A pair of Hellcats---soft, med or hard paint?

TMQ

TMQ

New member
Will be coating a couple Hellcats in next 2 weeks.

To save me time during testing phase, what was your experience re paint?

These cars are in great shape--babied, few swirls and if there is such a thing, passed baggie test.

I`m thinking I can get away with just doing a polish. And then coat.

My initial thoughts:

Rinse-less wash
Clay
ultra fine or fine polish
coating prep
Coat

Tom
 
I`ve worked on 12 or 13 hellcats in the last two years. Every single one has been different but all (for the most part) used the same process and products.

What are the years and colors?

almost every single new mopar (charger/challenger) has had die back on it
 
I agree, don’t short cut it especially if you’re coating them. All the ones I’ve done have required different stages even the same years. FCA switches clears on a regular basis.
 
Not sure what years are...Appears to have had them a year or more.

The cars are Sublime Green and Plumb Crazy Purple. Will start on the Sublime green tomorrow and probably the next weekend the Crazy purple.

Tom
 
TMQ said:
Not sure what years are...Appears to have had them a year or more.

The cars are Sublime Green and Plumb Crazy Purple. Will start on the Sublime green tomorrow and probably the next weekend the Crazy purple.

Tom
Click to expand...
Check the c pillars for circular suction cup like marks. They were common on the first two years from the ones I worked on at least.

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512 and Mike...

Thanks for the input.

How aggressive did you go on the cars you`ve done? I don`t intend to shortcut anything. Just that paint looks almost swirl free, just from casual look over. My initial thoughts that the polish
would be enough to remove die back and light swirls. Heard from the other website (AutoGeek) that lime green and purple was around medium hard and would take a bit more to cut the paint
than straight polish.

Tom
 
Initial plan is to:

McKee`s rinesless wash N-914
Clay with Pinnacle clay and McKee`s lube
Polish using Rupes white pad and white ultra fine polish. If too soft--will bump up to yellow-fine polish (That`s game plan for moment)
Paint prep for coating---McKee`s N-914 diluted to paint prep ratio 1 to 8
McKee`s new coating

Wheels coated using Pinnacle Black Label wheel coating
Tires will be coated using McKee`s tire coating

If needed, will compound with Rupes blue pad/blue compound. Then finish off with Rupes white pad/white ultra fine.

Will do several tests till I get the results I`m looking for.

Tom
 
TMQ said:
Initial plan is to:

McKee`s rinesless wash N-914
Clay with Pinnacle clay and McKee`s lube
Polish using Rupes white pad and white ultra fine polish. If too soft--will bump up to yellow-fine polish (That`s game plan for moment)
Paint prep for coating---McKee`s N-914 diluted to paint prep ratio 1 to 8
McKee`s new coating

Wheels coated using Pinnacle Black Label wheel coating
Tires will be coated using McKee`s tire coating

If needed, will compound with Rupes blue pad/blue compound. Then finish off with Rupes white pad/white ultra fine.

Will do several tests till I get the results I`m looking for.

Tom
Click to expand...

I`d suggest asking the owner how the vehicle arrived. If it was shipped on a train you`ll definitely want to do a chemical decontamination as well. If it was shipping on a semi I`d still recommend it.

As far as an finishing polish and white pad - I`m pretty confident that wouldn`t even touch any die back issues if they existed.

I`ve never worked on the green shades but I have worked on plum hellcats three times (polishing once) and I found that specific paint to be awfully soft. I did a full correction and coating on a plum shaker rt in the past and that paint was a little harder than the hellcat which was a year or two newer.

Just be happy neither one is pitch black :) that`s one of the more finicky paints I`ve worked on.

In the past I had great success with 3D Adapt but I have since switched over to The Last Cut or Master Compound and a polish angel finishing polish (or primer in my case since I use cosmic).

If you have the full rupes system I`d say rupes yellow/yellow to start with. Or even the green rupes polish on yellow pad.

That plum may surprise you under proper lighting with it`s condition.
 
I have used with great success Optimum Finish Polish with a Rotary and Lake Country HydroTech pads on my personal `09 Black Metallic Jeep Grand Cherokee, and my `07 Acura TL Type-S , and then coated them..

Of course since they are my personal vehicles they are not scratched up to begin with, so the clean up of the old Optimum coating on the Jeep was easy..
The Jeep paint is on the hard side and there is a lot of it so I don`t worry about it..

The Acura paint acted harder than it usually is but that is because I was using such a fine polish to clean and correct, and it had probably never been really corrected by the original owner..

I ended up putting a lot of downward pressure on the Makita to speed up the process and get me the desired clarity and gloss I wanted to see for a few years; I re-coated them with my last syringe of Optimum 2.0..
Results were stunning..

I think if you are comfortable with your setup and products to give you the desired level of clarity and gloss vs the existing condition of the paintwork, then you will do just great..

Of course, if it does not work quickly or within your timeframe limits, of course you will switch to another product to give you the results hopefully in no more than 2 steps, but better if it can happen in 1..

