Within a few hours of detailing this BMW M5, the owner's buddy contacted me to see if I could work on his 2004 F150 Lightning. For anyone who doesn't know, this isn't just a plain old F150...it's got a supercharged 5.4L V8! And, as if that isn't enough, this one's been modified to be even faster. With a different pulley, exhaust, intake, and some clever ECU tuning, it will make as much as 500HP at the wheels! :yikes: This one wasn't in bad shape at all, but as we all know, even something that looks "pretty good" can be made to look much, much better. So, here's what I did. I started with the wheels and the exhaust. The wheels got Majestic Solutions Wheel Brite, at 4:1 - which is, apparently, a modified version of Meguiar's Wheel Bright, along with a whole battalion of brushes. The exhaust got Wheel Brite with some #0000 steel wool, and then some Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish. Autosol is better. I checked out the two local Williams-Sonoma stores for a tube of Wenol metal polish - which I also like a lot - but both were out of stock. The Mother's stuff did a fine job in their stead. After that came the engine bay. Stealing a page (again) from JL, I rinsed down the cold engine with straight water, and soaked it with Majestic Solutions' Super Green Stuff all purpose cleaner at 3:1. After agitating that, the engine was rinsed down, and dried with my blower. Finally, it was dressed with Meguiar's Hyper Dressing (3:1), and I then ran the engine for 20 minutes to set it up. Once that was complete, all I did was a simple wipe-down of the excess dressing. Next came the interior - most of it, anyway. This truck has Alcantara seating surfaces - you may have seen my post in the "Interior Detailing" section on here. The answer came back to try brushing it with a dry brush, then vacuuming it. Remaining dirt might come up on a microfiber moistened with some upholstery cleaner, so I tried it, and sure enough, it worked. Some of the stubborn stains persisted - mostly one in the middle of the seat that looked for all the world like rust. It just wouldn't budge, so I moved on. Carpets got brushed and vacuumed, then shampooed with Majestic Solutions' Extraction Plus. Phil at Majestic showed me a neat trick for making a makeshift extraction machine - spritz the shampooed carpets with straight water after cleaning, following the water with the shop vac. While not as effective as an extractor, I was pleased with the outcome. Another Majestic product that deserves a standing ovation is their "Carpet Spotter HD" aerosol. This is the one I've talked about before - when you spray a stain, you can see the foam come up in the color of the stain! Amazing. I blotted those spots up with a clean microfiber and continued on my way. One final trick for carpets. Go to the grocery store, and pick up some "Freezer Paper" where they sell the aluminum foil. Makes a great makeshift floor mat so you don't track water into your nice clean carpets. All the plastic on the interior got first cleaned up with Majestic's Leather and Plastic cleaner. This is another one from Majestic that I think is great. There's a fix for the smell too - I just poured in about an ounce of their "Clean Cotton" scent, and it went from smelling like chemicals, to smelling like a dryer sheet. Perfect! Then, I treated everything with Vinylex. I think this stuff is great - it's a nice compromise where it finishes matte and not greasy, but still leaves the interior looking like it's been paid attention to. An underrated product, in my opinion. Then, I moved on to the body of the truck. This one gets used as a tow vehicle for a race car - the "SCCA Club Racing" sticker is a dead giveaway - and, as a result, there were the occasional dings and scratches on the outside of the bed that I just couldn't fix. Most of them, however, I was able to either correct altogether, or at the very least, reduce their visibility. A new trick I tried this time was to pre-treat the black plastic trims - the windshield cowling, the mirror housing, and the steps for the bed - before washing. I find Black Wow (mirrors, cowling) a bit gooey once it's applied, and this technique left the mirrors and cowling looking great, but not "impossibly shiny" and sticky to the touch. The steps all got Stoner Trim Shine. I chose this in hopes that it would still look good, but not be super slick afterwards, since the owner would be standing on them. Don't want anyone breaking a leg getting into the bed of the truck! The body got a Dawn wash to strip off any remaining LSP, with the usual two buckets, one a Griot's, the second a Lowe's clear bucket with a grit guard in it. After drying the truck off with some of Justin's Amazing Dryer towels, I set about claying. This was done with Riccardo clay, using ONR as a lubricant. To my surprise, the clay didn't come up too bad - I was able to use half a bar for the entire truck, turning it often. Now ready for polish, I decided to break out the Menzerna PO203S Power Finish. First with a yellow Meguiar's So1o System polishing pad, the results were good, but not great. I moved up to an orange, low-profile Lake Country flat pad on a 3M UK backing plate, and was thrilled with the outcome! I'll say it again...Power Finish really impresses me. It's got a nice long working time, and this is the second vehicle now where the combination of an orange pad and Power Finish produced great results. Once this was done, I went back over it with PO85RD and the Meguiar's So1o black finishing pad. After a quick ONR wash to remove the polishing dust, I was ready for LSP. Weather was threatening, and I was running out of time before the rain came, so I went to one of my new favorites - Chemical Guys' Jetseal. What a pleasure it is to use this stuff! I put it on pretty thin, and fiddled with the interior some more while I waited for it to set up. Jetseal has got to be the easiest thing in the world to remove - I used one of Justin's "Gladiator" microfiber towels, and was in good shape to put down a second coat. That night, it rained all over, so I was left to wash the truck again. No matter - Majestic Solutions Ultra Gloss shampoo left a beautiful shine, and the water just rolled right off the Jetseal-protected paint. Once that was all done, it was time to touch up the black plastic a bit; just a little Stoner Trim Shine on a microfiber evened out the coverage from my original treatment nicely. The tires got Stoner "More Shine, Less Time." The owner specifically told me he just wanted them to "look like tires." I like More Shine in this regard. The wheel wells also got Stoner Trim Shine. I like Trim Shine so much that I bought four cans of it the last time I found it! Then it was just a quick going over with some QD, clean the glass with some Invisible Glass and Majestic's window towels, and I delivered the truck. The owner was thrilled! He sent me a very nice email later in the day, telling me that if I needed any references, he'd be happy to help me. Not only that, but once he's got it running correctly, he's going to let me work on his 1972 Ford Torino! I think the best part of detailing is having the customer be so thrilled with the outcome. So...enough of that. On to the pictures: Engine bay, before: Wheels: not to bad, really: A nice look down the driver side of the truck. Dirty, but really, the paint wasn't in awful shape: This exhaust makes some seriously great noises...but it looked like heck: As usual, the fuel filler area was dirty: Here are some scratches on the driver side of the bed that were actually pretty deep. I was able to make these nearly disappear: Scratch on the passenger side fender - this one came out nicely as well: The tailgate was a little dented up from the owner's enclosed trailer, but mostly, it was just dirty: Some sort of goo on the driver side of the bed: Wheel wells were predictably nasty: Inside, there was work to be done. Fortunately, all Lightnings are standard cab, so the interior was small. Carpets: Dashboard and gauge cluster shots: More interior: Now let's see some afters. For the second detail in a row, I was cursed with a badly overcast day in which to take after photos. Wheels and wheel wells looking much nicer now: JL should have patented his engine bay technique, because it just works like a million dollars: Tailgate actually reflects now! One piece of trim down low on it is stained - looks like some chemical of some sort was in the bed. Not even Black Wow would get that little bit perfect... From the driver's side: Driver fender: The scratches on the driver side of the bed cleaned up pretty well... Passenger side of the bed: Exhaust so clean that you can see the seam where the tubing comes together: Two nice shots of the swirl-free hood: If you see this face in your rear view mirror...move over! :headbang: Fuel filler area all tidied up: Yes. yes...I applied some more Vinylex to the area of the dashboard just by the weatherstripping after I took this shot :thud: : Stains on the carpet, near the center of the dash, are all gone now: Dashboard shots: The owner was thrilled! So much so that he promised me his 1972 Ford Torino as soon as he was done getting it running properly. Thanks for looking!
Nice job there bud! Thanks for the tip on the freezer paper, ill have to pick some up..so the powerfinish did a good bit of correcting?
Man that is one slick looking truck. Just has that incredible Jetseal shine! Every single part of this detail is top notch and no wonder the folks in the Raleigh/Durham area are just lining up for a krshultz detail! You should be just as proud of your work as the owners are. Great write up by the way. Nothing like a bit of peer pressure to get it posted, LOL.
