To wax or not to wax

I would suggest you keep waxing the truck. The wax acts like another protective layer for your paint and clearcoat. My old Freightliner never got waxed before I bought it and the paint really showed. It was dull and rough to the touch. Basically mother nature and all the other elements in our world destroyed the clearcoat then started to attack the paint. Even buffing the paint out didn't help much. If ya don't protect the paint you'll have this problem and the paint will actually hold the dirt.

 

I agree.

We had to polish the paint on out '03 T800. The clearcoat was gone when my boss bought it, and the soot stuck like a SOB! VERY rough paint. After polishing, it is now smooth, and fairly easy to keep clean.

 

I think it depends which Imron is on the truck. 5000 i would wax. 6000 no,the clear is so much better.. just my .02

 

Depends.... do you wash the truck yourself or have it done. IF you have it done anywhere that uses Simple Green, Purple Power and similar stuff, it'll take off whatever wax you put on.....

 

What did you use to polish it out, My truck is white and it just looks dirty and I can't get the soot of either. I have held off waxing it untill I can find a way to get it clean first

 

You're right about getting it clean first. NEVER use dish soap or any such greasecutting type heavy soaps on your rig or you remove more than dirt.
If you're a biker or car enthusiast, you probably know that Polish actually works the surface of paint, smoothing it to a shine, and Wax covers the paint, protecting it. Certain polishes also do some cleaning as they buff, but it's better to get her as clean as you can first.
Years ago I bought some TT pipes for my old Triumph motorcycle and a bud got a set too. 6 months later his looked new and mine looked like heck, a satin patina on them. He never touched them without water spray first, and I always wiped them with a rag. The rag picked up the dust and turned into sandpaper.
In a similar vein, it's why people use the 2 or 3 bucket method to wash: clean water is used to rinse the brush every so often to get the dirt off of it instead of wiping the paint with it. I think it was the McGuire's polish that had these type instructions on the can.
Another trick: take 2 identical cars and wash them...one looks better than the other, but no one can tell why. The answer: one had the window glass cleaned and the other didn't.
A waxed car (truck?) will actually get better fuel mileage than a dirty one. Unless you keep stopping to pick up women in your shiny 290.

 

Our truck is white/blue. The blue paint on the fenders might be newer. It was smoother and easy to clean, unlike the cab.

IIRC, we used a 3M fine cut buffing compound and a DA polisher. Ours was bad enough, the truck pretty much needed to "wet sanded" to smooth the paint. Being rough, it holds and catches all of that soot, and if the paint isn't smooth, it is nearly impossible to remove the soot. We also had the same problem trying to clean the red clay off of the cab, for the same reason.

ONLY other way I was able to clean it before we polished the paint, was a mix of water, Simple Green, Oil Eater and just a touch of citric acid aluminum brightener. Needed a stiff cleaning brush and a lot of time.......................

 

YOW! That was some nasty paint, man!

 

I tried some rubbing compound last fall and your right it was hard to get off, but it didn't really get all the soot of anyway, I was thinking about trying the brightner, guess I'll have to give it a try