about to attemp it...wanted your opinion...

[2002FX4 F150]

I am going to detail my silver F150, and i wanted to run my process by everyone.

First, the condition of the paint.
Light swirls, glossy with no major defects. light spider webbing

Process:

Wash with NXT
#83 w/ Orange lake Coutry pad
#80 w/ White Lake Country pad

Finish with Liquid Glass.

Sound good to everyone?

Ill be using the PC7424.

Also does anyone know how hard or soft an 02 F150 clear coat is? I guessed i would find out by seeing how many passes it would to make my satisfied.

[F-150]

Here's just a little info
In order:

Wash with NXT
Clay the truck (this is not an optional step)
Chances are a few passes with M80 with do.
But if you need to use M83.
I have no experience with lake country pads so you're on your own with that one. Just make sure the pads are specified for the product, (ex. Polishing pad-use cleaner polish, Finishing pad (pad for applying waxes)-use to apply wax)
Speed settings for the pc:
4.5-5 for applying cleaner polishes.
3 for applying a wax.
I've never heard of liquid glass so idk about this one. I guess just use a wax of your choice. I'd recommend NXT Tech wax.
As for how hard or soft a cleaer coat is, just do a test spot cuz it'll vary. My clear coat on my white 05 F-150 is pretty hard. But I heard it's common that specifically white F-150s have clear coats that are hard as hell.
Hope this helped
Feel free to ask more questions.

[rayck]

See my thread

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15058

Mike suggest not to use cutting pad with DA and the Orange pad from LC is cutting pad.

After that thread, I think I'll use polish pad with #83 and then #80 to follow.

Good luck and let us know the result.

[2002FX4 F150]

thank you very much.....ill try it out and let everyone know how it went.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: about to attemp it...wanted your opinion...

Originally posted by 2002FX4 F150
I am going to detail my silver F150, and i wanted to run my process by everyone.

First, the condition of the paint.
Light swirls, glossy with no major defects. light spider webbing

Process:

Wash with NXT
#83 w/ Orange lake Coutry pad

The below was taken from a thread from this weekends class,



The forum member was using the Orange Lake Country Cutting Pad. As you can see from the picture, the cutting pad on a dual action polisher scours the paint.

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15066

Once in a while people come to MOL asking questions about using foam cutting pads on the dual action polisher, (G100/PC). Here at Meguiar's our current policy is to not recommend, nor sell people cutting pads to use to apply products with the dual action polisher because while they may remove scratches, they tend to scour and haze the paint and most people don't have the skill or expertise to recover from this when it happens.

Below is a picture of the hood on GTBrad's black Mustang.

• - In the upper left hand corner you can see swirls in the paint that were there when Brad bought the car.
  - In the upper right hand side is how the hood looked after he tried using a cutting pad on the dual action polisher. Note how scoured the paint looks. (Just to note, this was not a Meguiar's cutting pad).
  - In the bottom half of the hood, we removed both the swirls and the scouring using Meguiar's products and only our polishing and finishing foam pads.

The point is, using the correct technique, you don't have to resort to a foam cutting pad and risk scouring your car's paint to remove below surface defects and restore a show car shine!

[2002FX4 F150]

that is a bummer....i cant afford new pads and i was looking forard to doing this. Either way, thanks for letting me know that cause i wouldnt want to make minor swirls and spider webs worse.
My new question is how much for Meguiars pads, where to buy, and which ones does everyone reccomend? Do i need a new backing plate?

[SpoiledMan]

That hasn't been *my* experience with the orange pads but the LC yellow pads are another story and can yield the results seen above. They orange pads are not as aggressive as the yellow pads.

[2002FX4 F150]

i have polished with LC pads before, with decent results. The only difference between then and now is that i havent used Meguiars professional line with the pads. I think ill try an inconspicuous test spot and see what happens.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by SpoiledMan
That hasn't been *my* experience with the orange pads but the LC yellow pads are another story and can yield the results seen above. They orange pads are not as aggressive as the yellow pads.

Two things to remember,

Our cutting pad will also haze the finish when used with a dual action polisher, we're not just picking on other company's cutting pads. The point is that for most people, (not all Chris), when you use a cutting pad on the G100/PC, the oscillating action together with the coarseness of the foam and your choice of paint cleaner tends to haze or micro-mar the paint.

It's important to note, that if you're working on a light colored car chances are good you won't see this because the light color won't easily expose the damage to the clear coat to your eyes.

If you were to take the same products and process and repeat the identical procedure to a clear coated dark or black car, or even a single stage dark or black car, the hazing will be easy to see.

A pro can often times fix it using a less aggressive pad and product, but too many times Newbies will get themselves into this position, (hazed paint), and they don't have the skills or the experience to recover from the problem and the next thing they're doing is posting a message to a forum like our that reads like this,

Help help help!!!!!!!


And then we have the pleasure of typing up all the reasons this happened and then typing up all the options they have to try to recover from the problem but their still saddled with lack of skills and experience.

So in most cases, it's not a good idea to use cutting pads with dual action polishers to remove swirls, because while it may remove the swirls, it will leave the paint scoured and hazy looking and most people will not be able to recover from this and instead will be disappointed, frustrated, mad and seeking help.

I'll try to post some more pictures of the hazing effect from on GTBrad's black Mustang as I captured some pretty good images of this effect.

Just to note, a couple of passes with M80 Speed Glaze and our W-8006 foam polishing pad removed the hazing and then we re-polished the same area with M66 and then a coat of NXT and the results were flawless. So recovery is possible, but the bigger point was the paint could have been corrected without the use of a cutting pad.

At this point in time, Meguiar's doesn't recommend using cutting pads on dual action polishers. When a system can be proven to be bubba-proof then we'll modify our policy.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by 2002FX4 F150
i have polished with LC pads before, with decent results. The only difference between then and now is that i havent used Meguiars professional line with the pads. I think ill try an inconspicuous test spot and see what happens.

It's important to note, that if you're working on a light colored car chances are good you won't see this because the light color won't easily expose the damage to the clear coat to your eyes.

If you were to take the same products and process and repeat the identical procedure to a clear coated dark or black car, or even a single stage dark or black car, the hazing will be easy to see.


Find a car with a flawless black finish on it and try your same products and procedures on it and then post back here with pictures what happens.

[2002FX4 F150]

Find a car with a flawless black finish on it and try your same products and procedures on it and then post back here with pictures what happens. [/B][/QUOTE]

I dont have the polish i used before, only the Meguiars Pro. Line.

Im not trying to imply LC pads are equal to or better than Meguiars pads, I am just trying to use what i have because i cant afford a whole new set of polishing pads and i have seen excellent results using Zaino ZPC with the LC set of pads. I am no longer using ZPC though because it is not strong enough to wrok the hard clearcoat found on an F150.

I will take pictures and post back here in a few days though, with several examples using the procedure listed above. Or i will ante up and grab some Mequiars pads.

[2002FX4 F150]

By the way Mike, amazing detail on that black C4 from the June/July? 2004 issue of Corvette Fever. Awesome results and it was done by hand!