# Mouldy Suzuki Swift - Cleaned after four years of disuse. GROSS!



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

Edit: Interior clean photos here.

You can read part one of this cars story on my blog here and part two here.

I picked up this little 2002 Suzuki Swift for under £200 back in November but only recently collected it. It had sat on a driveway near some bushes for about four years but all I had to do was stick a new battery and a pair of wiper blades and it passed it's MOT first time with no advisories. It's even got low mileage, just 16, 500! Part of me was hoping that it would fail spectacularly so I could swap the mint interior and windscreen into my other 2002 Suzuki Swift (coincidence I assure you.)

Here's the odd thing about driving a car in the state it was in; nobody noticed. Not a single eyelid was batted and the police even drove past it yesterday and showed zero interest. I'm sure this is the first 'proper' wash this car has ever had. I am by no means a professional, just a keen amateur really so be warned, this isn't going to be perfect!

I started with the door and boot openings first. I used an old foaming wheel cleaner bottle with a heavy mix of snow foam and water, agitated and carefully removed with the 'soak' setting on a generic hose tool. I then left a heavy foam over the exterior and wheel arches agitating the crevices and wheel wells. Removed with power washer. Regular two bucket wash, followed by a once over with Meguiars clay. I was surprised how gentle it was on the clay, I was expecting to get through it at an absurd pace. Unfortunately I think I have left behind some scratches with the clay but I picked up a DAS6 recently so if I've still got the car when I get some pads and polish I'll have a bash at getting them out.

Plenty more work to do over what I've already done though. I left some marring behind from the clay, the door/boot openings could do with a final going over, it'll need some wax and I've still got the interior to do but I ran out of light today. I think it only really needs a quick vacuum over really but I'm sure I'll take before and afters anyway.


----------



## Ultra (Feb 25, 2006)

LOL if that's what you think is gross then you have'nt seen anything :lol
not having a dig but i am amused.


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

Ultra Detail said:


> LOL if that's what you think is gross then you have'nt seen anything :lol
> not having a dig but i am amused.


Gross compared to 99% of the cars people make threads for here. There's only so many after only photos of German cars I can look at before getting bored. OKCharlie is my inspiration lol.


----------



## A&J (Mar 4, 2015)

Somewhat weird but I wish I had a dirty mouldy car like that to clean... I already detailed all of our cars at home so i kinda miss a dirty project like yours...

Great job btw...too bad you diddnt photograph during the wash but be sure to post some picks before, during and after polishing :thumb:


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

A&J said:


> Somewhat weird but I wish I had a dirty mouldy car like that to clean... I already detailed all of our cars at home so i kinda miss a dirty project like yours...
> 
> Great job btw...too bad you diddnt photograph during the wash but be sure to post some picks before, during and after polishing :thumb:


Haha I know what you mean, I've always wanted to tackle a car in this state. I normally would take photos during the cleaning process but it was ****ing with rain until about 11:30 this morning so I only really had the afternoons worth of light to play with so just cracked on. It was a very pleasant 10°C around here though!


----------



## Soul boy 68 (Sep 8, 2013)

Nice work fella, really impressed and now the car must feel loved again, have a beer on me. :detailer:


----------



## Zetec-al (Feb 28, 2011)

Great work and turnaround


----------



## turbosnoop (Apr 14, 2015)

Looks like it just gained £100s of pounds in value by having a wash!


----------



## Peter D (Oct 26, 2005)

Brilliant work and looks like a great buy!


----------



## Hufty (Apr 27, 2015)

Doubled the value there pal in a quick wash


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

Soul boy 68 said:


> Nice work fella, really impressed and now the car must feel loved again, have a beer on me. :detailer:


Thanks. Sure my Paypal is... I don't drink anyway so I'll politely decline 



Zetec-al said:


> Great work and turnaround


Thank you.



turbosnoop said:


> Looks like it just gained £100s of pounds in value by having a wash!


When I paid for it all I had done was put a battery on it and watched it idle up to temperature. Under those circumstances what I paid was probably crazy but considering it passed it'a MOT first time and what it's worth now you're probably not wrong!



Peter D said:


> Brilliant work and looks like a great buy!


Thank you, it would appear to be so! Gotta service it as the oil filter is in a bad state but once I've done that I'll bomb about in it to find out if you're right ot not.



Hufty said:


> Doubled the value there pal in a quick wash


You're the second person to suggest that, probably not wrong.


----------



## slim_boy_fat (Jun 23, 2006)

Soul boy 68 said:


> Nice work fella, really impressed and now the car must feel loved again, have a beer on me. :detailer:.....


x 2. And I'd be prepared to bet the Police DID check it was road legal, remember they don't need to stop to carry out a check nowadays - ANPRs rule!! :lol: :lol:


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

slim_boy_fat said:


> x 2. And I'd be prepared to bet the Police DID check it was road legal, remember they don't need to stop to carry out a check nowadays - ANPRs rule!! :lol: :lol:


Hah, like my local force has the money for ANPR eqipment. The only ANPR camera I've seen around here was on a Focus ST which was down from Glasgow for whatever reason. The camera probably wasn't even on as I drove post it in a freshly taxed car that was SORN not long before hand! He was driving an old Vauxhall van and didn't even look at the car.


----------



## alfajim (May 4, 2011)

Great job.


----------



## TonyH38 (Apr 7, 2013)

Nice work, well done.


----------



## bazz (May 15, 2007)

great job and looks 100 times better now slap a set of wheel trims on and that will improve the look more


----------



## ibiza55 (Feb 22, 2008)

Nice little find now, as above some trims will make it look very reasonable, lovely jubbly.


