Karl vs. hammered F250 (lots of pics, long)

Well, this one has been a long time coming.

I'd been looking for a truck for a long time. I had two requirements. First, it needed to be something I could detail out of. Second, I wanted something that would tow a car behind it. Specifically, tow my S2000 to national autocrosses all over the country. I ended up with this black, 1999 F250 diesel, with a 6 speed manual transmission.

Anyway, this truck was as hammered as a college freshman at his first frat party. Some idiot "detailer" had been there before me, using what looked to be a sandpaper pad and some cat litter as polishing compound. It was AWFUL. And not just in spots, either - the whole truck was just hammered. I was actually afraid I wouldn't be able to save it.

The paint readings were mostly healthy, but parts of the driver side of it - mostly the bed - were desperately thin. I'm talking 80 microns thin. So, I had my work cut out for me.

For a short while, I decided to experiment with the Kevin Brown Porter Cable Method (KBPCM), but soon abandoned it. I was doing something wrong, because it just wasn't working like I hoped. I didn't keep trying it, mostly because my Porter Cable broke - it started spitting bearing grease :yikes:.

So, on with the processes I used, and below, the photos. I'll go in basically chronological order of when I did what steps. This detail took me several days, since I was fighting a pinched nerve the entire time.

Plastic trim
Plastic trim first thing, you say? Yep. This is one of my tricks that works well for me. First thing I do, before I even wash a vehicle, is clean up any black plastic trim with some Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff APC (3:1). Then, I spray Stoner's Trim Shine onto all of it. The idea is to get the Trim Shine on there first thing, without worry of overspray, because the next step (the strip/wash step) will get rid of any overspray. Also, on areas where you step, like the running boards, the wash takes a lot of the slipperiness off of these surfaces. Try this sometime, it really works.

One part of the truck that Trim Shine didn't work on was the mirrors. Remember me saying this project took me several days? Well, it rained a couple times, and the Trim Shine just ran right off. I later hit the mirrors with Bilt Hamber Auto Balm, which made them look fantastic. It's also lasting through rain.

Headlights
First I wiped them down, then wet sanded them. Started with 600 paper, then 1500, then 2000. I then polished them using a 4" wool pad on the Makita, along with some Malco headlight polish. This Malco stuff does seem to work better on headlights than regular paint polish does. Once they were fixed, I sealed them with some Collinite 475.

Engine Bay
Anybody who's owned a Power Stroke Ford can tell you the engine gets really, really nasty. Well, the "JL Method" was brought out. First, I covered the alternator and the open element intake that I'd made for it, then rinsed the cold engine with low pressure water. Then, Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff (3:1) in a Solo 418 pump sprayer was sprayed liberally everywhere. A group of brushes and sacrificial Costco towels were used to get the really grungy bits clean. Then I rinsed, and blew the engine dry with my leaf blower. Finally, I dressed the whole thing with Meguiar's Hyper Dressing at 3:1. I then started the engine and let it idle for 20 minutes. Job done.

Interior
The interior wasn't much better. :wall: Dust and dirt pretty much everywhere, and the carpets were disgusting. No matter though. All the plastic and vinyl got Majestic Leather and Plastic cleaner at 1:1, with an ounce of their "Clean Cotton" scent poured in. Once clean, this stuff all got Vinylex - an underrated product. Vinylex leaves dark plastic looking dark, but doesn't leave it greasy or shiny.

The carpets were dry brushed and vacuumed. Then, I hit them with Majestic Extraction Plus carpet cleaner at the recommended 10:1. I'll say it again - this stuff is witchcraft in a bottle. I soaked the carpets with the Extraction Plus, and then brushed them vigorously. Then I "faked" an extraction machine, with a spray bottle full of hot water and my shop vac. The really awful spots on the carpets got Majestic's "Carpet Spotter HD" carpet cleaner. This is a strong, solvent based, aerosol product. Spray it on, and watch the foam come up in the color of the stain! Then blot it up. It's amazing stuff.

The seats got similar treatment. Brush and vac, and then I hit them with Majestic's "Super Duty" aerosol upholstery cleaner. I had to go gently here, because if I got the seats too wet, dirt would start to wick up out of the foam of the seat, making them WORSE! Fortunately, I figured this out early, so I went light with the cleaner from that point on.

Wheels, wells, and tires
To my amazement, the wheels weren't in awful shape. I hit them with Majestic Wheel Brite, which is basically Meg's WB. I cut the stuff 4:1. Spray on, hit with a bunch of brushes, rinse off. After that, I soaked them with Majestic Enviro-Shield, a product JL and I have both come to like a lot. The effect is not unlike Rain-X, but you can use it all over the place. Really helps make the wheels easier to clean up later.

