zmcgovern45
New member
- Sep 5, 2012
- 3,443
- 0
This truck belongs to a good friend of mine. He just bought it about a month ago and unfortunately the dealership 'detailers' already got their hands on it and buffed out the entire truck... obviously they did not know what they were doing as you can tell from the photos.
We put the truck through a 2 step correction process and achieved adequate results for the daily driven vehicle. The entire vehicle had been repainted at one point, and there were quite a good amount of deeper scratches that remained in the paint, but for a 2 step correction both the owner and I were pleased with the improvement. The paint is much deeper and clearer. The reflections are crisp and vivid and the truck looks a ton better. The paint was protected with Opti-Coat 2.0 for a long lasting, durable protection that will help with ease of maintenance and will look great.
Total of approximately 20 combined man hours went into this correction... sorry for the lack of pictures, we were very busy
Process
Wheels: CG Diablo Gel
Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner
Foam Pre-Soak: CG Citrus Wash via MTM Foam Canon and Karcher X-Series 2000PSI Washer
Rinse
Wash: CG Citrus Wash (two bucket method, with grit guards)
Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
Clay: DI Medium Grade Clay with Glide (7:1) as lube
Paint thickness readings taken
Tape: 3M Blue Painters Tape
Compound: Menzerna FG400 on 5.5" LC Light Cutting Pad via Rupes LHR21ES & 3" pads via PC7424XP
Polish: Meguiar's M205 on 5.5" & 3" LC White Polishing Pad via PC7424XP
Protection: Optimum Opti-Coat 2.0 via CarPro applicator block and suede cloths
I apologize in advance for the lack of photos, but I have a feeling that the few pictures will definitely get the point across.
No real "Before" Shots... just got straight to work.
During
As always, I started with cleaning the wheels and tires. Afterwards, the truck was foamed and washed with CG Citrus Wash to help remove any wax or glaze that had been applied by the dealership.
Once the truck had been washed and clayed, the true condition of the paint was revealed. Nothing I wasn't expecting after having a look at some of the other vehicles on the dealer's lot. Severe swirls and holograms throughout the entire truck... holograms were more difficult to capture due to the position of the sun at this point in time. You'll just have to take my word for it.
Next, I moved the truck back inside to examine it under the 1000W Halogen lights since the sun was so high in the sky that it was hard to get a direct shot of the damage. Here you can easily see what the paint looked like.
As always, I wanted to start my testing with what I expected to be the least aggressive approach possible. One of my go to starting points for my test spots is M205 on a white polishing pad. This is a combo that I know well and will allow me to gauge how much more (or sometimes less) aggressive I need to be. You can see that the M205 + Polishing pad restored a tremendous amount of clarity to the paint (pay close attention to my reflection - notice how hazy it looks in the left side compared to the right side).
The owner was pleased with this improvement, however under direct lighting it was clear that a more aggressive approach would be significantly better, so I told him to let me do another test spot to show him the difference. Here is my second test spot prior to correction.
The paint was not soft, but it was a little softer than what I would consider "average" so I did not jump up to a MF Cutting Disc, but instead opted for a light cutting pad. I chose FG400 because it is a product that I enjoy using and it provides adequate cutting and ease of use. Here is a 50/50 shot after compounding.
The improvement was fantastic... while this particular location on the truck (driver's door) yielded 90%+ defect removal, there were some other areas (lower parts - rocker panels and what not) that were not quite as great. Overall we easily achieved 80% correction on the entire truck though which I was happy with.
Since FG400 is a cutting compound, it is expected that some haze (marring) is left behind - especially on jet black paint. In this photo you can see the distinct difference between the area on the right that had been compounded, and the area on the left that had been finish polished (after compounding).
Here is the rocker panel beneath the driver's side door prior to correction.
And after compounding. A nice improvement, but still plenty of RIDS remaining.
A 50/50 type of shot
At first glance, this looks like a nice reflection shot... if you look carefully you can see the etching left behind from some stickers that the dealership had used. We were unable to remove these (some light sanding would have done the trick, but I did not bring any paper with me), however they were so hard to see unless the lighting was perfect, it was not a huge issue.
Here are a few reflection shots post correction... looking good.
Some pictures outside - we had just finished the correction, had done a rinseless wash with ONR and an IPA wipe down and were doing a final inspection prior to applying the coating. A huge improvement. Blackness restored.
The truck was then coated with opti-coat 2.0 and put away to cure in the garage for the night. I did not return for any after shots, but you can imagine the paint looked great!
