Tahoe Reconditioning Project

This is my first post here, outside of the intro forum. Im a professional detailer and figured I would post up a project Border Patrol Tahoe that I eventually bought for myself. I had close to 40 hours total in this truck.









---------- Post added at 01:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:46 AM ----------

All of the glue was removed using Car Brite's Take Off. The entire truck was wetsanded using 1000 grit paper, then buffed out with 3M Perfect-It 2 compound. Heres a 50/50 shot.


After the compounding was finished, it was polished out with Auto Magic's Risk Free polish and a blue polishing pad, then with a white finishing pad, Auto Magic's Strawberry Wet Wax was applied. All of the machine work was done with a rotary.









The black wheels and mud grips were replaced with stock wheels because this was for a dealership and it had to be put back to factory specs.
No before pics of the interior, but trust me it was nasty. 13 hours was spent on the interior alone.



Thanks for looking

very nice great work

06tahoe said:

very nice great work

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Thank you

wow nice job there, any tips to get the interior clean again? My interior has seen better days before my dog, i have urine stains on my seats and smells i want to remove.

great job man! Ive got a friend in the detailing buisness and they do great jobs as well! Again good job,looks great!

Doomsta510 said:

wow nice job there, any tips to get the interior clean again? My interior has seen better days before my dog, i have urine stains on my seats and smells i want to remove.

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What I use on everything other than seats and carpet is a dry foam call Xtra Duty from Car Brite. VERY good stuff, similar to Tuff Stuff or Blue Coral but twice as strong. For seats and carpet, I personally use a heated extractor but there are alot of differant ways of doing it. Foam is a good one as far as over the counter products go. Folex is also a good otc product for seats and carpet. The tricky part with seats these days is they have to be cleaned evenly or else they will look spotty. Good microfiber towels are a good idea when doing seats too. As for the smell...that can be a chore if its really bad. There are tons of products that are supposed to compleatly kill the odor, but they dont. Normally, if the seats and carpet are shampooed, the headliner is cleaned, and the rest of the interior is cleaned up the smell will usually fade away. Ive known of people sticking dryer sheets in the springs of their seats to absorb the odor and they swear it works. A good quality air freshener that also kills malodor would be my suggestion over all. Chemicalguys.com has some of the best Ive ever used.

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Tahoekid1993 said:

great job man! Ive got a friend in the detailing buisness and they do great jobs as well! Again good job,looks great!

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Thank you I really appreciate it.
In case anyone is wondering, the diamond shaped marks in the rear head rests and the hole in the floor that I patched is from the cage that was in there to transport illegal aliens.

what'd you do to get that engine bay lookin so damn good?

clean81, you do great work. I need to have mine yuk detailed on the outside, you can see scuff marks like the 50/50 shot you took on mine. Or maybe I should just buff it myself but not sure what rpms' etc to use. Might be a project in the next several weeks. Again, nice work bro.

---------- Post added at 09:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 AM ----------

Never mind, saw what you used and think I will try the same stuff.

ecordell said:

what'd you do to get that engine bay lookin so damn good?

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I used some very strong degreaser called Hot Stuff from Car Brite and a 2000 psi steam washer. Every one of these Border Patrol trucks are horrid under the hood. On any other vehical Ive ever done (1000s) Hot Stuff has cut every last speck of dirt, grease, oil, etc off with no prob. Im washing these engines at least 3 times. Ive never seen engine bays this nasty.

I see your from Olney..your not far from me

---------- Post added at 11:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 PM ----------

My01yuk said:

clean81, you do great work. I need to have mine yuk detailed on the outside, you can see scuff marks like the 50/50 shot you took on mine. Or maybe I should just buff it myself but not sure what rpms' etc to use. Might be a project in the next several weeks. Again, nice work bro.

---------- Post added at 09:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 AM ----------

Never mind, saw what you used and think I will try the same stuff.

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Thank you. It all depends on what machine you use, how comfortable you are with it, and your pad/product choice. I personally prefer a wool pad and medium compound on my rotary, but unless a person is pretty experianced with a rotary its a wheel of death. I often use a light compound like 3M Perfect It 3 and a foam cutting pad if the scratches arent too deep. Its safer and finishes down alot better. Color of the vehical is also a huge factor. Dark colors and rotary buffers dont play well together. I use a DA polisher for those which is the safest and really the best way to do it. A good DA with the right pads and products will make a paint job look like a mirror.

whats the advantage of wetsanding the paint?
how hard is it to do?
is it easy to screw up

truck looks great now!!