Hey guys, ChrisFix here! And today I'm gonna show you how to detail and clean a dirty Neglected car like this that I just purchased for five hundred dollars If you missed the last episode I'll link it in the description, I showed you guys how I bought this car for five hundred dollars. It wasn't running or driving So I showed you how to diagnose the issue and then how to fix it.
All together, we have four hundred dollars in parts and five hundred dollars for the car So nine hundred dollars total and this car runs and drives beautifully but is very ugly on the outside Look at this paint work. This paint work is shot. It's oxidized.
It's faded. It's all swirled up So i'm gonna show you how to detail this and paint correct it so we go from this to this deep dark Luscious dripping wet look and paint and just look at that difference This paint is really bad, but we're gonna make it look amazing. And the best part is you could do the exact same thing i'm doing After you're done watching this video and we're doing all of this at home by hand with simple common products like these Nothing expensive that's gonna break the bank That way you're able to go out and get the same exact results as this with your vehicle So not only are we going to fix this faded paint and do a paint correction But some paint work is beyond fixable like you can't fix this There's no amount of buffing or compounding that's gonna get this out This is just down to the metal because of sun fade because it wasn't taken care of so i'm going to show you how to spray-paint this with a color correct spray paint so we could go from this.
. to this! Again at home in your driveway, so this is gonna be really awesome But that's not just it a lot of cars have this faded plastic on the wing mirrors or the faded plastic That looks all gray down below on the runners or body trim and I'm gonna show you how to restore this plastic We're gonna bring this plastic back.
We're gonna go from this to this and check this out now This will last at least two to three years and i'll show you how we're gonna do that and that's not all i'm also going to show you how to Clean and detail wheels and tires and more importantly how to get those Stubborn dirt stains the brake dust stains that get into the wheels how to remove that So the wheels look good again, and then we're gonna do some headlight restoration The headlights are a mess on this the light output stinks But more importantly i'm gonna show you how to get this done really quickly and put a coating Here that's gonna last around two years. That's a really easy to apply. It's not like spray painting where you can mess it up I've been messing around with it I think you guys are gonna like the results and then finally we're gonna go and clean the interior of this car because it is A mess it's not comfortable to drive and we want to be comfortable driving our own car Now a lot of you guys in the last video asked me in the comments Where did you find a car for five hundred bucks?
How can you find a project car? So let me show you and it's actually really simple to do this All you have to do is go over to your computer go on to the internet and search Auto Tempest This site is super helpful because it searches all the different used-car for sales sites in one search. That way you're not wasting time So let's scroll down here And now we want to put minimum price 200 or 250 because you want to weed out all the people who put $1.
00 that are looking for a trade or that are looking to part out their car. It's just a wasted search So make sure you put 250 for the minimum price That's a little trick and then 1,200 bucks for maximum price A $1200 car is 90% of the time gonna be less than $1000 you always negotiate on these. Otherwise, everything's good to go Let's hit search and check it out.
Look at all these cars. Look at this a Volkswagen Beetle 700 bucks asking has 87,000 miles and something's wrong with the charging system that's a good find but there's a ton of cars here and you just look at the descriptions and you click on whichever ones that you want I mean the list just keeps going and here's the car that I ended up finding and it's that easy to find your Very own project car. He's asking a thousand dollars.
His description said that only the fuel pump was bed So I went to go see it and I got it for 500 bucks. So there you go Now you could find your very own project car that 250 for the minimum price is the trick. So make sure you do that I'll leave a link to this website in the description Auto Tempest has been awesome Thanks so much for making the website and supporting the video And if you're looking for a project car, this is the way that I find mine So let's get back to detailing this Trailblazer.
And the first thing we're gonna do is fix the broken and missing interior pieces So right here, we had that plastic trim missing same thing on the driver's side And finally, we have a center console which doesn't want to latch So let's go and fix that so you can see the hook on the latch is broken off so let's unscrew these two screws that hold this plastic latch in and then out with the old broken latch and In with the new one now tighten bolts screws down so they're snug like so okay. Let's try it out Boom! Five dollars and thirty seconds later, We have a center console door that closes and that's really nice This would be a pain to drive with that open So with that done and now let's move on to replacing the door trim now installing plastic trim like this is super easy There are four tabs that you want to snap in.
