Flex & SSR on 1960's Ford Fire Truck

[Kingsford]

Got my Flex and SSR today. It poured rain all day long here and I really wanted to try it out. So I decided to try it out on our 1960's Brush Truck at the Fire Department.

 

This truck is trashed, it probably hasn't seen wax in over 10 years. Its also a brush truck so its meant mainly for off-roading in rugged terrain.

 

I washed and clayed one panel and then went at it with the Flex and SSR....

 

Now the pictures aren't that great. I only did 10 passes because apparently there is no clear on the paint, after only 10 passes the green pad was completely red (came clean with APC thank god). I only did part of the fender.

 

Before

 

After (note where the light reflection on the left side of the fender is where I stopped you can tell)

 

Before

 

After:

 

 

10 PASSES!!! THATS IT! I thought it made a great difference in the shine and took a lot of scuffs and scratches out for the short amount of time and work I put into it!

[Mato]

Why didn't you keep going and bring that bad boy back to life??? If anything else, some good practice

[Kingsford]

No clear coat, didn't want to ruin my pads or the paint. Never did something that didnt have clear. Scared the crap out of me that I may have ruined the pad.

 

It needs it bad. I may do it this winter if anyone can give me tips on doing it with no clear coat.

[Mato]

It's a single stage paint job. Treat it no different than a car with a clearcoat. Only downside is that the pads need to be cleaned more frequently.

[Kingsford]

Is it going to ruin my pads though?

[Moz]

No clear coat, didn't want to ruin my pads or the paint. Never did something that didnt have clear. Scared the crap out of me that I may have ruined the pad.

Don't know how thick that single stage paint is but,

Definetly be carefull on the edges and other area's where the paint might be thin.

You'll have to worry about more than a $13 buffing pad,repaint is expensive.

 

Cool Fire Truck BTW.

Edited November 23, 2010 by Moz
Compliment Truck

[Kingsford]

Don't know how thick that single stage paint is but,

Definetly be carefull on the edges and other area's where the paint might be thin.

You'll have to worry about more than a $13 buffing pad,repaint is expensive.

 

Cool Fire Truck BTW.

 

 

That thing is such an old POS I doubt they'd worry about repainting it. Like I said its a brush truck so it's meant to get torn up.

 

BTW, that "No. 36" is HAND PAINTED on there.

[Mato]

Is it going to ruin my pads though?

 

It won't ruin the pads, the only pain in the butt might be to get all of the red out of the pads. I use my Grit Guard pad washer to clean pads and with some APC they always come out looking good as new.

[1anonly]

Jason when you said 10 passes, what exactly is a "pass" to you? To me a pass is putting product on the pad and working the area until the product flashes. So if I put product on my pad twice while working on the same area, that's 2 passes. Even through I might go over the spot 10 times during the pass, it's still one pass. (Hope I didn't confuse you) I'm not trying to cut on you, but I think 10 of my passes would of either got it close to perfect or there wouldn't be any paint on it. Just curious if your pass is the same as mine or if your pass means going over an area in one loop (Up, Down, Left, Right).

 

I worked on an 80's Red Ford Tempo years ago with a rotary. The pad was red within a minute. I don't like working on single stage paint, too much clean up.

[Chris@Adams]

I guess a brush truck suppose to have scratches!

[Kingsford]

Jason when you said 10 passes, what exactly is a "pass" to you? To me a pass is putting product on the pad and working the area until the product flashes.

 

That's USUALLY what I mean by pass but this time I mean 10 "Laps"

 

It was a total of 1 pass.

 

I guess a brush truck suppose to have scratches!

 

Pretty much, they are meant to get the hell beat out of them. I've taken that one into standing corn, ran over small trees and everything in between that doesnt involve a road.

[b_pappy]

Very cool. I agree you should do the entire truck. I'd be much more concerned around the lettering though. That stuff is usually done using One-Shot lettering enamel and will not take a lot of buffing.

Bruce