Smoke Wagon

Bought my 2011 F-150 new. Always washed weekly. But, prep-polish-wax never happened.

After picking up some tips on here - Bought Maguiars water spot remover, carnuba wax and dual action polisher.

Egads. The first polish in 4 years on 6 windows, 4 chrome wheels, two bumpers, sides and top took 3 hours today. I'll polish the bed tomorrow. Apply wax on Sunday.

The Maguiars dual action polisher is built very well and worked great. My cord variable speed drill worked well. May get a 90 deg battery powered drill in the future for ease of use. Dragging the 120V cord all over the garage was a pain.

The twins -



Water spots on windows are no fun to remove when they have a 4 year head start. After the polish, they gleam.



After the polish, it was hard to get a photo of how good the truck looked. So this pic of the rear chrome bumper reflection is the best I could do.

Brianmcg321

If it's been 2 years you should have added a clay bar and compound at the start. You would be shocked at how much grit is in your paint.

chickenwire

I'm with Brian. The clay bar would have been beneficial.

I hear you on getting neglected paint back up to snuff - especially all the real estate on a truck! I do complete paint detail at least twice a year on a Solstice and my 150. This spring the wife helped me clay the Solstice and halfway through asked "You do THIS on the TRUCK too????" lol

one2nine

iTrader: (1)

Always clay. I've personally been using the synthetic clays and clay mits. They save a lot of time and don't marr as much as traditional clay. I usually wash, iron decon, clay, Polish/compound, IPA wipe, seal, wax.

jngturner

The clay mitts are awesome. So much less work than a bar.