Hello.
After lots of research on this forum I decided to tackle my personal 2005 F150 that I've owned since new.
A little backstory......
I take very good care of my vehicles, but years of my truck getting caught by those deadly lawn sprinklers here in Florida (normally supplied by unfiltered well pumps and/or retention ponds) along with general road grime accumulation had left my paint in bad shape. There was etched-in waterspots everywhere, but the worst of which were on the roof and hood.
No degree of hand polishing would touch them, so I decided to pick up one of the Porter Cable starter kits here on Autogeek and give my first paint correction a whirl.
I started with test panels on multiple areas of the truck, including the hood, roof, quarter panel etc. It was determined that the hood and roof water-spots were extremely etched, and even with Megs UC and an orange pad it only rounded them off.
I then decided to wet-sand the hood and roof VERY lightly with 2,000 grit and return with the PC, orange pad, and Megs UC.
BINGO.........only took one pass and was looking like glass.
The rest of the truck was then polished, glazed, waxed etc. and now looks better than it did coming off the lot over 6 years ago.
Also gave the interior (which has always been kept in good shape) a good once-over.
Please excuse the quality of these pics and the lack of good 50/50 shots, but I did this over the course of a few days due to the extreme heat here in FL, working full time and two small kids to tend to.
Here is what the hood looked like after a wash/clay treatment........water-spot city.
After wet-sanding, Megs UC and Orange pad............IS NICE!!
Test panel showing accumulation of road grime on quarter panel:
Another angle......yuck!
Test panel on roof after wet-sanding, Megs UC and Orange pad:
AFTER SHOTS!!
After lots of research on this forum I decided to tackle my personal 2005 F150 that I've owned since new.
A little backstory......
I take very good care of my vehicles, but years of my truck getting caught by those deadly lawn sprinklers here in Florida (normally supplied by unfiltered well pumps and/or retention ponds) along with general road grime accumulation had left my paint in bad shape. There was etched-in waterspots everywhere, but the worst of which were on the roof and hood.
No degree of hand polishing would touch them, so I decided to pick up one of the Porter Cable starter kits here on Autogeek and give my first paint correction a whirl.
I started with test panels on multiple areas of the truck, including the hood, roof, quarter panel etc. It was determined that the hood and roof water-spots were extremely etched, and even with Megs UC and an orange pad it only rounded them off.
I then decided to wet-sand the hood and roof VERY lightly with 2,000 grit and return with the PC, orange pad, and Megs UC.
BINGO.........only took one pass and was looking like glass.
The rest of the truck was then polished, glazed, waxed etc. and now looks better than it did coming off the lot over 6 years ago.
Also gave the interior (which has always been kept in good shape) a good once-over.
Please excuse the quality of these pics and the lack of good 50/50 shots, but I did this over the course of a few days due to the extreme heat here in FL, working full time and two small kids to tend to.
Here is what the hood looked like after a wash/clay treatment........water-spot city.
After wet-sanding, Megs UC and Orange pad............IS NICE!!
Test panel showing accumulation of road grime on quarter panel:
Another angle......yuck!
Test panel on roof after wet-sanding, Megs UC and Orange pad:
AFTER SHOTS!!
huevos grande!
rops:
