Kenworth detail (product recommendations)

[Five Star]

I have an exterior detail next week.. Kenworth tractor with a sleeper.

paint has heavy oxidation, so i know i'll be using my rotary.

basically I need some good basic guidelines and products to minimize overall time, but make the Tractor nice and shiny.

also a great acid free technique to shine up the rims and tanks in a minimal time frame as I have not done metal polishing on such a large scale.

Thanks.

BTW Mike.. Great site with lots of useful info i have put to good use while lurking


edit: Its Red in color

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Five Star,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

There's two ways to approach this, a multi-step approach or a quick-step approach, I guess it depends on how much you're charging balanced with the kind of quality your customer expects as well as you expect out of yourself.

A quick way to do this would be to use M66 Quick Detailer with a rotary buffer and then follow-up with either a hand applied or dual action polisher applied coat of wax. The problem with doing quickies with a rotary buffer is that they will tend to leave swirls in the finish unless you do a follow-up pass with a dual action polisher.

A multi-step approach would be to use one of our compounds with the rotary, followed with a cleaner/polish with a rotary followed with either a follow-up with wax or a follow-up with a cleaner/polish applied using the dual action polisher to remove any swirls, and then go to wax.

which way do you think you're leaning towards this job?

If you want a completely acid-free wheel cleaner, then you want to go with M36 Wheel cleaner, or just use your car wash and a quality wash brush.

I would recommend our NXT All Metal Polysh for the rims if they are uncoated aluminum.

Do you own a dual action polisher like our G100? If so, and this is a single stage finish, (sounds like it if it's oxidized), you might consider using only the dual action polisher with our M66 and a W-7006 cutting pad. This will remove the oxidation without instilling swirls and you could restore the paint in one-step.

[Five Star]

Mike, it is a single stage, and I do own a Dual action Polisher.

The M66 and a 7006 cutting pad would be ideal for restoring the finish in one easy step, as this is a pretty big rig..

A nice coat of NXT would look great on this too.

Im just wondering does the M66 have enough bite to remove the oxidation? the less climbing i have to do, the quicker the job will go.

As far as the rims. i really didnt check them out to well yesterday. Being on a tractor they may have some kind of coating due to the heavy road use. Just trying to get some ideas on how to spiff them up.

Thanks
Steve

[Tom Weed]

I would recommend M66 for a one step product, If I have a car that has some moderate swirl marks/scratches and I don't have the time for several steps, M66 is my go to product. Leaves a really nice finish also, especially with a Rotary.

Mike, I'm confused, doesn't Meguiars recommend against using a 7006 cutting pad with a DA polisher, or does that just apply to finishes with CC?

Tom

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Tom Weed
Mike, I'm confused, doesn't Meguiar's recommend against using a 7006 cutting pad with a DA polisher, or does that just apply to finishes with CC?

Tom

We don't recommend using the w-7006 foam cutting pad with the dual action polisher as a general rule. The exception would be working on a severely oxidized single stage finish. You can usually get away with it for this application.

I'm pretty sure I've posted this before on our forum, so it isn't something new, maybe just something you haven't read so far.

The goal is to remove the oxidation and restore the shine without leaving swirls and doing a good job, so in this case, Five Star can probably get away with this combo.

Remember, 99.9% of all new cars have a clear coat finish and our cutting pad on the G100 dual action polisher is to aggressive for these finishes, it will tend to mar them. A good detailer can recover from this by simply moving to a less aggressive combo but what I find is most people don't do this, instead they panic and go post their problems on public discussion forums.

Most people don't have the skill and experience to use aggressive products successfully. It takes time.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Five Star
Mike, it is a single stage, and I do own a Dual action Polisher.

The M66 and a 7006 cutting pad would be ideal for restoring the finish in one easy step, as this is a pretty big rig..

A nice coat of NXT would look great on this too.

I'm just wondering does the M66 have enough bite to remove the oxidation? the less climbing i have to do, the quicker the job will go.

The above M66 followed by NXT with a W-8006 would be a great 2-step system that will also last and make you look good.

M66 is fairly aggressive, but remember when removing severe oxidation from a single stage, shrink your work area down, always use overlapping motions going in a couple of different directions and when you move on to a new section overlap into the previous section for Uniform Material Removal for a uniform appearance when you're all done.

As far as the rims. i really didn't check them out to well yesterday. Being on a tractor they may have some kind of coating due to the heavy road use. Just trying to get some ideas on how to spiff them up.

Thanks
Steve

You need to find out if they are coated or anodized or bare.

[Lncanney]

Five Star, if you can please post pictures of the truck. Big Rigs rule! I always have thought it would be fun to wash one.

[Five Star]

Originally posted by Lncanney
Five Star, if you can please post pictures of the truck. Big Rigs rule! I always have thought it would be fun to wash one.

I'll take some before. during and after pictures and post them..
It'll be a good makeover series.
Just waiting for the go ahead for next week.

[jetta18T]

Any update on those pictures Five Star??? I'm sure we'd all love to see them. I love Kenworth Trucks.

[Five Star]

Sorry, wasnt able to do the big truck buff out.

Someone bought it from the dealer, prior to the detailing appointment, and took it as it was. Which surprised even me as most truckers like a shiny ride.

[jetta18T]

No problem, at least it was worth a shot... maybe something will come up in the future!

[Big Ben]

Five Star,
I don't know if you found out about the rims coating yet but my approach on rims is to give them a good wash with a soft to medium brush and then I use the applicable polish with a 'Power Ball'.

If you're not familiar with a Power Ball, it's a foam attachment that you install at the end of a drill, the size of the ball is slighly bigger than a soft ball. I find that it does a great job as far as polishing and it's very gentle for the surface. Once you're done polishing, all you have to do is remove the residues with a soft cloth.