IN-DEPTH: Winter Preparation on a 2016 Toyota Tundra

[Dan@Adams]

Hey Everyone! This will be the first of many regular detailing technical write-ups from me, in a similar style and format that our friend TheWolf has done in his excellent and very informative Raptor thread here on our forum! The vehicles used in these write-ups will be either mine, friends and family members of mine that have given me permission to post up the photos, or maybe even some forum members if any of you guys and gals live nearby and would like your ride featured...and maybe get some free Adam's products in the process too!

 

Adam's Polishes Winter Preparation on a Brand New 2016 Toyota Tundra

 

 

Products Used in this write-up:

 

• Adam's Can't Touch This Winter Kit
• Rupes LHR 75E Mini Random Orbital Polisher
• Adam's 4" Orange Foam Pad
• Adam's Paint Correcting Polish​
• Adam's Detail Spray
• Flex 3401 VRG Dual Action Orbital Polisher
• Adam's 7" White Foam Pad
• Adam's Paint Finishing Polish
• Cyclo Model 5-Pro Mk II Polisher
• Adam's 4" Gray Foam Pads

 

Background

 

While I was outside assessing my house for any wind damage Saturday morning from a nasty storm that went through when I was out of town at Adam's HQ last week, I noticed my neighbor across the street was repairing some damage to his fence. I walked over to see if he needed any help with the fence, and before I could even ask him about detailing his brand new Tundra for him, like he had mentioned to me a few weeks back, he said "Hey, do you still have time to wax my truck before winter gets here?" I said "Absolutely!" The timing worked out great, because this would be a perfect vehicle to show the Winter Preparation process that Adam demonstrated in our most recent video release from about a week ago. I told my neighbor that my whole weekend was free, and after I had a late lunch, we pulled this super nice truck into my garage!

 

 

 

He had already washed it earlier in the morning before I even woke up...I slept in just a bit since I didn't make it home from the airport until 3am due to a delay in Charlotte...but it did have some water spotting on it from the wash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visual Inspection and Waterless Wash Wipe-Down

 

I start each detail by doing a full visual inspection of the vehicle to identify and note (with camera) any imperfections that will need to be addressed. My neighbor only requested for the exterior of the vehicle to be detailed, so I spent all of my time on the outside, in order to be as efficient as possible and get the vehicle back to him quickly.

 

 

There was only one minor imperfection on the vehicle that he pointed out to me before I even began to look it over - a nickel-sized scrape in the paint at the front of the bed on the passenger side, that was there where he picked up the vehicle. You can see it right near the center of this picture:

 

 

With that scratch noted, I walked around the rest of the vehicle. The truck only has a few thousand miles on it, so it was in great shape other than the typical dirty tires and plastic areas on the rear bumper and wiper cowl - after all, this is a work truck that sees construction sites on a daily basis.

 

 

 

 

So the first thing I did was give the majority of the truck a wipe down with Adam's Waterless Wash and one of our Adam's Microfiber Waterless Wash Towels. For those not familiar with either product, Waterless Wash is a spray-on car washing solution that provides a safe way to clean a slightly dirty or dusty vehicle without having to use a hose and water, and the accompanying Waterless Wash Towels are premium microfiber towels with a waffle weave pattern that work excellent with Waterless Wash to clean a vehicle without creating any new scratches or swirl marks in the finish.

 

 

 

[Dan@Adams]

Scratch Correction with the Rupes Mini and Adam's Paint Correcting Polish

 

Next up, I wanted to tackle the scrape in the side of the bed. My neighbor walked over to my garage at this point to see how things were going and to learn a little about Adam's Polishes products, so I said "Perfect timing, I'm going to fix that scratch for you right now!"

 

Due to how close in proximity the scratch was to the section of factory clear bra right below it, I opted to use the Rupes Mini Random Orbital Polisher with the Adam's 4" Orange Foam Pad. These four drops of Adam's Paint Correcting Polish were more than enough to work into this small section of the bed side.

