Newish truck detailing

[Crunchy]

Ok, I recently purchased a DA polisher, and a six pack of pads from Meguiars (cutting, polishing, and finishing pads). My truck is a 2017 Ram 2500 crew cab with an 8 foot bed. I have some light brush scratches, and one spot of rope burn that looks to have burned into the clear coat on the roof. Overall the paint is in good condition, i just want to remove the scratches from the brush, and poor washing techniques.

My questions are which products and pads. I also have a scratch in the plastic wheel flare that I am not sure how to handle. I was going to start with either scratch X or Ultimate Compound with a polishing pad to see if that will work. If not get a little more aggressive with a cutting pad. It's a big truck, and I am hoping to only remove the scratches with some type of compound, and then polish and wax the rest. Since it is a new truck I do not want to get too aggressive. I hope since it is a new truck I dont need to clay the darn thing, because that will take forever lol. It looks like I am unable to load pictures without first uploading them to some website??

Thanks for the input

Raphael

[Nick Winn]

Re: Newish truck detailing

Crunchy,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online. First, wanted to let you know, you can upload pictures into the in forum gallery, below:

https://meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/index.php

[Nick Winn]

Re: Newish truck detailing

Ok, I recently purchased a DA polisher, and a six pack of pads from Meguiars (cutting, polishing, and finishing pads). My truck is a 2017 Ram 2500 crew cab with an 8 foot bed. I have some light brush scratches, and one spot of rope burn that looks to have burned into the clear coat on the roof. Overall the paint is in good condition, i just want to remove the scratches from the brush, and poor washing techniques.

My questions are which products and pads. I also have a scratch in the plastic wheel flare that I am not sure how to handle. I was going to start with either scratch X or Ultimate Compound with a polishing pad to see if that will work. If not get a little more aggressive with a cutting pad. It's a big truck, and I am hoping to only remove the scratches with some type of compound, and then polish and wax the rest. Since it is a new truck I do not want to get too aggressive. I hope since it is a new truck I dont need to clay the darn thing, because that will take forever lol. It looks like I am unable to load pictures without first uploading them to some website??

Thanks for the input

Raphael

Cred Cab Long Bed! I feel your pain! I have a extended cab short bed diesel truck & even that is ALOT to care for.

Regarding the "light brush scratches," if these are tree branch scratches, from driving off-road, in my unfortunate experience, these can range from "easy to remove" or "more stubborn to remove" so just wanted to bring that up, to keep in mind, when trying to address them.

Regarding the one spot of rope burn, a picture would definitely help us provide a proper recommendation on what to do/consider.

Regarding the plastic wheel flare, question, this is painted like the rest of the vehicle correct?

OK so onto some recommendations for now, based on information we have:

Wash & dry vehicle, inspect paint for above surface contaminants, by feeling the paint, to see if it feels rough or not completely smooth. Unfortunately, chances are, you are going to want to clay.

From there, I would probably start with a test spot in an area which just has the "poor washing technique" swirl marks. One example would be to try a cleaner/polish like Ultimate Polish or M205 Ultra Finishing Polish, on a yellow polishing pad, to see if this combination removes the defects to your satisfaction. If it does not, another example of what you can do, would be to try to see if two attempts in the same area, with the same combination of products, removes the defects to your satisfaction. If not, a next option would be to use Ultimate Compound on a separate yellow polishing pad. Make sure you attempt your second test spot for the typical washing swirl marks in a separate area which has not been already tested, to get a true understanding of the results. An example of a next step up in aggressiveness would be Ultimate Compound, applied with a red foam cutting disc. As you can see in the below threads, there are many times, that typical "washing swirls" require Ultimate Compound via DFC5 Soft Buff DA Foam Cutting Disc. Modern clear coat paints are scratch sensitive to our washing techniques & accessories during the washing step, but most often times on the "other end of things" when we attempt to remove the defects, the paint is more often time "hard" or "resilient", so do not be afraid to use Ultimate Compound/DFC5 Soft Buff Foam Cutting Disc with your Dual action Polisher.

Regarding addressing the "scratches from brush", you can really take a similar approach to the above, but I would probably go straight to Ultimate Compound/DFC5 Soft Buff DA Foam Cutting Disc, on our MT300. If you are concerned, you can try Ultimate Compound with a yellow foam polishing disc first. If you are working in much smaller than 2 ft X 2 ft square areas, keep in mind to have a "Spot Repair" type mindset. Since/If you are confining your area to much smaller than 2 ft X 2 ft square, shorten up your number of passes, possibly use a bit quicker arm speed, and possibly light up on your normal pressure. If you utilize these techniques, you are "dialing back" the aggressiveness of your set up, compared to using the same techniques if you were working in a larger area. (Hope this makes sense. I need to do a thread on Spot Repair)


This should be a good start. Hope this helps.

Nick

[Crunchy]

Re: Newish truck detailing

Let me try this photograph thing [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

[Crunchy]

Re: Newish truck detailing

[IMG][/IMG]

[Crunchy]

Re: Newish truck detailing

[IMG][/IMG]

[Crunchy]

Re: Newish truck detailing

[Crunchy]

Re: Newish truck detailing

[Crunchy]

Re: Newish truck detailing

Well mission accomplished. What I learned..

1. Even a one year old car needed to be clayed. I was shocked how much residue the was removed.
2. Don't be afraid to use Ultimate Compound. I probably could have used something a little more aggressive. Even with the foam cutting pad it was work to get rid of some of the fine scratches.
3. After a full day of washing, claying, and running that DA i was whipped. Managed enough energy to put down two coats of ultimate wax.

Man does my truck shine now. Brighter than when it was new.

One question. I attempted to use the DA and the black foam pad, but it was easier to do by hand. Not sure why but the pad/disc wouldnt spin. Even with the lightest pressure I could barely get it to spin. So I waxed by hand which wasnt that big of a deal.

[Selectchoice]

Re: Newish truck detailing

Love to see some pics of your completed truck.