This is Roger's fault, he talked me into entering the contest. Didn't take much talking. :lol: This is my own F250 as seen in the Show and Shine section. It's hard to say how many hours I had in this detail, because I was suffering a back injury, and had to break it up into several small sessions. It's safe to say that it took me a long time though...this truck needed a LOT of help. It was really, really hammered. Anyway, here's the detail. 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!
Looks great! I'm glad to see you like Bilt-Hamber as much as me, that stuff is amazing, especially on that awkward trim that nothing else seems to work on. It looks incredibly dark when there is not much light hitting it, but when there is it just lights up. I really like it, but I kinda miss the beading. Looks great :thumb:
Thanks! I know I sound like a broken record, but seriously, all of you need to buy some Auto Balm if you haven't already. It's great stuff. Try simply applying some to a really beat up old car - you'll be amazed. I also kind of dig how it's sort of a mystery how it works. Is it a sealant? Is it a wax? Nobody seems to know. It doesn't bead well, as you said, so for people who are into beading, it might not be your thing. I've found that you can get some beading back by using OID as a QD spray. It still won't bead like a nice 'nuba, but it's not supposed to. BHAB is just a different product than we're used to. And you're dead on about the look of the stuff. It really darkens dark colors, but when you get the vehicle in bright sunlight, it really pops. It's like the best of both worlds. Of all my LSPs, I still give the edge to RBOE on looks, but Auto Balm isn't far off the mark.
I like the paint correction work, I flagged down a guy the other day who had swirls marks just like this. I couldn't tell from the picture but did you pull the seal trim from the door jams, work trucks tend to collect a lot of stuff.:giterdone:
