My truck is finished and now I'm happy

[CLL]

After a long battle with polishing the hood and finishing the whole truck; I learned a few things.

1. There is no substitute for experience.
2. Be patient
3. Shake the polish very well.

I washed and clayed the whole truck then began taping it up. I started with XMT#3 with the orange pad then #2 with the white pad. I then used the grey pad with XMT glaze. I had some pretty nasty scratches on the top of the cab from low hanging trees that were removed with out a trace. It took approximately 8 hours to complete my truck (4 door F250). I'm very pleased with the results and all the I have learned. I used 3/4 of bottle of XMT #3 to correct all the swirls and minor scratches. This is where lesson #1 and #3 come into play. By the time I got to the last 3 feet of truck the XMT #3 was coming out like sand. I knew then I hadn't shaken it well enough from the start of things. I probably would have finished it sooner if I had a bit more cutting power at the start of things. Now that its all done I'm very pleased with the results and the neighbors commented how good it looks too.

I know we all like pictures right!

Here is a picture of what the scratches on the roof of the truck look like but just imagine all over.




Here is whats it looks like in one pass. Lots of flake in this shot



All gone!



Drivers side back half.




Drivers side front half.




Almost forgot this one. I don't know why the right side of this pic looks fuzzy.






That's it for now but I'll post some from when its in the sun light.


-CLL

[budman3]

There's a learning curve in detailing for sure. Glad you could get everything figured out, it only gets better from here!

[Bonifax]

I agree with you that patience and practice is the way. I'm having a lot of trouble to remove swirls in my car with #3 and orang pad, I think the only way it has worked better is at speed 6 on the PC with no pressure, becaus I tried to add presure in order to remove nasty swirls but it didn't work and when I pumped the speed to 6 and just the weight of the machine it was a lot better, although I haven't removed all the swirls, any thoughts?

[wytstang]

Very nice truck it came out great. OT Bonifax move the buffer very very slow almost like a snail sliding across the paint.

[Rsurfer]

Originally Posted by Bonifax

I agree with you that patience and practice is the way. I'm having a lot of trouble to remove swirls in my car with #3 and orang pad, I think the only way it has worked better is at speed 6 on the PC with no pressure, becaus I tried to add presure in order to remove nasty swirls but it didn't work and when I pumped the speed to 6 and just the weight of the machine it was a lot better, although I haven't removed all the swirls, any thoughts?

You might have to step up to XMT 4 with the orange pad, but I would try it with the white first. XMT 4 is aggressive so you may have to follow up with XMT 2 or 1. BTW don't be afraid of applying about 15lbs of pressure and move very slowly. Side to side and up and down this should get the job done. Good Luck

[Rsurfer]

Sorry CLL didn't mean to steal your thread. Great job, love this shot.

[Tonya]

Great job! Way to hang in there! Like I said before..... It's time to pat yourself on the back, relax and have a cold one!
Well done!

[dengood1]

Originally Posted by CLL

Almost forgot this one. I don't know why the right side of this pic looks fuzzy.

Looks like your lens could use a little cleaning. The same thing was happening to some pics I was taking and sure enough, that was the problem!!

[Jimmie]

Your truck looks great. Something to consider next time. You may be using too much polish if you used 3/4 of the bottle on your truck. I'm thinking that you could get at least three trucks from a bottle. Maybe someone else will tell how many cars they get from a bottle.

[scottgt]

looks really good