So just get it aligned and Give it a good push till it clicks And that's all it takes to install a piece of trim like that and same thing for the other side except on this side We have a seat memory button that clicks in first and then we could push the door trim piece into the handle So that it clicks in and just look at how nice this is coming along We have both of our pieces of trim in we have the center console working now Let's clean up the interior cleaning the interior and getting great results is simple first vacuum all the dirt out of the carpet then grab your favorite carpet cleaner and Spray down the whole carpet next grab a plastic brush like this and agitate the carpet cleaner deep into the carpet Brushing that carpet is going to give you the extra clean results that you're wanting So be sure to use the brush then grab a towel and wipe down blot and absorb the carpet cleaner and all the dirt that comes with it and Finally vacuum the carpet up once more to get any towel lint and any dirt that we freed up out of the carpet and check out these results before and After next let's do the seat trim, which is covered in dried mud So grab your soapy wooder (Water and dish soap) and spray down the plastic Then clean it up with a paper towel and this is coming off pretty easy, which is good. So here's it before and after this is coming out so nice, and we're doing quick and easy detailing nothing crazy no super cleaning. So let's do the other side and here's it before and after and just A little bit of vacuuming makes a huge difference Now I cleaned the rest of the interior in the front, let's go head to the back and I'm going to show you the mess we have back here that we need to clean and With a little editing magic boom.
Check it out. Nice and clean So with the interior all nice and cleaned now, we're gonna clean up the exterior and this is gonna be really cool We have this old faded paint. That looks horrible, and we're going to bring it back to life using a little bit of compound and polish.
Let me show you how Now before you do any paint correcting the first thing you need to do is clean the car so spray it down with some water to get the dirt off then get some car soap on the car and if you don't have A foam cannon just use a bucket of soapy water. Then wipe down the entire car with a microfiber wash mitt, make sure you work from the top to the bottom and remove as much dirt as you can then rinse down the car to get All that soap and loose dirt off and finally dry the car so we could get started on the paint correction Alright and with the car completely dry and clean let's go and make this paint look amazing! And I put a piece of tape right here so you can see the difference between before and after so we're gonna clean this side we're gonna keep this side the same way to see the difference.
So the process is gonna be to use compound first This is the most aggressive. This is gonna take off the most oxidized clear coat, but we can't stop there. Next we're gonna use a polish.
This is finer. It's less aggressive and it's gonna make this shine up really nicely it's gonna give it that polished finished look and then finally We're gonna put a protective layer of wax to coat our newly finished and shiny clear coat So let's get started with the compound and we're using a microfiber applicator Pad which is going to allow the product to be rubbed into the paint don't use a microfiber towel because it'll absorb too much of The compound and it won't work as efficiently So just spread the compound out in a circular motion and then with medium pressure Buff the compound into the paint and you can really see that oxidized layer coming off onto the applicator pad So now buff off the compound with a clean microfiber towel and already look at that shine! Next, we're onto the polish So flip the applicator pad over for a fresh surface and add some polish and we're gonna polish the same way We did the compound.
The only difference is the Polish is a more fine abrasive So just like when you sand you go from a coarse grit to a fine grit same thing here and it's super simple just buff It into the paintwork using medium pressure, and that's all there is to it. Then we can buff it off with a microfiber towel, and the results you get from polishing are permanent It won't wash off with soap or water And finally our last step is to use a sealant or wax to protect the freshly polished surface. So wax on let it dry for two minutes, so it's hazy and then wax off finally let's remove the tape and see the comparison.
What a difference before and After I can't believe that look at this, look at this reflection on this paint and then look at the old paint What a difference that is and that's just a little bit of elbow grease We went compound we went polished and then we waxed it and that is what we got Okay, man, this looks so good. This car is gonna look drippin wet. Let me finish with the rest of the car Hmm.
Now this compounding polishing and waxing process is super simple, but it's definitely tiring You need a medium to heavy pressure when you're compounding and polishing so doing this by hand is totally doable But again, you're gonna get a good workout in for the day. And take a look at this car Look at how good this paint work looks it looks amazing And I don't know if you noticed but this truck is missing center caps So for five bucks each, I got them from the junkyard and that's much better We're still gonna have to clean those but right now it's focused on the paint. Look at this paint work Look at how awesome this came out that is incredible!
