- Hey, what's up, guys?
Welcome to another episode of "Chemical Guys Detail Garage."
Today in the shop, we have this Ford F-150.
Now, we've washed it, and then we saw
that it has a lot of scratches and swirls
that are not so noticeable just due to the fact
that the vehicle has a lot of metallic flake,
so today we're gonna go over how to choose
the right compound or polish, pad, and machine
to go ahead and remove the light scratches and swirls
that are on this truck.
The first thing that we noticed was the contamination.
When we were doing the car,
we were getting a lot of streaking.
That's due to the fact that the vehicle has contamination,
so a lot of that water is kind of sticking to
the pockets of where the contamination lies on the paint
and it kinda drags over the paint,
so you don't necessarily get that streak-free dry.
So you can feel the paint yourself
and you can actually hear it in the microphone,
I don't know if you guys can hear this.
This truck is a newer truck,
and it feels very, very nasty.
It's super contaminated, and we wanna go to knock that off
before we start polishing it.
So we're gonna head and utilize our clay bar.
Now, I've chosen to go with our OG clay bar,
which is our original, which is a mixture between
a light and a medium.
Now, this clay bar works out great for
vehicles that are on the newer side,
that may have a layer of contamination,
so this is gonna go ahead and help us pretty much
knock off this layer of contamination
and rough feeling that's on the paint.
The reason this vehicle has a lot of contamination
in the first place is because it's actually
parked outside in an area where there's an airport,
and as you guys know, there's a lot of industrial fallout
in those types of areas.
You're gonna get a lot of that stuff on your paint,
especially if you have, like, a white car,
you'll start noticing it when you start seeing
a lot of little yellow and brown specks in your paint.
On dark paint you don't necessarily see it,
but you can definitely feel it.
So I'm gonna go ahead and start this process
by taking the plastics off of my clay bar here.
We wanna make sure to take these plastics off,
because if you don't, it's not gonna work out for you.
You can throw the away or keep them
if you wanna coat your clay bar again once you store it.
I'm gonna go ahead and grab a small chunk of the clay bar
so that we can go ahead and do a section of the hood.
You don't wanna use the entire clay bar,
because if I were to drop all of this,
there we go.
So as you guys can see, the clay bar is very sticky.
It's very tangible, so you can actually
morph it around to your liking.
Before I got carried away,
you don't wanna use the entire clay bar,
because if I were to drop all that clay bar
right now on the floor, it would be a very, very sad day,
because that clay bar would have fell on the floor,
it would have a lot of those rocks and debris
and anything that's sitting on the floor on the clay bar,
and if I were to go ahead and put that on the paint
it'd definitely scratch it up a lot more
than we probably began with.
So don't use the whole clay bar, use what you need.
I'm just gonna use this little piece right here,
and then I'll morph it around into a little patty here
that I can grab with my forefingers.
But now that we're done, you can see my patty there.
It's nice, I can grab it with my forefingers,
it's not gonna slip out of my hand.
Next thing we wanna do is grab your clay luber.
Clay luber works out great because
this is gonna lubricate the surface
so that you don't mar the surface or
install future scratches and swirls
when using your clay bar.
A lot of common questions that we get is,
how much do you put or how to use a clay bar?
Use an ample amount, don't be stingy with the product.
You wanna make sure that the surface is well-lubricated.
It glides over the surface a lot easier,
and you don't risk marring the surface.
Once the area is saturated,
all you wanna do is draw your clay bar left and right
or up and down, whatever your preference is.
We just don't recommend that you go in a circular motion.
And I'm pretty sure you guys can hear this on-camera.
It sounds like I'm actually scratching the paint
because it sounds very rough, but as you go,
you're gradually going to be removing
that layer of contamination.
That's gonna pull it off the surface
and the pores of your paint,
and it's gonna pretty much go until
you get that nice smooth finish.
And you can always spray more if necessary,
and I'm gonna have to spray a little bit more right there.
But as you go, you'll see that it starts
kind of sounding less and less and less
until you hear nothing any more and it's glass-smooth.