 

 

One quick trigger-pull of Detail Spray serves to prime the pad and polish.

 

 

I then set the machine to speed setting 2 to quickly spread the polish evenly across the surface to avoid any slinging of polish onto myself or other areas of the truck or garage, and to avoid any wasting of product.

​

 

With the orange pad face pressed uniformly against the surface of the vehicle, I then switch the machine to the ON position and spread the Paint Correcting Polish across the trouble spot in a cross-hatch (up/down, left/right) pattern.

 

Important Tip: When turning the machine off, I always ensure that I keep the pad face on the surface of the vehicle as I turn the switch to the OFF position, and I am still moving the polisher and pad across the surface, or "walking the polisher" as the motor throttles down. This ensures that you don't have a large buildup of polish in one area, which will be more difficult to remove, and it also causes less wear and tear on the Velcro backing of the pads than if you would just pull the machine and pad off of the surface of the vehicle as soon as you click the rocker switch to OFF and the pad is still oscillating.

 

 

Next I bumped the Mini to speed setting 6.

 

 

And I began to work the Paint Correcting Polish into the target area, in slow, left-right horizontal passes followed by up-down vertical passes. I apply a small amount of force to the machine with my palm on the top of the machine, directly behind the backing plate and polishing pad. An extreme amount of force is not necessary, as the polish, pad, and oscillating motion of the machine are doing the majority of the correcting work.

 

 

I wiped the polish residue off with an Adam's Borderless Gray Microfiber Towel, but our Single Soft and Double Soft Towels are just as suitable for polish removal. After just one pass of working the Paint Correcting Polish until it flashed over, all that was left of that big scrape was a trace amount of a scratch. It took me about 10 different picture attempts until I got the light and angle just right to be able to show what was left of the scratch, directly above the middle light reflection in the photo below. He seemed more than pleased that the scratch was now essentially gone...and that was even before I went back over the area with the Paint Finishing Polish and a white foam pad - more on that later in this write-up.

 

​

[Dan@Adams]

Tires, Wheel Wells, and Wheels

 

With the scratch fixed, I moved onto the tires, wheel wells, and wheels. The first thing I did was apply Tire Shine to the tires to treat them and offer some protection from the elements, while at the same time, give them a great shine!

 

 

I sprayed the Tire Shine directly onto the middle-to-outer edge of the sidewall, so as to avoid getting too much overspray on the wheels and reduce the amount of cleanup.

 

 

A foam tire block applicator was then used to spread the Tire Shine evenly, in an up-down motion around the tire to follow the groove pattern in the side wall. This ensures that you will get a uniform level of shine to the tire and cover all areas. I also made sure to not let any of the product pool up into any of the thick tread blocks at the edge of the sidewall, in order to prevent any slinging onto the mud flaps or door panels.

 

 

And the final result of the Tire Shine applied:

 

 

Once the Tire Shine dries, it will leave an awesome, non-greasy shine that will not sling. Next up was spraying down the entire inner fender liners with Adam's Invisible Undercarriage Spray. IUC is a very easy way to treat all of the black plastic and undercoated areas inside of the wheel wells and give them a nice dark black appearance, that will dry to a nice satin finish. The IUC also makes spraying off dirt, dust, and other road debris easier the next time you wash the vehicle. Here are two before and after comparison shots of the driver side front fender liner and inside portion of the mud flap:

 

 

 

With the tires and wheel wells addressed, I moved onto the wheels. Liquid Paint Sealant was my choice here, since it is a durable sealant and an excellent alternative to our aerosol Quick Sealant.

 

 

I applied the LPS by hand with a microfiber applicator and allowed it to haze up for a few minutes.

 

 

Then I buffed off the residue with an Edgeless Utility Towel. For a more delicate wheel face, I would have used a Single Soft or Double Soft Towel, but the painted inner spokes and brushed outer surfaces on these wheels were not nearly as delicate as a bare polished aluminum lip or an entire polished aluminum wheel.

