LRflip said:
Other than the tires and the engine bay, looks to be a pretty honest truck.
I hate when they detail the engine bay like that, looks like they've got something to hide.
The engine bay isn't the worst I've seen, but they need to learn how to get a low satin finish on the black stuff. Still, I can tell they did saturate the hell out of it, which is no good at all.
These morons spray all manner of crap on parts like that. Sometimes they even use the right stuff, but don't know how to apply it.
When you do it wrong, you actually make things worse. When you do it right, you add life to the parts in question. If you want to know how to detail an engine bay, pop the hood on a new car that
just hit the lot.
Lots of matte and dull satin. You know, the
natural finish for materials like that...
The state of under-hood detailing today is much like the state of tire detailing. People have forgotten what the point of it was in the first place, and will now use anything they can find to cover everything in snot, accurately reproducing a half-ass job from the 1970's.
They fucked up the tires on this car, as well.
Just a few issues:
1: They should have replaced the hook and fairlead, as well as any fucking Lowes-available rusty hardware on the outside of the vehicle. It's the front bumper! There are several rusty parts on the front bumper, of all things!
2: There is a way to revitalize powder coat, such as the coat on the bumpers and sills. They didn't do it. All it takes is micro fiber, some dash restorer, and sweat.
3: Similar methods should have been applied to the frame rails and axles, which are quite exposed on a Defender. Everything readily observed under there should be black. It doesn't have to be perfect, just black. Don't forget the rack, raised intake, and roll bar, either.
4: The suspension arms should have been sprayed. It's not cheating, it's maintenance. As well, the wheel arches need a few minutes and some spray. A little aging on bits here and there is fine, and can even be good, but outright dry rust is bad.
5: Always replace a shoddy exhaust. It's cheap and adds significant value on a pricy vehicle, especially one with such an exposed exhaust.
6: One of the light guards appears misaligned.
7: That sound system needs to be out of there. The mismatched speakers scream amateur, and the amp is hideous. Systems such as that tend to reduce the value of a vehicle. If you can't go factory, get as close as you can with black stuff that's got discreet grilles. Rip the other crap out and sell it.
The tape player, however, should go, and should be replaced with a discreet CD player. They are quite cheap, and feature many modern conveniences, such as Bluetooth, media-readers, satellite radio capability, and things of the like. Those are good selling points, especially for a primitive vehicle like this.
Don't bother with an amp or a sub. Just go from the receiver to the factory speaker locations with discreet grilles.
It's not that every car needs audio gear. Even tape players are fine, if they are factory players hooked to factory speakers. The problem is a car with crap installed. If the car is expensive and style-specific like a Defender, that shit needs to go.
Not having crap audio lets you advertise a car without crap audio and shit wiring. That's a good thing.
8: The interior hasn't been treated properly.
9: Always make sure the damned door wire sleeves are fully present.
10: They couldn't get their custom plate straight?
11: They should not have left the covers on the upper lights.
12: Fifty Cents of black nylon could have solved the zip tie problem on the roll bar.
Never have white nylon ties visible.
13: Non-factory decals should be removed, or replaced with new if significant paint differences are uncovered. Nobody on Ebay gives a shit about Safari-Gard. It's just a stupid sticker screwing up the eye-lines.
14: Canned studio shots are nice, and all, but it's always good to have a shot of a car in it's native environment.
15, and my biggest gripe: The description does nothing to sell the vehicle. It's rubbish, and simply a pile of pointless information. It's like advertising power door locks on a Mercedes, and naming door lock brands the buyers have never heard of.
It's an expensive car. A few more hours, a few more dollars, and it would be finished. When you want top dollar for something like that, the details matter. Sure, it may sell, but you'll move it more quickly and get closer to the number you want with a few more steps.
It's stupid to stop there when it's so close. I'm sure they sell a lot of cars, but if you don't, you've got to get it right. They tried to leave it honest, but they left it honest in the wrong ways. All the fancy lighting makes lots of stuff look great in pictures, but there will be flaws in person.
That lighting also
highlights the very flaws I mentioned.
It doesn't take several days and tons of money to get the stuff right. All this car needed in the money department was a cat-back, a fairlead, some cheap audio, and a few nuts and bolts. Any seller of cars or car enthusiast should have the rest on hand.
Cheers,
Kennith
