Truck Project

[mrasmussen]

Hey, I just purchased a used truck and the paint is a mess. Every panel has swirls and scratches. None of the scratches are deep enough to feel if you rub your thumbnail over them, but you can see white in many of the scratches. I don't need a showroom shine, I am looking to correct the paint, not to perfection, but get out 95% of the mess. I would like to skip a step or two and get by with good enough. If you guys think it will look like crap, I'll have to work the entire Rupes system, which means going over the truck 4 times than I usually hand wax. Maybe I can skip a step or two

Tools -
Rupes Bigfoot 21 6" with pads
Rupes BigFoot LHR 75E mini 3" with pads

1. After a wash I was going to hit the entire truck with Rupes Coarse (blue pad), get most of the larger scratches and swirls out
2. Skip steps 2 and 3 which are medium and fine
3. Hit the entire truck with Ultra fine Diamond (white pad), buzz the truck until I am happy with the results
4. some sort of wax or protectant, I haven't decided yet

I know Rupes designed the entire system to work together, and doing all 4 steps will make the truck look amazing, but I'm wondering if I can take the lazy way out and just hit the 2 steps and get a good enough look, which again is subjective.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

1. After a wash I was going to hit the entire truck with Rupes Coarse (blue pad), get most of the larger scratches and swirls out
2. Skip steps 2 and 3 which are medium and fine
3. Hit the entire truck with Ultra fine Diamond (white pad), buzz the truck until I am happy with the results
4. some sort of wax or protectant, I haven't decided yet

That will work great.

Also just to note - RUPES NEVER prescribed for people to do all these step. In fact, they claim their system is a ONE STEP system for most paints. Not all, but most. By this they mean, you do some testing and dial in a pad and product that removes the defects to your satisfaction and you're done.


What you're wanting is a little nicer finish than the unwashed masses, so doing 2 steps is ideal versus doing 1 step.


I use the Blue/White option the most and show this process the most in all my classes. If I had more typing time I could show you multiple, multiple horrendous looking cars that either I detailed or my classes detailed using Blue/White.


BUT - for the first step - you're going to want at least 6 blue pads. As the foam becomes wet with product it's going to do 2 things,


1: Stop cutting.

2: Stop rotating.



So you're going to need at least 6 pads for the first step.