Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

Clear coat is shot on my truck with big sections missing on roof, hood, bed rails. Truck was worked all its life before I bought it a year ago.

Couldn't help but think it could benefit from a good buffdown, polish and wax. So I broke down and hit the worst panels this weekend, which was the hood and the entire bed sides and tailgate.

Turns out halfway decent using store-bought products and Griot's pads with my Rigid DA sander which wasn't really intended for this, but it's hook and loop so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I reckon if I went over this again with compound I could probably get some of the remaining scratches out.

Driver's side bed before/after.

Re: Took a shot at buffind/polishing today
 

Passenger side before/after:

Re: Took a shot at buffind/polishing today
 

Driver side tailgate - PO let the straps break and opted to let it lay on the bumper instead of spending $10/side on new straps, so tailgate skin is totally bent and was scratched to hell.

Re: Took a shot at buffind/polishing today
 

Passenger side of tailgate had same probs.

Re: Took a shot at buffind/polishing today
 

Here's the hood after compounding passenger side only, driver side untouched. Then another after hitting with polish, before wax. You can really see how the clearcoat is essentialy f$%#ed here.

All-in-all I'm pretty happy with things. I think I'll do the cab and fenders next weekend if time permits. I know we're not in the body forum but feedback is still welcome :D

Funny note: That light green foam pad on the DA in the top-left corner of the 1st pic was almost as bright orange as the DA body itself before starting this half. I had to clear out the pad before doing the driver side.

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

It came out pretty good shifty. These years trucks seemed to be very eratic in thier paint. I have had some that held up well and others, went to heck. Yours looked like a good base, just someone work the heck out of it.

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

Honestly, base is great, I think it's just that neither PO took care of it like the paint mattered - first PO only used it to pull his boat out of the lake. Second PO owned a landscape/pond company and only used it to haul stuff to/from his jobs. I don't think it's ever seen a polish or coat of wax, it was used as a truck, purely for utility, as long as it ran they were happy. Maintenance records look great though.

The roof maybe has 10% of the clearcoat left. I've been mulling over whether or not to chip back what's up there, wet sand and 2K clear the roof. I know shops won't bother with something that small or guarantee the work so I haven't bothered to ask around.

It's even worse on the inside. Very clear they put zero UV protection (Armor All, etc.) on the interior plastic parts, all are sunbleached and brittle. Not that these trucks had a reputation for good plastics, but I literally don't need to take my radio out of the dash to work on it - there's a 12" square hole in the dash directly over the top of it...

Hunting for a new uncracked assembly hasn't gone well down here. Found a good donor truck to replace the pillar and roof plastics at least. Probably need to redirect focus up north for the dash and other stuff.

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

Kevin Brown Buff Daddy .com) just did a series with AMMO NYC on youtube about polishes, compounds and the tools....very informative.

i would consider myself a Professional Hobbyist when it comes to detailing...been doing others rides for 15+ yrs.

Great wealth of knowledge

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

Thanks for the link, checking it out now.

In the spirit of sharing, I bounced through a few of this guy's videos, Auto Fetish Detail, really breaks it down without being repetitive and showcases some interesting tools: https://www.youtube.com/user/autofetishdetail/videos

I also found the Dallas Paint Correction & Auto Detailing channel on YouTube worthwhile, lots of industry tips and several buffing/polishing paint work videos ~7 months back, they're even willing to review Harbor Freight tools and give honest feedback. A little wordy and repetitive on some videos though: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVl...VWTleaQ/videos

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

check out the AMMO NYC youtubes

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

i did my wheels wet sanding and polish on my truck came out great.

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

I would try wet sanding, 1500 , 3000 , then compound, wax. Since it was probably never waxed or buffed I would think all the original clear thickness is there.

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

Original clear is mostly missing on any body panel that sits horizontal to the ground (anything that caught more sun). You can see all the pock marks on the hood where the clear has flaked. Top strip of the doors where it meets the roof is similar.

Sadly the roof clear is almost entirely peeled away, with a tough edge that would need to be sanded hard. I still cut and polished it, maybe a bad idea, my orange pad was loaded after, could only get about 80% back out of the pad. It'll be enough for me to finish the truck off though.

Still, looks great after wax, hopefully getting all that oxidized paint out, polishing what's there and waxing will help keep the oxidation at bay for a year or two?

Re: Took a shot at buffing/polishing today
 

look in to a ceramic coating...total waste on crap paint, but most are not expensive top buy and just DIY.

also for the future, look into one-step products and pad style. the buggest killer to a DIY'er is over heating the area, even with a D/A. all layers move independently when heated.

then too many steps, peels layer of UV protection away...a daily driver wil benefit from a slight amount of orange peel, hence why most factory paints still have a touch.