 

 

And the finished result:

 

[Dan@Adams]

Treating Exterior Plastics and Trim with Adam's Super VRT

 

Next, I did a few clay bar tests and decided that the truck was smooth enough that it didn't need a full clay treatment. Doing a visual inspection out in the sunlight and with various light sources in my garage, there were very little to no swirl marks in the majority of the truck as well, with it being so new, so I decided to go straight to polishing the truck with Adam's Paint Finishing Polish with a white foam pad. Before I began to polish the truck, I made sure to go around and treat all of the plastic and rubber trim around the truck, like the bed rails in the picture below, with Adam's Super VRT. By having these areas treated with SVRT, if the polishing pad and polish would happen to come in contact with them, the polish residue will wipe off rather than stain the trim surfaces. This is an alternative method to taping off all of the plastic and rubber areas, which can take considerably more time.

 

 

There were just a few key areas left that I wanted to treat before I jumped in on polishing the truck. First up were the plastic trim pieces on the front and rear bumpers. Here's a nice shot of the rear bumper, with the driver side treated with SVRT, and the passenger side untouched from when the truck was washed earlier in the morning.

 

 

Since I treated the wheel wells and the inner portions of the mud flaps with IUC earlier, it was apparent that the outer portion of the mud flaps see a good amount of weather and were a little dirty and faded.

 

 

Applying a small amount of SVRT onto the Tire Hex applicator:

 

 

And then squeezing the hex applicator together to spread the product more evenly before applying it to the mud flap:

 

 

I used the Pro Tire Hex Grip Applicator because it was the closest applicator nearby, but our foam block applicators will work just as good here. With the SVRT applied, much, much better!

 

 

The final spot of plastic that I treated was the faded wiper cowl. Adam's In & Out Spray works great for areas like this, especially if the cowl has a lot of slots for ventilation for the spray to get into every tight crevice. I sprayed it liberally onto the trim piece, to ensure that I got coverage across all areas, and then I took a Single Soft Towel and wiped everything down - the overspray on the windshield, the cowl, and the overspray onto the hood. I didn't go overboard with removing every trace amount of overspray, because I knew I still had to clean the windshield with Glass Cleaner and polish and seal the hood.

 

 

Machine Polishing with the Flex and Adam's Paint Finishing Polish

 

Now that I was finally ready to begin polishing the whole truck, I applied four drops of Adam's Paint Finishing Polish onto the white foam pad. Each drop was about the size of a dime, and slightly more polish than I really needed on the pad. I gave the pad one quick shot of detail spray to prime the pad, and I then spread the polish on about half of the passenger bed side, since I did have a little bit too much on the pad. Normally I would try to work in an area no larger than 2'x2', but rather than scrape off some of the polish and waste product, I decided to spread it out in a slightly larger area.

 

 

 

After thoroughly working the Paint Finishing Polish into this area with the Flex set to the maximum setting of 6, I buffed off the residue and admired the results. Other than the factory orange peel, the finish looked perfect!

 

 

 

When I got to the back half of the bed side, I noticed some abnormal overspray immediately in front of the tail light. In the image below, the horizontal line is a reflection of the gap on my garage door panels, but you can see the vertical oval-shape of overspray that goes right through that area:

 

 

The Flex with the white foam pad and Paint Finishing Polish was all it took to remove it, no trouble at all:

 

 

This was the only such area of overspray on the truck, so I then continued on with polishing the rest of the truck with Paint Finishing Polish and the Flex.

​

[Dan@Adams]

Paint Protection with Adam's Liquid Paint Sealant

 

Now that the truck was polished and looking great, it was time to put on a coat of Adam's Liquid Paint Sealant to have a great layer of protection on all of the paint to last through the harsh winter months that most parts of the U.S. have to deal with. I elected to use my Cyclo to apply the Liquid Paint Sealant, due to how well balanced and vibration free the machine is, and to give my Flex polisher time to cool off some. These two X's of LPS were enough to seal the driver-side front fender and the driver-side half of the hood:

 

 

Note that I applied the LPS onto the top of the chrome front grille as well. Chrome can be protected just like clear coat:

 

 

For the smaller and tighter areas such as the side mirrors, headlights, bumpers, and the rest of the front grille, I used a microfiber application and applied the LPS by hand. I used a Single Soft Towel to buff off the residue, focusing on one panel at a time.

