Un prepped new truck what should be my work flow chart?

[GOTURBACK]

Mike,
I am picking up my new truck from the dealer totally unprepped, my question is how should I proceed? I have iron x and foam gun, buckets, wash mitt, clay, sealant and a bunch of other products that I purchased recently from Autogeek to do the work.

1. Should I pull protective wraping off then use the 3m adhesive remover before anything else? Then iron x and then foam and wash then clay?

2. Or should I wash with wrap still on then pull and remove adhesive before using iron x? foam, wash and then clay?

3. What suggestions would you have for the interior? The truck is a Chevy Colorado with hybrid leatherette/cloth seats.

I am a complete beginner and need your expert advice. I bought DLux coating for the plastic and wheels but I am thinking that I might want to use the Mkees products because they are more noob proof from what I understand.

Thanks in advance for your help and guidance. Chris

[GSKR]

I would not take off the wrap let the dealer do it.If you do it off the dealer property there could be some damage like,a dent or scratch.seen plenty of damage when I worked at a merc dealer.I would not put any coating on a new car,it will take several years depending on where you live before plastics starts to degrade.Keep it simple wash first then iron x then clay and a quality sealant.

[PA DETAILER]

Auto Detailing Facts, auto detailing Tips, How to detailing Guides, how to polish, how to wax, DIY detailing, do it yourself guides

[LSNAutoDetailing]

I would not take off the wrap let the dealer do it.If you do it off the dealer property there could be some damage like,a dent or scratch.seen plenty of damage when I worked at a merc dealer.I would not put any coating on a new car,it will take several years depending on where you live before plastics starts to degrade.Keep it simple wash first then iron x then clay and a quality sealant.

I agree with GSKR. If you are going to do any form of decon, polishing, etc... I see no harm in letting them prep the truck.
Keep in mind, there won't be much to do in the interior, unless you wanted to use a protectant, such as Pinnacle Vinyl Rubber Protectentant on all the plastic and rubber surfaces, and or do nano coatings on fabric & plastic. I would suggest getting weather-tech floor liners. Those will protect the carpeting better than anything else.

I find it hard to believe that a dealer would let you take delivery of the car w/out prepping it. Most are adamant that they get prepped for delivery. Odds are the dealership already washed it when it came off the transport truck. Another thing to keep in mind, the GM paint on the Silverado is tough as nails. I just did a brand new silverado and it had zero swirls and scratches... All I did was a light polish (BOSS Finishing Cream) using an Orange BOSS pad to prep the surface for CQuartz. See here:

LSN Autodetailing - 2017 Chevy Silverado - New Car Prep Detail



Pro 4x sent you a link to a valuable site. Autogeek University. Keep things simple:

Clean the wheels first.
Iron-X - I just spray it on, let it dwell for 3 - 5 minutes,
Wash - then I foam up the car and start agitation with wash mitt.
(odds are you have not bugs, tar, and years of caked on junk that needs to be aggressively removed)
Dry - combo with air and guzzler.
Inspect the surface of the paint - baggie test. If it's feels smooth you can skip clay or nanoskin mitt, or just make sure you use a "FINE" clay or the FINE nanoskin.
Inspect the paint, if it looks free of defects (swirls / scratches) you might do a light polish (jewel) and prep it for the coating or LSP.

CQ Dlux is bubba proof... just follow the directions.

The biggest problem with coatings is heat and temperature. Make sure you see what temps your coatings are rated for.
CQ - higher temps and humidity
CQUK - lower temps lower humidity
DLUX - no direct sunlight, cool to the touch....

Good luck on the truck!

[GSKR]

The way the merc dealer performed off the truck delivery,was the driver would unload 2 or 3 cars .2 employees would rip the plastic off on the spot and eyeball every car .Then if it passed inspection the driver would sign off each car on at trailer.sometimes when a customer wants a different color combo or model,the merc dealer would get it some were else with the plastic on it and that's when you see some defects under that.Great tip Paul about the mats you simply can't go wrong with a small investment like that.

[GSKR]

As far as plastic coatings.Thats a personal preference.for me I like not mess with anything unless it will need it later on.paint coating a defenitive now.

[Eldorado2k]

As far as plastic coatings.Thats a personal preference.for me I like not mess with anything unless it will need it later on.paint coating a defenitive now.

Are you talking about clear plastics or black plastic trim pieces? As far as black plastic trim, on a brand new vehicle, I'd coat those pieces from the day it's brand new.

[ugafiredawg]

I recently purchased a new Colorado Z71 as well. I purchased it it straight off the transport truck and requested no prep as well. I can tell you my dealership had no problem not touching the truck other than the mechanical prep. I received the truck with plastic covering the seats and interior floor. Chevy does not install any exterior shipping wrap, so you will not have to worry about removing it. You will have a foam, square, block on each front door that is installed to prevent door dings in transport. That's really the only exterior protection the truck is shipped with.

[GSKR]

I'm not a coating guy other than paint .If need be gtech c 4 is the easiest to work with .Here is the promblem with coating trim pieces.If you coat trim pieces for a customer using a xyz product they will come back a year later because going through the car wash for a year degraded the product.stuff is not cheap to buy and labor cost to correct.so I will save the headache from a customer who will complain.I had to people who complained about coating failure.Going thru the car wash and the prep guys blast off the coating during love bug season.Myself had a promblem with mirrors on my transit,that I had to scuff and repaint.This is my own opinion on plastic coatings.

[GSKR]

The promblem almost is the same when you apply film to a car,look at the topic on today's post.poor guy spent money for added protection now it's a complete disaster.my thing is don't add a potential promblem when you can easily avoid it.Ive seen numerous film installs with razor cuts delamination under the hood on the body seam sealer.Its terrible.I think I've seen very few film installs that look good.