My 10 stage deep paint correction process.

[MtyMous]

So I'm definitely not a professional, but I dabble in paint restoration/detailing in my free time. You may or may not know that I drive a Dodge Ram Daytona pickup as my daily. As with any DD, it takes a beating even when you baby it. This truck runs through the rain, mud, snow, ice, you name it. Gotta get me to work and back, it hauls the toy around, pulls 8,000 lb. Trailers... everything. But I still like to keep it nice.

So after a particularly nasty winter I decided it was time to strip the winter coat (grime) of the old truck and make her shiny and smooth again. Somehow I had accrued a ridiculous amount of scratches (mostly just very light) and a lot of them were on my bed cover or roof from what I can only assume is from trees of something. A good chunk of the scratches required wet sanding. The bed cover took up a lot of time because the whole surface is paint matched aluminum. It's almost 35 sq. ft. Of surface area alone. Haha

So I broke out my detailing kit. 8 or so different foam pads, 7 compounds, 4 polishes, 2 sealants, and 3 waxes. Decisions decisions... here's what I settled on.

Used my Porter Cable 7424xp to get the job done. My 10 stage deep paint correction process.

First things first, you have to wash the car well to even know what corrections you have to make. I like to rinse, then power wash then foam it soapy water and let that break down the gunk rinse with the power washer again, them use a soapy mitt. Then rinse with the power washer again before I do a final rinse using the "sheeting method." If you don't know what sheeting is, watch this YouTube video. It changed the way I dry all of my cars. I also use a 2 bucket wash method. One bucket for clean soapy water, and another to rinse the mitt. Do this once, look at the amount of crap in the "dirty" bucket, and then tell me it's not worth the effort.

YouTube video on "Sheeting": http://youtu.be/VtoWk9thSEI

Anyway, after all of that comes the detailing process. Here's what I chose this time.   

1) Clay Bar

2) Wet sand deep scratches

3) Meguiar's M105 ultra-cut (Yellow pad)

4) Meguiar's M105 ultra-cut (Orange pad)

5) Meguiar's M205 ultra finishing compound (white pad)

6) Meguiar's M03 machine glaze

7) Poorboy's EX-P sealant

8 ) Meguiar's  NXT tech wax (2 coats)

9) Meguiar's Gold Class Carnuba paste wax

10) Adam's Super VRT for all of the flat black accents/wheels/trim.

I would say all in all, I spent about 6 hours Friday night, 8-10 hours on Saturday, and 9 hours Sunday ( had to squeeze in Church). I probably used about $50 in material (estimate because I buy in bulk). It was a freaking chore, but totally worth it. My truck is scratch free and has a show car finish.

Pics or it didn't happen, right?

Please excuse the potato quality. Took the pictures at work on my Galaxy Note 3.

[94touring]

Dang nice.  It's like color sanding new paint.  Takes forever!

[MtyMous]

exactly. I used to have getting into those really tight spots that I can't get to with my machine on the mini. The spot between the rear seam and the rear wheel arch for example. Many cars are notorious for having really nice paint all the way up to the seams, and then the area that has to be done by hand has been neglected. like the 1/2 inch area along all the seams, the intricate areas around the headlamps, and the harder edges to get to like around door handles.

It's hard work but pays off so stinking well.