FJ Tech Report

Trail pinstripes optional

Step-by-step removal method

By Dean Rodgers

LAKE OSWEGO, Oregon (May 15, 2007) — In all my years of car ownership, I've never cared much about washing. The first one was a white S-10 pickup and the second was a pewter Silverado. Neither looked all that bad dirty. I think I might have waxed the S-10 once and I might have had the Silverado waxed once. Otherwise, it was a trip through the carwash or a quick douching with Tide every 3-6 months. I liked both vehicles fine, but they were just tools. I didn't worry about them too much.

The FJ is the first vehicle I've owned that struck an emotional chord. It is also the first vehicle I've taken off-road. Mine is Black Cherry. Looks great clean, but shows dirt (or dust or pollen or whatever) easily. And, of course, when you go off-road -- at least around here, you have trees and branches and thorns going at the paint like no tomorrow.

I realized quickly that I was going to have to learn how to care for the exterior of the FJ properly -- particularly since I noticed car washes don't cut it for this truck and the soap at the do-it-yourself car wash place tends to take all the wax off.

After looking at a few posts here and elsewhere, it seemed as if Griot's or Meguiar's products were the favorites and that a random orbital sander is the way to go for polishing and waxing. I looked at the Web sites for both. Both have tons of really good info. Since Griot's is sort of local, I went with them. They have more things to wash and deal with your car than I knew existed. After spending a few minutes on the site I called and spoke with a very knowledgeable sales person. Apparently all the sales folk are required to maintain their own vehicles using the Griot's products.

After a few discussions I placed an order for various car wash stuff, polishes, wax some micro-fiber towels and the orbital sander they sell (they used to sell Porter Cable, but they now have their own manufactured because they wanted to make a few changes). A very good book and video came with the gear. I was very glad to have these since the use of a mechanical device on the truck with no prior knowledge seemed a little daunting. It proved to be no problem.

Step 1 — Washing: Using a decent mitt and real car wash soap left me with a cleaner and nicer looking truck than ever before. Using the micro fiber towels made drying faster, easier and more effective.

Step 2 — Clay Bar:  the use of a clay bar and another Griot washing product got the rest of the crud that you can't see -- but you sure can feel -- off the truck. At this point, the truck was clean and was starting to look good.

Step 3 — Polish: This got 90% of the pinstripes out and 100% of the swirls from car washing and all the other random micro-scratches that I never knew were optional on a vehicle. I'm pretty sure that I could have spent more time and gotten nearly all of the pinstripes out, but the project was already getting a little time consuming. Some day I'll pick up one of those mechanic stools on wheels and spend some more time dealing with detailing, but my back was already hurting and good enough was looking pretty good. Plus, my understanding was that waxing covers a lot of scratches.

Step 4 — Waxing: This was pretty fast with the power tool. When I got done, the truck looked amazing. From 3 feet away, not a single scratch could be seen. I drove the truck in to the sunlight and BLAM -- all the swirl marks were gone and the scratches you could see were still barely noticeable. At this point, if you really studied the vehicle, you would be able to see that it has been off-road. However, first impression would be more "Wow, clean truck" than "Ewwwww, scratches." (TM Noisy inc.) And there is something nice about sliding your fingers across a freshly waxed rig.

I really regret not waxing the roof before putting the Gobi Stealth up there. Haven't found a way to wash the roof. I picked up a washer on a stick from Maguire's, but it is still too thick. I think I'll take the rack off some time and go a really good wax job then.

I also learned that Griot's makes a product called paint sealant. It is used instead of wax. The finish is not as brilliant as wax, but it apparently lasts a lot longer. It is designed for vehicles that have to be parked outside and/or vehicles that aren't going to get a regular (quarterly or so) waxing.

Our group did a very muddy run yesterday. One of the guys had just waxed his and mud didn't even stick. He also got less pin striping.

There are also products for cleaning glass, head-liners, plastic, wheels, tires, undercarriages, etc. For those who are anal and don't mind spending a whole weekend cleaning, you could go nuts here, but enough is enough. They offer a variety of starter kits. The online catalog is not nearly as good as the hard copy catalog. If you want to go from zero to fully ready to detail in one swoop, it is probably best to order over the phone so you can ask questions.

I can highly recommend Griot's (www.griotsgarage.com). Good products, knowledgeable staff, fast shipping, etc.

Today's project took about 6 hours. I think it could be done in 4. If you want to do wheels, tires, undercarriage, etc. it would take longer. I'm told some people really get a lot of pleasure out of doing this kind of work. I still considered it work, but it was a nice bonding experience with the vehicle. Also, from a financial perspective, I'd think that the money I spent on all the stuff comes close to what you would pay to have a pro do it. And the pro wouldn't do a much better job if at all.

The biggest bummer is that I wasn't even finished waxing and the hood already began to collect dust and pollen. I still think the B.C. is the best looking color (when clean), but if I had it to do all over again, I'd really consider silver.