The Truck from Hell

[turbomangt]

The other day I had a regular customer call me that has quite a successful construction business. I detail both of their Mercedes on a 3-month cycle. He asked me to look at one of his pick up trucks used for his business and wanted me to “bring some life back” to the finish. I agreed to look at it not knowing what I was getting into. It was a red truck, 4 x 4, the hood, sides, and fenders were scratched beyond belief. Imagine steel beams dragged across a hood and banging against the side of the truck. All kinds of heavy equipment knocking and rubbing the paint. Then add tar, oil, mud, grease, and who knows what else thrown in the mix. That’s what I was looking at.
Well I said, this needs work, and I have no idea what the outcome will be, but? It’s your call. (To be honest if he was not a customer I would not of considered working on it)
The next day he brought it over and I spent 3 hours just prepping the finish. For information purposes I will outline the steps.
In a garden sprayer I put a mild mix of simple green, sprayed on truck as a pre soak
Let sit for a few minutes
Power wash (to remove surface dirt particles)
Pre-soak again; using a dawn solution and water; changing the buckets about 40 times, I dug in for some deep cleaning. Power wash off.
Then I sprayed a solvent cleaner to attack the tar/oil with a net sponge / wash again with soap, then rinse.
Clay barred truck, washed again and rinsed. Dried.
Now I had a clean surface and I really saw what the finish looked like, swirls, spider webs, scratches, the works, (but at least it was clean right?)
Now for the heavy-duty stuff/ I went right to the heavy compound with this, and my high-speed buffer. Using a polywool pad, and Meguiars Diamond cut, and buffed the truck at about 1600 RPMs; I had to clean my pad every time I made a pass. I was amazed at how that leveled the surface and smoothed out many of the defects. But it needed more.
Next I went to a foam pad, with Meguiars dual action cleaner polish (this is meant to clean up some of the effect of the compound, plus, provide some life back to the finish.
Things were looking up. (This is 5 ½ hours so far)
Next I used a dual action buffer, with a pure polish as the second to last step.
Final step was my sealant.
When I delivered the truck one of the guys in the garage thought they bought a new vehicle, (Improvement > yes. Perfection> far from it.
Just goes to show what can be done in extreme cases. Gary

[IRPT]

Gary, some before and after pics would be nice, great for advertising also.

[therents]

You have guts man!!! Ya, pictures would be nice.

[turbomangt]

More guts than brains for sure. I should of brought my camera, but I had more on my mind than taking pics, (if ya know what I mean) Besides, you guys are giving me more advertising than I deserve. Gary

[quicksilverdon]

Is there an echo in here?

I thought from the subject this was another thread on the Hummer concept..