2004 Ford F-450/PL Customs Rescue ambulance

[tuscarora dave]

Hi DCers, 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.

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.

[JPS51830]

WOW...came out awesome. That looked like some time consuming job. What did you use on the diamond plate to get the shine up? How many miles/hours on the ambulance? Ours go through hell, making about 2200 runs a year. What is it going to be used for now? Again, you guys did a great job bringing that thing back to life!!!!

[tuscarora dave]

WOW...came out awesome. That looked like some time consuming job. What did you use on the diamond plate to get the shine up? How many miles/hours on the ambulance? Ours go through hell, making about 2200 runs a year. What is it going to be used for now? Again, you guys did a great job bringing that thing back to life!!!!

Thanks, It was very time consuming and tough this early in the detailing season too.

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.

As for the use of the unit hereafter and how many miles and hours, I`ll let Bill answer those questions as he is the new owner of it. I was just paid to drive up there and do the paint correction.

[black bart]

Imron is really tuff you did a nice job of turning it into a show piece.
Makes me tired just looking at those pictures.

[njcarting1]

I just gotta say WOW, Its over and without Dave and Jack it would still be dull. Dave is and incredible worker, and knows his stuff. We got lots of support from Steve at Poorboys, we had 2 large orders that week and Dave also had some stuff he also brought directly from Steve`s before we started the job. Dave also doesn`t travel light, He had what most people have in there garage in his trunk.

Its a great feeling to have a place to gather knowledge, supplies, and new friends. We gave several companies a shot at the lsp, and prep in this job. I would have to say the bulk (95 % ) of the job was with PB`S products. I just goofed around with the lsp stuff to see whats gonna be my go to wax or sealer.

I guess the pics say it all and the truck looks new. Its a 2001 f-450 with 125-k for miles. It has a 7.3 turbo diesel, and is incredibly nice in all aspects. It will be used as a service truck after changing over the red lenses to yellow. It will be lettered up by Friday.

Again, thanks to everyone that made this fun project possible.

[tuscarora dave]

My trunk,


and my corner of Bill`s garage, My towels and pads not shown.

[tmacsad]

Great Job!!!

[jtford95]

That came out great!!! What a turnaround.

[(901)]

Jack,Dave and Bill that was a tremendous undertaking. Great job guys

Imron paint >>>

The syn 1 you speak of...Is that the same as the Secret Goo

I had the opurtunity to use the Secret Goo last year and was Very impressed

[njcarting1]

syn-1 is the secret goo yes, steve has the stuff, its great.

[G.T.Subie]

Good work fellas

[atkinsonair]

Super job gentlemen!!!!!

[Ronkh]

Great work !!!!

Thanks for putting up the work schedule and time involved. Think mine are just gonna get a wash and wax

Absolutely great. Tough paint, tough color.

[65chevy]

great job guys thats a whole lotta truck to do