Once the clay bar is pretty much gliding over the surface,
you'll know that you're done,
and you can move onto the next section.
I'm gonna finish this little section here
because this is the section that we're gonna be working on
and we'll be right back once we're done.
(upbeat music)
All right, guys, so now that we're done
working in the product, I'm gonna go ahead and
wipe off the excess of the clay lubricant.
Now, when you wipe it off, all you gotta do is
use a nice Workforce towel.
You don't have to use anything fancy,
we're just wiping off the product
so that we can inspect the results.
Now that we're done with the section,
I'm gonna go ahead and grab my glove here.
Feel the paint, it's nice and smooth.
You don't hear that raspy feeling like you do over here.
This is smooth, this is contaminated.
Smooth, contaminated.
So now that we're done with that section,
I'm gonna go ahead and put my clay bar away.
Store that to the side,
and then we did wash this car with a pH-neutral soap.
We didn't know that the vehicle was gonna be this damaged,
so if we did know and we were gonna go for
a full paint correction, we would've actually
would've washed it with Clean Slate,
which as you guys know is a surface-cleansing wash
that's gonna remove any kind of oils
like waxes and sealant that's on the paint.
But since we didn't, we're gonna go ahead and use Wipe Out,
which is pretty much a surface cleanser spray.
This works out great to prep the surface
and remove any kind of oils, sealants,
previous coats of glazes that are on the paint
so that when we go for our paint correction
we don't have any interference with our results.
So all you want to do with this here is grab your bottle
and just utilize it like a quick detail spray.
All you wanna do is spray the surface,
and then you're just gonna wipe it right off.
And that, like I said, that's gonna go on to wipe off
any kind of oils, previous coats of glazes,
sealants, anything that can interfere with our results.
Very easy to use.
I highly recommend using this product
prior to polishing and/or even doing anything
on your paint such as applying a wax,
sealant, or a glaze, even a ceramic coating,
just because that's gonna go ahead and
enhance the bond between your product
and onto the surface of the paint.
All right, guys, so now that the preparation's done,
now we can hop into the fun part, which is polishing.
So before we jump into anything,
I do wanna go over our Chemical Guys V line.
Now, the V line consists of two compounds and two polishes.
Now, these work out great,
because it gives you a wide spectrum of cutting options
depending on the type of paint that you have,
the level of scratches and swirls that you have,
and anything that's a factor as far as
an imperfection in the paint.
To begin with, we have V32.
V32 is an extreme-grade compound.
Now, this compound is designed for heavy,
heavy imperfections such as oxidation,
very deep scratches and swirls,
and any kind of imperfections
that light polish wouldn't be able to do within one pass.
Our next product here is gonna be V34.
Now, V34 is a hybrid compound,
so that means it's gonna cut as a compound
and finish as a light polish.
So you work in the product,
it's gonna cut light to medium imperfections,
such as oxidation, scratches and swirls
at a more moderate pace.
So like I said, V32,
this would be the more extreme compound,
V34 would be more of a mild version of a compound.
Once you get these out of the picture,
you're left with your two polishes here.
V36 is a light cutting polish.
V36 works out great as far as a one-step polish
and/or to remove lighter imperfections
such as scratches and swirls and oxidation,
or even water spots.
This works out great, like I said, as a one-step,
so if you just wanna use it with like a polishing pad
to maintain your paint, works out great.
If you wanna go ahead and use it with a cutting pad
to cut those light imperfections, knock yourself out.
The last product here is going to be V38.
V38 is gonna be your jewel,
that's gonna be your final finessing polish.
Now, this works out great as a final polish
to restore the shine, the clarity,
and achieve that ultra-smooth feel on your paint
once you're done cutting with any of these prior products.
As always, before we hop into polishing,
we do wanna assess the paint.
As you guys can see, the paint is pretty scratched up.
It's swirled, it has a lot of imperfections.
But just because it's a newer truck doesn't mean
that it can't have any scratches or swirls.
I mean, you could have a brand-new truck right off the lot
and have someone wash it with a Brillo pad,
and your paint's all jacked up.
