white singlestage newish car

[swadeab]

Tom, that's the way i'm going to go and even better all of those are OTC up the street from me.

Thanks for all the advice from everyone, i'll keep reading and educating myself. i think you guys got me on an express track for getting some product to hopefully get this done this week instead of sitting here confused with all of the new products.

[tguil]

Swadeab,

As I think about it I am starting to use the over the counter Consumer Line more and more. You really don't need a lot of "pro" stuff to "git-r-done". Have fun(?) with that big ol' truck. Careful with the pc on the roof. I dropped my pc on the roof of my three week old Ram. Good thing I have a friend who can work wonders with PDR (paintless dent removal).

Tom

[swadeab]

Tom you got that right on the enjoying part! If you're a truck guy you don't realize how much utility you're missing till you don't have one. I had an older
tacoma for years, then an f150 long bed both great trucks but small extended cabs. When my kids came along a couple of years ago i switched back to my old suv for the 4 seats as the
wife needed a new minivan. Not too bad i drove it through the throwing cheerios everywhere stage the last couple of years and it was already 10 years old so i didn't worry about it getting trashed.

...but i cursed like no tomorrow everytime i needed to pickup something large, haul something to the dump or pickup wood or something else for projects! I was even removing the passenger seat for long stuff which meant first removing kids car seats then folding down the rear seats.

Luckily i don't have much of a commute now, I only do 5-6k miles per year, but even if i did i'll never not have a truck again, life is too short for the frustration without one, i'd pick up a beater commuter or pay the gas! But i get a big grin on my face this month pulling up to the big box stores and grabbing what i need and watching people wrestle plywood onto the roofs of cars =)

[swadeab]

Well been a few weeks and finally got around to working on this truck and now I'm left with some nagging thoughts.

It was much worse than i thought. I washed, clayed, isp it and it was pretty apparent, obviously florida sun hood roof are the dullest spots, sides aren't too bad.

Used the pc with a yellow cutting foam pad and ultimate compound. Maybe it's been awhile since I've done this (my last car 13 years i stopped bothering with it much the past 5 or so years,
plus it was clear coated), and it was improving it some but there was still hard water stains and I was using a lot of product...was dissapointed in how it was coming out.

Before i had even finished my first panel (hood) my backing plate split (my nieghbors been using it). So here I am with this big truck, washed, 1/2 clayed and isp'd and no where local i know
to get a backing plate, and 2 kids, figured i'd never get this done =)

So i said what the heck and grabbed the dewalt rotary i was using on a boat (never used it on a car), course no foam, but had new wool cutting and polish pads. I gotta say, it was immediately amazing the difference,
hard water stains gone, only deep scratches here and there left I could readily see. Finishing off with a wool polish and ultimate polish really made the difference. I had the original foam pad that came with my pc i was
able to use to apply ultimate wax and man it looked good with out sitting there vibrating my hand and making multiple runs over the panel using a good bit of product.

So tonight I only have the hood and front fenders done (started late will finish in the am) but it really has me wondering about my da and this rotary now. I didn't find the rotary alarming to use on the truck. But i've heard nothing but horror stories andcautions (burned paint, edges and what not), and the DA wasn't even making much of a dent ...it was removing oxidation and cleaning but seemed to be slow progress, a test with the rotary didn't seem like it was stripping paint off or anything
alarming like that so i went with it.

So i guess i'll read up on this stuff more but my immediate conclusions are:

1) correction in single stage white, the dewalt seems the way to go, i'd have been there for days with the da..heck i'd have probably called someone in the way it was going to do it for me! Future maintenance though with polishes and waxes the da seems would be fine.

2) Clear coats must be much tougher to work on with a rotary and maybe that's why everything i've read said get a da?

3) I'm assuming maybe you could get greater correction with a da with a stronger product? Out of curiosity what would be stronger than UC? I was running the pattern over a 1-2 foot square section at a time.


Either way i'm glad that backing plate broke!

[h_bomm]

M105 would be a step up from UC. It just may be that the paint on your truck is just that hard that it needed a little extra muscle from the rotary to respond. You may also look into the Dual Action Micro Fiber system (DAMF), I have never used it, but everything I've seen and heard says its supposed to give you rotary like results on a DA machine. Less of a chance of ruining your paint with the DA vs using a rotary with bad technique I suppose. But it sounds like you are well on your way to cleaning up your truck! Good Luck!

