Well, thanks to this here web site, I have become ed-u-ma-cated (at least a little bit) in the proper ways of making da truck look good.

After reading all about the clay bar stuff, I decided I needed to try it. There were a couple of spots on the truck where there were some teeny tiny little bumps that you could feel with your hand, plus there were swirl marks galore.

A few weeks back I spent some time reading the detailing forum and did some searching on the web and read some articles about polishing, waxing, etc. A few days later I ran out and bought $100 worth of detailing supplies, including a Mother's gold clay bar kit, and the Meguiar's three-part system. This Sunday I washed the truck really well, then went at it with the clay bar. All I can say is, if you haven't yet tried it - WOW.

Even without any wax or polish yet, the paint already looks shiny - and feels like silk! A lot of the swirl marks are gone.

I haven't yet had the time to apply the Maguiar's three-part system, but this coming weekend I hope to get to it. It should look fantastic, with the black paint, now that I've made it all smooth and silky. Woo hoo!!



I think my wife and the neighbors are starting to worry about me - every weekend I spend too much time wiping my truck with various products. Well, now it's only going to get worse!

I promised my wife I'd do her car too - which should look truly awesome, being a dark metallic blue...

Pretty soon they'll need to wear shades to avoid being blinded from the brilliant shine in our driveway.. oh yeah...

 

Got pics?

 

Once I get it done.

I still need to hit it with the Meguiar's three-part system - hopefully this weekend...

 

you might want to check out Zaino on line. www.zainostore.com

Used this exclusively on a show car some years back, leather products as well. Still swear by it and I avoid having to clay the car to remove clearcoat swirls.

DetailAugs

 

Started to do a basic wax job using Meguiar's Next Generation Tech Wax, and because I had a 1/2 used Clay Magic kit, that comes with a saran wrap type of glove to feel the grit in the paint b4 and after, I gave it a swipe, YUCK.

I ended up, claying the complete truck, before applying the Tech Wax.
Did both in under 90 minutes, looks great.

Dk Copper, 06 KR

 

I clayed the whole truck last weekend; did wifey's car yesterday.

Didn't have time to do the full-blown wax treatment yet... hopefully next weekend.

The tree pollen is insane around here, but actually not as bad as it's been in past years, because the weather has been very, very dry. But I washed her (dark blue metallic) car, and within a few minutes, you could already see a pale yellow layer of dust...

 

Does the clay bar help with scratches in the clear coat? I've got alot of scratches from tree branches, etc...that have left scratches that you can see when light is reflecting off of the side of the truck. None of the scratches are in to the paint, so I'm hoping I can find something that will remove the scratches and get the clearcoat shiny again.

Thanks.

Bryan

By the way, I'm having a set of Kumho AT KL78 285/70's put on my KR this Wednesday. I'll have her cleaned up, and take some pics for my gallery as soon as they are mounted.

 

Clay bar helps with very small scratches and swirl marks, but I think a swirl mark and scratch remover would work even better.

I'd suggest you browse the detailing section of the F150 online forums - I don't remember where I found it, but I came across a couple really good links to articles that explained it in detail. It's a really good resource.

RockPick and others know way more than I do at this stage, so they'd know better...

 

Actually guys... clay does nothing for swirls and scratches. Very simply put, clay is an abrasive cleaning technique that is utilized to remove boned or embedded contamination on TOP of the paint. In short, run your hand across your paint (with clean fingers of course)... feel that rough texture? That's where clay comes into play.

Swirl removal/scratch removal is a very different technique which involves removing a very thin layer of clear coat in order to make the surface 'flat' again. Remember, swirls are nothing more than microscopic scratches...

RP

 

What he said.

Speaking of which, I used a nice overcast day with intermittent showers to do a full body clay treatment with my handy spray bottle..mixed with warm water and NXT car soap...perfect for clay lube IMO

After I finished, I followed with a coat of NXT Paste...hot damn, if you tried to pull a Dukes of Hazzard move it would promptly eject you from the hood and likely send you flying at the speed of light! SOOOOO smooth now...mmmm

2nd claybar treatment in the 6 months I've owned the truck, heh. Very happy with the results...for a garage truck, that is ALWAYS babied I was surprised it helped as much as it did.