I love it this transformation. I love seeing transformations like this It's so rewarding and it just feels so good to be able to do this yourself. Look at that.
I Love it. Okay, and one thing I did notice right here You can see on this door trim right here is some chipped off paint It stands out like a sore thumb because it's white underneath So let's fix this and we'll start by cleaning the chipped paint with alcohol So our paint could adhere to the surface properly then get your touch-up paint and I like working from the bottom up So we pull the paint up against gravity If you start from the top down you end up getting paint runs, and that doesn't look good Also don't set your standards too high when doing this the damaged area won't disappear But the idea is this is gonna look a lot better than if we left it So a little touch-up like that makes all the difference. It's not perfect.
But I mean this bodywork isn't perfect Look, there's little chips here and there and that's just I mean, it's a 500 dollar car, It is what it is. But this is a million times better than what it was before remember. There's that stain over here It's like a multicolor stain.
That's all gone. And this paint work is just shining like crazy. It looks amazing Look at the reflection.
It's incredible. Now. This side was pretty simple to do the paint work was faded, but it Horrible, and it came out amazing But the other side is where we're gonna have a difficult time because not only is the paintwork really bad like right here But we have well almost non-existent paintwork you can see it's all chipped up and we're down to the primer So what we're gonna do here is paint this and we're not just gonna paint this right here We're also gonna paint this door trim that I picked up from the junkyard off of a red trailblazer Unfortunately, I couldn't find a black one.
Our car only came with the rear door trim Our front door trim was missing and it doesn't look that great It's not a necessity but since we're painting stuff anyway, might as well knock this out as well So we're gonna paint that and we're gonna paint up there very easy. Let me show you what you need Here's everything you're gonna need we're gonna use sandpaper We're gonna sand stuff down make it smooth and then we're gonna clean it off and then spray-paint it I'll show you the entire process. So let's get started So the first thing we need to do is figure out where exactly we're gonna spray paint Obviously we know we're gonna paint up over here because we want to fix this but we don't want to just have a hard paint Line here and a hard paint line right there You'll see a big difference between the old paint and the new paint Even after we compound and polish this this paint is still a little more faded than fresh paint So what we want to do is we want to work with the body lines We want to find a spot like right down here where it gets tight where we're able to use this panel gap here and mask This off we're able to use this tight spot here and then blend it old paint to new paint So you can't really see a transition and if you do see it, it's in a really small tight spot So it's not completely obvious same thing coming up over here obviously painting all this and then coming up right about here Perfect.
We'll use this panel gap right here We'll mask this off and we'll use this hard body line right here because you won't be able to see a big difference between this And this with a hard body line, you can't see that paint line So we're using the contours of the car to figure out exactly where we're gonna paint So we're gonna paint this whole top section right here up to here So let's mask this off and I like to use garbage bags, which I cut open to cover the rest of the car So just tape down the bags and close the door and make sure you could accurately tape off anything. You don't want painted Take your time with this make sure the tape lines are straight and even and remember anything exposed is gonna get painted. So now right here if we were just going to put a piece of tape right across it would create a hard tape line there Would be an obvious line and it just wouldn't look good So what we do is take a piece of paper something that you could fold in half and create a rounded tape line So we're gonna keep this right here like that And what that's going to do is the spray-paint is going to roll over it and it's going to create a smoother transition that will feather in later on so let's tape down our paper good and the last thing to do is covering the mirror like so So those are some tips to make it really easy to tape everything up and make sure you don't get overspray so the only thing that's visible is the part that we're actually going to paint everything else is Covered because if you don't it's gonna get overspray on it speaking of overspray I moved all the cars down the driveway away The wind is blowing that way so we won't have to worry about getting paint on our cars now.