So you can never underestimate your paint.
You always have to assess it and make sure
that you're using an ultra-bright LED inspection light.
So go ahead and search the paint for
any kind of scratches, swirls, and imperfections
so that you know what you're working with.
With any other car, we always recommend
using the least aggressive approach.
Why is that?
Simply because we wanna make sure that we minimize
the amount of clear coat that we're cutting,
because whenever you polish or you compound,
you are pretty much leveling the clear coat
and removing a fine layer of it
every time you do decide to polish it.
So in order for us to preserve the paint
for as long as we can, we canna make sure that
we cut as little of it as possible
to get the results that we want without
having to cut a whole chunk of clear coat off the paint
and cut a whole lifetime period of the paint.
Less is more when it comes to polishing.
Unless you absolutely need to go ahead
and resort to like a V32,
start out with a less aggressive approach such as V36
and work your way down if you have to.
I know I'm talking a lot,
so let's just go ahead and hop right into it.
We're gonna go ahead and utilize
the least aggressive approach,
which is gonna be our orange pad,
our orange Hex-Logic cutting pad.
And we're gonna go ahead and use that
with V36 light-cutting polish.
Now remember, this is a polish, but it's a cutting polish,
so that means that we are gonna get a light cut.
Not a heavy cut, just enough to go in and
minimize and cut any kind of light imperfections,
such as the scratches and swirls.
So as always, make sure to shake up your product.
And then you wanna go ahead and apply
about five pea-sized drops to your pad.
Rule of thumb is the size of your pad
that you're working on,
so if you're working on a six-inch pad, six drops,
five-inch pad, five drops.
And these are pea-sized drops.
They're not crazy, they're not huge.
This is just enough to go ahead
and kind of saturate the pad.
I'll let you guys check that out right there,
and then once you have your pad ready with the polish,
you wanna go ahead and use pad conditioner
to moisten up the pad, condition it so that
we don't build up any excess heat,
which can potentially lead to burning the paint,
or marring it, or prematurely drying out our polish.
So just make sure you saturate your pads
using pad conditioner.
Give it two light sprays, you're good to go
and you're ready to start polishing.
We're gonna go ahead and blot out the product
onto the surface that we're working on.
Like I said, we are gonna be working on
like a small two by two section.
That's the section that we prepped right here,
and that's just so that we have a control panel
so that we see what works and what doesn't.
So I'm gonna go ahead and use this, like I said,
with V36 and the orange pad.
Blot it out.
I'm gonna spread it out on speed setting one,
and then once I have spread it out,
I'm gonna go ahead and bump it up to speed setting six
and work in the polish until it's completely translucent.
We'll wipe off the polish,
and then we'll inspect the results once we're back.
(polisher whirring)
(upbeat music)
All right, guys, so now we've done this little section.
I did try to keep it together so that
we can kinda get like a line of a difference
between the polished side versus the unpolished side.
So now I'm gonna go ahead and grab
a nice clean Workforce towel.
I'm gonna buff off the excess of the polish.
And so far, I can definitely tell it's a huge difference
as far as clarity and shine in the two panels.
I'm not sure how well the camera captures it.
We'll kinda go back and forth right now with the camera
so that we make sure that we check
and get this difference on camera for you guys.
But check it out, you guys can see
it has a lot more clarity.
From what I can see without using the light,
there are still some heavy scratches and swirls
that are in the paint that may have to be removed
with a stronger compound such as V34,
but honestly, for something like this,
as far as a one-step solution,
I'm really, really happy with these results.
So now let's go ahead and put
this LED inspection light on here.
Check it out, guys.
Looks like brand new.
Those imperfections are gone as far as
those light to moderate ones.
You can still see,
I don't know if you guys can catch it on camera,
there are some deeper ones right here.
I'm not really gonna worry myself for something like that.
You know, if you're that perfectionist,
you do have that whole V line,
that whole spectrum of compounds and polishes,
in order for you to remove those heavy imperfections.
