Completion of weekend project Ford 4 x 4

Nica

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Completion of my supervisors Ford truck. At first it didn’t seem that bad and I went light but then after one pass I realized that I was going to have to get the strong stuff out. In reality though, if I would have wet sanded like one suggested that would have saved lots of time but then again I think I saved some CC on the truck by doing it this way. Time was not an issue so I took my time and tried different combinations.

Oh yea the owner did not want me to do the entire vehicle, just wanted the spot to be polished up as best as possible.

So here are the steps:


Washed



Washed using Meg’s Gold Class wash. I’m quite satisfied with this stuff so I keep using it.



Clay



Used Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay with Pinnacle Clay Lubricant. I can’t say enough about this stuff and made such a difference after I clayed the area that the owner was quite impressed with it and asked where I got it from. I did the area that the owner wanted me to concentrate on and when I was done he took it and used it on some spots of the truck. At the end he ended up taking the clay home.



Polish with PC and Edge 2K pads (lower part of the panel)



I first started off with XMT # 3 with orange pad. The first pass was good but the second pass was even better. The owner was standing over my shoulder anxious to see how this would turn out and on the first pass he said “not bad” second pass he said “are you kidding me, I can’t see the scratches anymore!”. So the lower part was a peace of cake.



Polish with PC and Edge 2K pads (upper part of the panel – really bad area)



Now for the fun area, after I claying the area I realized that the scratches were quite deep but I didn’t want to wet sand. I told the owner if he would prefer I could wet sand and he said no, that he would rather have the scratches then to remove to much CC. So the first pass was with XMT #3 with orange pad, first pass hardly noticed any difference so I went a little more abrasive. I went with XMT #3 with Green pad, this removed some scratches but still not strong enough and that was it for the PC moved on to phase two of the polishing.



Polishing with the rotary and Edge 2K pads (still upper part of the panel – really bad area)



At this point I started to smile lots because I was given green light to use the rotary from the owner…oh who was still watching over my shoulder. So came out the Metabo rotary with XMT #4 and green pad. Now I’ve heard great things of XMT #4 and man it lives up to its reputation. One pass was all it needed. The owner who was eagerly looking over my shoulder was amazed at the difference and said “wow, what a difference.”. He wasn’t the only one please with it, I was really happy that I was able remove the heavy scratches…now don’t go thinking that it’s a 100% because it’s not more like 90% better but the owner said he could live with that so that’s where I stopped. You can still see two deep scratches but it’s only two big scratches and the owner didn’t want me to remove any more CC and he was more then pleased with the results.



Finishing polish and Edge 2K pads



After all the harsh scrubbing I did I went over the area with XMT #2 with orange pad and then XMT #1 with blue pad. Results were satisfactory, well at least the owner was blown away with the products and applications.



Glaze – applied and removed by hand



I used XMT Glaze, the owner didn’t know very much about the Glaze and when he saw me putting it on and then removed it he was impressed. Owner picked up the bottle and started reading it. I put two coats of Glaze in the small area. Results were really good considering what I started with.



Wax – applied and removed by hand



I used Liquid Souveran on the truck because of its color. I told the owner to pay close attention to this, so he got in closer to see how I applied it and removed. I put the first coat of Liquid Souveran and when I removed he was really impressed with the results so impressed that he requested another coat. So I applied two coats of Liquid Souveran.


So there you have it fellow Geeks, I used the entire XMT line up and I’m very pleased with it. XMT #4 has a very nice bite and I started from lease abrasive to most abrasive and I ended up with 90% results. I was shooting for 95% but two scratches were really deep and I knew I wasn’t going to remove them with out doing any wet sanding. The owner was happy and I’m happy to report that if you own XMT line up you got a really fine line up. I’m very satisfied with the XMT line up and XMT #4 really does complete the line up.

Oh yea I didn’t get paid but it didn’t really take me that long about 3hrs all together and that was because I was experiment lots with different combinations. The owner said that he may get me to do the entire truck when the weather heats up, it wasn’t that worm today about +1. That’s good enough for me to detail.

