F150 4x4

[mrclean81]

This truck belongs to one of my best friends, who is a hardcore fisherman and hunter. He takes care of the truck well, but it does see its fair share of off-roading. I done a 2 step paint correction on it around this time last year, but a tree branch or something got into the bed at some point and put a nasty scratch in it. Since such an extensive job was done on the paint last time, we decided to focus more on the wheels and trim than anything this time around.









Test spot


Wash - 2 bucket method with HD Wash
Wheels - 1Z ColorTec + Wheel Woolies
Tires and Fender Wells - 3D Orange 1:10
IronX and Speedy Prep Towel Medium Grade

ColorTec doing its thing


The owner found a wheel cleaner that he really liked, and used it often. The only problem is that it was acid based. These wheels were absolutely smoked. DEEP pitting throughout, the aluminum was hazed so bad that it was completely white, and even the black areas were faded and discolored. Really, these wheels should have been removed from the truck and had hours worth of repairs done to them. I didn`t have that kind of time, and it wasn`t within the budget to do so, so I did what I could with the time and budget allowed on this detail. I did remove the center caps since they popped off and on easily.






Using only HD Metal, a Mother`s Power Cone in my variable speed drill, and my DeWalt rotary equipped with 2 extensions and 3 inch Cyan pads for the wide open areas, I was able to bring the wheels back to a fairly respectable condition. The deeper pits remained (which was expected), but HD Metal really done a good job at removing the lighter stuff. 4 hours, 15 towels, and 4 Cyan pads later, the wheels were given 2 coats of CQuartz and the tires were dressed with Blackfire Tire Gel.





Once the wheels were finished, I moved on to the horribly faded trim. I had ordered some Black Wow Pro, but it hadn`t arrived in time to do this truck. Thankfully I had nearly a whole bottle of Black Wow Original, because it took 3 coats of it to get decent results on this trim because it was so faded out.







Im due back in a few weeks to treat the bed rails and wiper cowl to some Solution Finish. I think in this case since the caps and cowl were nearly white, that SF might be a better choice. The Black Wow Original done a good job on things like the grill and mirrors, but not so well on the bed caps.

Once all of the tedious stuff was finished, I then moved on to the scratch in the bed. I could catch a finger nail in it, so I knew it would never be 100%. It was wetsanded with 2000 grit, then hit with a 3000 grit 3M Trizact pad via GG3. I used an orange 5.5 B&S pad on my rotary with some HD Adapt to polish out the 3000 grit marks. Knowing where the scratch was, I could still see a small trace of it but it was very slight.


The rest of the paint still looked great and needed very little work. HD Speed was used with a Grey B&S 5.5 pad on the GG6 to clean up the paint and provide some protection.





3rd coat of BW still being absorbed by the fender flair






For the final touches, the fender wells, frame, tow hooks, and trailer hitch was painted with some Duplicolor Semi Gloss Black. Exhaust tips and nerf bars were polished by hand using HD Metal, and the headlights were coated with Opti-Lens to prevent future yellowing and fading. A basic interior detail was performed that day as well, but I didn`t take any pics.

Total time on this truck was 8.5 hours.

Thanks for looking
Nathan Flannell
Flannell`s Pro Detail
618-203-9763

[Pats300zx]

Fantastic job !!! I am interested to see how Solution Finish does on that wiper cowl.

[GearHead_1]

Man, you put that back together. Good job.

[Orinda Auto Detail]

Awesome work Nathan!!!

[Merlin]

Excellent work!

Better than showroom new!

_____________


Merlin

[mnehls86]

Truck looks great! Great job on those wheels too.

[65chevy]

great job

[Ronkh]

Great work
(and glad to see i`m not the only one who takes pics with a cig in hand)

[GearHead_1]

...(and glad to see i`m not the only one who takes pics with a cig in hand)

That`s one of the first things that caught my eye. I had to look at the reflection to see if you had been hired as a photographer.

[mrclean81]

Thank you for the compliments guys. About the cigarette lol..I apparently took one pic of the scratch, and didn`t realize I had a smoke in my hand until I got the pics uploaded. I don`t usually smoke at a clients house unless they smoke too, or I take a break and sit in my truck and choke one down. This was my buddies house, so it didn`t really matter. I need to quit but I don`t have the willpower to do it :/

[Ronkh]

. I need to quit but I don`t have the willpower to do it :/

Ditto

[Klock]

Awesome work man! The wheels turned out nice

[Stokdgs]

A major improvement, Nathan !

Those wheels were especially beautiful - wow, you did all that in just 8.5 hours !!!!!
Congrats on a beautiful, sorted out F150 !!!
Thanks for sharing..
Dan F

[MR Prime Shine]

wow great turn around

[mrclean81]

Thank you guys. They were a real nightmare to do. The owner has decided to either have them powder coated, or switch up to some 20`` Rock Stars. Upkeep and maintenance on wheels like this is constant, and pitting is inevitable if they aren`t polished often. In this case, the repeated acid washes just added to the damage. He even told me when I got there "The wheels were black with filth, so I took it to the car wash and acid washed them 4 times a piece for you". Gee..um, thanks?