I washed and polished my truck recently. I used a Griots ROP for the machine polishing. Steps taken were:

Wash > Clay (Mothers) > Duragloss 501 w/LC White Pads > Duragloss 105

The DG 501 did a nice job cleaning the paint.









Dropped a light in the garage and it grazed the side of my truck and scratched it. I used a combination of polishes w/a microfiber applicator pad and buffed it out to a point. You can still see it but I decided not to press my luck.

 

Very nice looking F150, I am a total fan of Duragloss products

 

Never been a huge DG fan but, it looks good...

 

I would put your scratch into the "you can only see it if you know it's there" category -- we all have a few of them on our trucks......

 

Yeah, I know, I feel lucky the scratch came out as good as it did. Just bugged me that I did right after I polished the truck.... Who am I kidding? It would have bothered me anytime.

I like most of the Duragloss products I've tried so far. Their stuf is priced pretty good and I can usually get it locally (OTC).

Off topic, two different NAPA stores didn't have the DG 501 or Aquawax and said they couldn't get it from their warehouse (NAPA's warehouse I assume). The second store said the closest places were in Boston and Maine whatever that means. Makes me wonder if NAPA is selling off their supply of DG products and not going to carry DG's stuff anymore? Luckily there's a Carquest in town that confirmed they can ge me whaterver I need from DG in a day or two. Which is what I used to be able to do w/NAPA.

 

Truck looks great. You did a good job, I might look into the Duragloss line for myself.

 

The truck looks great!

I performed a detail on my '11 SCab this past saturday. I washed with DG Cherry Car Wash and followed it up with a 4:1 application of DG671 SMR/DG105 TPP with my DA and topped it with DG AW on sunday afternoon.

The DG left an outstanding glossy shine to the Race Red paint, better than Meg's UP/ULW. The DG105 TPP is definitely not an AIO wax as AutoGeek and some other sites say it is and the DG671 SMR is more of a cleaner wax than a dedicated swirl remover such as Meg's Swirl X.

I plan on a 2nd clay bar cleaning of the year and an application of Meg's Swirl X, DG 501, DG 105 and DG AW in 4 mos. to get it ready for the winter season.

 

Thanks Svets96! I think you'd like some (most?) of their products. I always consider price w/the performance. I think DG pretty hard to beat when you look at it that way.

@ Blue07STX Thanks, it sounds like we had similiar thoughts although you're more ambitious than me . I did a paint correction last year and the Truck isn't too swirled up at this point so I figured cleaning the paint would be a good thing to do. That's why I used the DG501.

I used Aquawax on it after I posted the Pics for a little extra shine. I've heard good things about DG's car wash but I've never used it. We've got hard water where I live and Optimum No Rinse has been the best thing to combat water spots for me.

 

I have used Turtle Wax ICE Car Wash the past three years on all my vehicles due to the water in my city. I have even pondered purchasing a dedicated filter system for the water hose but haven't felt like dishing out the extra $50 to do so.

The DG Car Wash does a great job of cleaning as long as you mix it per instructions on the bottle. And, the gallon bottle should last me a year or so. DG can be purchased from NAPA parts stores in my neighborhood for about the same price as AutoGeek.net and most items can be in hand by 9:00 am the next day.

I used my Meg's DA on speed 3 with their yellow polishing pad and a 4" green Soft Buff polishing pad for the bumpers, door seals and cab/rear door areas. What speed did you use with the LC White pads? I have read that 501 doesn't like to wash out of the pads easily, any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
James

 

Hey James, I used my Griot's DA on speed 4.As far as cleaning the 501 out of the pads it was a pain in the rear. I got the pads clean, except, you could still see the light green spots where I applied fresh polish on the outer part of the pads. So, they're dedicated 501 pads now. I've read you can use a solvent (type?) to soak them overnight which I bet you've read too.

Regarding your comments on NAPA, that was how the NAPA's close to me were too. Order a DG product and you could expect it to be available next day. Like I said above, not anymore. I don't know what their deal is. I have read that you can buy directly from Duragloss online for a flat $5.00 shipping.

Matt

 

I wonder if the NAPA issue is a regional thing? I went in on 5/24 to order DG 671 SMR and DG 755 NG, they were both ready to pick up the next morning at 9:00 am.

I hadn't heard about the flat shipping rate directly from DG, that may be something to keep in mind.

Thanks.

 

I buy direct from Duragloss, at $5 for shipping is excellent value, especially if you buy a number of items.

 

Thread HIJACK ALERT!

Water spots! Water spots! My city has the worst water I've ever seen!

I guess I'll start a new thread, using that as the title.

In the mean time, What is Optimum No Rinse, who makes it, how do you use it, what does it do, and what other questions should I have asked but didn't know enough to?

 

Hey Flagship, Optimum Polymer Technologies is the name of the company. Optimum makes all kinds of car care products. Optimum No Rinse (ONR) is one.

I use two buckets to wash my truck. First bucket has 1.5 oz of ONR w/three gallons of water. The second bucket is full of water to rinse my sponge out in. You dip your sponge in the ONR solution bucket, wipe down a section of your truck (most times I go over it twice if the truck is real dirty). Then I put the dirty sponge in the rinse bucket and squeeze the dirt out of the sponge. I then wipe down the section I just washed w/a soft microfiber drying towel. Dunk the sponge in the ONR solution and repeat the same process until you're done with the truck. This way no hosing down your truck with water and you get the truck clean, one small section at a time. When I've got the truck done the last thing I do is use the left over ONR solution to clean my wheels w/a soft tire / wheel brush.

My truck is a daily driver that never leaves the street, so, it's never muddy or anything like that. You wouldn't want to use the above method on a muddy truck in my opinion. I hate dragging out the hose and having to hurry up getting my truck washed to avoid water spots and this method works for me.

I use a lowes grout sponge, some people prefer a microfiber mit or towell. Another thing, I put 1 oz. of Aquawax in my ONR solution too. It adds some extra shine to the truck. I forgot, I have something called "grit guards" in the bottom of each of the buckets. You can google what they are and what they do.

There are other "no rinse" products but I'm very happy w/the ONR and I'm afraid to try another product. I know the ONR works for me. Duragloss has a "no rinse" product I've been tempted to try but I doubt I'll switch from ONR....

 

Did you use the 601 bonding agent with either 501 or the 105? I like to mix 1/2oz 601 to 2oz of 501 and the same with the 105. Per tip from dg folks it saves a couple of steps.