On my
Facebook page I was asked,
How can you make that truck look any better?
My reply back was everyone thought the same thing about the Camaro we buffed out last week and yet as beautiful as the Camaro looked when it arrived there was still room for improvement as you can see by the before pictures I posted.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mike Phillips 1970 1/2 Camaro - Show Car Finish by Pinnacle - Modeled by Amy
Okay... so when the Camaro arrived I took this picture and most people just by looking at the picture or even the car from a few feet away would die to have a custom paint job this nice.... 
But the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light reveals the true condition of the paint and that is a surface filled with, - Swirls
- Scratches
- Pig Tails
- RIDS
- Tracers
- Micro-marring also called DA Haze
You can find a definition for all of the above in either my e-book or in this article here, Tracers Tracers - RIDS - Pigtails - Cobweb Swirls - Rotary Buffer Swirls - Holograms - Water Spots - Bird Drooping Etchings - Micro-Marring Check it out... Pig Tails
If you look closely you can see a scratch that looks like the letter e in cursive writing running horizontally across the paint, this is called a Pig Tail and it generally comes from an abrasive particle that gets trapped between the paint and a sanding disc when machine sanding. The entire finish had Pig Tails plus Tracers randomly dispersed...  Micro-marring also called Tick Marks or DA Haze
The millions of tiny, small scratches highlighted by the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light are caused by improperly worked abrasives when using a DA Polisher like the Porter Cable 7424XP, Meguiar's G110v2, Griot's Garage 6" ROP or Shurhold DA Polisher. These types of scratches are through out the entire car but you can really only see them on the black stripes not the metallic green paint. The point is that even though your eyes can't see them on the lighter colors they still cloud and dull the finish and keep you from seeing the beautiful color and/or metallic finish under the clear. These have to go!  RIDS - Random, Isolated Deeper Scratches
These types of scratches come from normal wear and tear and don't have any pattern to them thus the use of the word random in the description. 
More information on RIDS here... RIDS - The Definition of RIDS and the story behind the term... Swirls and Scratches
What I see here is a combination of RIDS, swirls, DA Haze and Arc Scratches probably caused by wiping but they are also caused by improper use of a rotary buffer. 
And just for the record, the nickname for the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light is the Cruel Master because it's hard to please...   |
After 
Fact is that even a show car finish sees wear-n-tear just from use and continued wiping with spray detailers and towels and over time the finish can accumulate fine or shallow scratches which diminish clarity. Plus over time the paint becomes less smooth than when it was after it was first painted and/or HOPEFULLY correctly sanded and buffed.
I think everyone on this forum has seen the type of work that comes out of body shops and even when it's good most of us here can see room for improvement because the buffing work done at a body shop is usually never as thorough as what the Pros on the forum can do and the time invested is usually less than what the Pros and even newbies on our forum would invest.
So yeah, the finish on this truck look great in pictures and in person but so did the paint on the Camaro and like the Camaro we're going to refresh the appearance by giving it a thorough machine polishing followed by machine waxing and I'm pretty sure most body shops don't use nor stay abreast of all the latest, greatest products and techniques for the art of polishing paint.
I told him it was a great question because it is a great question, but I've been machine polishing paint all of my life and I'm confident that after we're finished with Glen's paint it's going to look even better than it does right now.
Plus it's easy to take a finish that's in horrendous condition and create a dramatic before and after difference, it's challenging to do the same with a finish that's in great shape to start with... but it can be done and it will be done here on Thursday night.
One more thing I'll add and that is Glen wants to learn how to machine polish and wax, up till now he's done everything by hand.
I'll do my best to document the true condition of the paint when the car arrives starting with
The Baggie Test as experience has shown me that even a show car finish can accumulate above surface bonded contaminants from exposure to the environment.
This is a very cool truck and it's going to be a lot of fun taking the finish to its maximum potential.
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