[Excessive FORMULa] Joint Detail: F250 Long Post

[beavslu01]

Hopefully I will get this all right, Ryan please let me know if I missed something.
My cousin (Excessive Detail) and I (FORMULa) got together over the past labor day weekend to detail one of his friends F250 truck, which was really nice (lots of extras in it). We spent a total of 2.5 days detailing this monster. My cousin took possession of it on friday night and started right away with washing and claying it. I showed up at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning with all my gear. I let my cousin did most of polishing because he has never used a rotary (only PC) and heard the things it could do and wanted to try it out. (I stood to the side to informed him on the proper ways of handling it.)


Process:

Day 1
Pre-Soak
50/50 mix of Purple Power and Dawn Soap in Foam Gun

Wash
Dawn Soap and MF Scrub Pad and Mitt
## Rim and Tire Cleaner

Day 2
Clay
DP and ## Medium Grade Clay with DP and ONR Clay Lube

Windows
Polished with DP Window Polish
Yellow Spot Buff Pad#on Corded Drill
Wiped down with Stoners IG
WW MF Towel.

Paint Correction
Makita Rotary
7" Kompressor Pads, Purple and White
## 4" Pads, Orange and White
Menzerna SIP and 106, both on speed 3
IPA Wipe Down Using Various CGMFs.

Day 3
Re-Wash
Mix of DG Soap and ## APC in Foam Gun as presoak
hand washed with ONR and Grout Sponge and various brushes ( clean out polish build up areas)
Dried with blower and ONR and Various ## MFs.

Wax
Hi-Temp Wax On Front Cap x1 then Pinnacle Sovran x2 on entire truck
Final Wipe down with FK 425 and various ## MFs

Rims
DP Wheel Glaze

Interior
Vaccumed
Wiped down with ## Natural Shine Matt Dressing
Lexol Leather Cleaner, Lexol Leather Dressing, and Connolly Leather Conditioner
Wiped Windows with Stoners IG and WW MF Towel


The condition of the truck when I got there-

The interior was looking like it needed to be cleaned.

Ryan taking care of the windows while I prepped for the wash.

While Ryan was finishing up washing I began to clay the sides and tailgate (hood and top were clayed the night before). As you can see there was plenty of contaminants on the truck.

Drying after wash-n-clay

Truck all taped up (probably took a roll and a half for the whole thing)

Testing different polishes/pads to see what worked the best (Ryan trying out the Makita for his first time).

After finding the best combo we pulled the truck into the shade to begin the paint correction. (probably less than a 6 in. gap from the celling to the roof of the truck)

The trucks owner was mainly concerned with the water spots/etching on the truck. There was also plenty of swirls to go with the spots/etching, so we just tried to take care of what we could.

Checking out how the polishing was coming along.

Ryan going to town with makita

Taking care of the trim

50/50 of untreated/treated trim

The setup of the gear

After polishing pre-wax

Ryan finishing up the interior

After a nice coat of Souverän we pulled the truck out for a QD wipe down and to just admire the gloss that was achieved.

 

[BlackSunshine01]

thats a beast of a truck. my buddy wants me to do his 2500 ram 4 dr. lot of real estate to cover. looks great!

 

[dickwitham]

I can't imagine doing a vehicle of that size by myself, it was nice that you helped him out. Looks beautiful!

 

[ICEMAN]

its nice to do something that doesnt take as much sitting down to buff!!! i like doing trucks!! really nice job guys!!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Nice work!

That's a lot of truck to polish out plus all the plastic trim to treat, tires to dress, metal to polish.

Nice write-up and documentation with pictures. Imagine some guys do a truck like this by themselves in one day!

Did you get a nice tip?


:xyxthumbs:

 

[Meghan]

That is a lot of paint to cover, you guys did a great job, sure that job maded your body ache just a bit the next day.

 

[ryandamartini]

Good job.

Unfortunately for me, everyone and their mother owns trucks up here. Ive done many of big trucks on a Saturday. They do suck! lol

Great job!

 

[beavslu01]

Thanks guys,
I am trying to do better with the write-ups, mostly because I forget the things we did, but this one turned out good. I helped my cousin out with this one, because he had help me detail my roommates old F-150 a year ago and I am just now repaying him back. Although for me, I don't care about the money, just that I got to spend time detailing it with my cousin and also to just see how others detail vehicles. I am just glad it wasn't too hot out, although it did rain on the last day for a couple of hours and hindered some of the polishing process. My cousin also told me that he will have another truck (F-150 Lighting) to detail and he wanted to use my Makita again, so might do another post for that later on.

