Griot's Complete Compound on non-clearcoated original paint

This past weekend, I began the arduous job of compounding the original paint to remove all of the general sunfade and fogginess. I decided to go with Griot's Complete Compound, which has impressed me so far. For an off-the-shelf product, it does a great job at restoring the surface of the paint in a one-step process (although I did use a clay bar beforehand to remove contaminants).



I'm not even halfway done and still had to take a day off because of how sore my arms and shoulders are. I'm using a 7" orbital buffer but still removing the compound by hand, and it's taking me extra time to keep washing my polishing rags because they get all clogged up with red paint.
Toyota apparently did not use a clearcoat on this truck, not sure if that was an option or not. I'm taking extra care on all hard edges because I have no idea how thin the paint might be after 20 years.

Step two will be a good application of Collonite Insulator Wax, then I can take some larger photos of the truck outside of the garage and post them up!

 

Looks great! Single stage paint. No clearcoat needed or having to worry about clearcoat failure years down the road.

 

I've heard nothing but good things about Griots compounds and polishes. Or creams as they call them. Their second most aggressive compound (Fast Correcting Cream) finishes almost as good as a polish.

 

I have a Griot's 6" DA. I haven't used their polishes yet though. I've been using 3D HD Speed polish with a black microfiber pad & it's did really well for my needs. Once it runs out I will probably give Griot's a try though.

 

Nice work!

FYI if you use a 5" backing plate and 5.5" pads on a DA polisher, the work will go much more quickly. The smaller pad focuses more pressure across the surface and cuts more effectively than larger pads.

 

Thanks everybody!

Good call! I will do that next time for sure. An added bonus is that you can get the pad into tighter areas, such as around window trim, door handles, emblems, etc.

 

I'm a big fan of every griots product I have tried, including their da polisher. I swapped to a 5" backing plate and it really does a nice job.
Your paint looks amazing. I just finished a full paint correction on a 1995 Chevy pickup myself and know what you're going through.
One thing I will recommend is giving a sealant a try once you're done. I went with jescar powerlock and it's great to work with and offers a lot more protection than a wax. And from what I have read, collinite goes great on top of powelock. Its definitely worth the investment for a sealant. After all that work you may want to consider a ceramic coating too, carpro cquartz UK 3.0 would be the way to go, and you could do a double coat or ceramic for about $50 and be covered for 3+ years. Just a thought.

Here's the Chevy after paint correction and jescar powelock

 

WOW, that paint really came alive after the compound. It makes you appreciate the colors that auto manufacturers were using back in the '90s; there were a lot of variants on blue and green. Awesome work.

Did you do any other prep work before the compound, such as a clay bar or wet-sanding the bad areas?

 

Thanks, and I agree, I miss some of the older style colors that cars and trucks used to be.
Before I used the compound I used IronX spray and a clay mit over the whole truck to decon it the best I could. Also foamed it with dawn dish soap and some simple green to degrease it a little. Followed by a normal wash. No wet sanding even though a few spots could have benefited from that.

 

Finally done!

It was a lot of work but the end result made it all worth it. BTW, you might notice I don't have any pictures of the driver's side of the truck. It's not like there's a huge dent on that side or anything like that, but the sun was on that side and it was a little too intense in the photos.

Now I just need to do something about the centercaps on those wheels...

 

That looks absolutely amazing. Great job. What did you use to protect your work?

 

Thanks! I went with

$22 Collinite 845 Insulator Wax-Easy to Use Carnauba+Polymer Wax Sealant-High Gloss Shine+Durable Hydrophobic Beading & Long Lasting Paint Protection for Cars/Boats/Trucks/RVs & Motorcycles (16 fl oz)

Collinite 845 Insulator Wax, which is what I use on my Mustang.

Next time I will try a sealant to make the whole thing a little more permanent, such as the Powerlock or ceramic coating you mentioned.

 

It sure looks good man. Congrats. If you do try the powerlock, you'll fall in love with it. That combined with collinite and that truck will shine bright for months