It's Sunday here (almost 1am) ... he's going to be swinging by here in a few hours -- I guess I should go to bed to get ready, eh?

-RP-

Also, I pulled out of a bunch of the posts so that the pics are nearer the top...

 

I'm genuinely not that huge... it's like a circus mirror... honest!

I'm uploading pics as we speak... Silver is a bit*h. Luke and I tinkered with *several* different polishes before we opted to just forgo the polish and go straight to the NXT 2.0 (which seemed to pop the most on the silver over MPPP, #21 2.0, #21 1.0, 845, and a few others).

It turned out *very* nice and I believe Luke was pleased... well, at least he acted like it.

Pics are forthcoming... patience.

 

The subject... and the subject vehicle.









--CONTINUED--

 

Engine Compartment...









--CONTINUED--

 

Luke & a DF Towel - NXT 2.0 Removal



Luke & a DF Towel - NXT 2.0 Removal



THE FINISHED PICS



--CONTINUED--

 

Obligatory Direct Sun Shot (in all fairness, the truck was in very good shape when it made it to my driveway -- we did very little 'correction' to the paint except for some 'spot' work...)





Vinylex on the mirrors and handles...



Direct Side Shot...

 

Vinylex on the front plastic...



Rear Profile...



Front Look...



Rear Quarter...

 

An obligatory reflecto-cloud shot...



Front Quarter/Front Clip (note the painted valence -- that looked *great*!)





Products Used on final product:

*note: we experimented with *several* products on the hood before we really went to town to see what we could do with this silver. Unfortunately, because the paint was in great shape to begin with, there really wasn't much 'pop' to add to it -- and trust me, we tried *several* products to try to raise the bar a bit... the long and short was that he showed up with the paint in pretty decent shape and it's tough to improve on what he already had in place -- and we tried with several brands and products.

1. Meguiar's NXT 2.0 (LSP)
2. Meguiar's Hyper Dressing
3. Vinylex Wipes
4. Meguiar's APC+ (old version & new version)
5. Meguiar's Citri-Gel (discon'd)
6. Meguiar's Scratch-X
7. Meguiar's NXT Protectant (on the soft tonneau -- I've got to tell you, it looked *great!! (in Luke's words, "...it looks better than new..."))
8. Poorboy's Spray & Wipe
9. Meguiar's NXT Metal Polysh
10. Meguiar's Super Soap
11. Meguiar's Last Touch (clay lube)
12. Meguiar's Body Shop Professional Detailing Clay

Heck, I'm sure that there was more but, I know that's the bulk of it...

All in all, we were both pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Obviously, we were a tad disappointed that we couldn't really find a product to raise the bar on the silver that he brought to me but, like I said, I'm not sure that anything could've really brought it 'up' a notch. Luke got to experiment with his new DA and did a *great* job on some spot defect removal utilizing his G100, a polishing pad, and Meguiar's Scratch-X (in fact, he blew me away with one spot removal piece on his passenger rear quarter! -- he made it look like he'd been using the DA for 25 years!).

Luke plans on smacking another coat of NXT 2.0 on his ride tomorrow after work (of course, he's going to wipe it down with a QD spray before he goes at it). From there, he mentioned that he'd like to try #26 on top of the NXT to see if it can go a tad better as well (plus, I'm interested in hearing how that may turn out and if it's a discernable change in appearance with the #26).

Like I said, it turned out pretty darn good -- just look at the pics. All of the pics, as you've probably already noted, were taken in direct sun (hence, the reason we only have one side of the truck documented - ha!). Direct sun discloses the defects - if they're there! Tough to find many!

We didn't touch the inside other than to do the door jambs. Luke had packed some rugrats (his nephews) around over the weekend so, I'm guessing he may be out in the garage right now dealing with that functional space -- hahahaha!

Luke, it was my pleasure. Don't be a stranger once you make it out 'west'. Keep in touch, bud.

-RP-

 

Holy curese word, Brad... It looks freaking amazing...

I am hoping to do mine before long...(bookmarks page to try to get it looking this good...)

Well, as you can see, I am pretty much speechless, so I will shut up... Dang...

 

Wow that looks great.

One thing that caught my eye was how well all the plastic came out with the Vinylex Wipes. I've needed something to bring mine back to life.

 

Thanks, guys...

The Vinylex Wipes are honestly something that I forget about on occasion but, on Luke's truck, they worked FANTASTICALLY.

Vinylex has long since been a staple-product of mine but, these wipes really make application simplistic and, typically, are very moist straight out of the container.

As a hint, when the wipe seemingly dries out, spritz the wipe with a hit of water (I keep a spray bottle of DI Water for all kinds of uses during a detail -- everything from releasing some 'dried on' polish to priming a pad). The spritz of water will bring the wipe back to life and you'll get quite a bit more use out of it. Of all of the plastic that I worked on with this particular truck, I only used TWO wipes.

-RP-

 

Was anything used to clean the plactics, other than normal washing, prior to using the Vinylex? How long does an application last?

My flares look a bit worse than Luke's, I'd like to bring them back.

 

Very impressive....it looks fantastic, I will echo my approval of how the trim responded to the wipes...very nice.


For silver that is pretty deep.

Nice work Jedi.....

 

No prep. Honestly, I'll be interested in seeing how long it lasts as well... I think it'll go a little ways but, it won't be a 're-dye' type of situation....

I really wish we had done a before and after on the tonneau... it looked *killer*.

 

It turned out pretty darn nice, IMO... Sometimes you have to push back and succumb to the paint in that it was already in great shape upon arrival...

I mean, lest we forget that it's only about 2 years old and has been well taken care of...

Thanks for the kudos...

-RP-