Technique is everything

[Mike Phillips]

Technique is everything

And now it's time for Tanya to show the guys how it's done...

Pictures & Comments from September 19th Detailing 102 Class

"Technique is everything"

I just read that in the middle of page 10 in my how-to book and it made me think about how often someone asks,

Question: Which foam pads are best?



Answer: Buffing pads are important but as long as you're using a good quality, clean foam pad with a quality product, technique becomes more important than the pad or the products.

When using a rotary buffer you need to focus on the task at hand... she's got that down...



Notice in the above and below pictures how Tanya's opted to hold the head of the polisher instead of the D-Handle? Holding the head, or in other words getting her grip closer to the transfer point of power to paint gives here more leverage over the tool and makes buffing easy... of course Hyper-Polish has an excellent buffing cycle and that makes it super easy to buff with...


Perfect technique



Perfect practice makes perfect...

[Chris Thomas]

Yep.

[WaxOnWaxOffNoob]

And that's one of the main reasons I joined, I wanted to learn the best techniques.. Can't have a Sunday Driver behind the wheel of a race car :-)

[tuscarora dave]

In a Vo-Tech school, you have one week of theory (Class room learning) then you have a week of shop. (Hands on learning)

It's in the week of shop where you learn about technique. It really can't exist without hands on experience.

[richy]

Mike, I hear an "Amen" to that brother.

[Mike Phillips]

And it's technique that can be a stumbling block for people new to machine polishing when they do their Test Spot.


Here's what I wrote in my how-to book in Chapter 1, Car Paint Overview on the popular topic of whether the paint on a car is hard or soft. This can be found on page 10 if you have a copy of my how-to book, note the portion in blue that has to do with the fact that technique is everything...


Hard Paint Or Soft Paint
When you go to work on your car in your garage, the best thing you can do is what we call a Test Spot. This is where you’ll test the products pads and procedures to see if they’ll remove the defects and restore a show car finish. This is called dialing-in your paint polishing process.

The usually means starting out with the least aggressive products you have available. IF your test spots reveals that your first choice of products is not working neither effectively nor fast enough, you can always try again. For next test spot, try substituting a more aggressive product, pad or both.

Once you determine a combination of products that will remove the defects and restore a show car shine to your expectations, then all you have to do is duplicate this process over the rest of the car. Your test spot will prove your paint polishing process either works or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t work then you continue testing until you dial-in a pad, product and process that does work. If you run into trouble the best thing you can do is to join the AutogeekOnline.net discussion forum and start a new thread describing the issues you’re seeing and our forum community will chime in and help you to dial in a process that works.

If the results from your test spot works, that is the results look GREAT to your eyes, then knowing this will give you the confidence to tackle the rest of the car and you won’t be spinning your wheels wasting your time using a product, pad and/or process that isn’t working. I started writing about how to do a Test Spot on the Internet back in 1994, that’s nineteen years ago so “yes” I believe it’s very important to learn how to do a test spot and to do one every time you’re working on a car you’ve never worked on before or you’re using products you’ve never used before.

Asking on a discussion forum whether the paint on your car is hard or soft can be a good way to get other people’s opinions on the matter. If they have the same car with the same factory original paint, then their opinion can be even more valuable. That said, the best way to find out is to go out into your garage and try a couple of product first-hand and find out for yourself how difficult or easy it is to remove defects from the paint.

You need experience
The more cars you work on, the more experience you’ll gain with a wider range of paint systems. You’ll soon be able to gauge if the paint on a car is hard or soft after doing a few test spots. The harder the paint, the more difficult it will be to remove swirls, scratches and water spots. The softer the paint, the easier it will be and after buffing on the paint during your test spot you’ll have a good idea if the paint is hard or soft.

Nothing beats first-hand experience. Your personal skill level will have a huge influence on your success or failure and can actually mislead you regarding polishabilty of the paint. For example, if you’re new to machine polishing, you’re still honing your skills and technique, then removing swirls and scratches out of soft paint may seem difficult to you. Put someone with lots of experience in the same garage with the same car and they may find the paint is soft and show you just how fast and easy it is to remove swirls and scratches.


Perfect practice makes perfect...

[FASTFRED]

And it's technique that can be a stumbling block for people new to machine polishing when they do their Test Spot.


Here's what I wrote in my how-to book in Chapter 1, Car Paint Overview on the popular topic of whether the paint on a car is hard or soft. This can be found on page 10 if you have a copy of my how-to book, note the portion in blue that has to do with the fact that technique is everything...


Hard Paint Or Soft Paint
When you go to work on your car in your garage, the best thing you can do is what we call a Test Spot. This is where you’ll test the products pads and procedures to see if they’ll remove the defects and restore a show car finish. This is called dialing-in your paint polishing process.

The usually means starting out with the least aggressive products you have available. IF your test spots reveals that your first choice of products is not working neither effectively nor fast enough, you can always try again. For next test spot, try substituting a more aggressive product, pad or both.

Once you determine a combination of products that will remove the defects and restore a show car shine to your expectations, then all you have to do is duplicate this process over the rest of the car. Your test spot will prove your paint polishing process either works or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t work then you continue testing until you dial-in a pad, product and process that does work. If you run into trouble the best thing you can do is to join the AutogeekOnline.net discussion forum and start a new thread describing the issues you’re seeing and our forum community will chime in and help you to dial in a process that works.

If the results from your test spot works, that is the results look GREAT to your eyes, then knowing this will give you the confidence to tackle the rest of the car and you won’t be spinning your wheels wasting your time using a product, pad and/or process that isn’t working. I started writing about how to do a Test Spot on the Internet back in 1994, that’s nineteen years ago so “yes” I believe it’s very important to learn how to do a test spot and to do one every time you’re working on a car you’ve never worked on before or you’re using products you’ve never used before.

Asking on a discussion forum whether the paint on your car is hard or soft can be a good way to get other people’s opinions on the matter. If they have the same car with the same factory original paint, then their opinion can be even more valuable. That said, the best way to find out is to go out into your garage and try a couple of product first-hand and find out for yourself how difficult or easy it is to remove defects from the paint.

You need experience
The more cars you work on, the more experience you’ll gain with a wider range of paint systems. You’ll soon be able to gauge if the paint on a car is hard or soft after doing a few test spots. The harder the paint, the more difficult it will be to remove swirls, scratches and water spots. The softer the paint, the easier it will be and after buffing on the paint during your test spot you’ll have a good idea if the paint is hard or soft.

Nothing beats first-hand experience. Your personal skill level will have a huge influence on your success or failure and can actually mislead you regarding polishabilty of the paint. For example, if you’re new to machine polishing, you’re still honing your skills and technique, then removing swirls and scratches out of soft paint may seem difficult to you. Put someone with lots of experience in the same garage with the same car and they may find the paint is soft and show you just how fast and easy it is to remove swirls and scratches.


Perfect practice makes perfect...

Great write up Mike .

[custmsprty]

Resurrecting this as it's great info from Mike.

[JeffM]

Makes me want to learn the rotary!

[Setec Astronomy]

Mike's viewpoint evolved from this thread in 2012 to this one in 2016: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ml#post1351283