is your truck scratched and swirled??

[ol_Blue97]

my truck when was clean and waxed always looked good but i could always see the pesky swirls and light scratches. after talking to a budy of mine he let me bring my truck into the body shop he workes at where he is a painter. he showed and helped me on how to wet sand and buff everything out to make the paint look like new again and i wil have to say it looks awesome and feels like glass

i do not recomend anyone trying this with wet sanding unless you are rather experianced as to you can do more damage then good on edges and seams. i am saying this from personal experance.

so what you want to do is work pannel by pannel and taping off and covering theh others to help in clean up. once you start buffing you will throw compound on the other finished pannels and is you throw a heaver cutting compound on the finished ones and then you wipe it off..... guess what... you just left a haze on the finished polished pannel. being clean is yor friend and will save you time in the end

tape off all the trim so compound doesnt get under or behind it as it is very hard to get out once dry. whe you tape it, tape it so the edge of the tape is actually on the paint and stuck to the paint. this creates a barrier so the compound CANNOT get behind or under the tape. dont be too concerned taping too much of the paint as you will compond it buy had one the tape is removed

notice all the time taken to cover the pannels. the fender has been wet sanded with 3000 grit sanding pads on a dual action orbital palm snader seen in the wheel well. 1500 grit was used on deeper scratches. take extreeme care around seams, corners, ar any raised part of the pannel as you can take the pint off all the way down to the metal. the 3000 grit is only to remove the swirls and small scrateches, sand compleetly but not overly!!! and take notice as you do not want to sans too close to trim and areas where you cannot get the buffer into, then you will be stuck doint it by hand, and that takes forever

this is after i used the heavy compound and went thru the pannel entirely, it looks good in the pic but up close there is a haze over the entire pannel as if someone had taken a very fine sand paper to it. you have to remeber that is what compound is, a liquid sanding agent

this pic wa taken after the whole cab had been polished after the compound which is an even finer liquid sanding agent. take your time and polish untill all the polish as wrked in and you have went over the pannel in every direction. you will really see the shine come out once you finish the polish. once done wipe down the pannel with a soft cloth or microfiber towel, make sure you keep you towels seperate. you dont want to wipe the polished pannel with the heavy compound cloth, or you will be polishing all over agian.

also take some polish and go around allthe trim by hand to take out any line that was left by the tape. keeping your buffer away from the trim will save in clean up and not possibaly destroy your trim

now the pannel looks like glass


some more shots of the day, notice the sectionalizing of the pannels and even removing the tails to reduce taping, well the we decided to tint them but thats becides the point




as for tinted tails, real tined mixed by a PRO is much better the the VHT spray. we mixed in red and blue in the tint to accent the truck and make the red of the tails pop when the sunlight hit is. the pic does no justice.
here are shots of the tint, B4

during

after

[strokinandsmokin95]

lokks sick man

[whistlin dixie]

looks amazing! im gunna have to try this on my truck when it warms up

[Six0~Stroker]

looks great and looks like ALOT of work!

Good job man

[kramarj]

That looks amazing! Definately on my to do list now. Do you have any idea what this would cost to have done profesionally? I would probably have to get new pin stripping if I had this done with two tone paint right?

[ol_Blue97]

thanks everyone.... it took a while but i feel was well worth it

Originally Posted by kramarj

That looks amazing! Definately on my to do list now. Do you have any idea what this would cost to have done profesionally? I would probably have to get new pin stripping if I had this done with two tone paint right?

with the 2 tone you would have to put some kind of pin striping back but its not that expensive so dont sweat it there..

not sure how much it would cost to have it done but i do have a buddy that wants the guy who helped me with this one to do his truck and was gonna charge by the hour because it takes soo long to do, so i may be able to give you an idea later on, im thinking around $400??? but thats a total guess

[f250ghost]

Looks good man! But isn't wet sanding the same thing as clay-baring it?

[kramarj]

Originally Posted by ol_Blue97

thanks everyone.... it took a while but i feel was well worth it


with the 2 tone you would have to put some kind of pin striping back but its not that expensive so dont sweat it there..

not sure how much it would cost to have it done but i do have a buddy that wants the guy who helped me with this one to do his truck and was gonna charge by the hour because it takes soo long to do, so i may be able to give you an idea later on, im thinking around $400??? but thats a total guess

I can understand by the hour, I sure wouldn't like doing it. I know it's a guess, but $400 sure sounds cheap, maybe it's not, but I sure would expect it to be more than that.

[strokinpower]

Originally Posted by f250ghost

Looks good man! But isn't wet sanding the same thing as clay-baring it?

no clay barring only removes imperfections sitting on top of the paint where wet sanding is actually removing some of the finish.

[ol_Blue97]

^^^ exactly, compounding will not remove small scratches as the wet sanding will... now that the paint looks great again, i will do a clay bar 2x a year to keep the junk out and keep the paint lookin tip top