Good luck !
Dan F
 
512detail said:
I`d suggest asking the owner how the vehicle arrived. If it was shipped on a train you`ll definitely want to do a chemical decontamination as well. If it was shipping on a semi I`d still recommend it.

As far as an finishing polish and white pad - I`m pretty confident that wouldn`t even touch any die back issues if they existed.

I`ve never worked on the green shades but I have worked on plum hellcats three times (polishing once) and I found that specific paint to be awfully soft. I did a full correction and coating on a plum shaker rt in the past and that paint was a little harder than the hellcat which was a year or two newer.

Just be happy neither one is pitch black :) that`s one of the more finicky paints I`ve worked on.

In the past I had great success with 3D Adapt but I have since switched over to The Last Cut or Master Compound and a polish angel finishing polish (or primer in my case since I use cosmic).

If you have the full rupes system I`d say rupes yellow/yellow to start with. Or even the green rupes polish on yellow pad.

That plum may surprise you under proper lighting with it`s condition.
Click to expand...

Awesome...Testing is going to be easier since I have some background information from your experience.

I do have the full Rupes system, including the UHS. Hummm...wondered if Rupes UHS would produce bit more results? Has bit more bite and finishes out about the level of a Rupes yellow/yellow?

I`ll experiment a bit and see...

Thanks for the information. This is valuable and time saving information for me. Appreciate it very much!

Tom
 
TMQ said:
Awesome...Testing is going to be easier since I have some background information from your experience.

I do have the full Rupes system, including the UHS. Hummm...wondered if Rupes UHS would produce bit more results? Has bit more bite and finishes out about the level of a Rupes yellow/yellow?

I`ll experiment a bit and see...

Thanks for the information. This is valuable and time saving information for me. Appreciate it very much!

Tom
Click to expand...

I used UHS a few times on different modern mopars. It worked best on header orange for me over adapt which were my two go to`s at that time. if yellow / yellow doesn`t work, I`d try uhs polish/yellow and or uhs/uhs (I used to experiment with interchanging the rupes colors and it helps when you need a little more cut but good finish- similar with any other products I`m sure but I learned on the rupes color coded system as I just started polishing 3 or 4 years ago- dang time sure does fly by).
 
Lonnie said:
OK, 512detail, can you explain what "die back" is to me? I am ignorant of that term and what it means in terms of exterior finish.
Click to expand...

I will leave that for someone else to explain. I don`t understand how it happens and the only reason I found out about it was from working on these cars but it looks kind of like a soap scum stain on the vehicle.

I`m guessing it has something to do with the paint process. All I know is it requires some heavy compounding. I used to think it was just soap scum.

I`m sure some other Autopian will chime in and explain it better than I can.

I`ve seen it the worst on the skittles colored Mopars. - the bright classic colored ones
 
Evening all,

Just got home tonight from working on the sublime green HellCat.
Did the full wash, performed chemical and mechanical decontamination. And pulled in shop to towel dry.

The car IS Perfect! There`s no scratches and swirls at all! Shocked by this. Checked and checked outside, in dark with lights etc etc.----Nothing! It is perfect! Paint has pop and flakes showing through big time. After drying, checked and double checked paint---told owner that paint is too good to cut. Lets just leave it alone and put down a nice paint sealant. Lets allow the car to age a more years before cutting the paint...

Tomorrow we`ll pull the wheels off to clean and coat the rim and tires.

Then will lay down some new Blackfire sealant and call it a day.

Ethically I could not justify polishing the car. It was that nice---pristine really.

Tom
 
TMQ said:
Check photos here at AutoGeek.

https://www.autogeekonline.net/foru...116876-pair-hellcats-soft-med-hard-paint.html

Tried to post pics here but it`s not allowing me to do so...

Tom
Click to expand...
Here ya go...what a rare occurrence..I`ve never seen a new car that defect free..

I have no objections to your decision, but still would have hit it with a ultra fine polish (primer polish) and coated it :)
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a606c5649667b83dcb9441d1d8a1c58f.jpg
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Thank you for posting pics for me! Appreciate that very much.

Did think about doing light polish and coat it but I just could not do it. There is something special about the paint, hard to explain. It`s healthy, vibrant and has a certain
fullness and quality to it. Hate to cut that just yet. Has tremendous pop to it as well. Thought best to let it ride out a couple of years before doing anything to it.

The baggie test was fine---could barely feel anything. Chemical decon---very little to no bleeding in the paint.

However there is some die back...when I turned out the shop lights, and with small led flashlight, I could barely see some light spots of "soap scum" as you explained. Thought of you when I saw it. Even with that---still looks perfect from 6 inches away. Told owner lets wait a couple of years.

As for the hood I will put down some McKee`s matte cleaner and protectant. And for paint---will apply Blackfire sealant to create a fuller and slicker effect.

I was disappointed in not getting to try out the coatings on this car.

Still have the purple one to do. I haven`t seen it yet so I don`t know what shape its in. I`ll fill you in once I get my hands on it.

Thank you very much---your input was key!!

Oh..BTW, this car is a 2015.

Tom
 
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