The wells got cleaned with MS SGS and a long brush, and were eventually dressed with Stoner Trim Shine. It's hard to tell, because that same idiot "detailer" who ruined the paint also spray painted the wells gloss black. :shead: The tires got cleaned with MS Power Prep (4:1), and were eventually dressed with CG VRP. The tires are pretty badly scuffed up and dry rotted, so they don't really take color well. I did the best I could.

First Wash and Clay
Not that there was any LSP on this thing, I mostly wanted something strong to rid me of the considerable grime that was all over this truck. So I mixed up a bucket of Dawn, with a little SGS thrown in for good measure. I also wiped down the jambs during this step.

After the wash was complete, I clayed with Bilt-Hamber soft clay as a part of the rinse step. Being able to use rinse water as your clay lube is a big time saver. And this clay works very, very well. It's my favorite.

Polishing
As I said, I started out with the KBPCM, but abandoned it early on. Back to the Makita rotary I went. In a handful of the really awful spots, I used a Meguiar's Solo wool cutting pad along with some 3M Perfect-It II rubbing compound. Once those areas were better, I went to my standby - Menzerna Power Finish. I used the Power Finish with a broad selection of pads. The sides of the bed got a LC flat orange pad, because I have a lot of them, and needed a "sacrificial pad" for this area. I say sacrificial because of the bed rail caps - the area just underneath them is too small even for a 4" pad. So, I had to run the pad right over the rail caps, which tore the pad to pieces.

The driver side of the bed was, by far, the worst on the truck. Looks like a previous owner loaded stuff into the bed by dragging it across the side of the truck and into the bed! Scratches ALL OVER. Deep ones. And, naturally, this is where the paint was the thinnest. So I had to tread lightly. In fact, when I first got started, I noticed that the pad was coming up black. The clearcoat is just GONE from this part of the truck :gasp:. I've started calling it the "Clearcoat Delete Option."

Once the worst of the buffer trails were gone, I went back, again with Power Finish, and this time with a 3M UK yellow pad at about 1700RPM. It's not a very aggressive pad, but it got the job done. I also like how soft and thick it is, so it conforms to bends in the panels. It's my favorite pad.

Chrome Bumpers
Here I tried something new - S100 polishing soap, which I bought at the Harley dealer. Fantastic stuff.

LSP
You guys may have noticed that I'm on a bit of a Bilt-Hamber Auto Balm kick. This is what I used. It left the paint looking super dark, and feeling very slick. Ken recently discovered a method involving misting a small amount of water onto the panel just before you apply the Auto Balm. This works GREAT. Really makes it easier to remove.

Glass
Glass was cleaned with Invisible Glass, using Majestic blue window towels. For stubborn water spots, I broke out some #0000 steel wool along with the IG.

Whew! Alright, that's the process. Here are the pictures...

Some engine befores:











Buffer Trails and defects, most of which look to be the work of someone unskilled with a buffer:







Pictures of the worst area on the driver's side of the bed. If there are small children reading, you should cover their eyes:











This shot shows how nasty the other side of the truck is, and how awful the mirrors were:



There was this white dust all in the jambs:













Headlights looking a little tired:





The interior wasn't much better :thud: . Here's a random collection from the many photos I took of it:

















What the heck was this guy doing in this truck? Chasing sand storms?

 

And now, the afters. Let's start with the engine:













Here's the exterior.

This is the part of the story where I found out there's no clear coat left on the driver side bed of the truck:



Now the rest of the shots of the exterior:



I'm pretty sure this is the passenger side front fender and hood:





Headlight looking much better, as is the front left side of the truck:



Neat shot of the pillar at the back of the bed:



As I said, I wasn't comfortable wailing on the driver side of the bed, with the clear being missing in action. But, it's a lot better now:











A couple from further out:





The hood:



Passenger side shots:







Remember those nasty mirror housings? I used some Tardis to remove the white paint from this one, and applied some Auto Balm to it:





Here are some interior shots:











Look - there were some gauges under all that grime!



Here are the driver side mats after I worked on those:





Center dash area:





Carpets:











Right side vent:



Right after cleaning the shifter boot, I discovered it was torn, so I ended up replacing it anyway...



The view from behind the wheel:



Thanks for looking!

