2007 Avalanche: keyed twice and faded trim

[richy]

This lady was a referral from another lady for whom I did a key scratch repair. When she showed up with the truck, I was not hopeful about how good it would come out. You'll see how deep and wide the one on the hood was. It was also keyed on the back tailgate too. As you can read from the title, not only was it keyed, but the trim was quite badly faded too...typical for these things.

This job was to be a one step correction for the whole vehicle with the exception of the key repair areas. I was also going to sand and coat the headlights and dye and coat the trim. Here's what we were looking at:

















There were many other chips and scuffs too that all got filled:











































You can see I had my work cut out for me. I started with the wheels. The barrels were just plain nasty. They got the big gun in terms of Malco brake off followed by Megs WB. (The acid neutralizes the alkaline). The faces were cleaned with Zep Citrus. The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 twice. The wells were cleaned with LATA.


The truck was then rinsed and then foamed:





The truck was then washed with Megs HW and was also done with IX paste. It was then brought inside and clayed with a clay towel. It was in the high 30's working on it outside, but then we had snow flurries on Saturday so I was lucky with the timing of the weather.

Here's what a closer inspection inside revealed:







First up was to fill the scratches so they had maximum time to dry prior to any wet sanding. Here is the monster scratch filled:




Here it is after being wet sanded:









Here is the tailgate filled:





Next up was to sand the headlights. Here's one about to be compounded:

They got 3 sanding stages and then compounded with wool and M100 followed by M205 with foam. They were coated with DLux. It was my first time using it to coat a lens.

The paint on the vehicle was typical hard GM clear. I used a few different combos to get the most aggressive correction I could while not imparting any compounding marks myself in the meantime. What worked very well was my Flex 3401 + TB black wool + Menzerna Power Finish. That gave a good cut of most of the defects and finished down quite well. I can finish down surprisingly well with the black wool. To make sure there weren't any fillers hiding the true condition of the paint, I followed that step using the Flex + Megs yellow finishing pad + DG Squeaky Clean. I was getting about 90% correction with this combo. The paint was then coated with a double coat of Americoat as well as the wheel faces, side glass and head and tail lights. (Yes, I coated over DLux just to be sure).

The key repair was not done until as late as possible the next day so as to not have the paint removed from the scratch. The overlapping paint was hand sanded with 1000 grit followed by a 1500 Megs disc and a 3k Megs disc. The sanding marks were removed using the Flex + TB wool + M100, followed by M205 + Megs burg foam. The deep scratch filled in nicely and the paint was a good match, but with the colour, it was still quite noticeable IMO. She was happy with it and of course she doesn't need to paint the whole hood now.

I must give a shout out to Chris West from Solution Finish. I had called him after booking the truck to get some pointers about how to time applying DLux over the SF. He spent about 15 minutes on the phone with me going over everything to ensure I'd be successful. Great customer service!

I then applied SF to all the trim. I allowed it to dry overnight and then wiped it clean the next day. I then applied DLux over all the trim to protect it. I love using SF. DLux is a great protector, but it does not darken the trim. SF darkens it beautifully, but does not last as long as I'd like. So, the 1-2 punch of SF + DLux is a killer combo for both looks and durability!

I did one other thing I'd not done before. I didn't like the look of the plastic wheel wells, so I used Forever Black tire dye gel on them. That made them look nice and black. SF would have been nice on there too I think.

All told, it was just a few minutes shy of 20 hours on this truck. I was very happy with how it turned out, but more importantly, so was the customer. Here it is all done:












































Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. Comments are always appreciated.

[dakotaRT]

Wow, the truck turned out beautiful! Very good work!

[larry33]

Hey, everything you did is exactly what I'm facing right now! A couple questions would really be helpful:

1)Where did you get the fill paint from for the key scratch?

2)What did you do for the scuffs?

3)Why did you use LATA instead of Zep 505 for the wheel wells?

Thanks

[KneeDragr]

Nice job. I dont know what the deal is with those Avalanches, but almost every single one I see has badly faded trim.

[Sicoupe]

Beautiful work as always my friend!

[fly07sti]

Outstanding as always Richy! I'm very interested in the longevity of the SF/Dlux.

[richy]

Wow, the truck turned out beautiful! Very good work!

Thanks so much!

Hey, everything you did is exactly what I'm facing right now! A couple questions would really be helpful:

1)Where did you get the fill paint from for the key scratch?

2)What did you do for the scuffs?

3)Why did you use LATA instead of Zep 505 for the wheel wells?

Thanks

Larry, I get my touch up paint from a paint supply house locally (they supply body shops with paint). They give my customers 10% off so a small bottle costs $10 with tax. It's called Cross Canada. For the scuffs, I filled them in with the touch up paint just the same as the chips and the key scratches. Why use LATA on the wells? It's cheaper and works just fine on them. I prefer the Zep on the tires though. Yes, it's a bit of a pain to have a few different bottles but it's what I'm used to now.

Nice job. I dont know what the deal is with those Avalanches, but almost every single one I see has badly faded trim.

Yes, I'm not sure why but it sure is consistent!

Beautiful work as always my friend!

Thanks so much for commenting. I really appreciate that you always do!!

[rbss]

Killer job the truck looks awesome!

[AZ Mike]

Great job on this truck. The SF/Dlux made the plastic look new. I am also interested in the longevity if you get a chance to see the truck again.

[coles_paint_correction]

Awesome turn around rich great work as always!!!