Detailing Project: 1995 Chevy 1500 w/t

Throwing on some powerlock. Wow this stuff is great to work with. Wipes off super easy and gives great gloss and slickness.

Hope to get it all sealed, then maybe tomorrow i can detail it

 

Dang @Pudge!!! You've really transformed that truck. It looks sooooo good now!

This is what breaks my heart. Friggin ingreats that don't give a crap about anything.

I'm sure ol grandpa had a special place in his heart for this truck and and would have hated to see it after the family got a hold of it.

You're a good man Pudge. The Grandpa would be proud.

 

Congrats! That result is nothing short of amazing.

 

Beautiful!

 

I certainly hope I never have to do a full truck total paint correction again, it was very time consuming and laborious. My arms and back are sore, thank God I had the griots polisher instead of the HF, made work much easier.
I have to say I really surprised myself and learned a lot. This was a great experience for me. The truck does look completely transformed and so much better.

The combo or 105 and 205 worked great and finished down very smooth and clear. It is not as nice to work with as carpro clear cut and essense but the price is better and it got the job done. The 105 gives off a lot of dust and sometimes the residue can be tough to remove. The 205 finished down amazingly and is fairly low dusting and wipes off very easily.
Every inch of the truck was washed, degreased, clayed, ironX'd, got m105 then m205. I then washed the truck again and did a full IPA wipe down before applying jescar powerlock sealant. The powerlock is very glossy and slick, and super easy on and off. I would definitely use it again. I cant wait to see how durable it is.

I have some compound and polish residue to clean up, windows to clean, go over the interior once more, and probably go over the truck with a final inspection with a bottle of megs spray wax. So maybe 2 more hours and this baby is done finally. I do not know how many hours I have into it, and dont think I wanna know.

 

Just curious, what would a full on 2 stage correction cost for a truck like this, like what I did. @SouthBoundSteve @driverdog @briarpatch @cmiller219 @Omohundro
Wash, Decon, clay, compound (x2 in some tough areas I had to go to a wool pad), polish (x2 in many areas) and sealant. Plus interior wipe down and vacuum, glas cleaned and sealed, wheel cleaning and sealant, Tire cleaning and dressing/seal. I was thinking at least $500+ for this truck, obvi I'm not charging my brother more than materials cost, he can pay me what he wants on top of that.
One extra I did inside the truck was add some skateboard tape along the door sill for some protection and grip while getting in and out, I had the tape laying around.

 

I would estimate the job to be around $800 here in NY

 

Great sheeting from the powelock!

 

All done. Took a couple hours to go over everything and do a few touch ups inside and out. But its finally done and ready to be picked up.

 

Sean, I’m so impressed and proud of the work you did on this truck. You and I both started learning this stuff around the same time, and it’s awesome to see how good you’ve gotten at it. You for sure have done a much better job than I have at learning paint correction. You have the one thing I seriously lack - patience, and it shows! I hope I get an opportunity to work on one similar to what you did here someday. I’ve been eyeing my neighbor’s old Ford for a while. It looks to be 15-20 years old. It’s black, and heavily oxidized. I’ve been considering offering to do what you did with this one. Maybe in the fall, when it’s cool enough outside to spend that kind of time on it.

I’m glad you like Powerlock. I think it’s an outstanding sealant, it just takes a little more work than the rest. It’s also cool how each one does a great job in different ways.

I washed my truck Saturday morning. It’d been a while since I reapplied any sealant, so I decided to go back to my roots and went with Reload. I didn’t get any pics before the rain hit, but it looked outstanding. It rained off and on over the weekend, but it still looks relatively clean today.

My truck, and your pics, reminded me of the different effects these products have. Powerlock has more of a “sheeting” effect. Reload makes a ton of tiny beads, and Beadmaker makes less, but larger ones.

I know in longevity, it goes Powerlock>Reload>Beadmaker. As for actual water shedding effects, it goes in the opposite direction. I wonder what the science is behind that?