Let's begin sanding this down so we could paint so let's start with a hundred eighty grit sandpaper and grab yourself a kitchen sponge and the trick here is the Sponge has enough play in it so that it won't create a hot spot when you're sanding So wrap the sponge like that and the idea is you can't press too hard in one spot The sponge is gonna distribute that load evenly across the entire body panel and this makes it easier to send and get the smoother results You want so sand down the entire rough surface until it's completely smoothed out good and I can't feel any bumps on the body panel So we're good to go now We could wipe this down with some alcohol and move on to the finer 320 grit sandpaper Which is gonna remove the 180 grit scratches and make it even more smooth then do another Alcohol wipe down and let's finish this off with 400 grit, which is as fine as we want to go before painting This will give the body panel to smooth this we need but also have the 400 grit scratches To allow the paint to adhere to the body panel now we could do one last wipe down of the body panel with the alcohol And make sure you wipe down the entire panel that we're painting and now we're ready to paint starting with primer Primers used because it adheres very well to the freshly sanded surface and it's designed to dry to a smooth surface So your color layer could look good just make sure you don't spray it on too thick but at the same time make sure you have complete coverage and after letting that dry for a few minutes now we could spray on the color coat again use overlapping layers and don't Too thick or it's gonna run after the first coat Let it dry for a few minutes and then spray another coat covering the areas you might have missed then give it a few minutes to dry and hit it with one last coat for a total of three coats after letting it dry for a few more minutes the Last step is to add clear coat and when picking your clear coat make sure it's the same type of paint as your color coat And just like before spray light overlapping coats and let it dry for a couple of minutes and for the last coat I like to slow down my hand and put down a slightly thicker coat Finishing with a thicker coat is gonna have less orange peel when it dries But be careful because you don't want to make it too thick because then it could run and that wouldn't look good And with that last layer of clear check this out this looks so good So we're gonna go and let this dry and as we let that dry, let's go and paint the door trim now we don't want to get paint on this so you could either tape it off or instead Remove it and to remove it grab some braided fishing line, and I'm using 50 pound test And what we need to do is push this line underneath the emblem and then move the fishing line back and forth in a sawing Motion and this is going to saw the glue off from underneath the emblem This is a cool little trick to get emblems off without damaging anything And then once you get to the end The emblem is free and you could remove it and that's all there is to it now Let's send down the door trim with 400 grit sandpaper to smooth the surface And give the paint something to bite on to then wipe it down with some alcohol to clean the surface and we are ready for Paint so we'll start by putting down some primer so it covers the part completely then we can hit it with three layers of our black color coat and Finally spray it with some automotive clear coat for that nice glossy shine and I think you guys see how this works That's all there is to it now. We just need to let it dry Alright, so we let this paint dry for 24 hours and the outside shell of the paint is hard dust won't stick to it So now's the time when we want to remove all this stuff and when peeling the tape away Always peel at a sharp angle away from the part that you painted So it creates a nice sharp paint line and the nice thing about using whole garbage bags is the cleanup is quick and easy Now we have one last piece of tape to peel off Beautiful. Okay.
So with everything removed remember, this is 24 hours later We want to do something that you probably won't expect and that is sand our freshly painted Surface with 5,000 grit sandpaper. And the reason why we're gonna do this is because no matter how good you are at spray-painting You're always gonna get a little bit of orange peel It's not gonna be perfectly flat and you're always gonna get a little bit of a haze So we want to buff that haze out of it. So to start we're gonna hit it with 5,000 grit So grab your soapy water and spray down the sandpaper as well as the surface you're gonna send then keep the sandpaper Flat against the surface and use a medium pressure to smooth down that orange peel You can even start with a thousand grit and work your way up to five thousand grit, but this paint came out so good we're just gonna start at five thousand and another important spot that we want to focus on is right here where we have our new paint and our old paint we want to make sure we blend this in so grab your sandpaper and send the new paint and Overlap onto the old paint and this will help you blend it so you can't really see new versus old then wipe it down and see how it looks and That's all there is to it.
Now. You can't even see a transition between the old paint and the new paint That looks awesome. And you can see this has a nice uniform haze and now the next thing to do is we're gonna start from the front and work our way back and just compound and polish the car and Just to remind you We're doing all of this by hand so you could get the same exact results at home with no special tools So just like before start with compounding the paint and buff it in there good with a medium pressure on the pad This paint is pretty bad on this side.
