Ok do me a favor and get a picture of the paint up close with the direct sun shining on it. I know about paint correction and just claying a car and then waxing it just doesn't cut it for me. Like I said get a picture of it after a wash with the direct sun light shining on it...a close up picture of the paint.

This is my wife's G37 after I detailed the paint...and it is about 90% restored. Check out the detail and gloss from the paint.

This is the kind of picture I am talking about but one with the sun shining directly on the paint (notice the swirls all in the paint before I detailed it!):



This is what it looked like after the detail...like I said this is only 90%.



This was a close up after the detail of the same area:



You can still see some minor imperfections left in the paint and the detail took me 2 days and it is still not perfect...but it will be soon! Notice the huge clarity difference from the first pic!!

Any questions?

 

thats a nice looking work truck you have.

 

You can still see some minor imperfections left in the paint and the detail took me 2 days and it is still not perfect...but it will be soon! Notice the huge clarity difference from the first pic!!

Any questions? [/quote]
Looks like you took a picture of yourself in that one.

 

LOL yeah...it's my wife's version of a work truck

She gets the toys and I get the work truck...it just doesn't seem fair.

 

Looks like you took a picture of yourself in that one.[/QUOTE]

Yeah the difference after the correction is pretty amazing..I have been forever changed as to how I look at car paint now!

 

I don't have one on my computer at home, nor do i have a close up like you took.

i fear you are expecting FAAAAAR too much from a 17 year old paint job.

besides which ... i drive it, and i live on gravel ... it's only going to get so good, no matter how hard you try.... it's good enough for me. no way in god's green earth do i have the time to waste making it look like yours .... got better things to do, like replace the brakes on my exploder, which has now turned into a 2 day job.

nice job on yours, though.

 

You would be surprised at how easy it is to do it yourself etc. I am not a professional detailer and have just gotten into paint correction (sort of becoming my hobby now) I bought a polishing machine and some polish and watched a bunch of videos on the subject.

I do agree it is hard to keep perfect paint on a DD especially on a gravel road. I could get that 17 year old paint looking great! Anyway...if you are interested shoot me a pm and I will steer you towards a forum I am on for detailing.

 

I've done what you are talking about. I once spent an entire saturday doing about 50% of what you did to yours. Got a surprising amout of compliments as well, considering it was not a car worth noticing.

a week later i borrowed it to my brother, who deicided he would be nice and wash it before he returned it. except he washed it like he washed his, he worked at a shop washing tanker trucks and used the same soap and brush (yes ... brush ... uuugh) and removed all of the wax and scrached the clear.

that was the last time i spent that much time on a car trying to make it look nice.

on the t-bird, the PO was in a wreck at some point and accepted work that should not have been accepted. the paint is fine, but there are DA scratches under the paint that show through if you know what to look for. It's pretty, but far from perfect. I bought it because it is rust free and is the only chameleon blue t-bird i have ever seen, and 95 is the only year they made it. Normally i would have passed, but i couldn't let this one go for the asking price.

 

Great! Sorry to hear about what your brother did. Most people don't know how to properly wash their cars and swirl up their paint all the time. When I finally get my new truck that will be the first thing I do is clay the vehicle and detail the entire truck. That tuxedo black has some serious flake in it and it would really pop with the right polish and sealant!

 

Mine's tuxedo black... but I don't know if I really want to spend two days doing that. Is there a place where I can send it to?

All the auto detailing shops do it within an hour...

That two-day one.. is there a name for this process?

 

With a new truck it would not need a lot of polish to remove any fine swirls from the paint. Usually when you take it to a detailer a one step correction would run you around $250 roughly. That should include defect removal, sealant, etc. It took two days because my wife's car was swirled up really bad. A new vehicle would only need very minor correction and would take significantly less time. I have known people to spend over 72 hours on one vehicle like my wife's G37. It all depends on the percent defect removal you are happy with and on a daily driver 100% defect removal is pretty unrealistic to keep that way.

Not all auto detailing shops do quality work...and anyone that told me they would have it done in a hour I would not take your vehicle to. I know how long the correction process takes to be done right and there is no way they will be done in that time frame unless they are cutting corners. The sealant alone takes about 10 to 15 minutes to apply and then needs at least 30 minutes to dry, then another 10 min to remove.

 

To get this thread back on topic:
Towing 6500lbs of concrete. Its my personal truck but really it's more like the swiss army knife of the family.

 

here's Michelle's truck. she likes toppers for some reason, so they got her a black topper and then some Wheel-to-wheel step bars so she could reach inside the box.

the bars are suppsed to be black stainless so we'll see how they hold up.

 

here's one of mine "on the grade"



it just had a bath .. which is pointless, but at least i try .

i'm surprised how sure footed these trucks really are. they really get around good considering they are 4x2. but the clearance is great and the LSD really hooks up in the soft stuff. i wouldnt try this in the mud though

 

tim got a new truck this year:


2013, 4x2 5.0 3.55 e-lock and tow package. sucker got power windows and locks, chrome bumpers and bedliner.