[BillyJack]

I've read somewhere ( Mike Phillips from AutoGeek's forum, I believe) that modern day SS white paint is about the hardest paint on the market except for the ceramic clears. Using the DA, you may need a more aggressive pad such as the burgundy cutting pads. Personally, I'd stay with the rotary for the initial pass if it's working for you. Tape off you edges and ridges, work small areas at a time and pay close attention to your work. Once the major correction is accomplished, you can go back to the DA, even using the same UC with a yellow pad if holograms are apparent. I'm a long time rotary user, a recent convert to a DA. DA's are great and I'll never be without one, but IMO they'll likely never obsolete the rotary for the toughest jobs.

Bill

[swadeab]

Got finished with the paint late tonight, MAN i forgot how long these trucks take. Thanks for all of the input guys! very helpful, i've learned a lot.

Yeah i think you're probably right rotary cut and polish,especially on the hood/roof just too much oxidation flat white, and hard water stains. In florida you get
some sprinker system hit you then the sun just bakes it right in. One of the reasons I ditched the sprinkler system on that side of the house, even aiming heads away the wind will get you.

I probably could have got away on the sides with the rotary for the initial pass and polish with the da. I was only running the rotary though on 1400rpm and nothing was getting hot or anything,
there was no point i really got alarmed with it, i think like you and mike mention the ss white paint is just - flat out hard -.

It didn't really seem to help much trying to work out embedded deep stuff that even the claybar didn't get or lessen some scratches (maybe the UC is a bit weak for that), I have a dynabrade 3" air rotary I picked up off ebay for a steal one day, that thing is awesome. I used it on the metal painted bumber trim and it cleaned up everything. After seeing how it cleaned up the front bumper painted areas I went back over the roof with it and UP. I then went back over some areas with some sort of spots (probably deep embedded dirt in scratches or something) the dewalt wasn't getting and I was concerned with how large of an area I was sitting on with it. But the 3" took em right out, though it was probably running 2400rpm+. And it turned the bumpers into mirrors.

Check out this site/thread on this BMW rehab with the small air buffer: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...t=91146&page=8

i could sit there with it on defects and see gradual improvements, really came in handy on the thin pieces on top of the doors, and small areas.

Been cloudy and overcast here but did have a bit of sun, i didn't see anything on the hood from using the rotary, what a shocking difference on the hood wish i had taken some pics. Now i did see some swirl type stuff on the sides, maybe from the rotary or maybe they were already there, but I decided to call it a day on that since my da backing plate is toast. If I did I'd imagine the da would help there.

Kids keep me busy i still have to do wheels, cracks and crevices and inside.

[swadeab]

Dewitt501, can't see your pictures but i'd like to see them. What buffer were you using out of curiosity?

My hood and roof we're pretty oxidized, after washing, ipa, and claybar it looked like flatwhite paint. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow from using the dewalt and uc/up...as it would be interesting to see what others think.

The DA for me was getting a good bit of the oxidation, but it and UC just wasn't doing it on all the oxidation and especially the water stains. But my technique is probably suspect on everything lol

[Murr1525]

A pure polish wont hurt before waxing.

[swadeab]

Unfortunately no before pics, but here's how it came out, will see how it holds up and how it looks the next waxing. The hood and roof HUGE improvement, it was just flat white and the paint everywhere was dirty, after pressure washing, hand washing, when I was claying the whole panel was covered in dirty water the clay bar was pulling out (and i think i forgot to clay some of the doors), the sides still had some shine in some areas.

Close inspection reveals some spots around edges I missed polishing with the rotary, i'll go back next detail time and really hit the whole thing with the da once i get a new backing plate in...hopefully that will clean
those and any rotary defects I introduced. My details supplies are pretty sparce, all the chrome was pretty dirty with some surface rust here and there, resorted to Bar keeps friend to remove surface rust , then hit with the 3" buffer (polishing wool pad) and UP, the chrome in pics is before i waxed um..that really brought it out. Used the 3" and UP on the headlights too.

Pretty happy with this considering i have no real skill with the rotary ..i'm sure my technique stunk and it was just the paint being hard which is why I didn't mess anything up.

I will say I didn't do as professional job on the paint that's for sure, but it's got a decent shine now, hard to tell if that is actually paint or additives in the polish wax.

I have after waxing gone back over some small areas with a MF and citrus cleaner to get off tons of tiny road tar spots here and there the rotary and clay didn't get and couldn't really tell where i had been (and surely that stripped any additives off the area as the citrus cleaner i have is goo gone grill cleaner (hi tech i know!)

Still have to go back over glass, polish the box, and a few odds and ends. I spent a good bit of time with a cloth and some citrus cleaner under the hood, cracks and crevices, bottom of the frame by the rail underneath getting years of dirt off. But good enough for an initial detail to see what i have now! I'll keep her clean and the next time i know what i'll be dealing with.