Ultimate Beginners Guide To Caring For The Paint On Your Ranger

[DukeCanBuildit]

Great video - makes me want to get out there and give True North a wash and a wax - too bad it’s only 20°F and the outside taps have been turned off from inside the house for months.

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[quangdog]

Great content! Loved the video!

Question... The side vents on your truck, did you paint those? Mine have the chrome surround and I can't seem to find any other variants but saw yours and love them!

The side vents are stock - maybe they are specific to the sport appearance package? Or specific to the Lariat?
Glad you liked the video.

 

[Mr. Boots]

Funny thing is I have the Lariat with FX4 package and those surrounds are chrome but I don’t have the chrome package you can get on the Lariat trim. I super want those! I’ll have to see what I can find out on them!

 

[puckdodger]

Great video thanks Quangdog. I am not usually a "keep it clean" kinda vehicle owner, but in the last few months we got two new vehicles that I wouldn't mind keeping in great shape. Now I just gotta find two free weekends to actually do the work.

 

[AzScorpion]

Great video thanks Quangdog. I am not usually a "keep it clean" kinda vehicle owner, but in the last few months we got two new vehicles that I wouldn't mind keeping in great shape. Now I just gotta find two free weekends to actually do the work.

Once you have all the right products and equipment (power washer/foam cannon) it goes so much more smoothly and makes it more fun. The newer products go on so much easier than the old paste wax and just rub right off without any effort.

The Graphene can even be applied in direct sunlight so it makes it super easy for mobile detailers to use this and not have to worry about always finding shade. It's still best to wash and dry in the shade so you have time to leave the soap on and do it's job and not flash dry and leave water spots.

 

[20lariat4x4]

Roughly how much time should I set aside to do this entire process minus PPF? Was considering paying for ceramic coating professionally, but your video made it seem much more DIY-friendly than I thought.
Thanks for the great content!

 

[quangdog]

Roughly how much time should I set aside to do this entire process minus PPF? Was considering paying for ceramic coating professionally, but your video made it seem much more DIY-friendly than I thought.
Thanks for the great content!

The longest part by far will be the paint correction. A careful and deep wash will take an hour, clay bar will take another hour. The paint correction can take 4-6 hours, depending how bad your clear coat is. If your truck is brand new you likely won't need to do quite as much. If you've had your truck and washed it a bunch of times in an automatic car wash you'll likely need to spend longer with paint correction. You may have to go over the whole truck twice. Applying ceramic to the entire truck (on a warmish day - say, 80F or so) should take at most 90 minutes. So if you are nuts you can do the entire thing in 1 really long day. I'd recommend splitting it across 2 days, though: Wash, clay bar and start paint correction until you are sick of it on the first day, then finish paint correction then prep and apply ceramic on the second day.

Good luck!

 

[Sanford & Son Salvage]

The Clay bar step makes such a difference. As does the, what you call the paint correction step. I have an 12 year old black GTI and just started using clay bars and what I call a wax cleaner or swirl remover wax coat. Prior to putting on the last coat. What a difference. Much easier to wash and wax after those process' as well.

Your example with the microphone of how rough a freshly washed surface is fantastic. First thing I noticed after using the clay on my old VW was how much smoother the painted surface was. The clay really works well. Never having detailed cars or paid to have one done, I thought it was not that important. Not true... IMHO....

Great video. I need to get some upgraded $upplie$ when the temperatures and season let me work on keeping my Ranger looking good.

Thanks

 

[quangdog]

The Clay bar step makes such a difference. As does the, what you call the paint correction step. I have an 12 year old black GTI and just started using clay bars and what I call a wax cleaner or swirl remover wax coat. Prior to putting on the last coat. What a difference. Much easier to wash and wax after those process' as well.

Your example with the microphone of how rough a freshly washed surface is fantastic. First thing I noticed after using the clay on my old VW was how much smoother the painted surface was. The clay really works well. Never having detailed cars or paid to have one done, I thought it was not that important. Not true... IMHO....

Great video. I need to get some upgraded $upplie$ when the temperatures and season let me work on keeping my Ranger looking good.

Thanks

I was also pretty surprised at just how much of a difference the clay bar made on an essentially brand new vehicle. They really do get a lot of crud built up on their finish just in the transport to the dealer and then sitting on the lot for a bit. Best of luck keeping your Ranger looking great!

 

[daddy let me drive]

I don't know much about auto detailing...or much about any other subjects really. I've been just sort of stumbling along on this truck forum...finding miscellaneous topics to click on and read.

I just wanted to comment that your video production standards are impressive. You present yourself well. Agreeable mix of experience and humility. Thank you for your efforts to add useful instruction.

Steve

 

[FordRacing]

Has anyone used the Adam's UV Ceramic paint coating?? it's rated at a 9H for hardness and they say it last 5+ years...

 

[Billho]

Has anyone used the Adam's UV Ceramic paint coating?? it's rated at a 9H for hardness and they say it last 5+ years...

Adams rated pretty well in this comparison (3rd place).

 

[FordRacing]

Adams rated pretty well in this comparison (3rd place).

I ended up going with this about 5 weeks in and so far so good...

 

[Scott_Anderson_]

Hi Dan - great question! You are right: I prepped everything to be ready for ceramic, then I installed the PPF - mostly because the prep for ceramic is more or less the same as the prep for PPF. Essentially both just need the surface to be polished and completely clean and free of any wax, soap, etc. As I mentioned in the video, the PPF is completely optional. However, I really hate rock chips, so I went ahead and did the PPF. Some people think that ceramic and ppf is an either-or situation... that you should choose one but not both. However, you can install ceramic coating right on top of a PPF layer, so you'll get all the physical protection of the ppf against rock chips and the water repellent protection of the ceramic coating on top. Ceramic on top of ppf is the best of both worlds.

I should note that I only installed ppf on the forward-facing areas of the truck: grill, bumpers, rear view mirrors, A pillars, front edge of the roof. I did not do the front of the hood because I already have a rock / bug deflector installed there.

Also: I did do a final wipe down of the entire vehicle with my IPA solution after installing the ppf and before installing the ceramic, so that everything (including the ppf) was completely clean.

Does all that make sense?

Thanks for the video. New to forum and I plan on watching it later today.

I have a similar question that I’ve been trying to figure out but can’t seem to find a clear or definitive answer anywhere.

I don’t plan on doing a ceramic coat, but I do plan to clay and use Turtle wax. It’s a combination that I’ve used before and like

Is it safe to wax over the PPF film?

I’ve read it depends on the wax compound…But it would seem odd to me if you did a wax or ceramic coat everywhere else on the car except for the front panels that have the PPF.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

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