Now to the pictures.

Before

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After

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This picture is after doing the lower panel only, not the top panel which happens to be the worse panel and you can see the long scratches. As you can see the lower panel is at 95% compared to the before pictures, I'm pleased with how the lower panel turned out. Oh and that is using the PC and the green pad just like you can see on the reflection.

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Still lower panel

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This is the results of Green Edge 2K pad with XMT #3 on the upper panel the PC didn't really do much to it. As you can see scratches still there.

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This is with the rotary and XMT #4, much better :righton: oh yea see the red jacket well that's the owner/my supervisor at work. He was standing right behind me the entire time lol.
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Finished results with 2 x Glaze and 2 x Liquid Souveran...I'm very pleased with the results.

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I wanted to show you this one becuse see the red jacket standing behind me, well that's the owner/my suppervisor at work and he was watching every thing I did. He's very impressed with the products.

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This picture showes the deep scratches, I didn't get it 100% but I would say I got it about 90% or perhaps more but the owner and I were really impresed with the results and I was kissing my Metabo when I was done :D

Overal I'm very pleased with my XMT line up and I'm extremely happy with my metabo. Please don't think that I'm an expert or that I'm a pro becuase I'm new at this. The reason I say this becuase I remember when I first joined this place I knew nothing about detailing and well look at me now.

I welcome any feed back, anything you can think of I should try next time feel free to share please. I love feed back, just as much as I love pictures.

Oh sorry for the lengthy write up.

 
Nica!! AWESOME JOB!! :applause: Loved the write-up/review. Not lengthy at all. You had lots of info in there! Great work with your Metabo!! I'm still not ready for that step! You da Man!!
Great XMT4 review!! In some of the pictures, you can barely see those scratches till you changed the angle of your shot! Very nice!!
I remove my shoes in your presence!! :D <--- In certain cultures, that's a sign of respect!
 
Great write-up Nica, I love the detail in the post so we can all learn from it. Top reflections off the silver paint as well. Realy nice...
 
Man oh man oh man! WOW! Nica You ROC!:applause: And the write up! Awesome
You Expert!:righton:
 
Very nice job Nica! That should have earned you a lot of extra bonus points at work.:)
 
Thank you guys but really I just took my time and ket experimenting with different pads and XMT line.

Alban61, thanks for the respect bro but really I'm just like everyone here trying to do the best job possible. All I know is because of this place and all it's memebers, but thank you for the wicked compliment buddy.

Gary, bos was quite impressed with the results. He blown away with the results and the products, said he's never seen anything like that. He's fooled around with some detailing products but nothing like the stuff I have.

Once again thank you guys for the compliments and I'm glad you guys didn't find the write up to long...all I remember is typing and typing...lol.
 
Great work there Nica. Got to admit that when I first saw the scratches I said "No way". Well "WAY". That's amazing what you did.
 
awesome job....nice to see the progress pics...definitely turned those scratches around...looks like in the pics since the scratches are refracting light differently that it is slightly dented in? if that is the case probably going to be the best those scratches get but looking at the pics you are like the houdini of scratches...you made them disappear!!! great job...i usually don't have that much luck with scratches like that just using polishes...i wimp out and reach for the 3000 grit :)
 
Extremely nice job Nica. You really took care of those scratches in a major way. The before and after pics are amazing. Thank you for doc'ing this I'm sure it will be helpful to others on the forum. How nervous were you with your boss standing right there behind you the whole time?
 
Excellent work Nica! :applause: How'd you like the Metabo and how'd it compare to the PC? I know both machines are two different types, but with similar size and weight, I'm curious.

I see the process writeup worked out nice for you as well. This is the only way I can write my reviews. Any other way is just too cluttered IMO.


