Bought It. Now Time to Detail It.
#1
Bought It. Now Time to Detail It.
This is going to journal my interior and exterior detail and clean up of my 2010 MRM I just bought on Friday. I drove it back 1500 miles home from Phoenix and the car is in relatively terrible condition.
Key Interior Issues:
- Interior Leather no luster, not soft, stains on leather, marks, leather perforations filled with dirt.
- Blue part of steering wheel almost black with dirt. Rest of steering wheel "shiny" with oils and dirt.
- Floor mats potentially beyond saving. F-logo's are essentially black with dirt.
Key Exterior Issues:
- Undisclosed front end respray has no luster or shine. Looks almost matte in the shade in comparison to OEM paint. Going to try and bring back with polishing - if not will be repainted.
- Many deep scratches - going to try and polish out.
- Some scratches removed paint - touch up.
- 2 dents, 1 in hood, 1 in rear quarter - going to have paintless dent attempted.
So as i'm still partially delusional from the 24 hour drive i'm only attempting to do the interior today (part of it).
Soooo the inside horror story... i've used my trusty brinkmann dual xenon to make things look as horrid and nasty as possible so you can see the actual condition of this car.
Nasty dull seats, notice the brown dirt in the perforations...
Stain
Rear divider scratched I think beyond repair. Most likely will have to replace.
LOOK AT HOW DIRTY THIS IS!!!!!!!!
Fast forward 10 hours to the next day... first thing to start cleaning was that dirty steering wheel!
First pass with AMMO Lather, Brush, and Wiped off with Mircofiber:
One wipe and look at all the dirt that came off
Shiny nasty steering wheel
Working it in
50/50
Dirty right, clean left... note this isn't a conditioner or product... just a soap to remove dirt/oils.
Key Interior Issues:
- Interior Leather no luster, not soft, stains on leather, marks, leather perforations filled with dirt.
- Blue part of steering wheel almost black with dirt. Rest of steering wheel "shiny" with oils and dirt.
- Floor mats potentially beyond saving. F-logo's are essentially black with dirt.
Key Exterior Issues:
- Undisclosed front end respray has no luster or shine. Looks almost matte in the shade in comparison to OEM paint. Going to try and bring back with polishing - if not will be repainted.
- Many deep scratches - going to try and polish out.
- Some scratches removed paint - touch up.
- 2 dents, 1 in hood, 1 in rear quarter - going to have paintless dent attempted.
So as i'm still partially delusional from the 24 hour drive i'm only attempting to do the interior today (part of it).
Soooo the inside horror story... i've used my trusty brinkmann dual xenon to make things look as horrid and nasty as possible so you can see the actual condition of this car.
Nasty dull seats, notice the brown dirt in the perforations...
Stain
Rear divider scratched I think beyond repair. Most likely will have to replace.
LOOK AT HOW DIRTY THIS IS!!!!!!!!
Fast forward 10 hours to the next day... first thing to start cleaning was that dirty steering wheel!
First pass with AMMO Lather, Brush, and Wiped off with Mircofiber:
One wipe and look at all the dirt that came off
Shiny nasty steering wheel
Working it in
50/50
Dirty right, clean left... note this isn't a conditioner or product... just a soap to remove dirt/oils.
#2
Steering wheel grime.
Continued onto the seats with AMMO Lather in the same fashion... Right side cleaned, left side dirty (notice the shinny leather (dirty) on the left divide). The clean side is much more matte.
One rear seat cleaned...
After cleaning
Actually blue...
Steering wheel back to being matte again...
ready for conditioner...
50/50 - AMMO Lathered dash (clean) left - AMMO Conditioned dash > right. Nice matte finish, no shiny greasy residue.
I know your sick of seeing the steering wheel but conditioned final product... nice matte finish and clean!
Conditioned seats... I don't like that the leather isn't tight but not much I can do. They did clean up with a very nice matte finish and other than the material not being as tight as I would like they do look virtually new again.
Dash cleaned and conditioned
Door cards got same treatment as the seats, AMMO Lather, then conditioned on all surfaces.
Unholy dealer sheet they put on the windshield and has the stickiest residue known to man...
Micro glass razor blade + stoner invisible glass for lubricant... comes right off and doesn't scratch the glass.
I know the photos are crappy but i'll take nicer high res ones at the end of the week after everything wraps up. For the WIP shots, might as well keep the bandwidth down.
Going to take it to the Lexus dealer this week to see if I can address a headlight issue and see if the cracked center console is a warranty item, and then we'll start the paint correction.
#3
Awesome job so far! Based in the condition of the car I would guess that this was a lease return? I've seen some pretty nice rides covered in dirt and grime by those who were leasing them. Either way, the interior is looking great. I will hav to look into the Ammo lather product as it seems to work great.
#7
Lexus Test Driver
Welcome to the club! Poor F got beat to hell. Glad you are taking car or it though. Im guessing once you put it under some 1000w halogen lights its gonna look all swirled up. Good Luck
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#14
Thanks for the responses and the heads up on the center console parts!
I think it was a lease vehicle as it was a 1 owner car that lived in Newport Beach its entire life. But yea - you can tell it never really got taken care of but it found a good home and it's going to get massaged back into life and treated well for the rest of its days.
The paint is in equally shocking condition but the flip side is results should be easy to see. And if the results aren't good enough it's going to get repainted to make it perfect. I don't plan on selling it so i'm fine investing in the car to get it back to the condition it should be in.
I think it was a lease vehicle as it was a 1 owner car that lived in Newport Beach its entire life. But yea - you can tell it never really got taken care of but it found a good home and it's going to get massaged back into life and treated well for the rest of its days.
The paint is in equally shocking condition but the flip side is results should be easy to see. And if the results aren't good enough it's going to get repainted to make it perfect. I don't plan on selling it so i'm fine investing in the car to get it back to the condition it should be in.