Black F-150

[Migue]

Hello everyone,

The customer keeps this truck in the garage and does not drive it much so he wanted me to do some correction on it and get it looking better. Unfortunately, he has clear coat failure AND clear coat fractures throughout the Roof and the Hood of the truck, plus whoever machine polished it before burned through quite a few of the panel edges on this vehicle..... so yeah he still plans on getting the whole thing repainted. This truck had that "sticky"/"soft" paint, my M105 was just sticking hard on the surface and i spent too much time doing wipe downs.

I switched to the Pinnacle XMT #3 intermediate Swirl Remover half way through the process, and while it was wiping off very nicely, it was leaving lots of micromarring(even with a polishing pad) so i bit the bullet and continued with M105 and finished using the Pinnacle XMT #1 Ultra Fine Swirl Remover instead of M205(sticking and hard to wipe off as well on this clear coat).

-Hand Wash 2 bucket Method
-Clay entire vehicle
-Headlights were restored using 600/2000/3000 Grit Wet Sand Paper then M105/205 Topped with Collinite 845
-M105 on orange LC Pad with PC Speed 6.
-M205 on White LC pad / PC / Speed 6-5.
-M105 on Yellow 3" Pad was used for the heavy clear coat deffects above the door handle.
-Sealed with 845.

Truck still had a few deeper scratches left in the end, but the improvement was pretty significant i`d say (feel free to state otherwise) and since it is getting repainted no matter what, i felt this was good enough considering the condition of the paint when it arrived.

You`ll notice the haze from the 105 on a few of the pictures where i had to still wipe it down some more. You will also see the fractures on the CC on the roof pics (white cracks/lines)


http://www.autopia.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27458&stc=1

http://www.autopia.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27451&stc=1http://www.autopia.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27452&stc=1






http://www.autopia.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27450&stc=1

ROOF TOP BEFORE/AFTER:




http://www.autopia.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27455&stc=1



I had already done the head Lights when i took the "Before" picture below:

http://www.autopia.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27457&stc=1





Truck took me longer than expected ,total time = ~20hrs, the fact that the truck took up my entire garage in length made it time consuming getting from one side to the other( i was working with my garage door closed), compound sticking made me go through most/all of my pads so i had to stop and wash them after being done with one side plus extra time spent doing wipe downs after each panel/pass. Do you pros experience the same situation often? estimating say 12hrs then once you run into "soft" paint it ends up taking a lot longer than expected? I`m working on timing myself to get a better idea. It wasn`t an issue in this case cause the customer was my Manager at my regular Job, he was in no hurry to get it back plus it was free of charge (he`s paid for quite a few good expensive lunches plus bonuses etc...)

Thank you for watching, any feedback/criticism/pointers are welcome.

[WaxAddict]

Good job on the before and after pics. I can never get a good Before/After due to lighting changes and my general lack of skill.

Black is so rewarding to work on, yeah?

[Migue]

Good job on the before and after pics. I can never get a good Before/After due to lighting changes and my general lack of skill.

Black is so rewarding to work on, yeah?

Thank you! I take the "before" pic from an angle using "cue" aspects of the truck/vehicle/enviroment (lining up certain body lines with the edges of my camera shot and what not) so that when it`s time to take the "after" pic, i pull up the "before" real quick and memorize how the shot was lined up while standing in the same area, then take a couple, and choose the one that lines up with the "before" best.

Black is a pain the ass to maintain(from experience having a 95% + corrected black SUV) .... but yes it is SO rewarding to work on, i feel it`s where we can really see how good or bad our corrections and methods are, so i always enjoy doing them cause it`s a good challenge and i learn from it each and every time.

[65chevy]

very nice job with pictures

[Ronkh]

Nice work
Well documented w pics

[Migue]

Thank you all for the kind words.

[GearHead_1]

Like it and I did.