OK this is probably the biggest turnaround I have done on a vehicle and I was really really pleased with the outcome. I will say this detail was before I got the foam cannon or the Flex and really wish I had had both when I did this one. This black F150 belongs to a co-worker of mine who used to use it for hunting because he could take all 3 of his boys with him. Well it was scratched up and swirled up and then he decides to buy another older F150 that he could carry everyone hunting in and wanted this to look like it did when he bought it. He asked me what I could do and I told him I thought that I could get rid of the swirls and most of the scratches. He wanted a full detail, inside and out. Well the day I was suppose to do it we got rain here in NC for the first time in about 2 months so I did the interior first. A week later I brought it back to finish. The first time I had it the sun popped out for about 30 minutes so I tried a few combinations of polishes on two seperate panels to see which I liked best and decided on the Menzerna Power Gloss followed up by 1Z High Gloss Polish. In the second pic I tried Optimum Compound followed by Menzerna 106. Both panels looked good but I must say I really wanted to use the 1Z so I went with that one. Here are the pics from the first day: Power Gloss and 1Z Optimum and 106 Well this little taste of what I could do really had me amped up so here is what I did: Tires/Wheels: I cleaned the wheels with Surf City Beyond Steel wheel cleaner and the EZ detail brush and Ultimitt Wheel and Tire mitt. The Surf City alone made the wheels really shine. I used Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff on the tires and wells. The tires were dressed with DP Gloss Tire Gel and the wells were dressed with Stoners Trim Shine. Engine: It got the usual rinse, sprayed with Super Green Stuff, rinsed, dried and dressed with Stoners Trim Shine. The Super Green Stuff is so good I don't even have to put a brush on the engine. Interior: The interior wasn't too bad except for the leather. I vacuumed the inside and cleaned everything except the leather with DP Total Interior Cleaner diluted 1:1. I then protected everything with DP Interior Surface Protectant. The leather took some work. I cleaned it with Water/Woolite mixture diluted 8:1. Took a lot of scrubbing but most of the grime and dirt came out. I then conditioned the leather with Surf City Voodoo leather rejuvenator. I shampooed the floor mats with the same Water/Woolite mixture and my PC and a green aqua brush. Glass: Inside and out got Surf City Clearly Better Glass Cleaner. To me there is absolutely bar none no other glass cleaner out there better than this stuff. It was put on with a MF and wiped off with a WW. Trim: All trim got Poorboys Trim Restorer. Running boards and bumpers got Stoners Trim Shine. Wash: I used my AG foam gun with a mixture of DP Xtreme Foam and DG 901. I used my white Shmitt and a rinse bucket. Dried with a leaf blower and guzzler. Paint: Well I used the Menzerna Power Gloss and an orange LC pad (a lot of pads) with the PC @ speed 5.5. On the truck bed panels I actually had to use the yellow LC pad and the Power Gloss via the PC on speed 6. I buffed it off with a Cobra Jr. After I finished the first round it was on to a polish. I decided to use the 1z High Gloss Polish with my Hitachi rotary and a 5.5" white LC pad @ speed 900 rpms. I could handle the rotary at this speed with this pad but anything more than that and I struggled, thus the Flex purchase. Going off track for a minute let me say that I really wish I had had the Flex for this job as I could have cut my time down considerably. The first round of compounding took a while with the PC. OK back on track. I buffed this off with a Cobra Jr. as well. Here are some 50/50 shots of after the Power Gloss and 1z: After the the 1z there was quite a bit of dusting (I'll start using Optimum polish with it like I do for the Menzerans to help allevieate this in the future) so I took the truck back out and rinsed it down again and re-dried. Well after the 1z I was LSP ready but I wanted to really make this thing wet black so I put on RMG with the PC @ speed 3 with a white LC CCS pad. I buffed it off with a Cobra Jr. Man the paint looked awesome after the RMG and next up was Liquid Souveran. I put the Liquid Souveran on with the PC @ speed 3 with a red LC CCS pad. I really like this pad with LSP's. I then buffed off with a Cobra Indigo. I really like the Cobra MF's but will be placing an order this week with CGs and will be buying a lot of MFs per the recommendations of OrngeZ and P1et. After the whole process I was really thrilled with how it turned out and he was ecstatic. Well here are the pics: The signature shot:
The results are impresive, the 50/50 pictures are wicked. You can totally tell the difference where you had polished and where it was needing polish The truck looks great, the leather looks really good nice and fresh. Well done that is one sweet detail :thumb: Thank you for sharing.
Wolf, you are blowing me away again! A black F150 this time and you turned it around like no one's business! Fantastic work!!!
Glad to see my man here, welcome and thanks. Oh yeah I totally agree with your post on CG's Citrus W&G on the other place! Always look forward to reading a reply from my man Dust. Oh yeah loved the pics of the meet, wish I wasn't so far away I would have loved to have been there. Wow detailing with you and P1et that would :righton:!
I bet this would have been a breeze with the flex huh?? Nice work as always - Before and afters are SICK - I need to use the LS i have left once the snow melts... I need to re-up on stoners more shine for my engines, I think that is what I've been missing. Do you spray on, run engine and wipe off?
Yeah would have been a breeze. I have a really screwed up single stage paint correction to do tomorrow so we'll see how the Flex flexes! And with Trim Shine I just spray on (the engine is the second thing I do after the wheels) and right before the owner shows up I pop the hood and wipe down if I need to. Thanks for the props!
No to the quads its just an optical illusion. I don't think the clear was as hard as the clear on my Volvo.
I've only detailed my own Volvo and I found the clear coat to be medium hard. I didn't find it that difficult..one thing I should add though is that my Volvo is a 95, not sure the clear coat on the new Volvo's. I know pirex has one lots of Volvo's and if I'm not mistaken he once said Volvo's have a mid clear coat...but I'd like to hear it from him.