Wow that looks great. Wheels came out nicely too. I found that 845 looks nice on that charcoalish color. I love the "flying spagetti monster" emblem he has on the back.
The freezer paper is great. It's different from parchment paper - this is waxed on one side, much like the paper they wrap your seafood in at the seafood counter. $3 for an 18' long roll of it is certainly a heck of a lot cheaper than buying those "Thank You for your Service" mats! One of the things that had been annoying me on the M5 that I did was that every time I got back in it, I tracked something onto the nice clean carpets. Easy, cheap fix FTW! Regarding the Power Finish...I have to say, this is my "Go To" polish at the moment. Light to medium swirling is no problem for this stuff - and it can be tuned with pad selection. Nice long working time, too. I broke out my old friend Intensive Polish 91E for some of the tough spots, but really, Power Finish did the majority of the work here. I probably could have finished with it! Highly recommended. Thanks, Justin! I was hoping you'd see this one, since I've gathered you're a Ford guy. It's a great color. I've never had a crush on a truck before, but this one really impressed me. I think an A-Stock S2000 would look pretty sweet being towed to Nationals behind one! Thanks man! My only disappointment is that I didn't get to top with RBOE. The rain was coming, and I figured better safe than sorry. I was right - it started to sprinkle right around when I'd have been applying it. I did use some of the CG's Blitz that you sent me home with last month. Hard to say if it brought anything extra to the party though, since Jetseal already looked so good on it. I'll be trying it again on the next one, a black Dodge Ram. Thanks! Thanks, Berscht! Yeah, I know. I don't know how this guy hasn't ended up in jail by now. I've driven, and owned, a lot of fast cars, including a highly modified twin turbo Audi S4. This thing was every bit as fast as that S4 was, probably even faster. Just hard to believe that sort of performance was coming out of a truck. It's got great brakes, and it seems to handle well, too. I once owned a diesel Excursion, and since then, I've been a huge fan of Ford trucks. This one reminded me why. It's got a quality feel to it that a (certain un-named) truck I worked on recently just didn't have. Thank you! 845 is on my (very long) list of things to check out. People always rave about the way the Collinite stuff lasts - seems perfect for some of my customers who use the heck out of their vehicles, like this one. Hopefully, Jetseal will live up to its reputation here as well. Thank you Denzil!
I agree that colour looks great, I like that dark gray colour though :thumb: The exhaust tips turned out great too :thumb: Well done :applause:
To tell you the truth I am not a ford fan. I was first drawn to your detail because of the write up. Just a great write up. top notch. I really enjoyed it. After I got into it a little. I started to really appreciate your work. Wow, What a great detail. You did a fantastic job. It looks just beautiful...Thanks for sharing...:thumb:
Excellent color on a cool bad ass truck!! The last year they were produced!! Way to go!! Thank you for making a Ford product look that *$%!ing awesome!!!! Excellent work!! Very nice write up also!!
Thanks, AR. Thank you! I'm almost positive that the exhaust is aftermarket - Borla, I believe he told me. It was surprisingly easy to make it look that good - I can only imagine that it's pretty new, and while it looked like heck, it hadn't been on there long enough to get all banged up with rocks and stuff. I'll tell you, I am a Jetseal convert! I love the look of it, and really, it's brain dead easy to work with. You guys who haven't tried it should check out the sale Detailed Image is running. Thank you, Carlos! Ha! I know, I know..."whose truck is best" can be a religious battle for people! I admit to a certain amount of bias towards Fords, having owned, and loved, a Ford Excursion 7.3L diesel for a few years. I was most impressed when I found out the owner tows a 24' enclosed trailer with it! He admits that it doesn't tow quite like a big diesel dually - of course - but that it does surprisingly well. If memory serves, the other high performance trucks - the Dodge SRT and the old Chevy 454SS - disallow towing altogether. This one doesn't. Thanks Rog! You spent your year-end Detailers Domain winnings yet? :worship2: Thanks for the kind words. Something I forgot to mention is that I'd call the paint on this one "medium" in terms of hardness. Not butter soft like the paint on my S2000, but still correctable with a pretty mild polish. It really was a pleasure to work on. Thank you!
