This vehicle belongs to my brother and sister in law so I really wanted to make it awesome for them. It is a 2006 and has never seen anything other than auto car washes and sits outside 24-7. It has the worst contamination I have ever seen! I got very aggressive treating it which you will maybe gag at my method when you see it (but it worked, LOL). This is also the first time using System X Element 119 nano coating. I will share my thoughts on this too. I wanted to try it on a vehicle which I will see often to see how it holds up. Here are a few shots of how it looked when it arrived: The trim was quite badly faded. I also got to use Solution Finish on this job as well. First up is the wheels. These wheels ended up being beyond saving, but not for lack of trying. The bars were chipped in many places which I could do nothing about. I've recommended he get them powder coated. The wheels were first blasted with a good quantity of IronX. Sure, it did its thing, but there was still so much more staining and corrosion that was there. The wheels also got Tarminator and Megs WB. Nothing would save them. The tires were strange on this beast too. I scrubbed and scrubbed with Zep purple and all sorts of brown crud was just rolling off of them. When it came time to dress them, it just didn't seem to absorb at all. Don't know why. The wheels and tires were the least impressive result of this overall job. Disappointing to me as I'm usually able to save them. Not this time unfortunately. Next up after feeling defeated by the wheels was dealing with the contamination on the paint. Check out these pics so you see what I was dealing with: So, normally in a case with contamination like this, I would spray IronX, let it dwell and blast it off. If it is really bad, while the IronX spray is dwelling, I put some IX gel on a grout sponge and go over the area as well. I did that in this case and it was still not enough. The spots were not coming off as well as they should have. It was a brand new bottle of IX too. I know it was working, just not well enough. Then I got crazy. Real crazy. Insane even. I took a magic eraser and while the surface was wet with IX, put the IX gel on the eraser and had at the surface. I figured it if marred it, I was going to polish it anyway, so who cares? I just wanted to see if it would amplify the results of the IX. The result? It did. Impressively actually. Don't believe me? I had my brother in law shoot some pics of me doing it: BTW, he's a cigar smoker too and wanted to help with the detail, so we killed a few of 'em while we were at it!! The paint was still quite rough after this stage even, although most of the red and brown dots were gone. I used yellow Riccardo clay that I warmed up in the microwave and used ONR as lube. Finally, I had a smooth surface to work with!! This was going to be an outside-only detail and I had over 4 hours into it by the time I was done with the wheels, decon and clay. At least an hour longer than normal. Not off to a great start, but at least the paint was ready to work with. For correction, a number of pad, product and machine choices were tried. I went from a DA with a yellow B & S pad and System One polish to Menzerna Power finish. The PF and yellow usually works well, but it was not cutting as well as I wanted it to. This was only supposed to be a one step job too, so I had to have the combo with the biggest bang. Luckily I was working with white which we all know is more forgiving. I then stepped up to my Dyna rotary, yellow B & S pad and M105. Finally the result I wanted!! It finished down well although I had to clean the pad every panel as it was getting so dirty, but it was working very well. The whole truck got done this way. Multiple paint touch ups were done as well after compounding and were allowed to dry prior to being sealed. Late on Friday night I applied Solution Finish to the most faded trim which was the pieces that run the length of the vehicle starting next to the windshield and then up and across the roof and down next the the rear lights. They looked terrible. I also did the mirrors, door handles and the big piece on the hood. It was allowed to soak in overnight. The pieces were lightly buffed the next day and then UTTG was applied to those pieces as well as the rest of the trim. I love, love, love the look of UTTG over the SF!! There's no way the trim looked that good the day this thing was new! After compounding the paint, I did an ONR wash as usual and then broke out my box of System X. I had reviewed their videos the day before to acquaint myself with their system...only I was going to try it my way first. (Why shouldn't that surprise anyone?) First however I used their surface prep spray. This is nice stuff. As far as applying the coating, I wanted to try the method that works so well for me with both CQ and OG, namely the foam block and suede mf method. I put more product on the mf than I usually do as they seem to use a lot in the videos. I tested it on the glass first. Timing is very, very important for this product. They recommend letting it cure/set up for only 3 minutes and go on to say that in high temps, that time should be cut back to 2 minutes. I went inside and got my chronometer watch with a easily read timer on it. Every time I would go to apply it, I would re-set the timer as I started. I found 2 minutes worked better than 3. It was easier to remove that way. My garage was 80°F at the time. I used the supplied mf to remove. The thing I really like about this product is how slick the surface feels when you've done it. Optimum: Are you hearing this?!? That's my biggest beef using OG! This stuff feels great. If only they could price it as well as OG. The glass was done with it too. I also polished out the tail lights with M105 and a wool pad. The chrome grille was polished out using my 3" GG DA with a white pad and M205. It was also sealed with System X. The tires were sprayed with the air gun with OB. It did not seem to want to soak in. I tried DP gel to no avail either. The wells were dressed with Megs HD and wiped down. Here are the pics of the final product: All told, a 13 hour job. Thanks for looking. Comments very welcomed.
Nice to see another user using System X. I used it once. It might have been the weather, but it was flashing like crazy. 30 second was about it. it definitely gets slicker after about three days. I should really hit my wheels with it sometime, just to use it up. I really like the price on it compared to the other companies. I dropped the ball on a follow up with it. It's been almost a year since I used it, and I should go see how the car is holding up that I put it on.
I got the bigger bottle and I only used about 20-25% of it for the paint and glass. I think the mf method wastes less product that isn't absorbed into an applicator and not used to protect the paint. I plan on using it this weekend on a new M37 I'm getting. When you compare the price to OG and how many vehicles I can get out of a 40cc syringe, it is more expensive than that however. Thanks for your feeback about it too...you don't read that much about System X it seems.
Is this System X product a nano coating of some sort? Also, great job on the trim, how did the Solution Finish look before being topped with the UTTG?
Thank you. Yes it is. The same family as CQ I believe. I know there are differences between OC/OG and CQ and the rest. This coating is supposed to last several years although I don't think it's being touted as a "permanent" coating per se. The SF looks nice, perhaps slightly less sheen then when it's topped. I've read reports of disappointing durability on its own whereas when it's topped with UTTG, the durabilitiy is supposed to be very good. Time will tell and I will see it periodically.
Looks great. I found that BF Goodrich tires are also a pain to dress. The only products I have found that work well are SV Pneu, International Aero Protect, and 303 Aerospace (sometimes). Ive tried Adams VRT, CG VRP, Opti-bond, and several others... Bridgestone tires are usually pretty easy to work with, not sure why those one the H3 wouldve been difficult. Is SF supposed to be permanent?
Those tires were frustrating! I've honestly never had an issue with them before. The SF is touted as such, but I believe testing has proven otherwise. With UTTG, it's a great, long lasting combo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The finish solution and uttg combo looks really good on those exterior trim. 125 bucks for 12oz though
