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Well, I did it... 04 F150
After a few weeks of grumbling about how the paint on my $1200 beater-in-transformation Cherokee had less swirls than my dad's 2004 F150, I finally broke out the rotary. This is the first time I've worked on anything with a five-digit Blue Book, so please be kind. I wasn't looking to perfect everything... Just get it to a level that I and my (non-paying) customer could live with. And yes, I know the wheels and especially the centers are terrible. They need some TLC that I'm just not qualified or willing to provide, so I left them alone save for a good washing. He should just get new ones anyway... haha
This one had some fairly heavy cobwebbing/swirls, and some coal dust embedded in the paint. The previous owner lived way out in the middle of nowhere, and most of the roads up there are gravel... Really did a job on the finish. There were also some ancillary scratches. I took out what I could, and tried to at least minimize the rest.
I'll also give a link to my flickr, which has some shots of an impromptu photoshoot I did at a local park... I timed it so that I finished just as the light was getting sweet around here and wanted an excuse to take the truck for a ride. I'm just gonna upload all the photos there. They haven't been photoshopped at all yet, so some of the backgrounds are less than stellar. No truck should have a tree growing out of the hood.
Problems
Step 1: Gold Class car wash, dryer sheet bug removal
Step 2: Mild Clay Bar + QD
Step 3: #82 Swirl-Free Polish, Rotary at 5/6, 3M Perfect-It convoluted polishing pad
Step 4: Step 2 all over again, with a little more passion this time
Step 5: #7 Glaze (Probably not necessary, but I had time to kill before the light got nice)
Step 6: #26 Hi-Tech Yellow wax x2, applied by hand
Step 7: Hot Shine Tire Foam, Random Blue Dressing I borrowed from work
Any questions, comments, complaints, or suggestions, please fire away.
After washing, bug removal:
After two passes with #82:
After #7 and #26... My dad being amazed by the depth and shine:
It's not perfect, but much improved:
And last but not least, a teaser from when I took it to the park:
Larger versions of these, and about 40 more pics of the truck are up at:
Thanks, everybody!
This one had some fairly heavy cobwebbing/swirls, and some coal dust embedded in the paint. The previous owner lived way out in the middle of nowhere, and most of the roads up there are gravel... Really did a job on the finish. There were also some ancillary scratches. I took out what I could, and tried to at least minimize the rest.
I'll also give a link to my flickr, which has some shots of an impromptu photoshoot I did at a local park... I timed it so that I finished just as the light was getting sweet around here and wanted an excuse to take the truck for a ride. I'm just gonna upload all the photos there. They haven't been photoshopped at all yet, so some of the backgrounds are less than stellar. No truck should have a tree growing out of the hood.
Problems
Step 1: Gold Class car wash, dryer sheet bug removal
Step 2: Mild Clay Bar + QD
Step 3: #82 Swirl-Free Polish, Rotary at 5/6, 3M Perfect-It convoluted polishing pad
Step 4: Step 2 all over again, with a little more passion this time
Step 5: #7 Glaze (Probably not necessary, but I had time to kill before the light got nice)
Step 6: #26 Hi-Tech Yellow wax x2, applied by hand
Step 7: Hot Shine Tire Foam, Random Blue Dressing I borrowed from work
Any questions, comments, complaints, or suggestions, please fire away.
After washing, bug removal:
After two passes with #82:
After #7 and #26... My dad being amazed by the depth and shine:
It's not perfect, but much improved:
And last but not least, a teaser from when I took it to the park:
Larger versions of these, and about 40 more pics of the truck are up at:
Thanks, everybody!
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