I washed, debadged, dressed the exterior plastic, washed and dressed the engine bay, clayed, polished, sealed and...Crap I'm tired
When i picked it up from the dealer she had quite a few swirls in the paint from their detail guy. They wanted to do a final detail delivery and paint sealant but i said i would take care of that myself.
Very nice! I like the look without all that flashy chrome advertising. I also like the accents. Are those stock RAM trim parts (the bug deflector and the door guards)?
Ill be debadging mine soon too. The badge I really want to lose is the MASSIVE ram on my tailgate but its inset in the steel. Are there holes behind the hemi badge on the fender?
Love that color - only thing I would change on that truck is the chrome side molding...get some color matched and it would be perfect. Obviously it's your truck but the moldings just look cheap and your truck is perfect with chrome accents, just not there.
Clay bar - I don't think clay bars remove swirls, just contamination in paint. You need a good polish specifically made for swirls or a show glaze does the same thing if they are minor.
Yeah the claying only take contaminates out of the paint, i used a polisher to take out the swirls. Yes they are factory side steps. I thought hard about taking off that side chrome but after my battle with the Ram badgeing i decided against it for that days project. I forgot i also removed this ugly pin-stripping that was on the truck as well. Ill pull off the side molding another day soon. As far as how i did it, with braided 8 lb diameter fishing line and with a adhesive remover. Not fun but it was worth it.
I don't mind the chrome clad, easy to keep clean once you put a sealant on them and they look good. Nobody would ever know that they are clad unless they were to thump them.
Looks great. I can imagine how tired you are. I started de-badging mine today. I have to say dodge really got some good emblem tape. This is one of the hardest vehicles I have done. Usually some fishing line and a plastic putty blade with a little adhesive remover is good enough. I had to actually get my eraser wheel out.
I was gonna say....to anyone thinking about debadging, especially something as large as the long door trim pieces....I recently used my buddy's 3M eraser wheel on my truck and WOW!! I know it's $40 but let me tell you it's worth every penny. Once you get the hang of it, it's so so easy and fast.