Uber Ceramic Coating Prep?

[wil2007]

Started prepping my 4 month old Chevy Colorado yesterday for Uber Coating.I figure it is going to take better part of today to finish. I am using my Flex 3401,Wolfgang Fine Clay,Menzerna SF4000, and Hybrid pads.I haveWhite, Blue And Black.I started on the roof with a white pad and SF4000, speed 4. Buffed out nicely, but on closer inspection, I noticed several water spots. I raised speed but this did not work. I then switched over to blue pad which cleaned it up some more, but not complete. At this point I used some FG400 on the white pad on 5 and it did the trick.I am trying to get a plan for the rest of the truck.Any problems with process so far,should I follow all this with a once over with black pad? I am hoping most of the truck will need the white pad and SF4000. Would the black pad be overkill. I know you should wait 12 hours before getting wet. How long would you let cure before driving on the road?

[Dan K]

What color is the truck?

If you are happy with the results of the white pad just leave it at that. Or, since you already finished the roof with the white, just polish a quarter of the roof with the black pad and see if there is a difference.

Make sure you use coating prep polish or do some type of ipa wipe down before applying the coating.

Not sure about the driving part. As long as it isn't raining you should be okay if you have to drive it before the twelve hours.

[Audios S6]

I would identify areas that need fg400 and do those as spot corrections, then go over the whole car with white and sf4000, this will give a uniform finish prior to coating. If you use the black pad, it's possible you will have some inconsistencies in the finish, at which point you will need to do the whole truck with a black pad.

Be sure to thoroughly remove any polish residue and oils. Sf4000 is pretty oily. I'd also suggest doing a test spot with sf4000 and removing oils before doing the whole vehicle. The oils can mask defects until they are stripped. Nothing worse that polishing the whole car, only to wipe it down and find you need to polish it again because defects were masked

[Nick McKees37]

I would identify areas that need fg400 and do those as spot corrections, then go over the whole car with white and sf4000, this will give a uniform finish prior to coating. If you use the black pad, it's possible you will have some inconsistencies in the finish, at which point you will need to do the whole truck with a black pad.

Be sure to thoroughly remove any polish residue and oils. Sf4000 is pretty oily. I'd also suggest doing a test spot with sf4000 and removing oils before doing the whole vehicle. The oils can mask defects until they are stripped. Nothing worse that polishing the whole car, only to wipe it down and find you need to polish it again because defects were masked

Solid advice.

Menzerna polishes (especially SF4000 and SF4500) are very oily. To ensure all these oils are removed, I would recommend wiping the vehicle down twice with Wolfgang Perfekt Finish Paint Prep. Have plenty of towels handy. :)

[wil2007]

I do have plentyof towels and 2 bottles of Perfekt Paint prep. Roof was only area that required fg400 so far. Every thing else has been done with white pad and SF4000. Hoping after wipedown of hood, I will be ok. Thoughts on necessity of black pad? Truck is a metallic granite gray