Andrew LB
05-18-2022, 12:38 AM
So the other day my old man asked to see what i could do with his highly neglected 1999 black Toyota 4Runner which he initially took great care of until 15 years ago when he had a knee replaced. Since then it's been parked outside not far from the pacific ocean so on windy days you can taste the salt in the air, and the most attention it receives is the occasional hosing down. Initial inspection was grim. Horrible waterspotting and paint oxidation and a little rust from the roof rack mounting points. Due to the fact that my polisher is a Porter Cable and i don't own a rotary i had a feeling I wasn't going to get down to clean paint with a normal cutting pad and some M105. I then remembered I had bought some CarPro denim pads, one of which i used a few years ago to remove the orange peel from a 1930's GE refrigerator I had restored and repainted and figured why not give it a shot.
I know these are designed for orange peel removal and are pretty close to using 2000 grit sandpaper, but technically the truck did have plenty of orange peel as well and Toyota didn't put clear coat on black paint back then, so i went to work while hoping i wouldn't go right through the paint. Im kicking myself for not taking more photos. I'll take one of the entire vehicle tomorrow when i go over and remove the waterspotting from the windows. As for now, here is what the door looked like before and after. His neighbor actually asked me if i had repainted the truck for him or something. lol.
The after photo was taken after giving the vehicle a once-over using the CarPro Denim pad and Meguiars M105. I had to wash out the pad about every 2'x2' section due to being caked. I then went over the vehicle again with M105 and a foam cutting pad. Then again with a Meguiars soft buff pad and M205. Then lastly gave it an IPA wipedown followed by applying Nufinish Graphene coating which seems to be quite promising in terms of longevity according to Scott HD on youtube. Please excuse the dust on the "after" photo.
https://i.ibb.co/J5wYTk6/Denim-Pad-4-Runner.png
(https://ibb.co/86Lyw8v)
I know these are designed for orange peel removal and are pretty close to using 2000 grit sandpaper, but technically the truck did have plenty of orange peel as well and Toyota didn't put clear coat on black paint back then, so i went to work while hoping i wouldn't go right through the paint. Im kicking myself for not taking more photos. I'll take one of the entire vehicle tomorrow when i go over and remove the waterspotting from the windows. As for now, here is what the door looked like before and after. His neighbor actually asked me if i had repainted the truck for him or something. lol.
The after photo was taken after giving the vehicle a once-over using the CarPro Denim pad and Meguiars M105. I had to wash out the pad about every 2'x2' section due to being caked. I then went over the vehicle again with M105 and a foam cutting pad. Then again with a Meguiars soft buff pad and M205. Then lastly gave it an IPA wipedown followed by applying Nufinish Graphene coating which seems to be quite promising in terms of longevity according to Scott HD on youtube. Please excuse the dust on the "after" photo.
https://i.ibb.co/J5wYTk6/Denim-Pad-4-Runner.png
(https://ibb.co/86Lyw8v)