Here's a few things that either I have done or plan to do. They're all little additions to your detailing process that can potentially make a HUGE difference.

1. Paint your frame. Rust Oleum and/or rubberized undercoating work wonders here
2. Paint your wheel wells. Again, Rust oleum is great (for the back, you can get it in the relative color of your existing wheel well paint), and rubberized undercoating is excellent (for the front).
3. Polish out your toolbox Often times the most neglected part, which has the most potential to really shine. Yes the diamond plating is a PITA, but it's worth it. Good products for this are: Mothers Powerball, Megs Hot Rims Mag & Aluminum polish
4. Paint your brushguard. These often look great new, but fade to a greyish color, yet have the potential to look stellar. Rust Oleum here is great.
5. Paint you plastic trim Do a search. I won't go into detail on this one, but it, lke these others, is a HUGE improvement, and with little work
6. Clean/Paint parts (or all of) the engine bay RP's pic (along with several others) shows what an engine bay COULD look like. Most of the time, the weekend details only cover paint, interior, and tires/wheels...
7. Use Plast-X occasionally. Don't be afraid to use several applications. The 3rd brake light, especially, is a common culprit of being dull looking.
8. Paint the inside (or all) of your exhaust I did this, as have others. The visible part of the inside of the tailpipe really looks nasty. Take some Rust Oleum High temp Oven/grill paint and get-r-done. Looks really sharp. I went ahead and did all that could be seen from the rear axle back. I think it looks pretty cool.
9. Paint your brake calipers. The kit at any auto parts store is around $15, and it makes a world of difference. It turns them from that rusty color to a nice glossy color. In my case, I did black because I don't have the truck to back up a showy color. (V-6, 4x2, XL)
10. Paint your rear axle This is the most visible part of your truck from cars behind you, and I'm telling you, you will get many compliments off of this. Rust Oleum (I know, I'm making them rich) is great here.

Please send me any ideas you have for more complimentary projects to the detailing adventure. The are the top 10 in my book, but I'd love to hear from you all.

 

Good tips! Do you have any pics???

 

I've done, and do everything on that list. That is GREAT advice. It is especially noticeable in pictures, or at night (wheel wells, underside, exhaust paint, axle housing paint etc).

 

Nice post. I maintain many of the undercarriage painted parts with a long-handled nylon brush at the very end of my wash. Once complete, it'll get a good coating of some type of dressing to give it some flair.

 

these are great, I would like to expound on a few of them.

One little trick I learned while working at a "Note Lot" the engine rebuilder use sprayed clear spray paint on the engine after it was cleaned and rebuilt. It looked great. Never had the ***** to do that myself.

so what is the trick to painting the rear axle without paint going freaking everywhere?

I use hyperdress under the truck and do that before I wash etc b/c I ALWAYS see that stuff speckled all over the paint.

 

I've heard of the clearcoat deal-- but it says in the detailing book I have that it's meant to be a short term fix, and WILL yellow, crack, and shorten the life of all rubbers, plastics, etc. It's a great trick for used car lots to get the final touch on the car. But, again, Ive never had the ***** to do it, either, so I can't say i that's true. I don't plan on it.

I dunno. Honestly, I planned on pulling out the clybar after painting, but it somehow didn't get on there. I will say this, though, there was a light breeze going laterally, so it may have caused some airflow that prevented overspray on the paint. Since you live in Keller (and I live in Saginaw), I wouldn't have a problem helping you out. PM or email me if you want to do something. I'll be gone next week, so not then. This week should be good, though. Also, we need to find out who else is around and do a g2g.

 

Hey I want to take you up on that or at least check out what you have done. , share some tips and tell some lies. Wife and I are headed down to Cozumel next week so it will be a few weeks but lets plan on it. Will drop you a pm.

JP

 

I can tell your from experience that the bad far outweighs the good unless you are passing the vechile off to someone you don't know that will never find you..

can't speak directly to the shortening the wear life of things under the hood .. but it is a pain to clean up an engine bay after someone else has cleared it ..

there was also a product running around in the 80's called engine brite that did the same thing as clear, but didn't yellow as bad . not sure if it is still around .. it made things look great, but was also a real pain to remove .. once you stared using it, you were stuck using it forever, unless you wanted to go under your hood with some rubbing alcohol and a q-tip or 600.

 

Hmm... maybe that's what was on my grandfather's "OJ Simpson" Bronco's engine compartment. (he named it OJ after all of that chaos -- it's a white one that looks just like the one in the OJ fiasco). I couldn't figure out what in the heck all of that stuff was...

It was flakey, yellowed, and really looked lousy. My grandfather wanted to figure out how to get it all off. I told him that I had no idea how to go about it.

It makes perfectly good sense now...

Great post guys...

 

Good stuff. I think I'm going to go around painting the wheel wells black. BTW, what color did you paint the exhaust, flat black?

 

Actually, no personal experience-- but it was in the detailing book I got at Barnes and Noble. (see this link)

I may haveworded it badly, but I sorta said I read it in my 11:40PM post last night...Either way, it says the same thing you said in different words.
I painted it with the Rust Oleum High Temp Black paint. I was hoping it would be a flat black, but it's a semi gloss. I'm not sure if it'll loose the gloss after it's been exposed to a little weather, but I hope it does. On the other hand, with the exception of the couple of runs I put in it, it almost looks like black chrome. So I'm happy with it.

--Speaking of this trick, Lumadar, I think this one I got from you. I couldn't remember who posted about this very topic a month or so ago, but after seeing that you had done all of these (or at least all applicable ones), Ifigure it must have been you that I got the idea from.
--04RedLariat's undercarriage gave me the idea to clean and paint mine.
-- I don't remember who gave me the idea to do the wheel wells, and the brake calipers idea was from my neighbor.
--Most of the other stuff I kinda thought of while roaming through my garage.

To all of you who gave me the ideas, Thanks.

 

A how to would be great!

 

I know Ryan is out of town...but he did a how to for me.

It was pretty simple. Live near him, have him do it with you...pray for no wind.

Wow....that didn't come out right did it? Sorry Ryan...

 

I've never dealth with Rust Oleum...is it sprayed on or brushed? Has anyone ever heard of having spray-in bedliner sprayed in the fender wells, frame, etc.? I'm sure that would not be cheap though.

 

The Rust Oleum is spray on with a can, though I think you can find it in brushable form.

BTW, I've painted the wheel wells black, as well as the rear axle. Looks really shart. Expeditions are pretty low, so I don't know how visible it is from the back, but I think it looks nice Going to Walmart to get the high temp spray to paint the exhaust.