2005 International Rescue Fire Truck

Yes, another fire truck. But this one is special, read on and you will understand why.

2005 International Rescue Fire truck

As I understood this vehicle had been a demo vehicle and was now going to be sold. So this one got the full treatment and boy was it in rough shape. So I knew it was going to take some time.

Day one went something like this:

I decided to start things off with the interior. So got my self ready for an entire interior wipe down:

I used Deionized water, Meg’s APC, with a microfiber towel and my favorite Swissol brush for the vents or other areas.


I needed something strong so I went with Meg’s APC at 1:1 ratio, here is the water before I started the wipe down.

Now for some pictures during the process:






Well the entire interior was done this way.

Here is the water after the interior wipe down had been completed


Once the interior wipe down had been completed it was on to dressing the interior, this time I went with one of my favorite dressings, Meg’s #40.


Here are some before and after of the interior (please excuse the lighting, it was quite dark and it was hard to get good pictures but hopefully they will deliver the difference):

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Well once the interior had been completed I moved on to rims.

Had my CR filter system set up, ready to go



Ready for spot free wash and rinse




Tools used for the rims

First I got a new formula from a my friend at the Body Shop supply. He claimed that this formula was as good as P21S Total Auto Wash, I can’t recall the name of the formula, but I had to try it. I tried it out on two fire trucks and I didn’t like it, it worked fine but to say it’s as good as P21S Total Auto Wash is stretching it, well at least I thought so. So the new formula is what’s in the fertilizer like container.



Sprayed the new formula all over the wheel wells


Then agitated with a brush

Some pictures of the wheel well after it had been scrubbed:






Then on to the rims, for the rims I used my favorite formula. P21S Wheel Gell, nothing beats this, well at least I haven’t found anything better then P21S Wheel Gel yet.





Once the sprayed on I let it sit for a bit and then agitated with my Swissol Brush




Then gave the tires a good scrub with my Meg’s wheel brush


This is what the rim and tire looks like after all the scrubbing


Then rinsed off with Deionized water






This process was done to all the rims, tires and wheel wells of this vehicle. Once all the rims, tires and wheel wells were completed I moved on to the exterior wash.


For the wash, I used the two bucket method and Deionized water with Meg’s Gold Class Shampoo and with the help of both white and black ShMITT.

So first of all I made my way to the roof of the vehicle and let the washing begin:


The roof of the back end of the truck.


Then rinsed off.

I did the entire vehicle section by section, having the Deionized water for the rinsing each section came in handy as I didn’t have to worry about water spots.

Well once the wash had been completed now came the claying of the entire truck, this was fun and shocking at the same time. For the clay I went with red Magic Clay and Pinnacle Clay Lube (lots of it).



Here is a picture of me starting to clay the vehicle. Start point and I made it the finish point.




Here is the clay after the entire vehicle had been clayed. Oh and this was the second peace of clay, the first one got tossed half way through the vehicle, shocking isn’t it. To say this vehicle had lots of contaminants is an understatement.

Well once the claying had been completed I rinsed the vehicle again and I proceeded to dry it. The shop where the truck is located has a big air compressor and I put it to good use.

The entire truck was first air dried and then finished off with my Guzzler Microfiber Towel.

That was enough for Day one, besides I was getting hungry. So I went home.

Day two:

Now it was time to see how bad the paint correction was going to be and here is what I was up against:








This I saw during the washing but had a closer look and it didn’t look so great, so I pointed it out to my friend. Now the vehicle isn’t that old only two years old, so this was a little shocking.


The driver side of the roof had bunch of rust spots.

Well now that I knew what I was up against it was time for taping the vehicle up:









Taping this vehicle took some time but well worth it.

Now for the test panel



Now from the inquiring I had done about the paint on these vehicles I had an idea as to what I was up against so I thought it would be best to use my reliable Menzerna 85RD3.02, my Metabo and a Meg’s Polishing pad. Keep in mind this was the test.


Here is one pass of Menzerna 85RD3.02, Meg’s Polishing pad and Metabo at 1500rpm




Now it wasen’t perfect on the fist pass so I get it another pass


Much better on the second pass.





So I was set to go. Oh and yet another single stage paint vehicle



So seeing as the vehicle was single stage paint and not to mention it’s a large vehicle. I decided to use my System 2000 with Snappy Clean.





I’m glad I brought it along, because it made cleaning my pad very easy and as you can imagine I had to clean my pad a few times.

I decided to polish all the lenses as well and here are some 50/50 pictures:





Now for some before and after pictures:

Before:


After:


I kept polishing along and made my way to the front. The front was not single stage paint, finally some clear coat. But boy did the front have a tough clear coat, I gave the front end a go with the same product as on the back and here is how it turned out.

Before:


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Not bad on the first pass but to get it just right I had to give it about two passes, certain areas got three.

Front end before:


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Driver fender before:


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That was on the fist pass, this is one of the areas that received three passes.

Bumper before:


After:

Yet another area that required three passes to get it just right.

