the super white is the basecoat and don't be afraid to use it. That's what I was reading the other day- the pearls use a basic paint coat and then the pearl is applied on top. The code I used is 040.

I have 15 more pictures up in that new album, including a few shots of me and the car. Thought it would be fun although you can't see how dirty my clothes really are from a day of detailing. I needed a new facebook profile pic as well.

[Midias]

Reminds me of an exhaust I bought for my honda V4. A mouse must have made a home in it because when started it up well over 1000 seeds shot out and a couple french fries.

[tresola]

thats too funny! at least nothing was damaged. a mouse could explain all the hair in the trunk, otherwise he let the dog ride in there too. i'm thinking this may have started out as a smoker's car because there are a few tiny burn like marks next to the drivers set by the door. it might explain the constant state of filth the carpet's in too.

[tresola]

http://s635.photobucket.com/albums/uu74 ... ail%20One/

Here are the pictures post-detail. I'm pretty happy with the results, although there are a few things that will need further work at a later date, like the alloys.

Here are all the steps I did: clay, compound, polish & sealant, glaze. I have to figure out what I want to put on top of the glaze to totally complete & protect the car. I may put more sealant on, or try some sort of wax.

The interior smells a heck of a lot better, so I'm putting off the defogger for now. It helped spraying some stuff into the vents I think. I still have to clean seatbelts and headliner at another date as well.

We didn't get to the sway bar just yet, but hopefully this week or coming weekend we'll have the time to do so. The weather's also been chilly and my freeze baby bf refused to work on the ground at 50 degrees. Hmmm, didn't seem to bother me sitting on the ground doing the lower panels. Wuss!

[Midias]

I have found simple green is amazing to get crap out of carpets. I take them out spray with simple green scrub with hands quick and hose off then let dry.

[gnegroni]

Dude, get one of those car air ionizers they sell everywhere and use it in the meantime. It should work to get some of the smell down.

[Chinky420]

didn't Mike Rowe (of the discovery channel's "Dirtiest Jobs") own a solara?

maybe you got his resale.....?

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/boards/faqs/faqs_03.html

[gnegroni]

didn't Mike Rowe (of the discovery channel's "Dirtiest Jobs") own a solara?

maybe you got his resale.....?

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/boards/faqs/faqs_03.html

LMFAO

[GzNutz]

The exterior looks 100x better!

[yota]

didn't Mike Rowe (of the discovery channel's "Dirtiest Jobs") own a solara?

maybe you got his resale.....?

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/boards/faqs/faqs_03.html

Lol, in that link he said he owned a '98 Solara

[tresola]

The exterior looks 100x better!

Thanks! I'm going to get some pictures out in the sun today, to see the total pearl effect. It should sparkle like a brand new penny everywhere then. Its amazing, when I first picked it up I swore it was a matte white, there was no sparkle anywhere. What is the point of having a pearl if you don't take care of it? Its something to be proud of. My neighbor was being a jerk Saturday and said he couldn't see the pearl and whites white, it'll never come clean or look nice, blah blah blah. He said that as he was headed to his incredibly boring greyish white Ford truck. He's just jealous a girl did a 100x better job at detailing than he did (he is also a self-proclaimed pro detailer as well as a "master" carpet cleaner).

As for the smell, I've tried neutralizers and nothing's worked so far. I got a foaming cleaner for the headliner to try tonight. Maybe the smell is hiding up there since that mutt was more than likely big enough to brush the roof several times. I'll throw the defogger that's supposed to kill the bacteria & odor in tonight after the headliner's cleaned. If that doesn't work, ugh, I have to take the front seats out and do a major cleaning job. It looked like I got all the hair out from between the seats, but if the smell keeps coming back then I obviously missed chunks. It is so hard to get anything in that space, I was lucky at what I was able to pull out keeping the seats intact. So has anyone removed seats before? Is it easy? That and I cannot get out the yellowish stains in the back seat no matter what I try. I'm wondering if its mutt puke or something. I've scrubbed it with enough things that no odor should be left, but it would be nice to have the carpet back to the original color. Weird thing is, the more I tackle the carpet with cleaners, the more the carpet's showing stains. Either they tried to cover up the stains with a poor carpet color spray, or I'm taking color out (which I highly doubt).

hehehe That link reminds me of I think it was Myth Busters had a nasty car that they tried to de-smell as well. I think it was a pig corpse or something? Its amazing what smells a car interior will hold on to. And just try removing blood. I can't imagine the people who do crime scene car detailing. Ew.