 

Damn Karl, that is amazing work..im stunned...those mirrors sure do look good

 

amazing turnaround, extreme makeover! That previous detailer was probably "educated and certified"... by one of those "citrus detailers" on youtube...
Great job, two thumbs up!!!

 

Holy crap Karl!! Amazing work! This really shows off what you're capable of. I can't wait to check out the Majestic Solutions stuff in two weeks! JL said he's down for a mini-meet

 

nice job man!!!
I have to agree with Supercharged, he is EDUCATED!

 

Looks fantastic! Great job on that.

 

Wow, that is a great rejuvenation! Excellent work!

 

Great work Karl, loving the mirror transformation.

 

Stunning work there Karl! You can totally tell that you brought the gloss back.

 

karl - 1
swirls - 0

looks glossy!

 

WOW, you just added five grand to the value of tht truck!! need to get those windows tinted now!!

 

Damn fine job Karl, of course I didn't expect anything less than stellar. You weren't kidding when you told me it was absolutely hammered!! You should drive it back to the dealership now and I bet the salesman will crap his pants. Awesome write up and man AB sure did make the paint a deep glossy black. AB certainly will darken paint and make it look incredible.

 

Thats some nice work Karl.. Seriously nice work!

 

Well done vehicle looks great, the truck look wicked :thumb:

 

I appreciate all the kind words gang, it really does make my day. And thank you to the Detailing Bliss community from me as well. The amount of knowledge here on DB is amazing, and it's great that people are so willing to share their secrets and help each other out.

Thanks Jordan. I'm glad you noticed the mirrors, since we'd talked about using Auto Balm on them over PMs. It works! Since I told Jordan how I used Auto Balm on these mirrors over PM, here's what I did, for the rest of you:

1. Clean the mirror housing, if it isn't already clean
2. Apply Auto Balm evenly
3. Walk away

That's it! I tried buffing it of course, but it really doesn't do much of anything. The mirrors seemed to somehow absorb the Auto Balm. No more fussing with messy dressings for me.

Much like it does on painted surfaces, Auto Balm seems to make knocking dead bugs off the mirrors super easy. They practically fall off on their own.

Thanks! I know, right? I'm envisioning someone going to town on this truck with a buffer, having not clayed it, or possibly not even having bothered to wash it! It was unbelievable. I don't know how anyone can stand back, look at those holograms, and congratulate themselves for a job well done. :shead:

Thanks a lot Aaron. As you get closer to your visit, keep JL and I updated as to when you'll be where.

Thanks! Maybe he's one of the guys from Expert Village?

Thanks Ken! Coming from you that's high praise.

Thanks!

Thanks, Ben! Man am I glad I got that tub of Auto Balm from you. I would have hit this with RBOE, but since I've only recently discovered Auto Balm, I used it instead. I guess I suffer "shiny new thing disease."

Thanks, Denzil!

Thank you!

Thanks! You know, if it's really $5000 to the good...maybe I'll just flip it! :thumb: I hear you on getting the windows tinted. It's on my to do list. Just a matter of finding out who does the best job of it around here these days.

Thank you sir! You're absolutely right. I should drive it down to the dealer I bought it from, and hand him some of my cards. To be fair to him, I don't think his detailer did all this damage - I believe it was done by the used car lot that had it before he did. Bryan (the guy who I bought the truck from) only had it on his lot for a day when I made my first visit.

Thank you very much!

And thank you too, Carlos.

 

Now that's what I call a detail, wow, fantastic results!

What was the process on the engine?

 

Wow, Thats alot paint...You did an outstanding job...Way to go...:thumb:

 

Thanks! Here's the "JL Method" for detailing an engine bay:

1. Rinse off the cold engine with low pressure water
2. Spray liberally with Majestic Solutions Super Green Stuff APC (3:1)
3. Agitate the really nasty areas with brushes/towels as needed
4. Rinse off the SGS and the remaining grime. At this point the engine should be clean
5. Blow dry with leaf blower
6. Spray the area with Meguiar's Hyper Dressing at 3:1 for a satin finish
7. Start and run the engine (hood closed) for 15-20 minutes to help the dressing set up
8. Shut down engine, wipe away excess as needed

This is a method that makes client's jaws drop every time. Don't tell them how easy it is!

Hyper Dressing is great here because it's water based. Solvent based dressings around engines make me nervous. HD also doesn't leave surfaces super slippery, which is nice if you ever have to do any work on the vehicle like remove an oil filter (for example). It's also very cost effective, which is nice, since I use it pretty liberally.

Thanks Buddy! :thumb:

 

Great work and thanks for the engine bay tutorial!!