# Bouncers Capture the Rapture Monster Truck Detail



## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

*Bouncers Capture the Rapture Monster Truck Detail*

Did some product, tool and pad testing today... took a few pictures during the process...

*Wipe Clean*
First thing is to wipe my truck clean. I wipe her down almost every day with "something", usually a spray detailer or even a spray wax, she's always clean. I chose Optimum Opti Clean Cleaner & Protectant for two reasons, 
*1.* I don't think I'm going to be able to get to the sides today as we're only working half day and I want my paint to look clean and shiny.

*2.* It was the spray detailer closest to my hand as I walked down the hallway towards the garage.
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*Decontaminate Paint*
As a reminder, this truck was put through an extreme makeover on May 16th, 2013, here's the write up for that project.

*1987 Chevy 4x4 Monster Truck "Before & After" Pictures*

At that time it was decontaminated using Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads. Here's a picture of this process from the above write-up.

Quote:
Originally Posted by *Mike Phillips*

_Here's Craig decontaminated the paint with a Nanoskin Autoscrub Fine Pad on a Flex 3401._

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And then of course we machine polished and waxed the entire truck.

Fast forward to July 4th, I wanted to test out a couple tools and products but my truck is parked outside 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as it won't fit inside a conventional garage. This means the paint is continually being bombarded with air-borne contaminants.

So I know the horizontal surfaces, roof and hood are going to have "something" on them.

*Decontaminating Paint using Detailing Clay*
I felt the paint with my hand and it felt smooth and clean. So next I did the *Baggie Test*.










As I suspected, the paint is contaminated with "something" because I can feel little bumps sporadically placed over the finish. I figured this would be the case, there's just too much junk in the air including tree sap mist here in Southern Florida. So I'm going to clay the hood and roof. The sides felt smooth so I'm not going to clay the sides.










*Capturing the spray coming out of the bottle shot*
This is one of the hardest shots to capture, that is the spray actually exiting the nozzle. I think I took 5 pictures and caught it in this one.










*Yep, that's my hand claying the hood....*
I'm using Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay and Pinnacle Clay Lube because Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay is an *Ultra Fine Grade Clay* and that's what I _*wanted*_ and that's all the paint _*needed*_.










*Claying the roof*
If you look at the perspective of this shot... that's me claying the roof.










*Light Contamination*
The truck was buffed out just 49 days ago and religiously wiped clean, including the roof, (I use a Werner aluminum work stand to get into the truck bed), so it's not going to be super contaminated. BUT there was some kind of gunk on both the roof and the hood and mechanically removing contaminants is a lot more effective then hoping they'll buff off by machine. Foam pads tend to glide over contaminants while the abrasives in the clay will abrade the contaminants off.

*Here's the obligatory dirty clay shot...*










*Light Polishing*
I'm firmly in the camp that if you're going to do ANY type of mechanical decontaminating, including claying, then you should plan on doing at least one machine polishing step just to ensure any accidental marring is removed but also for another good reason.

*The other good reason*
If you vehicle's paint has bonded contaminants, that's a sign that it probably has some level of staining, oxidation, or embedded dirt. You *cannot* see dirt staining easily on an color other than white.

*Here's an example of what dirt staining looks like on white paint.*









*Here's the point,* 
If dirt staining is happening, (and it is if your car is a daily driver like mine), you probably can't see it but _*that doesn't mean its not there*_. It is.

So you need to do "something" to remove the dirt staining and embedded dirt off of and out of the paint. You can use a simple paint cleaner, a fine cut polish like I'm doing here, or even a quality "cleaner/wax" or AIO type product.

I wanted to use the Sonax Perfect Finish or PF in detailing lingo with a Rupes Polisher and a polishing pad. So I did. And since you, the reader is not here with me to see what I could see I'll tell you what I saw.

*It works damn good. *

The roof has some residual haze left over from the buffing we did back in May, the roof was wetsanded and compounded but there was always a little haze in the paint. The haze is gone now and it's absolutely clear. Maybe I'll jump up in my truck and take a picture to show you today.

*Now here's yet another point*
If the PF with a yellow polishing pad on the Rupes cleared up the haze on the roof, you know it left the hood clear too, it's just there wasn't any clearing up that was needed on the hood so no dramatic visual change in my eyes and I did the buffing but I know it's absolutely clear. Keep in mind, when you're working on a clearcoated car, the goal is to make the paint as smooth as possible and as CLEAR as possible so your eyes can see the color underneath.

*Anyways... here's what I'm using...*

Sonax Perfect Finish

Rupes Bigfoot 21 with a 5" Rupes Backing Plate

Rupes Yellow 6" Polishing Pad










This is me holding the camera with my left hand taking a picture of my right hand using the Rupes 21 Bigfoot to pick up my bead of product using the 10 @ 10 Technique. Speed setting is on 6 but you can pick up your bead of product at a slower speed if you like or do like most and just place some product on the face of the pad. I'm a real 10 @ 10 kind of machine guy...










*Fast forward to the LSP part...*
For my LSP I wanted to try out the Bouncer's Capture the Rapture paste wax. I pretty much always do every step by machine so here's a white Rupes 4" Finishing pad on the Rupes LHR15 Pneumatic Random Orbital Polisher.










*That looks cool...*










*Beauty Shots...*
I only did the roof and the hood, ran out of time to do the sides so they're next, but here's a shot of my truck just because....


















Here's everything I used...










See, sides were untouched except for wiping them down but remember, I've been wiping the paint and wheels down on this religiously since it was buffed out 49 days ago and always using either a spray detailer or a spray wax.

Just goes to show, if you find something you like and actually use it often, your car's finish can always look this nice.


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

Okay, as I posted above, since I was only able to get to the roof and hood yesterday, but I didn't get any actual pictures of these surfaces with the Bouncer's wax due to a short work day and it's takes a couple extra steps to get up higher than the truck, I took some this morning with my Canon here at work and with my iPhone this morning after a fresh South Florida rainfall...

First here's the hood, I park my truck right next to a tall palm tree and red doesn't reflect as well as the color black but I the reflections are crisp and clear.

*Here's the Palm Tree...*










*Here's the reflection shot off the hood...*










Remember I posted above the roof was hazy, the Sonax PF and the Rupes Bigfoot 21 took care of that...










*Water Beading*
This morning it rained, (it always rains first thing in the morning), so here's my hood beading water like crazy!























































*By the time I drove down the road to the first light, most of the water had blown off...*










_That's all..._

Products used....

Optimum Opti Clean Cleaner & Protectant
Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay
Pinnacle Clay Lube
Sonax Perfect Finish
Rupes Bigfoot 21
5" Rupes Backing Plate
Rupes Yellow 6" Polishing Pad
Bouncer's Capture the Rapture paste wax
white Rupes 4" Finishing pad
Rupes LHR15 Pneumatic Random Orbital Polisher


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## Jack (May 14, 2007)

That looks amazing. Lovely big machine to be working on


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## southwest10 (Oct 27, 2010)

Looks Amazing=very nice morning beads


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## Blueberry (Aug 10, 2007)

Great work 👍

Bouncer's CTR is a great wax. How did you get the wax onto the pad on the machine ?


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

Blueberry said:


> Great work &#55357;&#56397;
> 
> Bouncer's CTR is a great wax. How did you get the wax onto the pad on the machine ?


Simply held the jar of wax in one hand and tipped the pad edge into the jar and blipped the throttle on the Rupes polisher for a few seconds.

In my how-to book I also other simple ways to use a paste wax by machine.


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