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Fantastic! Congrats (it looks awesome in speed yellow)!
Gald the ppf is coming off ok! Scott when you can can you please share the steam cleaning unit/attachments that you've used? Also, any differences on technique or attachments with it on plastic (bumper) vs.metal (hood etc)? This might be a winter project for me. TIA!
Fantastic! Congrats (it looks awesome in speed yellow)!
Gald the ppf is coming off ok! Scott when you can can you please share the steam cleaning unit/attachments that you've used? Also, any differences on technique or attachments with it on plastic (bumper) vs.metal (hood etc)? This might be a winter project for me. TIA!
Congrats Scott!
second the question above on PPF. If the front bumper was a respray and you managed to pull zero paint, that is amazing. I’m familiar with steaming off PPF and the technique but curious to hear more about it too.
Hey guys, sorry for the lack of response...family was out of town so I spent every waking hour working on this sucker! Couple answers. First, regarding the ppf. The bumper had been resprayed so that had no ppf on it. everything else was original to the car, and there was a lot of it. Rear quarters near the ic intake vents, mirrors, trailing edges of the wheel wells, door sills, door edges, under the gas cap, etc... Zero paint was pulled up, which tells me that stuff was likely on original paint. By the end I had refined my method somewhat. The key I think is a good steamer. Not your wife's clothes steamer...that won't get hot enough. You need an industrial, professional grade unit. I used one that a detailer recommended called the vx5000. It is heavy duty and pressures the water to an extreme level, and will burn the skin off your fingers if you are not careful. They are very pricey but pop up on ebay fairly regularly, and come with alot of attachments. Does a really goo job cleaning greasy undercarriages too.
I damaged leather with it once so I don't use it on leather anymore (although I suspect my technique was suspect, and that if I had kept the want moving a bit the damage could have been avoided). Other than that, you have to just experiment with angles of pulling, and keep the ppf very hot at all times. The other indispensable tools were a bunch of those plastic razor blades. They have a very refined edge and did not harm the paint (except if you are working an edge, it did cause some nicks, so stay away from edges with the tools and use your fingernails instead...I know, awful, but only way I could get the glue off in spots without damage). do not use a credit car or the like...the edge is actually very rough and will leave scratches. Finally, I tried 90% iso alcohol, goo gone, 3m adhesive remover, and this stuff worked the best: Its called rapid remover. Safe for paint and did the best cutting through the glue
The most irritating thing was that there seemed to be no rhyme or reason with respect to how easily an area would come off. A few places came off in one piece and left no glue as the glue went with the film. Some came off in big chunks but left 100% of the glue on the paint, and other areas saw the ppf come off in millimeter sized chunks. Those were the worst. I'm not kidding...probably took 20 hours to get it all off but I know for a fact that if I had a shop do this: 1) it would have cost an arm and a leg; and (2) they would have given up, damaged, the paint, and just chalked it up to the "old pff." My fingers are still sore but I'm happy its all off with no damage.
As for how I found it, I had various alerts set up (BAT, cars.com, ebay, etc...). Just had to wait for the right car (and it took years). This car was presented very, very poorly. Pics taken in a dark parking garage, and were fuzzy to boot. Car was also super, super dirty. There was so much dirt and dust on the car it was hard to assess the condition of the paint. There were literally cobwebs on it. Pics also suggested an overall lack of care: fuse cover on the floorboard in the pics, wrecked driver's side floor mat all twisted up, lots of cracked carbon fiber in the interior, Description was very generic, no records, no second key, no history, just a carfax showing a couple prior accidents and lots of prior owners. It was listed on small Van Nuys's used car dealer's site, and at that time the dealer had no other cars listed on the site asking more than 20k. In other words, a total "red flag/don't buy without seeing/driving" kind of car. So I flew in and spent an hour with it, learned the dealer was consigning it for a friend that couldn't speak English or drive stick, who bought it to help out a different friend, etc.... But despite all that and despite the warts that were present and tlc that was needed, the underside was dry, it drove great, pccb's looked new, no codes, bone stock, no apparent track time, and the price was right, so I knew I wanted to save it. Negotiated a slightly better price than original asking and go it done. I found out later the dealer fielded an estimated 30-50 calls, but I was the only one that took the time to look at it. Probably everyone else scared off (luckily for me).
