2001 Ford F-450/PL Customs Rescue Ambulance

[tuscarora dave]

Hi AG Members, This is the rescue unit that Bill (njcarting1) and I detailed last week. We had a ball hanging out and getting this job completed.

I'll start out by saying that the paint on the box of this thing was 10 X harder than anything I had ever worked on. I tried several different approaches in attempting to correct this paint. What finally worked was a sample bottle of something unreleased (Syn1) that Steve and Pockets have been testing there at Poorboy's World. Thanks Steve.

Steve tells me that it was Imron paint. What finally worked was Syn1 with a 6" Edge 2K wool cutting pad on the Makita rotary on speed setting #4. Even at that high of a speed it was taking approx. 20 minutes to get the correction of about 1 square foot. I followed that pass with the G110V2 at speed #6 using PB SSR2 and a 6" Edge 2K Green medium cutting pad. It finished nicely.

We were not going for full correction but more for gloss, and we sure achieved it. The box had images where there was marring all around where the lettering had been.

Bill took on the task of shining up all the aluminum and stainless steel, using steel wool and Gord's Aluminum polish followed by PB Pro Polish on a PB wool buffing ball and his Craftsman drill, of course with a ton of elbow grease as well. Bill did a great job on all the metal.:bigups

The paint on the cab was about half as tough as what was on the box so I used Clay Magic Red clay followed by M-105 on Makita rotary at speed # 3 1/2 with 6" Edge 2K Green medium cutting pad , followed by PB SSR1 on a 6" Edge 2K white finishing pad on the Makita rotary at speed # 3 1/2 and finished off with a pass of PB PWS on a 6" Edge 2K white finish pad using the G110V2 on speed #6

The unit was coated with a combonation of PB EX, Collinite 845 IW and Blackfire sealant as the LSPs.
This was a 4 day job working approx. 8 hours each day. OK on with the pics.


this ladder was killing my feet!!!!




A special thanks to Steve for this stuff (not the camels)


Here's the unit when I arrived in Maine the poor lighting condition doesn't show much of the marring here.



The marring on the entire rescue unit was consistant with what is seen in the next few pics.





These are the images left behind by the lettering that was removed before I had arived to do this job, you can see where it said GRAY and in the following pic was where the Star of life was.





I taped off and corrected half the box to show what kind of correction we were getting. Note how dull the diamond plate is at this point.




Here is Bill scrubbing and buffing on the metal.




Here are some 50/50 shots of the box.






Moving along, the product was doing most of the work on this paint. When the pad would start to dry out it was not doing anything to this paint so I had to keep it real wet. Speed # 4 all the way on this box.





Getting tight in against the diamond plate.





OUCH!!! Yes that dummy with no safety glasses is me. The Syn1 in the eyes didn't burn at all.



Correction on the back of the box, before.


After.



Bill did a Fine job on the diamond plate and the wheels too.







OK from here on out these are all after pics with lots of artistic reflection shots. (I fancy myself an artist)

[tuscarora dave]

Here are some shots of the cab that I really liked, followed by my favorite two pics of the truck overall, Thanks for looking. TD






All in all it was a great trip to Maine and to meet a real top notch guy like Bill.

[DARK HORSE]

Great work Dave, and a great write up to boot!! I really enjoyed it, kept me well entertained. Thanks for sharing!!

[spike]

Wow! That paint looks deep and wet. Awesome job!!

[jjkacz]

Great job!! I bet they were glad that you came to the rescue.

[OGauge4Me]

Quality work. Nice deep warm wet glow.

[Nappers]

WoW!

beautiful job on that rig!

I bet it can respond to calls quicker!

Good show!

[mrj7500]

Very impressive! Great inspiration

[2kredbb6]

looks fantastic!!
Awesome job.