So it's gonna take a little bit longer So don't be afraid to compound the paint again good now we can move on to Polishing same as before use medium pressure and buff the Polish into the paint then buff it off and finally Let's get a layer of wax on here to protect the fresh surface wax on and wax Off and that's all there is to it. Check this out. Look at this shine it is Incredible compared to that old oxidized paint so you know how to do it you get the idea I'm just going to show you a before and after on each panel as I go along so you don't have to see the entire Process and then I'll cover what to do on this piece right here that we painted So check out the difference on the front passenger door the rear passenger door and the rear quarter-panel Would you look at this car?
This is incredible. Look at the difference in this shine Holy smokes. Wow, talk about a transformation.
This thing looks dripping wet Okay, so we have compounded polished and waxed everything down below and up top except the part that we Painted we do not want to do anything to that until now so let me show you what we're gonna do first compound the new paint just like we did with all the other parts of the Car and then polish the paint the same way we did before as well and we're gonna stop right there We don't want to put a wax or a sealant or a ceramic coating on this yet because that paint is still curing it's still Breathing and we want to cure completely You want to wait about thirty days before you put a layer of wax or anything like that on top here. So just leave it compound then polish and we're done and check this out. Look at this Can you even see the difference between the two paints?
You can't even see where the transition is between the new and the old paint new and old paint It looks identical This looks so good. And the same thing right over here can't even see that paint line because it's hidden in that body line So that's perfect. And this truck is coming out Amazing now.
There's a few other quick things. We have the faded plastic We have the wheels and we have the headlights that we need to fix up So let's get started with this faded plastic and turn it back to black now the trick to restore this and keep it looking good For years to come is to use a ceramic coating like this I've been messing around with ceramic coating and normally people put this on their paint But what I've realized is it works really well on plastics and the trick is preparation of the surface So grab some soapy water and a plastic brush like this Spray down the entire surface with soapy water and use a brush to clean the plastic You only want to use a brush like this if the plastic surface is textured if it's smooth just wipe it down with a microfiber towel but on a textured surface like this the brush is going to get into all those little crevices and make a huge difference in how Clean you get it then hose away all the dirt You just brushed up and finally let it dry completely Now any time before your ceramic coat you want to make sure you rub down the entire surface with alcohol and that preps the surface Now these ceramic coating kits come with everything you need So let's grab all that stuff out of here. And all you need to do is grab the foam applicator grab the microfiber towel They give you and then you take your ceramic coating and you put a couple of drops right on the foam applicator.
Just Like that, just get a bunch on there normally with paint you wouldn't put this much but with plastic this is gonna absorb it a lot watch this and its Crazy how much this plastic soaks up the ceramic coating also check out how good this is coming out This is so simple all you need to do is make sure you don't miss any spots and you guys know I like comparisons before and After look at that difference, this looks amazing and the best part is with the ceramic coating This is going to be deep and dark like that for a long time and you can't tell me that doesn't look way better It's not faded anymore and it looks great, especially with our freshly polished car now It's not the only place you could use ceramic coating another good use is on the underside of door handles where it gets all scratched Just buff a little bit of ceramic coating into here and look at that difference The scratches are harder to see the plastic is darker and it just looks way better. Here's it scratched up. And here's it ceramic coated Now you could use your ceramic coating on tons of different plastics on your car like this wing mirror And again, this will stay shiny.
It'll stay dark and this deep color for a long time And I think you get the idea ceramic coating, which is normally meant for the paint. It works. Awesome on plastic.
Trust me You're gonna love it. Alright, so now that we got our plastics all fixed up now Let me show you how to clean those wheels first grab your favorite wheel cleaner and spray down the wheels Then use a soft bristle brush to agitate the cleaner and remove all the brake dust and dirt on the wheel and tire One tip is to make sure you don't let the wheel cleaner dry onto the wheels. If it dries, it's gonna stain them badly So brush the entire wheel and then spray it down with the hose and just look at all that dirt coming off the wheel Now while this looks pretty good I could see some standing that didn't come off the wheel So let me show you how to remove this see all that discoloration and standing in there Even if we take a microfiber towel, and we try to wipe this away.
