Polished scratches C1500 Hood

[RogueGypsy]

Well I'm still waiting for some orders to show ups so I can get back to work on the Bronco. I got bored today so I washed the work truck and got a nasty surprise. I won't even pretend this truck is taken care of, but now the sickness is spreading. Never before have I cared. I know it's my own fault, but I'm going to blame it on all of you if anyone asks.

I bought the C1500 a few years ago for a work truck, it's been washed a few times, but that's about it. I discovered today, the guy I bought it from, washed it a lot, at an Auto-wash. No not the no-touch, gentle on the paint Auto-wash. The driven through Barbed wire at high speed Auto-wash. Did I mention A LOT!!

This is the first thing I saw after washing it.






Oh, it gets better. After that, I had to take a closer look and this is what I saw. My paint looks like leather!!




And there is a nasty haze everywhere.



I did my best with what I had.
After the wash.
I hit the next spot with 8, yes 8 passes with #2 fine cut cleaner, it removed most of the smaller scratches and the hazing.
I followed that with 2 passes of #9 and started to get some nice shine and better color, even with the scratches.
I followed that with a pass of my favorite #7 Show car glaze, OOOOh better color.
But I think this is one of those times when I just have to except better and forget about perfect.

This is after 4 hours of polishing a 12"x12" spot with the DA. Can you say Ice skating rink????




After a coat of #26 Hi-tech yellow wax over the whole hood, at least I got a reflection.................






Lessons learned today:
1. Old men are hard on paint.
2. I need to buy a rotary.
3. Chevy clear coat is harder than diamond.
4. A polished leather look is better than a dirty swirled look.
5. Wax makes everything better.


Enjoy

[RogueGypsy]

Re: Polished scratches C1500 Hood

Forgot to mention, the first shot is after claying the hood and cleaning off all the sap and pollen from the forest I live in. I guess lesson 6 would be: I need to build a shop.

[Murr1525]

Re: Polished scratches C1500 Hood

That is a big blob of pollen....

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Polished scratches C1500 Hood

Looks better.

[yalerd]

Re: Polished scratches C1500 Hood

That's one hell of a job.
8 passes!, at least it was by a DA!

[RogueGypsy]

Re: Polished scratches C1500 Hood

That is a big blob of pollen....

Yeah, that clay was white when I started...........


Really you aren't that far off, all the Cedars and Firs pollinate this time of year and the white clay in the Meguiar's smooth surface kit I got does have a distinct yellow tint to it now. (the blob was piece of Mothers, it came yellow)

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Polished scratches C1500 Hood

That's what the hood of our 1973 Blazer looked like,



Like this,





It had an $800.00 Maaco paint job and while the sides looked pretty good but the paint on the hood looked crazed and lacquer checked but in reality it was what's called Shrink-Back, or Dye-Back, and that's where the primer and the paint shrink back into the sanding prep marks.

The Blazer always looked pretty good about 15' to 20' away...

Nice work capturing the scratches in the paint work in a photo, we're going to add this to our Misc Photos with the search term,

Shrink-Back

So we can find it easily in the future when people describe this type of defect in their paint.

[RogueGypsy]

Re: Polished scratches C1500 Hood

Cool, glad to give back to the forum that's given me soooooo much.

For anyone interested:
I used a tripod with my little Canon A550 set on Macro. I leaned the tripod against an MF on the fender to get it directly over the hood. I use my finger as a focus point, but pulled it back before the picture snapped. The trick to getting a steady shot like this is to use a tripod and use the delay (I use 2 seconds) like you would if you were shooting a group shot and need time to get into the shot. That way you're not touching the camera when it snaps the picture and there's no chance of shake to blur the picture.