Kingsford Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 (edited) When I bought my truck it had 4 rock chips in the hood from God knows what. The dealer said he would try to fix them and failed miserably because it was still very obvious where they were. Chevy said they would pay to have the hood painted. $430 later I had a freshly painted hood, which looked great. Well this was in October, so if you do the math... I couldn't put wax on it until December. Rain, Snow, Salt. It got battered and trashed. I've been fighting a up hill battle since winter and it just ended today. Heres my story of my month and this weekend. Two Weeks Ago: I washed my truck with the plan to fix the hood after I was finished. Spent 4 hours buffing away with my PC using SSR, SHR and FMP mixed with a little Revive. It looked awesome! I was excited that I got out all the swirls and the water etching... One Week and Six Days Ago: Left for work with a shiny black truck... Arrived at work and got out of my truck all slow motion like with my shades on in my (what I thought) sexy black truck... I locked the doors and as I walk away... You guess it. WATER ETCHING MARKS EVERY WHERE! I wanted to pull out my hair... unfortunately I just shaved my head and had none. This made me decide to buy another Flex (having sold mine awhile back). I posted in the Garage Sale section with no replies... I went until yesterday without washing my truck because I was so frustrated and upset. I just didn't want to look at it. One Week Ago: Jim, a forum member, sent me an email saying he seen my Flex post and wanted to sell his. He shot me a price and I jumped right on it because, ironically, it was the same price I sold my Flex for and his had only been used 4 times. Wednesday: My brand new pre owned Flex arrived!!!! <- Me with excitement Yesterday: I washed my truck and starred at the water etching "UGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!" -Jason (Direct Quote) I told my dad to look at my hood and we had a conversation about the company that painted my hood and how every time we've gone there something has gone wrong. (See bottom of post for everything they've messed up). He said to take it to a family friend, Keith Hoppel, who owns Hoppel Collision repair. I didn't think they would be open but I stopped by his house anyways because it was on my way to my girlfriends. I stopped and there was no one around and the sign said "Open: Mon-Fri 8a-5p." GREAT! Now I can't even have him look at it. Got back in my truck and the guys wife came walking out of one of the buildings (his shop is at his house). He walked out and I told him who I was and asked if he could look at my hood. He said "SURE!" and I was really surprised. He told me he was just detailing his bike to take it out on a Saturday ride, I felt bad. I told him start to finish what happened, what I did, what I used and he said "Look, you're just like me. This is what? A 2011? You do a great job taking care of it. Black is very hard to take care of but you are doing an excellent job." Which made me feel pretty damn good coming from another car lover. He looked over it and told me what he thought happened but you can all pretty much guess what he said. He asked if he could try some things just to see how deep the etching was. He's diagnosis... "Extremely deep and may need wet sanding" He told me to take it back to the other place where it was painted and see if they would do it free. If they didn't do it free he would fix it and take $20 off an hour what he normally charges and would fix it. (Roughly a $150 estimate). Today...: Woke up at 8am and couldn't go back to sleep... Wanted to sleep in. So I went out to the garage... Starred at my hood and said "Lets do this" Heres where it gets good. See my problem? My arsenal... Adams everything. Hit that baby with a Gen3 Green Pad with SSR on a Flex. Ran about 3-5 complete passes until it flashed over looking a little like vaseline. Followed up by 2-4 passes with a Gen3 Orange Pad with SHR to knock down the fine marks from the SSR. Finally hit it with some a Gen3 White Pad and some FMP on the Flex doing about 4-6 passes. The results.... Followed up with a coat of MSW (MSS) for protection. While I was letting the MSW cure I decided to hit the rest of the truck with a coat of Americana before my 10 hour road trip next week. Side Story: I have had some many problems with this body shop we USED to go to. 1. F-150 4x2… Icy Road… Went in the ditch. They fixed my front bumper and painted it. Get home and there is a huge paint run mark on the fender where they blended the paint... Another week without my truck to fix it. 2. Someone backs into my F-150 while its parked on the street (Don't ask how because I have no idea.) Pulling out of the parking lot and my dad calls me and tells me to get out and look at my tailgate. HUGE scratch on my tailgate top to bottom, left to right. 3 days with no tailgate or use of my truck bed. 3. Dad backs into a trailer (because he's getting old ) Got a new tailgate, they finished painting it and start putting it back on the truck, they drop it. Order a new one AGAIN, paint it put it back on. Didn't put any of the badges or logos back on like he wanted and they charged him for it anyways. There was another one but I can't remember what it was. Sorry for any spelling or grammer errors... I spent about an 27 minutes and 13 seconds typing this. I know because my girlfriend timed me for some reason. Big thanks to Adam and the Crew! Also to the active forum members who I have gotten tips from over the years. Edited July 22, 2012 by Kingsford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArmyAcadia09 Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 WOW! Great Work! I know you've had a few issues with the truck, but good work sticking with it and as everyone can tell it looks amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAYBEN Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 Holy moly long story, haha glad you got the outcome you wanted! truck looks good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Tegeler Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 I have water etching marks all over my car to from it springling out then baking in the hot sun I need it to cool down so I can bust out the machine and get it fixed. nice work by you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue04SSS Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Looks great. Nice to see you were able to fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02Xtreme07ss Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Nice work, Jason. I know all too well how frustrating to make black vehicle look as good as your, but the end result is almost always worth the effort. Almost... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase@InsanePaint Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Life is good isn't it??!!? Don't you love it when a plan comes together??! WOOOHOOOO brutha, I'm happy for ya!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGenCoupe Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Nice work... The hood on my Gencoupe gets water etching all the time. I ALWAYS have a coat of americana on it and apply a new coat every month and a half. I can't firgure out for the life of me how this is happening. With a coat of MSW and fresh coats of Americana, i'm still getting water spots. I thought these were suppose to protect the paint? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Go Jason!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Nice correction Jason! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRZN Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rshadd Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Perfect... Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBlack151 Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 For some reason I couldn't see any pictures on this thread from my phone all day. Finally got to check it out on the computer, and I'm glad I did. Awesome job. I love reading and seeing stories like this. Your truck is looking very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osok Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Forgive me for being slow here but can you clarify for me a bit? As I read it you initially did a good wash then polished SHR orange pads and FMP white pads with the PC got to work and still saw etching. You took it to a guy who looked at it but before taking back to the original shop or to this guy you went at it again with the gen3 pads and pc and this time got all the etching out? Am i following along right? If so any idea why your second go around with the pc and pads worked the second time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingsford Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 Forgive me for being slow here but can you clarify for me a bit?As I read it you initially did a good wash then polished SHR orange pads and FMP white pads with the PC got to work and still saw etching. You took it to a guy who looked at it but before taking back to the original shop or to this guy you went at it again with the gen3 pads and pc and this time got all the etching out? Am i following along right? If so any idea why your second go around with the pc and pads worked the second time? I polished it 2 weeks ago and it looked fine in the garage under a light at night but then after getting it in the sun the next day you could still see everything. I took it to a family friend before taking it to the original body shop and before polishing it with a Flex. I didn't use a PC to polish the 2nd time around just to spread sealant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE Mook Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Good work Jason! The Flex is Superior in quality and power to the PC. Plus on dark paint, IMO the Flex is the only choice. Mook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osok Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I polished it 2 weeks ago and it looked fine in the garage under a light at night but then after getting it in the sun the next day you could still see everything. I took it to a family friend before taking it to the original body shop and before polishing it with a Flex. I didn't use a PC to polish the 2nd time around just to spread sealant. Ah..ok. Thanks for the clarification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingsford Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Good work Jason! The Flex is Superior in quality and power to the PC. Plus on dark paint, IMO the Flex is the only choice. Mook I'm very glad I went back to the Flex... so much quicker and better results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InDepthAutoDetailing Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Very nice save. Now you can spend the $150 to buy more Adam's goodies. Like one of these Adam's Pro Detailers Cart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingsford Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) Very nice save. Now you can spend the $150 to buy more Adam's goodies. Like one of these Adam's Pro Detailers Cart WAY AHEAD OF YOU! Bought some new towels, some more Gen4 Pads that way I have a spare just in case and an Americana Hex Grip since I ruined my old one. Edited July 26, 2012 by Kingsford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fierce5 Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 Looks great man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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