It's just in that paint now most wheels are painted So that standing is embedded in that paint So using the same exact compound as before Put a little on a microfiber towel and buff it in there good just keep buffing it until the stain is removed And check it out all of that Staining is now gone the slight abrasive in that compound removed it and your wheels look good as new now Do let me be clear. This right here is not a stain that is damaged clear coat You can't remove that you can't fix that Well you can I have a whole nother video on it But you can't just use compound on here and it disappears You actually have to sand this down and respray so for stuff like this, you can't fix it But for the standing that you saw over there, you could compound that out Now the last thing I like to do to set these wheels off is use a low gloss tire shine So spray it on the tire and this is actually an all-in-one tire cleaner and shine so it could get onto the wheels without Causing any problems and then I like to wipe it off which gives it that Perfect amount of shine and no chance of tire sling and not bad, right? I love that low gloss Sheen It looks great the tires look brand-new compared to a high gloss Sheen and It helps with our high gloss paint that we just did because the wheel isn't out shining the paint So now we have two things left one I'm gonna show you how to restore the headlights and then put a protective coating on there and Two we're gonna be putting our door trim back on the door, and then we are done So let's finish up and let me show you how to restore these headlights now to restore headlights There's a ton of different methods.
You could go out and buy one of these headlight restoration kits. That's fine They work but what I like to try to do is not have you guys spend a ton of money So we're gonna use the same compound polish and our 5000 grit sandpaper that we've been using all day So grab your soapy water spray down the headlights and then sand down the lens to remove any Oxidation and just make sure as you're sanding you don't hit the paintwork here with the sandpaper Otherwise you'll have to buff this out as well. You could tape this if you want.
I'm not too concerned I'm just gonna be careful so sand the lens until it's uniformly hazy and then we can move on to the compounding step just like compounding the paint buffed the headlight lens but use a little bit more pressure than usual really work it into the lens and then finally Buff in some polish again Buffing with some decent pressure to get those scratches out of the plastic and look at that. That looks so good at this point if you want you could leave it but this haziness is going to come back in a couple of months because the Sun is beating down on it and there's nothing to protect it But if you want the last at least a year and you don't want to buff it every couple months I've been messing around with some ceramic coating on the headlights, and I've been having awesome results so wipe the lens down with alcohol and then get a few drops of ceramic coating on your towel and apply the coating to the Lens making sure to overlap and wipe in different directions. So you don't miss any spots now check out this awesome Transformation and it's amazing how clear headlights make any car look so much better All right So we have one more thing we need to do And that is to install that painted door trim to the side of the car.
So how we're going to attach This is on the backside. We're going to be using some plastic emblem and trim adhesive This will go right around the outside of this plastic trim And then all we have to do is tape it in place and let it sit for 30 minutes So let's place this down on a soft surface So we don't damage the fresh paint and we want to clean the back here with alcohol where the adhesives gonna go now Let's add the adhesive and put a thin bead We don't want to add a lot just a little bit around the whole perimeter the adhesive should get spread out when we press it flat against the door and it should look just like that now we want to Clean the surface we're gluing it to with you guessed it alcohol and to make sure the trim goes on level I'm using some tape to help guide me. Also we need a couple of pieces of tape ready That way we can hold the trim in place after we press it on now You want to very carefully align this trim because we have one shot at this and once it's aligned press it on there So all the glue makes contact with the door finally, let's tape the trim in place so it doesn't fall off and this needs to sit for 30 minutes to cure and while we wait we might as well glue the emblem on which is way easier because it's small and you can't put this on crooked just make sure you press it in all the Way so the glue makes contact.
Alright, 30 minutes later, and this is dry We could remove the tape now speaking of tape you can see the ends here I taped off even more Because the ends were starting to peel back a little bit and I wanted to make sure they were flush but now we can remove The tape and carefully do this don't just start ripping it off Remember you have freshly painted services and also freshly glued surfaces and with that we are done Look at this car shine. What a Difference and let me remind you. This was a neglected non-running 500 dollar car and now not only does she run But she looks amazing and the best part is you guys could do this at home yourself I didn't use any fancy tools or expensive products and I did the entire job by hand That way you guys know that you could get the same exact results and speaking of results.
Check this out Check out this paint correction. This is Incredible so from restoring the faded plastic To touching up the paintwork here on top of the door to this entire paint correction the wheels the headlights I hope you guys learned a lot from this video and if you did remember to give it a thumbs up also If you're not a subscriber consider hitting that subscribe button for more videos just like this and as always the tools and products I used in this video are linked in the description so you can easily find It and get the same results along with that Auto tempest website.