 

 

Lastly, while I forgot to take some pictures to document it, I did use the Adam's Glass Sealant on all exterior glass to give the glass some good protection against snow, freezing rain, salt, and all of the other nasty things that get sprayed back onto vehicles driving down a messy highway in the winter.

 

Final Results

 

It was an overcast day when I finished the truck Sunday morning, so unfortunately these final pictures don't truly show how much this truck truly shines:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this write-up is useful and that you found a few good tips or learned a few things along the way. Thanks for looking and as always, please let us know if you have any questions!

​

[TheWolf]

Excellent write-up Dan!

 

Great pics, easy to follow processes, WELL DONE!

[zxgto06]

Looks good Dan!

[Chris@Adams]

Nice job Dan!

[derek1387]

Excellent instructions. Getting ready to do the same to my Camaro before it goes up for the long winter.
Thanks Dan!

[blcksilv08]

Awesome write up Dan, very informative.

[jeffh]

Great write up Dan

[chas]

Heck of a write-up, well done!

[MaStA]

By having these areas treated with SVRT, if the polishing pad and polish would happen to come in contact with them, the polish residue will wipe off rather than stain the trim surfaces. This is an alternative method to taping off all of the plastic and rubber areas, which can take considerably more time.​

 

This is great to know!  Thank you for posting all of this helpful information.

[Kingsford]

Come do mine next, Dan!

 

Been a while since I've seen a good write-up like this. Very detailed on detailing.

[BluedogGMC]

This is a fantastic write up Dan. Has to be one of the most complete ones out there. I have to get my new truck done and time is not on my side plus no garage.

[mc2hill]

Great write-up Dan.  Especially the 'how to' parts for the new folks  that you don't think about after you have done several dozen of these.

[ndkid]

Nice and through.  Great job.

[NG13]

Very nice job Dan! I like the detail you went into and the pictures to explain how you did things.

[rkj4243]

Excellent Description, and work!

 

This write up, along with the video Adam provided with Joe on "Winter Preparation" should make it very easily understood by anyone looking to complete this before the weather finally changes!

 

 

Edited November 5, 2015 by rkj4243

[Dan@Adams]

Come do mine next, Dan!

 

Been a while since I've seen a good write-up like this. Very detailed on detailing.

 

If I was just a little bit closer to Illinois, sure!

 

This is a fantastic write up Dan. Has to be one of the most complete ones out there. I have to get my new truck done and time is not on my side plus no garage.

 

If Delaware wasn't a 6 hour drive I would come help out! I have no idea how or why, but Delaware is the only state on the entire East Coast that I have never visited yet, I need to change that

 

Thank you everyone for the kind words and encouragement, I will keep the write-ups coming!

[jeffh]

 

If Delaware wasn't a 6 hour drive I would come help out! I have no idea how or why, but Delaware is the only state on the entire East Coast that I have never visited yet, I need to change that

 

Thank you everyone for the kind words and encouragement, I will keep the write-ups coming!

 

if your saying you've been to Rhode Island before that means I still have a chance and you could use my nice red 3500 for your write-up

[Sanchez03]

Excellent write up. Love all the pictures and detailed descriptions.

[BluedogGMC]

If I was just a little bit closer to Illinois, sure!

 

 

If Delaware wasn't a 6 hour drive I would come help out! I have no idea how or why, but Delaware is the only state on the entire East Coast that I have never visited yet, I need to change that

 

Thank you everyone for the kind words and encouragement, I will keep the write-ups coming!

Dan, We are the "First State" and the last to get visited all the time.

[stingrayc7]

Great write up.. Very informative as usual! Thanks!

[Ricky Bobby]

Phenomenal, thorough write up Dan