Recommended exterior care and maintenance?

[CryypticCrash]

My ranger is the first new car I’ve had, and my last truck was more or less a beater that received nothing more than a gas station car wash every few months. I want to look after this truck much better and want to know where to start with preventative exterior paint and body maintenance. I am getting a ceramic wrap for the front of the vehicle but I don’t have interest in the multiple grand to do the full vehicle. Are any of the spray on products or waxes sold by Meguiars or similar effective? Are the drill bit attachments used to buff cars effective? If not what would be the most cost effective way to keep the truck in good shape long term? Thanks in advance for the knowledge. Luke.

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[Sarge104]

I spray a maintance coat of meguiars ceramic wax after I pressure wash the vehicle. Paying 14 bucks a pop for touchless carwash is a little too rich for me. It is a truck though, so it tends to get dirty when I'm out in the weeds. I notice I don't have as much stuck on crud on my rig then others that do not put wax on.

 

[Clank]

My ranger is the first new car I’ve had, and my last truck was more or less a beater that received nothing more than a gas station car wash every few months. I want to look after this truck much better and want to know where to start with preventative exterior paint and body maintenance. I am getting a ceramic wrap for the front of the vehicle but I don’t have interest in the multiple grand to do the full vehicle. Are any of the spray on products or waxes sold by Meguiars or similar effective? Are the drill bit attachments used to buff cars effective? If not what would be the most cost effective way to keep the truck in good shape long term? Thanks in advance for the knowledge. Luke.

I like meguiars ultimate liquid wax or turtle wax hybrid ceramic for protection. Both are super easy to apply. I think the liquid wax is a little longer lasting. By ceramic wrap do you mean ceramic coating or do you mean paint protection film or both?

 

[quangdog]

It really depends on just how in-depth you want to get. When I first picked up my 2019 in early 2020, I decided I was going to keep this truck looking as good as possible for as long as possible. I invested in some new detailing tools and knowledge, and did all the following myself in order to keep the paint looking great:

1) Installed a bug/rock deflector on the front edge of the hood.
2) Carefully washed the entire truck by hand very thoroughly, using the 2-bucket method.
3) Used a clay bar across the entire surface of the truck to remove all the crap that comes on the paint from the factory / during shipping.
4) Buffed/polished out all the swirl marks in the paint from the factory.
5) Applied a 3M paint protection film on all forward-facing surfaces (grill, bumper, rear-view mirrors, top of cab, headlights and fog lights, etc)
6) Applied ceramic coating to the entire truck, excluding glass.
7) Rain-x on all the glass.
8) Added PPF to the interior door sills.

Not gonna lie - this was an exhausting weekend or 2 of work, but has been SO worth it. Since then, the only real upkeep I've had to do is hand-wash with 2-bucket method whenever I wanted to get it clean again. It still looks amazing when clean, and the water still beads up and rolls right off the mirror-smooth surface of the paint when I wash it.

I've picked up a few scratches in the last 2 years (mostly from off-roading adventures), and just last week I earned my first dent (stupid fire hydrant that I could not see when backing out of a parking space). I'm planning to buff out all the scratches myself, and have a paintless dent removal guy coming hopefully next week to take the small dent out of my bumper. I'll buff out any scratches there as well, and the truck will be back to looking brand new. Probably time to re-apply the ceramic coating after buffing out these areas. Note: you don't want to use a buffing pad with a drill. Get yourself an inexpensive DA polisher - there are lots to choose from on Amazon that are really affordable.

Anyhow - I put some videos together of the various things I did to get my Ranger looking fantastic and keeping it that way, if you are interested. Here's the main one on detailing:




And here's a playlist of the other Ranger-related things I've done... some are also about various external/paint related stuff, some are on other topics:

 

[CryypticCrash]

I like meguiars ultimate liquid wax or turtle wax hybrid ceramic for protection. Both are super easy to apply. I think the liquid wax is a little longer lasting. By ceramic wrap do you mean ceramic coating or do you mean paint protection film or both?

I’m getting kavaca clear bra, it seems like just a protective film but it says it’s ceramic coated. What that means exactly I don’t know.

 

[CryypticCrash]

It really depends on just how in-depth you want to get. When I first picked up my 2019 in early 2020, I decided I was going to keep this truck looking as good as possible for as long as possible. I invested in some new detailing tools and knowledge, and did all the following myself in order to keep the paint looking great:

1) Installed a bug/rock deflector on the front edge of the hood.
2) Carefully washed the entire truck by hand very thoroughly, using the 2-bucket method.
3) Used a clay bar across the entire surface of the truck to remove all the crap that comes on the paint from the factory / during shipping.
4) Buffed/polished out all the swirl marks in the paint from the factory.
5) Applied a 3M paint protection film on all forward-facing surfaces (grill, bumper, rear-view mirrors, top of cab, headlights and fog lights, etc)
6) Applied ceramic coating to the entire truck, excluding glass.
7) Rain-x on all the glass.
8) Added PPF to the interior door sills.

Thanks for all the info…I’m about to dive deep into your YouTube videos. How difficult was installing the 3m paint protection film yourself?

 

[Clank]

I’m getting kavaca clear bra, it seems like just a protective film but it says it’s ceramic coated. What that means exactly I don’t know.

I was just wondering because with PPF I know you can put wax or ceramic products on top of it, but I with ceramic coatings being applied you have to use certain types of products to maintain that coating.

 

[quangdog]

Thanks for all the info…I’m about to dive deep into your YouTube videos. How difficult was installing the 3m paint protection film yourself?

The PPF install was pretty difficult around the surfaces that are "round" - backs of the rear view mirrors, some parts of the bumper, etc. It was certainly doable, but was probably the most difficult and time-consuimg part of this whole process. If there is any part I wish I had farmed out to a pro, it's the PPF install.

You can add a ceramic coat to any PPF, so I'm not sure I'd pay extra for a PPF that comes with some sort of coating.

 

[seasprite]

I found this guy on you tube, seems pretty good at what he does. This is my first new vehicle as well and want to enjoy it as much as I can.

 

[seasprite]

Thanks for all the info…I’m about to dive deep into your YouTube videos. How difficult was installing the 3m paint protection film yourself?

I went with a ceramic coating on mine and love the water shedding properties.

 

[quangdog]

I went with a ceramic coating on mine and love the water shedding properties.

Yeah, I added the ceramic coat myself to the PPF post-install. Works great, and the water sheds right off it.

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