That is a huge improvement..is that with a machine or by hand? Does it matter which polish, or will any old polish do? I think I'll give my truck a good polishing first, since I'll be coming out of Winter soon.

 

Do you think my old hands would try to do that?

My tailgate stays down quite a bit and gets hammered daily by sand and dirt at freeway speeds.

I used a Flex and Meguiars M205 and spent 10 minutes on the tailgate.
As simple as I can put it...
Meguiars M205 is one of the most user friendly polishes on the market but Optimum Poli-Seal is the easiest...but it depends on how much correction you want to do. If you are lazy you do not want to do it by hand.

 

OD, where did you get your foam gun? Just curious what version of it you're getting. The one I have has the brass slider. Optimum Car Wash is meant to be diluted 1oz/gallon. However, the hole on the slider for the 1oz/gallon setting is too small to properly pick up the thick wash soap in concentrated form. I eyeball my mixture 1 part concentrate to 3 parts water in the canister resulting in the mixture being only 1/4 of what it was. Then I slide the pin to the 4oz/gallon setting to compensate. So the mixturei n the canister is thinner and the hole that it has to go through is bigger. You get a lot closer to the recommended setting and a lot more foam this way. And as you know the closer you are to the manufacturers recommended ratio the less likely you are to strip any wax you have on the vehicle.

 

Well if it's a once a year or longer type thing, I'll spend the time to do it by hand. The tailgate on your truck looks fantastic, so I'm not afraid of the extra work if it's going to look that much better.

 

You DO NOT want to attempt results like that by hand! Even if you're not lazy. I just don't recommend it. If you do decide to do it by hand, I really hope you have good washing and drying techniques or you're going to be kicking yourself when it looks the same again in a relatively short period of time.

 

Lol I guess I'll just wax then.

 

I got it here. I really regret not pulling the trigger prior to this years winter weather.
I hope my gun accurately measures 1oz per gallon. With my ortho sprayer the soap was too thick also so I mixed it 1:1 and set the sprayer for 2oz per gallon.

If you insist on doing it by hand:
You could get away with the 3 step system from Meguiars and skip the 3rd step and use Megs NXT 2.0 and have satisfactory results and good durability.

Done correctly, hand polishing will not do much correction without much work but it will add some clarity to the clear coat and bring out the paint color quickly.

 

You have a few pros weighing in so soak it up. When I first started I started out with one brand (but that is me) just to get familiar with the product lineup. I attended AutoGeek's Detail Fest last year which hosted a Megs class with Mike Phillips and from there I've started to branch out a little. I love Megs products but I also use Poor Boys, plus there located about an hour from me.

 

I really do appreciate the advice, but I don't want to screw up my paint more with my inexperience. Maybe I'll have it polished by pros and just wax after that.
I don't want to throw a monkey wrench into this thread and change direction, but I noticed the grille on your truck is painted to match. I bought a chrome grille insert a while back and installed it, but decided I didn't like it and removed it shortly afterward. I've been thinking of painting it black to match my paint color, should I have it sand blasted first because of the chrome plating?

 

You could try that, but beware. There are any number of idiots out there who claim to be "professional." I'd check out some recent work - particularly a few weeks after the job was done - to see if you'd trust somebody. I can't tell you how many cars I've seen butchered by some hack with a rotary buffer who then temporarily covered up their mess with glaze and wax. (And it actually looked good for a few days!) The real horror show started as all of that wore off.

 

Yeah that's the one with the ****/dial to adjust the ratio. DI has an image of the bottle that displays the ratios you can pick from. http://www.detailedimage.com/Gilmour...llon-Tank-S1/# There is a 1oz per gallon setting but I'd wager that the hole is still too small. Hate it when that happens. Anyway, find the correct measurements for 1 part soap and 3 parts water for the canister and mark off the level with a permanent marker. Once and done and it's easy as pie the next time.
EDIT - Apparently I can't link directly to the image or post it.

 

Nah, try it yourself. Give the Megs 3 step a try and take your time. As you do it and learn you and your paint will get better and you may find you like it well enough or...want to learn and do more on your own.
Your link is the same as mine. I hope the (A) setting works and picks up the soap properly but the OCWash is pretty thick so you are probably right. Most quality soaps are always thick. You would think that if they make a gun dedicated to foaming soap and water it would NOT have a problem with picking up soaps.
Guess not.

 

Yeah. It was actually a direct link to the picture but it didn't work out that way so I just left it. Either way I know you'll get it figured out. Try it both ways and see what works best for you.

 

I just used that Optimum Car Wax and Optimum Instant Detailer today, I thought it was pretty good. You have to be quick with the wax because once it dries it's a bitch to rub off. The instant detailer makes the paint more slick..I ran my hand across a section that just had wax, and it wasn't as slippery. It's good on glass and plastic trim too. Thanks Old Dogg for letting me know about that stuff.

 

If your talking about my emblem that matches my truck, I got that from patriotdecals