Incredible Turnaround

Pauly6401

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Some of you may remember me asking for advice on how to proceed on a friend's truck that had cloudy, marred paint on the hood and roof. The paint had been clouding on him from oxidation, and then he tried a rotary with wool and just marred the crap out of it, which demoralized any future efforts to fix or care for the truck. By the time we worked on it today, it had gotten really bad.

Well, I purchased a PC 7424, he bought the XMT Heavy Swirl Kit (XMT #4 and #1, and the XMT Finishing Glaze), and we went to town on his truck this morning for about 6 hours.

This is the first time I have ever used the PC, other than to turn it on last night to make sure it worked. Between the advice on here and the videos, I figured I'd be able to use it and it blew my mind with the results we achieved. I think with a little more time and experience we could have improved the final finish somewhat (or it may have taken a rotary), but the pics speak for themselves.

Next up is to polish the whole truck, but the hood and the roof took long enough.

Process:
He had washed and clayed the areas before I arrived, so we dug right in.
XMT #4 (2 passes)
For the roof, we also added a XMT#3 pass
XMT #1 (1 pass)
XMT Carnauba Finishing Glaze
He was going to add some Meguiars wax after I left, but is already planning on getting his own PC and fancy waxes from Autogeek after the XMT package he bought here worked so well.

On with the pics:

Here's what we started with, minus a little test spot.
PC7424013.jpg


After 2 XMT#4 Passes:
PC7424018.jpg


After XMT#1:
PC7424020.jpg


Final Half and Half:
PC7424027.jpg
 
Continuation....

Product Shot:
PC7424033.jpg


XMT#4 vs. Finished Side

PC7424030.jpg


Complete:
PC7424031.jpg


Sunshot #1:
PC7424034.jpg


Roof:
PC7424039.jpg


You can see reflections now!!!

PC7424041.jpg
 
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WOW!!! What a great turnaround!! :applause: :applause: :applause:
 
Awesome turnaround is right!! Great job, Pauly!! Now we'll have to see the whole truck when you're done.
 
that is a fantastic job!!! that xmt cut the crap right off that hood!! And yes we need to see pics of the whole truck
 
Thanks, guys. The whole truck pics will be up once we finish it - like I said, the hood and roof took 6 hours so the rest of it is waiting for later. It's a big '99 F-150 and after those two areas we were beat and the massive panels didn't look too inviting. The rest of the truck is nowhere near that bad though, just a little swirling and some water spots.

We did trade off a bit and while one of us was PC'ing, the other was polishing the rims, dressing the trim, etc. Just little things to keep us busy.
 
I love your 50/50 shots. It shows such a dramatic difference. You can really see a difference between the XMT 4 and the XMT 4 + XMT 1.
 
Wow thats a big time turnaround. The hood on my parents beater suburban is like that. As soon as it stops raining here I plan on hitting it with the polish. Hopefully I will have some before and after shots for everyone very similar.
 
Very nice job! Same color as my Ford F150 but I would never let the paint get that bad.
 
Very nice job!! I love to work on really bad cars, the difference is amazing :D Very nice!
 
Great turnaround indeed although I don't understand why the rotary didn't help. It'll cut your time down considerably. What compound where you using with it? Did you try a cutting foam pad? If you still have more to do, I'd give 'er a go..can't hurt and should save you some time...just my $.02..I only ever use a rotary.
 
Dang, Its like an infomercial....

I was waiting for Billy Mays to jump out and scream "XMT!!!!!"
 
Very nice. I can't wait to see the rest of the truck!
 
richy said:
Great turnaround indeed although I don't understand why the rotary didn't help. It'll cut your time down considerably. What compound where you using with it? Did you try a cutting foam pad? If you still have more to do, I'd give 'er a go..can't hurt and should save you some time...just my $.02..I only ever use a rotary.

We didn't have a rotary, and I would be hesitant to use one (at this point in my detailing experience) since that was only my first time with the Porter Cable. I figured that a rotary might have had more power to get to some of the really tough areas that we couldn't knock down as much as we wanted with the PC. Even at the end, there were still a few slightly hazy spots with some marring, though the majority of the hood was swirl-free and looked like glass.

Sorry if that wasn't clear in my original post.

EDIT: For those of you wanting more full-truck shots, here's a full head-on shot of the truck with the completed roof and hood. Sides and things will be taken once we tackle them.

Truck_front_completed.jpg
 
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