Great work buddy. :awesome:





-Nick :cheers:
 
orngez said:
awesome job....nice to see the progress pics...definitely turned those scratches around...looks like in the pics since the scratches are refracting light differently that it is slightly dented in? if that is the case probably going to be the best those scratches get but looking at the pics you are like the houdini of scratches...you made them disappear!!! great job...i usually don't have that much luck with scratches like that just using polishes...i wimp out and reach for the 3000 grit :)

Hey orngez, my boss and I looked at it from every angle and ran our fingers so many times we both felt as though there was a slight indentation but it's really hard to tell. I compared it to the other side and to me it looked exactly identical. I have to admit, what really helped me out here is that it's a light color truck, if it was a dark color say black I'm sure I wouldn't have achieved the results I did...so your correct on saying I pulled a Houdini lol. I really wanted to try the wet sand, but the owner/boss didn't want me to use it...snap fingers. I went through the entire XMT line up and I didn't really want to use XMT #4 but seeing as I had exhausted the mid and semi agresive pads and polish I really wanted to see XMT #4 in action and boy it sure worked. My boss wanted to feel it and he opened the bottle dipped his finger in and said “mmm it’s like sand…”. I just kept smiling.

Thank you for the compliments oh and was I nervous?...well not really, I have been practicing on my Jeep and I got the feel of the Metabo. I was very eager to do it for him, I really wanted to do it and boss was impressed…now he owes me a favor hehehe.

Hey Nick, the Metabo is an interesting machine, the way it's ergonomically positioned and the way it fits in your hand is very nice. Since I've only used the PC to polish, it didn't take long to get used to it and when I got it out to use it on this truck it felt so light and smooth that is the best part, no out of place feeling and your hands just seem to slide into place..just smooth buddy. Oh yea and the write up, if I don't write it that way I'll just jump around all over the place. Ever since I joined this place I try organazie my thought's better lol.
 
hi carlos,
hey that looks really great! i stay off the forum and see what i miss? i never expected it to turn out that well! you rock - that's for sure! what a long way you have come!!! fantastic, just fantastic!!
so how careful do you have to be with a rotary not to burn the paint? i still want to see your jeep too. how is it looking these days????
luv,
lauren - you rock!
 
Looks good! Sounds like your supervisor will be very happy. :applause:
 
wow that came out amazing. its nice to see how much the glaze actually helps instead of just on small swirls.
 
Well written and well done. When will you get that raise?
 
Awsome Job, well I guess I learned a lot here. When I saw those before pics, I never thought the afters would look so good!! Great Work, and thanks for sharing.
 
Nica nice work and review you did a great job..
 
Great job, now your boss needs to give you a raise for saving him money from not needing to repaint the bed of his truck Mike...
 
ltoman said:
hi carlos,
hey that looks really great! i stay off the forum and see what i miss? i never expected it to turn out that well! you rock - that's for sure! what a long way you have come!!! fantastic, just fantastic!!
so how careful do you have to be with a rotary not to burn the paint? i still want to see your jeep too. how is it looking these days????
luv,
lauren - you rock!

Hey Lauren, You must be busy to be away from this place.

Okay so how careful do you have to be, well it's like the PC but your passes and speed that you pass changes...please don't think I know all the tricks because I'm just starting with the rotary and this is what I have noticed for now. I've been trying random spots on the Jeep (basically where there is no rust hehehe) and so far I haven't burnt any paint and have been able to remove some nasty scratches. The rotary isn't that bad of a machine, just have to get over the fear first just like I did with the PC...you remember when I was drilling you about the PC and how it worked and how long to pass it ect...ect...ect..lol. I haven't tried and edge just yet, I've been trying to stay on flat horizontal and vertical areas, so far so good. I don't want to touch the hood because the hood I'm going to try to do the entire process, wash, clay, polish, Glaze and wax. Just want to see the difference.

I'm glad that you guys liked the write up, I was getting worried because I just kept writing and writing but glad it all made sense oh I had to type it in Word first for all the bad spelling mistakes I make so often lol.
 
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