 

[Excessive Detail]

Hey guys, sorry it took me so long to make any post on this detail, but it seems my cousin did a good job on it already, anyway I posted this truck before the first time I did it when it was new, but after a long time without any attention this truck was horrible, I have never seen water etching that bad, I tried not to long ago to do it with my flex, but it couldn't do, so after finding out my cousin had a rotary and realizing it was the only way I was going to get anyhting done, I called my cousin up andsaid come over and we got to work on it.

 

[Excessive Detail]

Now as my cousin said this was the first time I had ever picked up a rotary, never used one before, at first I was a little nervous, but knew it was th only way it was going to get done, so putting my fears aside i got to it. Now in no way am I trying to brag and in no way do I consider myself a professional, but I really dont see why people always warn about using a rotary. It was so easy to use and never once had any scares, it was so easy to use, and the results were amazing I have never seen paint so perfect, the pictures dont do justice, I dont think I could ever pick up a d/a again. Now I know I still have a lot to learn about using it, but all I can say is all those who are kinda scared to pick one up dont be. I can't wait to I get my own.

 

[Excessive Detail]

Also my cousin turned me on to some amazing prodcuts, I have kinda been out of the detailing world for a while and lost track, but one of the products I used was ONR, wow, I know its been out for a while, but this stuff is amazing ecspecially when used during drying. The kompressor pads, again wow, these things rock, best pad I have used by far.And finally FK 425, amazing stuff, best final wipe down Ive used, leaves the paint nice and shinny and smooth, love it. Well thanks for all the compliments, hope you enjoyed.

 

[beavslu01]

I was the same way with fearing the rotary but put my fears aside and just went at it. I remember one thing Ryan said while he was using the Makita was how smooth it was compared to the PC and Flex, with hardly any vibration. Hopefully you can get yours and we can tear some cars up (not literally ).

 

[beavslu01]

SORRY-
I also realized that I forgot to post after pictures of the interior, but we did clean it and it looks better. I got to distracted on cleaning it, to take any pictures.

 

[Buckskincolt]

:wow:That is a really nice job. I'm a noob and trying to learn so I have a question if you don't mind?

I noticed you did not tape off the headlights? Is that normal? Do we not need to worry about getting polishing compounds on the plexi? Again just trying to learn.

Very nice!:righton:

 

[beavslu01]

Well I believe Ryan just went from polishing the side to polishing the lights and from what I can remember we didn't have enough tape to get that area. I usually only tape lights that have rubber trim around them, which I believe this truck didn't have on it so it work out for us. As far as getting polish off of the lights, you can just hit it with a QD or 50/50 IPA. I was the same way as far as learning everything, I just read all the write-ups and searched for things I didn't know and soon found myself mirroring what others did and got some help from my cousin. Hope that helps you out.

 

[Buckskincolt]

Yes it does, Thank you very much!:bowdown:

I've been reading believe me, but when I see something I'm not sure about I'd rather ask than assume or guess.

Thanks again ~~ Yale

 

[mikemurphy234]

Great job guys! I did a Ram 2500 4x4, 4 door with an 8' bed last weekend by myself. There were times I wished I had 10 people helping me on it. lol.

 

[beavslu01]

One of the reasons why it took so long was that we only had one rotary, so if we had two of them, then one of us would get the water etching/swirls while the other one would follow up with a finishing polish. It worked out were Ryan was polishing and I was tackling the interior.

 

[kaptain_zero]

Now as my cousin said this was the first time I had ever picked up a rotary, never used one before, at first I was a little nervous, but knew it was th only way it was going to get done, so putting my fears aside i got to it. Now in no way am I trying to brag and in no way do I consider myself a professional, but I really dont see why people always warn about using a rotary. It was so easy to use and never once had any scares, it was so easy to use, and the results were amazing I have never seen paint so perfect, the pictures dont do justice, I dont think I could ever pick up a d/a again. Now I know I still have a lot to learn about using it, but all I can say is all those who are kinda scared to pick one up dont be. I can't wait to I get my own.

THIS is why we are warned about the rotary, even the pro's get bitten on the rare occasion: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...eed-polisher/19766-warning-paint-wrinkle.html

Regards

Christian