Super Duty Detail of 2014

[Blown F-150]

After a few more products came in on Monday, I decided to take Wednesday off to get the truck paint knocked out. I originally planned on finishing the Edge, but wife needed it on Wednesday for a road trip to Springfield.

The goal of this session was to get the paint all done, Compound, polish and LSP. I didn't get the whole truck done as darkness fell and a side project (SSD in the Mrs. Laptop) delayed me a bit. I hope to finish up the passenger doors, fender and hood this weekend.

Products Used
Paint Prep - DoDo Juice Ferrous Duller Iron remover. Optimum Clay with OND @ QD Ratio. Poor Boy's Bug Squash.
Wheel Prep - Poor Boys Spray and Rinse
Under hood/tires/wheel wells - Optimum Power Clean 4:1
Compounding Step - Rupes Polisher, 5" Backing Plate, 5 1/4" Optimum MF "Leveling" pad, M101/M105
Polishing Step - Rupes Polisher, 6" Backing Plate, 6" Green Super Buff Pad, M205
LSP's - Optimum Opti-Coat 2.0 on the paint. Poor Boy's Wheel sealant on the wheels

I took the truck to the local coin wash to take care of most of the prep and make use of the pressure washer. I rinsed it down with the wand, two-bucket wash with ONR, rinsed. Them the same for wheels/wheel wells. I then used the DoDo Juice Iron remover on all panels. I must say, it worked really, really well. I also let you know mighty quick where you had embedded contaminants. While that was dwelling, I hit all the wheels with Spray & Rinse. Again, awesome product. Most of the brake dust in the barrel of each wheel was pretty much gone, even after a single application. I rinsed off the wheels and paint thoroughly. I clayed all the paint with ONR @ QD ratio while the panels were still wet drying the panels with a MF as I went. the DoDo Juice was very impressive and I really didn't see any need to clay, but a few specs came off here and there (mostly tar bits).

Under hood, it was the same as I did with the edge. rinsed it down with low-pressure wand, sprayed it down with Power Clean, agitated with a soft brush and rinsed it all off again with low pressure. Sorry, no after pics, I get them when I'm done swapped out one of the CAC boots.

Once all was done at the Coin-Op. I headed back to the garage. I started with a quick QD wipe-down to get any dust off. Everything was taped off and then I got to compounding. I ended up on the MF pad and M101 (just picked up). I found it the quickest combo and seemed to be really dialed in on speed 4 and then 5.5 for the final pass. I did find it a bit hard to take all of the M101 off at first, then I started using more product on the pads and the issues seemed to go away.

Onto the polishing. I went with a 6" Green Superbuff pad to go with the M205. I am very, very pleased with the clarity and depth this added. I couldn't capture it in Pics, but the white just looked great in the sun. I settled on speed 5 with the Rupes for this step.

The compounding and polishing steps were completed on the entire drivers side. The panels were wiped down with a 50/50 IPA solution and thoroughly inspected in the sun as well as with the halogen lights. once everything looked OK, the panels were hit with OC 2.0. I still can't get over how little product was used on that much sheet metal. I used way more product than last time, but still only managed to use up 3 or so cc's.

I was able to get back out after supper and finish the passenger side box with the same steps listed above. the only different was I swapped to an orange Super Buff pad for the compounding stage. This was a better combo for two reasons. The passenger side is a re-paint as the milder pad worked well since this side was in overall better shape.

Onto the Pics!!!



Wheels Before



After



DoDo Juice Iron Remover at work



Paint Before



Passenger box before (you can see it's not as bad)


All taped up


After




Overall I am pleased with the results and look forward to finishing it off. I think it's a couple percent better than it was after the  last polish, so that's a bonus.

Onto the wheel wells, they need a good clean-up and fresh hit with under coating.
 

[Too Stroked]

Looks great! And based on the fact that it's a Super Crew, I'd guess you now take about a 56" sleeve. 

Question: Did you find that the MF pads clogged up easily and / or needed lots of cleaning when you went with more product on them?

[Blown F-150]

Looks great! And based on the fact that it's a Super Crew, I'd guess you now take about a 56" sleeve. 

Question: Did you find that the MF pads clogged up easily and / or needed lots of cleaning when you went with more product on them?