 

Thanks Jason. That really means a lot coming from you. It was hard work but at the same time easy, letting the machine, pad, and product do the job. Nailing down what to use and when was the tough part, oh...and the time. Damn this is time consuming lol.
I really liked the powerlock so thank you so much. It's very cool how it sheets rather than beads, i wish I know how all that worked.
All in all it was a great project that I. Very proud of and happy with the results. I learned a lot and got some amazing practice. I couldnt have done it without the help from all the guys here

 

In a couple months, I will be spraying the underside and inside of body panels with fluid film

I got under there as good as I could with the power washer and have about and inch of sand in my driveway, rocks, mud. I'm glad I did it. I'm shocked the truck has zero rust. I think I got to it just in time. Its wide open under there for fluid film spraying, I'll do that and my truck in the fall.

 

Man, nice work @Pudge Detailing is hard work but the end result is always rewarding. On one of your interior pics it looks like the truck only has 37K miles. Is that right?

 

Yup that mileage is correct. It literally belonged to an old man who used it for dump runs and taking stuff to the family beach house. It was my sister in laws grandpa's truck and was gifted to them when he passed away. It was always stored indoors until about 5 years ago and hasnt been garaged since, which is fine but care needs to be taken.
Unfortunately they have let other family borrow it and those people caused a lot of paint damage, they just dont care.
I use it in the spring to haul maple sap in a 300 gallon tank, it runs great and I do all the maintenance to it. Last winter I replaced the original OEM tires that were still on it. The whole truck looks new again.

 

Powerlock is the one product I’ve used that I didn’t tamper with for a few months, so I know it’s pretty durable. In my experience, it leaves a thicker appearance behind, which is great on colors that don’t pop as much. I’ve mostly used it on MGM, but it looks great on that green also.

 

That sucks. Some people(even family) just suck. Other than my wife, I'll never let anyone drive my truck.

 

The powerlock looks awesome on this green color. Thanks for the suggestion Jason. You nailed it for sure.

 

Great job bringing it back to life. Did you put optimum on the tires?

 

Um, so when are you going do the paint correction? It looks the same to me..

Of course I’m kidding, it looks amazing. People will be definitely taking a second look at it when it’s out.
As far as cost, hard to say. I can’t imagine doing it for any less than 500 myself.

 

Yup optimum on the tires , took me about 15 minutes per damn tires to get it on. I'm buying a small airbrush gun to try out.

 

The new reload is very nice and glossy. I believe they changed the formula slightly in 2015 or 2016, I like the new version. @SouthBoundSteve would know better

I've been hoping Steve would chime in here. He is THE reason I got into detailing and helped me out so much along the way. I owe the majority of my knowledge to him. He made me realize it isn't as scary as it seems and introduced me to the new wave of detailing products. He has been so helpful and patient over the years, so thank you Steve for all you've done, not just for me but all of us here at tundras.com. this detailing forum is one of the best on any vehicle board, because of you. I hope I made you proud, but please feel free to pick me apart and let me know what to do better.

 

I asked someone on here about spraying the Optimum they said it probably would just clog up the tip. I can remember who told me that, but I have a small HVLP gun I retired from the booth that works good for dressings.

 

Lol I think it was me who told you that. It would definitely ruin a spray bottle, I tried and IK style sprayer and it clogged that tip quickly by hardening. I was able to get it cleaned. I think a small hvlp gun will absolutely work, but will need a thorough cleaning after, which after many tries with this stuff, will be worth it.

 

Lol, it was you! I went back and looked

 

I’m going to try it out and see what happens, I will clean the gun after each use. I’ll try it on an old wheel and tire I have.

 

That truck looks absolutely amazing. The before/after pictures do a good job of showing just what a transformation that was...looks freshly painted!!!! In my area, you're around 750 - 800 for a job like that, maybe more depending on who does it and the overhead costs involved.

 

Let me know how it goes, in ordered a cheapo 30ml spray gun to try out, it has a fan spray of 1/8" to 2". I will be sure to clean well after too. Curious as to how it works with a decent gun. Thanks man, and sorry for the misinformation previously

 

I left a brand new bottle of the new megs ceramic spray wax in the truck for maintenance washes, scored it for 7.99 at oriellys, and a note encouraging him to buy a griots pfm drying towel for the truck use only.