After one year, my patriot Blue 2500 06 Ram is not looking so Good.

The paint on Dodge trucks sucks, my truck still looks good from ten feet, but the lower rockers are almost white from rock chips, I installed mud flaps just after I bought my truck, I would hate to see the rockers with out them.

My truck is a worker and thiers scratchs in the paint in a few palces, they look like claw marks, nothing major, just visable.

I'm the master at painting cars with spary cans, so I best do this right, Whats the best way to get my truck looking new again?

I have mopar touch up paint for the rockers and is thier a rubbing coumpound I can use to rub out the scratchs, some will need the paint and than I would like to power polish the paint.

The BFG tires are the cause of the chips as the tread picks up rocks and mud and if I had bought fender flares I would not be having this issue, also the rims stick out a bit from the wheal wells.

Othier wise my truck goes to work and is bound to pick up a few tags along the way ...

 

Start out with some Meguiars scratch X rub it in really good then wipe it off like it says, then give it a nice good coat of wax with a buffer. Then next week give it a good hand wax, i've found Klasse worksmiracles on my black paint. Try continuing this same process for a couple weeks, then just keep it washed regularly and instead of waxing it each time use some detail spray.

 

A sugestion would be to consider covering the lower rocker panels with Line-X or Rhino. They also will put on the invisible bra on them. That will definately protect it.
They all also cost about the same $350-$400

 

If the scratches are deep, wet-sanding may be the only way to fix them, best left to someone who knows their way around a rotary-buffer. If you only have mudflaps, look into fender flares, they protect more. I also agree with the rocker coverage of some sort, but if it's that much of a work truck, it's only going to get worse. Stay cheap and start saving up for a new paint job now!

 

One way to protect the rockers in the future, in addition to the flaps you already have done, nerf bars. They will "intercept" some of the flying projectiles

 

polish with a buffer (use a liquid polish). then wax. might even try clay bar'ing it before both.

 

Thanks all for your exceallant advice.

 

Read the Guide to Detailing in the Detailing section. There are also some topics in there about paint touch up, wetsanding, and rubbing out after.