Detailed my New 2011 Black Tahoe

[NCTahoe]

Hey guys,

So before accepting my new job up here in Buffalo, NY I was in college and during school I ran a part time detailing company which I had great success with. I'm a self-taught detailer and have been detailing customer cars for a little over 2 years now. I picked up my new 2011 Black Tahoe Z71 on November 14th and got straight to detailing it. Here is my write up of it that I did for Autogeek.net

Here are some pics when I picked it up:
IMG_2654 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2657 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

Looks pretty decent! The truck was in phenomenal shape! 60k miles and interior is in great shape minus the crappy oily interior stuff the dealer put all over it. It took a while to scrub all of that off of every single interior surface.

Upon closer inspection however, the paint was hammered. Very deep rids and swirls all over the vehicle.
IMG_2821 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2822 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2824 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

My goal was to eliminate the swirls and some of the light-medium RIDS (random isolated deep scratches). I went with a two step paint correction using my Flex 3401. First step was Lake Country Purple Foamed Wool pad with Menzerna FG400. I first tried a Lake Country Orange hybrid pad but it just wasn't cutting it. Here are the results with the foamed wool pad. Lots of hazing but that was expected with a foamed wool pad.
IMG_2826 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2831 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2838 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2841 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

IMG_2852 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2853 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

After this I followed up and finished it with CarPro Reflect on a Lake Country White Hyrbid pad. Here are the results.
IMG_2856 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2857 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

Continued in next post due to picture limit..

 

[NCTahoe]

I applied Wolfgang Uber Ceramic Coating to every surface of this vehicle. Wheels, paint, glass and some trim pieces. The Wolfgang coating went on flawlessly and was super easy to remove. It came out great! I've used this coating on around a dozen cars now and I love it. Here are some finished pictures. All pics are RAW and unedited.
DSC_0341 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
DSC_0343 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
DSC_0344 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
DSC_0345 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

I also put some sweet new BFG All Terrain K02 tires on it to handle the snow a bit better up here in Buffalo, NY.
DSC_0346 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
DSC_0347 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
DSC_0348 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
DSC_0349 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
DSC_0350 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
DSC_0353 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

Here are some 50/50 shots.
IMG_2904 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2905 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr
IMG_2906 by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

I'm happy with how it turned out. Thanks for looking guys! If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Also check out my detailing instagram for those interested. I won't be doing as much work now that I'm working full time but I do expect to try and do some weekend jobs for fun.

instagram.com/merritt_detailing

If anyone is interested in me posting some more detailing articles I'd be happy to! I'm thinking of posting one on how to safety wash your truck in the winter without scratching it. Being in Buffalo now, the roads have a ton of salt so it can be a daunting task without the proper supplies and techniques.

 

[NeverSatisfied]

Good lord that's a hell of a difference. Well done man that Tahoe is shines now

 

[NCTahoe]

Thanks Cody! I was very happy with how it came out. Took about 3 days to do it including the 12hr cure time on the coating.

 

[felixgun]

omg that looks so good. My black vehicle needs this!!! Any DIY paint correction websites you can recommend @NCTahoe

 

[NCTahoe]

omg that looks so good. My black vehicle needs this!!! Any DIY paint correction websites you can recommend @NCTahoe

Thanks @felixgun ! http://www.autogeekonline.net is pretty much the best site around for how-to's. There are a couple others but Autogeek is my favorite by far. Join their forum and start reading and searching around. I learned just from reading some of their articles and forum posts and then by doing and practicing. I think that's the best way to learn. Read around and make sure you understand proper techniques then just go practice on something. Black Chevy paint is pretty hard (read: hard to mess up) so it's good to practice on and get your technique nailed down.

You can call Autogeek and ask their product support guys literally anything and they'll help you out. Or if you have questions I'd be happy to help. I enjoy teaching people proper detailing techniques!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/
http://www.autogeek.net/detailingtips.html

 

[HoS]

Looks absolutely amazing. I'll hire someone over doing it myself, but damn at those results!

 

[OHSIXX]

Amazing before/after results.....nice work!

 

[NCTahoe]

Looks absolutely amazing. I'll hire someone over doing it myself, but damn at those results!

Thanks!

Amazing before/after results.....nice work!

Appreciate the kind words! Just gave her her first wash since the detail 2 months ago. Had to get all the salt off that's built up so far.

Untitled by Chris Merritt, on Flickr

 

[felixgun]

Looks absolutely amazing. I'll hire someone over doing it myself, but damn at those results!

This is usually how I think. But I got laid off recently soooo sounds like a good time to learn a few new skills instead of paying to get it done lol.