This weekend I finished removing the ppf and waxed her up (no compounding/DA polishing yet...want to wait on that) changed the oil, replaced the air filter, removed and cleaned the y-pipe and tb (since I was so close anyway after removing the airbox), fixed a few gremlins here and there, and started addressing the delaminating ac vents. She is starting to clean up! Oh, and lest someone doubt my statement that there is yellow deviated stitching everywhere, check out the leather-covered ac vent slats (yes, they had fallen out so a minor repair was in order there too). There is deviated stitching on the BACK side of those suckers...that you would never see unless the slat came loose or you peered into the vent with a flashlight!
There is something to be said about taking the time to show up and look past the poor presentation on car! I scored two vehicles based on similar experiences of stuff to fix, poor presentation, lack of all documentation etc. I think it’s even easier to score a higher valued car when those “stars” align, as the majority of buyers for such vehicles aren’t going to want to deal with such things and have the ability to go up in price to the well presented examples.
Love that I know you’re going to fix it up and drive it as much as you can! Once it’s cleaned up we need a proper photo of all the vehicles, raptor included ha.
Funny, I am looking at a car on a similar lot and trying to find time to go see it. Has no business being on this lot…
Yup, scored a 944S that way. It had three different brands of tires on it and drove like absolute crap. Gave the dealer my card and told them to call me when they wanted to wholesale it. Month later got a screaming deal and drove it directly to the tire shop. Car was a blast to drive and ran it for years with no troubles. Sometimes it just happens that way.
There is something to be said about taking the time to show up and look past the poor presentation on car! I scored two vehicles based on similar experiences of stuff to fix, poor presentation, lack of all documentation etc. I think it’s even easier to score a higher valued car when those “stars” align, as the majority of buyers for such vehicles aren’t going to want to deal with such things and have the ability to go up in price to the well presented examples.
Love that I know you’re going to fix it up and drive it as much as you can! Once it’s cleaned up we need a proper photo of all the vehicles, raptor included ha.
Funny, I am looking at a car on a similar lot and trying to find time to go see it. Has no business being on this lot…
Nice! Good luck! The way I see it, when I pay for a "nice" vehicle there is always the threat of some big failure or expensive issue despite the price. But when I buy a "lesser" example, and feel good about the purchase price, that risk is already built in, so if some huge expense pops up, no biggie. And if not, then I win! I guess that's just the way I am wired. Would rather assume the worst and pay less, then pay high and hope for the best and then have an issue emerge that makes it a "bad" deal! When all the little projects are done I need to do a photo shoot!
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ha, complete with ping-pong table smack-dab in the middle...which my wife loves! (my 16-year old and I have all out ping pong wars most nights!). Since the family is all out of town for the kid's "fall break" I've commandeered most of the living/family room with seat parts (restoring some hard back sport seat I scored cheap as I'm going to sell the yellow back buckets...that leatherique stuff works wonders on dried out leather. This of course would never fly if my wife knew what was happening at the house!
Must take advantage of an empty house. I got caught a few times as my partner came home sooner than I thought. Explaining the towels and parts all over the place was easy. My black/greasy hands and associated handles? Not so much.
Leatherique is amazing. Took advantage of a few 114 days earlier this year to tackle an older LX. Don’t understand why it works as well as it does, but sure do appreciate it!
Beautiful house, Scott. Let's hope she doesn't check into Rennlist.
Those skeletons of seats are pretty cool. Did not know that they can break down so completely. The backs on mine are pretty scarred up and it would be nice to paint them Guards Red some time.
09-28-2024 | 04:46 PM