Here is how the entire front end looked after it was all polished


Passenger door (top) before:


After:


Well the entire day two was spent polishing, once I had polished the entire vehicle I removed the tape and called it a day. Now one thing to comment is that some areas of this vehicle were very stubborn and could not get it the way I wanted too but I left it at least at 90% better compared to the way it was. This was mostly on the sides of the back end, not sure why but I would give it a few passes with 85RD3.2 with a Meg’s polishing pad and it would remove some but not all swirls, so stepped up the pad to a Meg’s cutting pad and still swirls remained. So the sides of the back end received one pass with Meg’s cutting pad with 85RD3.02 followed by a pass of 85RD3.02 with Meg’s Polishing pad.

Day three:

First thing was to give the entire vehicle an alcohol wipe down to remove any polish residue I may had missed.

Once the alcohol wipe down had been completed it was time for the LSP. I went with Jetseal 109 on this truck, I wanted durability this time.

I completed the rims


Rims received Jetseal 109 as well



Oh look at that, single stage paint again hahaha



Oh yes, my wife and my little princess wanted to lend me a hand today and my wife was the one that did the alcohol wipe down wile I was working away on the rims. Oh and my little girl was in charge of taking pictures (so excuse the blurry shots)


Me working away on the rims

After I had applied the Jetseal on all the rims I climbed on to the roof and started jetsealing the roof first and then the rest of the body.





Once the entire vehicle was covered with Jetseal I went to work on the tires. All the tires along with wheel wells received Optimum Tires Shine. The painted part of the wheel wells also got Jetseal.


Now for some before and after on the tires, rims, wheel wells:

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After about 30 to 45minuites I removed the Jetseal from the vehicle with my Tornado buffing towel and here are some before and after of the exterior of the vehicle

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All exterior plastic peaces received Black Again

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Now for some random reflection pictures:










Oh on the back ground was the other truck that was waiting for me









Well that concludes the full detail of this vehicle. I have to admit it was quite a bit of work but at the same time it was very rewarding to see the results at the end. The vehicle looks great, I was satisfied with the results.

As always feed back (good or bad) is always welcome.

 

looks great, we might have to start calling you mr fire truck... that or chief...

Its cool you got your family involved, im sure they had fun with that.

So how did you like the jetseal 109? I think this isthe first or one of the first times on paint. it looks great in the paint but would you use it again?

 

lol mr. fire truck lol...thank you for the compliments buddy. Oh the family had a blast, my little girl was great at taking pictures. I kept telling her how to take them and she actually took some desent pictures.

As for Jetseal 109, oh you bet I'll use it again. I've actually ordered some more but super sized lol

I'm not a fan of sealents but Jetseal and Woflgang are my two favorite sealents...so far. I think I'll keep using the Jetseal 109 on these fire trucks, I was quite impressed with it.

 

Nice job as usual!Man what are those black handled spray bottles that you use?

 

SWEET MR. FIRETRUCK Full paint job huh? Damn, thats a lot of work, but I bet you had fun Love how the red looks on the after pics, very nice buddy! Oh, and the interior, NICE!

Hey, haven`t been thinking getting some spray bottles you fill with air? Its just like the ones you have, but you use a air compressor to get the pressure up. And then you use a lot less product. Just a tip. But they are a bit more costy.

 

Another sweet big boy rig great job Nica! I always love seeing your cool detailing tools. The CR spotless must be a super live saver when it comes to rigs like those. Man, that red clay looked like poop lol. I've never seen clay look like that ever! Why do you think that paint transferred to the pad that u were Jet Sealing it with? That's pretty odd .

 

Thank you for the compliment, very much appreciated. As for the bottles I honestly can't remember the name or who manufactures them. I'm going to go visit my friend that supplies me with a few things localy and I'll ask him. I need to pick up a few things anyways, when I find out the name/manufacture I'll let you know.

Glad you enjoyed it pirex and thank you for the compliments, means alot to me. Yup, it was lots of work but I had fun doing it...lol...you can tell by the amount of pictures I took hahahaha.

I know the bottles you are talking about but the only reason I didn't get them is becuase I thought that the house that connects to the bottles would be in the way but I was thinking of picking one up and giving it a try but I still think the house would get in the way. But you know me, first try then see if I like it. I'm pleased with the current bottles I have and I'll keep using them but there is always room for improvement.

Thank you buddy for the compliment. Oh yea the CR Spotless system saves lots of time. I just need to purchase a bunch of bags of resins because these fire trucks require lots of water. Yea the clay was a bit of a shoker but it was amazing the difference the clay made to the paint of the vehicle. As for the paint from the rims, it transferes over becuase it's single stage paint and even though the Jetseal 109 is not an aggresive single stage paint acts up strangely some times lol. Every time I touch the rims they release paint, regardless of the product I use.

 

Weird, maybe the wheels don't like paint!

 

thats just SS paint, whenever you wash it or rub somthing on it a fine laywer comes off. Its not uncommon