2010 Chevy Tahoe LTZ - Paint Correction & Coating

KMG

New member
This is the vehicle I did this past weekend. The owner just purchased it and the condition of the paint was driving him nuts. After trying several shops in his area in the past and not being happy with any of them, he found my website and after chatting for a bit he decided to drive an hour and half to drop the vehicle off with me for a few days. The vehicle arrived pretty clean already but it was pretty easy to see why the condition of the vehicle was bugging him. It is a 2010 with just over 73k miles on it.


Here are a few pictures before I started my wash and decon process.
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some minor scuffs on the driver side of the rear bumper cover
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Wash and Decon
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first step of the process is cleaning of the wheels and tires.
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IronX was used to clean the wheels, however they were already pretty clean and only showed minor bleed off.
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Tuf-Shine tire cleaner was used to clean the tires
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wheels and tires after being scrubbed and using wheel woolies and brushes


Foam Pre-Soak
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using my foam lance with Chemical Guys Citrus Wash to start the cleaning process on the body
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This was followed up with a 2 bucket method wash, which I then follow up with a chemical decon using IronX and wash again. The last step of my wash decon process is to wash the car one final time using a Nanoskin Autoscrub Fine wash mitt before being dried to judge the true condition of the paint.


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it was pretty easy to see the body had quite a bit of swirling on it from the previous owners or dealer
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Paint Correction Process
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I picked the passenger side rear door to do my test spot on. you can see this door had a large amount of swirls on it.
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this is a close up after compounding with Flat Top which you can see quite a bit of marring to the surface
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this picture shows the test spot after following up with Reflect. however I changed my process after compounding was complete and finished the vehicle with Hyper Polish as reflect still left very slight marring on the surface.
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close up of the same 50/50 spot
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50/50 shot after using Flat Top w/ my Boss G21
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even the tail lights had quite a bit of swirling on them
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they were also compounded and polished leaving a nice clear lense


After finishing up the compounding process I pulled the vehicle outside and power washed it again due to the large amount of dust that was caused using Flat Top. After drying the vehicle I went over the entire vehicle with Hyper Polish which left a mirror like finish on the vehicle.


Coating Process
After finishing up polishing the vehicle was wiped down with Eraser to prep the surface for the coating. Americoat was used on this vehicle.


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after the coating was applied it was cured using our IR lamp leaving a deep black glossy finish
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temp readings were taken during the curing process
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After curing and being left to sit for a day the surface was quite glossy


Final Product
It was an overcast day which really didn't make for the best pictures on this vehicles after shots.


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the vehicle was pulled out for a final inspection in the sunlight since it rained all day the previous day
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lots of depth and gloss with no swirls, the way black paint should look
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Great work, looks awesome. For a vehicle like that do you polish and coat the roof too? Whats your thoughts on the G21?
It really depends on the owner usually. But in most cases I will always polish the roof, however I might not spend nearly as much time trying to make it as perfect as possible. The G21 is pretty nice and works really good. I will be using that for any compounding I am doing, however I think my Rupes 15 finishes better and will be used for polishing.

Great job !!! How difficult did you find Americoat to apply???
In my opinion Americoat is one of the easiest coatings to apply and work with out of all the coatings I use. I pretty much coat the entire vehicle then go back around and level it.

so I take it the owner was pretty happy with the results? :)
The owner was very happy with, and is planning to bring me his 2015 2500 HD High-Country (also black) either next month or the following month.
 
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