But like I said, for someone who is just a weekend warrior,
someone who loves their car,
someone that just wants to make their paint
pop more and have more depth,
V36 and an orange pad, that gives you great results all day.
That's one of our personal favorite combinations
here on the shop.
I know a lot of guys like that combination,
so check that out.
Not only do you see the scratches and swirls gone,
I don't know if the camera catches it,
but you actually see more depth.
This right here has more of a white haze,
this right here has more of a darker haze.
I'll have the cameraman just kind of pan around
so you guys can see those results.
Coming from right here, it looks amazing.
As you guys saw, the results look amazing
just from a one-step polish using V36.
Now, the point of this video is to explain to you guys
that obviously, we have a ton of products
as far as the compounds and polishes,
but that's just because you have
different paint jobs out there.
This right here is a Ford,
I believe this clear coat has something
of a medium soft clear coat,
so that's why we were able to achieve the results
with just using one step and using the V36.
With European cars, you have more of a harder clear coat,
it's gonna require a bit of a more aggressive approach
in order to remove those deep imperfections
or even the light imperfections.
You may wanna have to go with like the V34
and even at most like the V32.
You can go ahead and do a variety of
different product choices, and the orange pad
primarily is gonna be your cutting pad.
So if you wanna go ahead and cut light imperfections
or cut heavy imperfections,
orange pad is gonna be your cutting pad.
We also have the white pad here,
which is gonna be more for, like, refining the paint.
So let's say that we hit that panel right there
with the V36 and the orange cutting pad.
We can go ahead and follow it up with V38,
which is the final polish, and the white polishing pad
to just pretty much bring out the shine,
the clarity, and the luster on the paint
if you're happy with the results.
But like I said, if you're not happy with them
and you wanna go ahead and get rid of
the deeper imperfections, V34,
and then if that doesn't work, V32.
That's pretty much your last resort right there
as far as heavy imperfections and swirls.
Our mission is pretty much to get rid of
the scratches and swirls by using
the least aggressive approach as possible, because remember,
your clear coat does not grow back.
You cannot put water on there and expect it to grow back,
it's not a tree, it's not a plant.
This right here, it's a final coat,
so you wanna make sure that you preserve this coat
so that your paint job looks amazing for years to come
so that your car doesn't prematurely start fading,
oxidizing, and your paint peeling within 10 years or so.
The last thing you wanna worry about is
having a newer-looking truck and having peeling paint.
The paint is ultimately what's gonna be attacked
by all these harsh UV rays
and what's gonna always be exposed to the elements.
So now that you're done polishing
and you have the results that you want on your vehicle,
what do you do now?
Well, what you wanna go ahead and do is
wipe your vehicle all over again with Wipe Out.
Now, this is gonna remove any kind of polishing residue
and any kind of dust and dirt that landed on your paint
while you were polishing it.
That's gonna go ahead and prepare it, so like I said,
that's gonna remove any kind of coatings,
sealants, and waxes that are on the surface
that whenever you apply, like, a ceramic coating,
which you know, if you go through the trouble
of polishing your entire paint,
I would highly recommend putting a ceramic coating
such as HydroCharge, just because, you know,
if you wanna go ahead and do all that work
and just put a wax on it, that works out great,
but why not get the ultimate protection
by putting a layer of ceramic coating first,
like HyroCharge, layering it with a coat
of Jet-Seal sealant, and then topping it off
with the nice carnuba wax such as a paste wax
or even something like Buttery Wax.
I hope you guys learned something new.
I know that we didn't really get too much polishing done.
We only really did the V36 light cutting polish
with the orange pad,
but that's all we needed at the end of the day.
If you guys liked this video,
make sure to give it the thumbs up.
If you guys have any other questions
that I didn't get to during this video,
make sure to comment down below,
and always comment down below if you have
any future ideas for any YouTube videos
that you want us to shoot.
You know, we're always excited to shoot
these videos for you guys,
so make sure to comment down below.
If you haven't done so already, subscribe,
and as always, my name is Joey,
this is "Chemical Guys Detail Garage."
We'll see you guys next time.
(mellow music)