----------



## acprc (Jun 14, 2009)

Looks great, satisfying to get it clean again. Do you have a leak somewhere, the rear windows look to have quite a bit of condensation?


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

alfajim said:


> Great job.





TonyH38 said:


> Nice work, well done.


Thanks folks.



bazz said:


> great job and looks 100 times better now slap a set of wheel trims on and that will improve the look more


These never did come with wheels trims (hence the silver wheels) and in my opinion pretty much all after market wheel trims are gash. I was going to buy a set of the optional 7-spoke OZ alloys from the pre facelift Swift for my daily (the blue on in the background) but even just refurbishing the wheels makes a tremendous difference to how they look. If I get weather I'll refurbish the ones on this car. It did have wheel trims on it when I got it but again I think they look rubbish. I'm probably going to cut the centres out of them and epoxy a flat piece of perspex across the centre, see if I can pick up an MPG or two 

Here's the car with the wheel trims still on it:









Here's a before and after from when I refurbished the wheels on the blue car:











ibiza55 said:


> Nice little find now, as above some trims will make it look very reasonable, lovely jubbly.


Yeah as it stood on the driveway what I paid was probably too much but that gamble has swung well in my favour. Gonna' win the Eurmillions on Tuesday too.



acprc said:


> Looks great, satisfying to get it clean again. Do you have a leak somewhere, the rear windows look to have quite a bit of condensation?


Very satisfying! Yes I think I did. The rubber and fabric sound deadening layer mat the boot is damp to the touch so I suspect that I didn't have the boot closed properly at some point. I think I got a few spats in while cleaning the boot aperture too. It wasn't doing that before and it seemed okay today so I'm not worried about it.


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

Gave my Freecycle Hoover cylinder machine a workout today. It's virtually all the interior needs other than some mudy stains removing from the drivers foot well. I'll still go back and give everything a wipe over anyway as I dislike the smell the car has. It actually looks like a normal car now!


















The white stuff is from a pair of 'bag for life' bags that had started to diintigrate from sitting in the sun too long.









Little white specs have come down from the dealer sticker, not sure it's going to survive me cleaning the window. Canterbury Suzuki if you're curious. I'm in Scotland.

























Emptied the rubbish and hoovered all the torn up paper and other detritus. Still need to give the surfaces a wipe down but they're all plastic so nice easy job for tomorrow.









Seats be gone!









Quick 50/50. Nothing particularly impressive.


----------



## jr250 (Sep 19, 2015)

Superbeast said:


> There's only so many after only photos of German cars I can look at before getting bored.


So true. This is far more interesting than the usual euro box.


----------



## 66Rob (Sep 25, 2007)

Great job what a difference, good little car.


----------



## subarufreak (Oct 20, 2013)

any plans with it?


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

subarufreak said:


> any plans with it?


Probably just finish cleaning it up then sell it. I would have liked to have turned it into an autocross car but I don't have any off road storage at the moment.

-----

Currently painting wheels, on the second of five at the time of writing. I think I am going to try and jam like a madman tomorrow and get as many done as possible. Not a special refurb, they won't hold up to super close scrutiny as it's just a quick and dirty rattle can job to turn them around. The finish would probably be better if I took some time with polish afterwards but I need to get this thing shifted at some point. Yes there is some over spray, I'll get that scrubbed off and some Meguiars tyre gel slapped on ASAP.

For reference this was the offside front.


----------



## bazz (May 15, 2007)

Superbeast said:


> Probably just finish cleaning it up then sell it. I would have liked to have turned it into an autocross car but I don't have any off road storage at the moment.
> 
> -----
> 
> Currently painting wheels, on the second of five at the time of writing. I think I am going to try and jam like a madman tomorrow and get as many done as possible. Not a special refurb, they won't hold up to super close scrutiny as it's just a quick and dirty rattle can job to turn them around. The finish would probably be better if I took some time with polish afterwards but I need to get this thing shifted at some point. Yes there is some over spray, I'll get that scrubbed off and some Meguiars tyre gel slapped on ASAP.


the wheel looks much better


----------



## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

My girlfriends best mate has a Pug 206 which is all going green and moss growing on window runners etc....she's asked me to clean it for her!!

Great turnaround on the swift


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

MadOnVaux! said:


> My girlfriends best mate has a Pug 206 which is all going green and moss growing on window runners etc....she's asked me to clean it for her!!


I look forward to seeing the thread!


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

That's most of the wheels done now, just two left. I'm not totally happy with how the shade looks compared to the bright silver bodywork colour, maybe polishing them up might help, but it's better than how they were before.


----------



## seat_Jay (Dec 11, 2015)

Nice work, quite enjoy these threads its a bit closer to what most of us are coming up against in real life. Did you end up selling this and if so how did you get on?


----------



## Kiashuma (May 4, 2011)

Looking good. Nice work on the wheels as well.


----------



## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

MadOnVaux! said:


> My girlfriends best mate has a Pug 206 which is all going green and moss growing on window runners etc....she's asked me to clean it for her!!





Superbeast said:


> I look forward to seeing the thread!


I've just remembered about this.....she's px'ed the mossy mouldy 206 and has a fresh one, so I'm not doing it now


----------



## Demetrios72 (Jun 27, 2011)

Great turnaround :thumb:


----------



## Superbeast (Mar 18, 2014)

seat_Jay said:


> Nice work, quite enjoy these threads its a bit closer to what most of us are coming up against in real life. Did you end up selling this and if so how did you get on?


Thanks. Yes I ended up selling it but I spent more keeping it insured than the profit I made. If I had off road storage I would have nearly doubled my profit. With the benefit of hindsight I would have just stripped it of the good parts for my higher spec one as now that I'm back to driving that again I'm really aware of how much tighter the silver one was in every regard.


----------

