Desert Pinstripes

#2.

 

+1 to the ceramic coating. Scratches definitely don't look as bad even when they are deep. Probably every 6 months or so i pressure wash and dry then go over it with nexgen. I've been very surprised by what comes out or gets hidden just by that.

 

lmfao thats fair , and same no rock crawling

 

My uncle owned the property up until about the late 90’s, it’s about 3 miles or so off the closest paved road, it was peach and nectarine orchards till they couldn’t squeeze any more water out the wells, it was always well maintained. I went up there about 5 years ago and it wasn’t bad. Fast forward to today and it’s become the dumping ground for everything from pallets to tvs all big stuff mixed with plain old trash, then you have the plywood huts and dilapidated RVs, so major sketch shit..so I high tailed it

 

Wow. Sorry to hear that man.

I really hate when beautiful spots get thrashed like that.

 

sad, but even more saddening is no one willing to fork over the money to clean it up nor will the city do anything to help

 

Ok, so I washed the dust off and it’s not nearly as bad as I thought. The majority of what was in the first pic seemed to be where the leaves of the bush wiped off the dust making it look like scratches

 

Nice! You were right, the dust did make it look worse. I saw no dust though hah.

Man your paint colour is great for pinstripes, I’ve got the worst one.

If you do a couple coats of ceramic without even using polishing compound first, I don’t think you will even notice anytging after. Save your clear coat!

 

We have quite a few areas like that, tent/RV cities in the woods. It’s fucked up.

 

One of the reasons I passed on the MGM paint, my Mustang is black and it’s a nightmare to keep nice

 

The owner lives in Korea so it goes ignored.

 

damn no good

 

All my vehicles were black, I’ve had 5. I became a professional car detailer. I kind of regret getting black for a bush truck, still the best looking colour IMHO.

My 2007 ranger with 165k miles looked great, got lots of compliments.

 

OP, if you do not have a buffer, why would you have a medium cutting compound in your garage? In any case, right now you're looking at two options: paint correction + wrap or screw it. If you care about the car and want to go wild, vinyl wrap the Taco. It is about $3-4K depending on the wrap quality and the shop. PPF will run you about twice that.

I would NOT buy a buffer if I were you because you know you'd want to use it... And you can use it only so much before you say goodbye to clear coat.

 

I have the stuff because I bought it for the guy who did paint/ body work on my 95 Bronco and Mustang so he just gave what was left to me

 

Not a good picture but if you look closely the trail rash on mine is similar to yours. I was able to buff them out without using any power tools and I agree that you should stay away from using a power buffer unless you have some experience. If your OCD gets the best of you then I suggest that you take your truck to a professional detailer as they can make it look like new for a couple hundred.

 

I tried some of the Meguiars swirl remover on a cloth on about an inch of one of the scratches and it removed it pretty well

 

Random orbital polisher (any brand) with a white Rupes foam pad and some Sonax Perfect Finish polish.

Always start with the softest pad and least aggressive compound. Overlap passes 50%, work in small sections 2ftx2ft, 2 vertical passes then 2 horizontal passes; check results.

 

Some light polishing / paint correction and then ceramic coat it!

 

Let me guess-
Lancaster/Pearblossom? Anywhere in the “high desert” is off limits for me- check out the eastern Mojave between Baker and Nipton - some nice camping out there and it’s drier so the trails aren’t brushy. I like the color of your truck- I got white for cooler interior in the summer, but would have gotten tan as a second choice. Yours hides the desert dirt better than mine too, and hopefully won’t peel off around the rear windows!