With the MF pad's I find that I hit them with the brush or air (now that I have a wee compressor) about twice a panel in the case of something like a door. If it's just the front fender, I hit it after I'm done the panel. From what I can tell the extra product comes off with the wipe-down after you compound/polish.

With the foam pads, I either pat with a general purpose MF or air once a panel. Depending on the pad and product, I think foam "soaks" in more product and allows for a longer use cycle before cleaning.

I'm not sure if it's the difference in the Rupes, but I find that when I used a bit more product (with the MF pads), that I seemed to be able to go longer before switching to a fresh pad. You would think the opposite, but maybe with the frequent "fluffing" of the pad, it may shed the bits of paint off better and let the the pad and product do it's job better Just a theory, I'm really not too sure. Whatever it is, it seems to be working in my favor.

[sscully]

...<snip>...

Question: Did you find that the MF pads clogged up easily and / or needed lots of cleaning when you went with more product on them?

I have put the CG pad brush on auto ship with Amazon, I change it out every 4 months now.
- Cheaper on auto ship.

I just gotten into the habit of brushing all pads ( MF or foam ) every panel ( some 2x ) with the CG pad brush.

Doing this I find that the pad is easier to clean when changing it out half ( or third if big vehicle )  the way through.  For really bad vehicles I will do 4 or 5 pad changes.

Also brushing pads on the Flex is great with the forced rotation 

The old brushes I cut the tip off the handle with a hack saw and soak them in APC and use them around the garage for cleaning things ( rototiller, snow blower, etc ).

[Kitzy]

Looking good.  Man white is hard to photograph. 

Tapatalkin...

[Blown F-150]

I was able to get the paint all finished up on the truck today. Same process as the passenger side box, Orange pad with M101 and Green pad with M205. I finished up with OC 2.0. It all came out pretty well. The original paint on the hood came out a shade batter than when I did it last year.

Steve, this is the brush I use for my MF pads and prefer not to use it on the foam pads as I seem to get them cleaner with air. It's still the original one I bought 4-5 years ago.



Early B-Day gift from the wife. It works really, really well.


Hood before


Hood after


Passenger door after


Full Afters



Maybe next weekend will be chrome and wheel wells/undercarriage.

I'm off to Miami Beach tomorrow, so I'll stuff the truck in the garage and let it stay nice and clean.

[Rollingrock]

 man that thing is popping.  Great job and write up.

I don't have a brush for the MF pads I think I got hone but cannot find it but I do use the air to fluff the pad works like a champ.

I need to get more of that PB spray and rinse...that stuff works.   Would like to buy it by the gal or 5 gal.   

The dodo juice iron remover stuff has me thinking too.   

[Kitzy]

Truck looks insanely clean.  So bright white and crisp looking.

Tapatalkin...

[Too Stroked]

I believe I now have some competition when it comes to white trucks and making them pop. Nice work!

Now if I could just find the time to detail the Taco and post up some pics ...

[Blown F-150]

Thanks Guys!

I am really happy with how "white" it now looks compared to before.

RR, If you get iron/fallout deposits on the paint, I suggest giving the DoDo Juice a shot. I am very happy with how it works and will be trying it on the Edge when I get back from Miami next weekend.

There are other products out there like "Iron X", but this stuff was a decent price point to Qty. ratio vs. others I looked at.

[Blown F-150]

While I was waiting for the paint to dry (see other thread), I figured I would experiment with my "F-350" badges.

Basically, I have given up on painting them as I don't have the artistic skills to keep them from looking like total crap. Going with a different approach, I thought about it and decided to try sanding the raised bit with 400 grit sandpaper and a sanding block. Just the tailgate badge was messed with as I am still on the fence on the results and may try something different.

Before


After


What do you think? Provides enough contrast to make out the F-350 better?

[sscully]

They look nice, I don't know if that will make cleaning them harder or not.

Did you pass on the option of PTM ?
- Paint scratch com and order the color code white for your truck and shoot the whole badge and then matte clear ?

[Blown F-150]

I just feel that PTM has been done before and wanted to try something a bit different. I haven't seen anything like this before.

Since it's chrome, I'm not too worried about cleaning. I could always CC them.

[Too Stroked]

I like it!

[Kitzy]

I kind of like it as well.  Very subtle.  Kind of a frosted look.

Tapatalkin...