HD Ceramic Coating Project Tracker
David's Ford F150
David's F150 is in for a single step paint correction to get her refreshed and looking nicer. We're doing a full hand wash, full decontamination, and a thorough inspection before getting started and will provide notes and pictures along the way.
Polishing Stage - Completed
We got the polishing stage wrapped up after hours last night. The coating is going down this morning and we'll have her ready to go home this afternoon. Stay tuned for more updates and pictures!
All pictures in this gallery are "in-progress" and AFTER compounding. Hazing, finishing marks, etc are all expected at this stage. What we're looking for here is the improvement in clarity and depth. We're trading the very deep blemishes for our relatively minor finishing marks. Future galleries will show the improvement in the stages as we go. Enjoy!
Previous Ceramic Coating High Spots
There are a number of areas showing poor installation practices from the previous ceramic coating installation with high spots and entire areas not being leveled out. The entire passenger side of the roof was left unleveled and there are areas around the door jambs\pillars, door handles, badges, and other various areas that all have unleveled ceramic coating from the previous installation.
The single step correction will certainly help and improve the majority of this, the two step may be required to get into some of the tighter areas with compound and more aggressive pads to remedy entirely.
All pictures in this gallery are "in-progress" and AFTER compounding. Hazing, finishing marks, etc are all expected at this stage. What we're looking for here is the improvement in clarity and depth. We're trading the very deep blemishes for our relatively minor finishing marks. Future galleries will show the improvement in the stages as we go. Enjoy!
Test Spots
After a few test spots, we're seeing approx a 50% reduction in the overall blemishes. We're seeing a big improvement in the overall gloss and shine as well. The remaining blemishes and issues are significant and would require a fairly aggressive two step correction to achieve an approx 90% or better remediation, which would also produce an incredible amount of depth and clarity to the paintwork.
All pictures in this gallery are "in-progress" and AFTER compounding. Hazing, finishing marks, etc are all expected at this stage. What we're looking for here is the improvement in clarity and depth. We're trading the very deep blemishes for our relatively minor finishing marks. Future galleries will show the improvement in the stages as we go. Enjoy!
Oxidized Exterior Trim Piece
The front trim piece under the windshield is heavily oxidized and faded. It needs to be refinished which involves a multi-step process to deep clean, re-dye, and protect the plastic trim piece.
Inspection Process
While cleaning the vehicle and prepping it for polishing, we take the extra time to thoroughly inspect the vehicle as well looking at the paint and exterior surface condition and taking paint depth readings and recording everything here.
We found heavy swirl marks\automated car wash related damage, random deeper scratches and scuffs, as well as cloudiness and haze that could either be mineral build up or more likely related to high pH (alkaline) car wash cleaners.
The front cowel trim piece is also heavily oxidated and needs to be refinished.
We also identified a number of areas with high spots (thick, unleveled areas) from the previous ceramic coating job as well that are contributing to the hazy\dirty appearance of the paintwork's finish.
Paint depth readings:
High: 5.1 mils
Low: 3.46 mils
Avg: 4 mils
Effective: 3.4 mils
*Noticed reverse camera does not work