All in all, it was one heck of a day - both the owner and I were exhausted, but he was very happy with his nicely polished truck.
As always, thanks for looking! Questions and/or comments are always appreciated!
We put the truck through a 2 step correction process and achieved adequate results for the daily driven vehicle. The entire vehicle had been repainted at one point, and there were quite a good amount of deeper scratches that remained in the paint, but for a 2 step correction both the owner and I were pleased with the improvement. The paint is much deeper and clearer. The reflections are crisp and vivid and the truck looks a ton better. The paint was protected with Opti-Coat 2.0 for a long lasting, durable protection that will help with ease of maintenance and will look great.
Total of approximately 20 combined man hours went into this correction... sorry for the lack of pictures, we were very busy
Process
Wheels: CG Diablo Gel
Tires: Tuf Shine Tire Cleaner
Foam Pre-Soak: CG Citrus Wash via MTM Foam Canon and Karcher X-Series 2000PSI Washer
Rinse
Wash: CG Citrus Wash (two bucket method, with grit guards)
Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
Clay: DI Medium Grade Clay with Glide (7:1) as lube
Paint thickness readings taken
Tape: 3M Blue Painters Tape
Compound: Menzerna FG400 on 5.5" LC Light Cutting Pad via Rupes LHR21ES & 3" pads via PC7424XP
Polish: Meguiar's M205 on 5.5" & 3" LC White Polishing Pad via PC7424XP
Protection: Optimum Opti-Coat 2.0 via CarPro applicator block and suede cloths
I apologize in advance for the lack of photos, but I have a feeling that the few pictures will definitely get the point across.
No real "Before" Shots... just got straight to work.
During
As always, I started with cleaning the wheels and tires. Afterwards, the truck was foamed and washed with CG Citrus Wash to help remove any wax or glaze that had been applied by the dealership.
Once the truck had been washed and clayed, the true condition of the paint was revealed. Nothing I wasn't expecting after having a look at some of the other vehicles on the dealer's lot. Severe swirls and holograms throughout the entire truck... holograms were more difficult to capture due to the position of the sun at this point in time. You'll just have to take my word for it.
Next, I moved the truck back inside to examine it under the 1000W Halogen lights since the sun was so high in the sky that it was hard to get a direct shot of the damage. Here you can easily see what the paint looked like.
As always, I wanted to start my testing with what I expected to be the least aggressive approach possible. One of my go to starting points for my test spots is M205 on a white polishing pad. This is a combo that I know well and will allow me to gauge how much more (or sometimes less) aggressive I need to be. You can see that the M205 + Polishing pad restored a tremendous amount of clarity to the paint (pay close attention to my reflection - notice how hazy it looks in the left side compared to the right side).
The owner was pleased with this improvement, however under direct lighting it was clear that a more aggressive approach would be significantly better, so I told him to let me do another test spot to show him the difference. Here is my second test spot prior to correction.
The paint was not soft, but it was a little softer than what I would consider "average" so I did not jump up to a MF Cutting Disc, but instead opted for a light cutting pad. I chose FG400 because it is a product that I enjoy using and it provides adequate cutting and ease of use. Here is a 50/50 shot after compounding.
The improvement was fantastic... while this particular location on the truck (driver's door) yielded 90%+ defect removal, there were some other areas (lower parts - rocker panels and what not) that were not quite as great. Overall we easily achieved 80% correction on the entire truck though which I was happy with.
Since FG400 is a cutting compound, it is expected that some haze (marring) is left behind - especially on jet black paint. In this photo you can see the distinct difference between the area on the right that had been compounded, and the area on the left that had been finish polished (after compounding).
Here is the rocker panel beneath the driver's side door prior to correction.
And after compounding. A nice improvement, but still plenty of RIDS remaining.
A 50/50 type of shot
At first glance, this looks like a nice reflection shot... if you look carefully you can see the etching left behind from some stickers that the dealership had used. We were unable to remove these (some light sanding would have done the trick, but I did not bring any paper with me), however they were so hard to see unless the lighting was perfect, it was not a huge issue.
Here are a few reflection shots post correction... looking good.
Some pictures outside - we had just finished the correction, had done a rinseless wash with ONR and an IPA wipe down and were doing a final inspection prior to applying the coating. A huge improvement. Blackness restored.
The truck was then coated with opti-coat 2.0 and put away to cure in the garage for the night. I did not return for any after shots, but you can imagine the paint looked great!
All in all, it was one heck of a day - both the owner and I were exhausted, but he was very happy with his nicely polished truck.
As always, thanks for looking! Questions and/or comments are always appreciated!
rops:
