First of all I'd like to say thanks to the guys that helped me pick out all the stuff I purchased for detailing my truck. Next it will be my TL..... oh god going to have to get some more Tequila to do that project. I think I used it as a method to help me keep working through the sore back that this caused. lol

Well today was the day for my detail job on my 2008 Toyota 4Runner, man what back breaking work! Started with the wash around 9:30am, started the claybar at 2pm, started the compounding @ 3:30 till 10pm. Polish till 3am, then the wax till approximately 4am.

I started by washing the truck with some dish soap to cut all the dirt and wax on the truck. I then followed it up by clay baring it. Next was the Optimum Compound with an Orange pad. Followed by Optimum Polish with a white pad, then Duragloss TPP 105 with a blue pad. That DG 105 is sure easy to take off, that was very refreshing!



I believe these came from the dealer when they were working on my 4LO that was coming on for no reason.




These came from the dealer when they were working on my 4LO that was coming on for no reason. I told them not to wash it and they did, look what they did to my truck. I bet that is where more of my uncorrectable scratches came from. Damned auto car washes.


I don't know how this happened but I was pissed about it!


Idiots who don't know how to open their doors without hitting you!












This was a test run of whether or not to use the Orange pad with the Compound or the Polish, I found the compound took out more of the defects, but some small scratches were still left. I didn't have anything "stronger/more aggressive" to use. (Note to self get some Hyper Compound)



After shots!














This defect was from me having a head cold, and I hocked a nasty loogie out the window and didn't clean it off for a week or two. I bubbled the paint.







Question is this too much build up before changing out my pad.

 

Nice job on your first paint polishing session! You did better than me when I first started doing my own car 6 years ago lol.
About pads being too saturated... Usually if you notice a decrease in performance with the pads (clean pads remove defects much better than saturated pads), or if your pads are dusting more than when you first started, it is time to swap out your pads for a fresh one.
I usually swap out my pad for a fresh one after 3 panels, it goes like this for me.... half the hood/one front fender/one door, then swap pad ---> one rear door/one quarter panel/half of the trunk, then swap pad ---> same goes to the other side.
1 fresh pad for the roof and 1 fresh pad for the front/rear bumper. 6 pads total for me to do an entire car.

 

If I'm feeling lazy, I'll add a quarter of the roof to the mix instead of using a fresh pad for the entire roof lol.

 

Remember, it also depends on the size of the car too, if the car's bigger/or smaller. than you'd need to change the pads more frequently/infrequently

 

Thanks for the pad info Mike, I probably changed out my orange pads the most frequently versus the white pads. I did the entire truck with one blue pad for the wax.

Glad I bought the DP Pad rejuvenator plus the sponge brush, I would let it soak then rinse it out in clean water and then give it a spin to speed up the dry out. Then reuse once my 3rd pad was dirty.

 

Good job it looks really good.

You were working on the compound from 3:30 until 10??? I'm hoping you took several breaks.

 

Great Job. Welcome to the detailers club!!!!

 

Holy hell, you were working till 4AM? That's dedication right there. I think you said you needed it for work the next day, right? Anyways, results came out looking pretty damn good for your first car.

9:30 wash, 2PM claybar. It took you four and a half hours to wash the car?
Why is the hood popped up?

Sorry, I probably come off as a bit cynical, I just have a few questions. I think you did a great job, and I commend you for having the courage to do that. I'm honestly scared to death I'll do more harm than good if I were to attack my car with some polish and a buffer. Great job

 

I think the latest I've been working 'til was about 2 AM, maybe a bit later than that. Kudos on your dedication and great work!

 

Several including an hour for dinner, several of the breaks I took were like 15-30 minutes since my back was killing me, till I decided to use some Patron Anjeo as the cure for that then a few drinks through the night to maintain the slight pain killing buzz. lol I so wanted to take one of my Percocet from my appendix surgery last year, but I figured it would be just my luck that I would get a random drug test at work then I would piss hot for abusing perscription drugs..... So the next best thing was booze.

Yup, now the next set of weekend my wife works I'll do her TL.



Thanks for all the nice comments I really appreciate it. It seems to have a renewed luster in the paint, just kind of pops more to me. I know the truck looks much better, but I still wish I could have gotten some more of those scratches out of the paint. I'm going to look into getting some Optimum Hyper Compound and some yellow pads, of course test out with least aggressive setup first before jumping to the aggressive stuff.