Class in Session ... Kiwi Detailing Class.

[Aaryn NZ]

Hello Team AGO.

A couple of weeks prior to the New Zealand COVID-19 Lockdown Ange & I held our second Introductory Detailing Class at our shop for an intimate group of four very enthusiastic students.


A quick introduction, meet & greet to get to know everyone & run over a few things we would cover during the class ...




All four of our students were relatively new to the industry & actually there were supposed to be two more but they had not started at the dealership at the time so are in the pipeline for the next available class we hold. Three of the four had never even touched a polisher before this class but by the end of the day they all had the confidence to keep doing so.


Outside in the sunshine for some hands on washing & decontamination ...







Now this isn’t a Mike Phillips Class by any means but I have adopted the “hands on” approach to teaching/learning & whilst at the moment I keep it fairly simple in terms of tools & only really showcase FLEX Tools & DAS-6 Random Orbital DA Tools. As time goes by & more interest is shown (already have strong interest for seven more students) perhaps we could look at doing a multiple day class & cover more tools, equipment & processes.


... Blowing minds with the Baggy Test & Clay Towels ...








Wheel & Tyre cleaning ...



Foam & more decontamination being done ...













I picked up some great tips from Mike during our visit in January & I did my best to keep the group tight & interested the whole time. For now & until I gain a decent enough following I’ll stick to using the dealership cars but seeing as I have a well established reputation in the SIV scene here, I’m sure I could get some very cool cars to work on in these classes too.

So our class is structured around an Introductory approach to the art of detailing & Ange & I set about teaching about the techniques, processes, tools & products to do with exterior detailing to a quality standard.
We started with a brief introduction, meet & greet & ran over what we were going to be doing & talking about throughout the day.

Heading outside & getting stuck in to the washing process, talking about careful wash techniques & aggressive wash techniques & where & when to do so. The order in which I carry out my wash process wash a surprise to them & you could almost see that “lightbulb” go on as we went on. A favourite thing to demonstrate to anyone is always mechanical decontamination. I use clay towels in the shop & not one of our students had even heard of clay or synthetic clay ... this was going to be fun, & it was! Talk about blowing their minds! They were fascinated & really took the information I was relaying to them in like sponges.



A quick PowerPoint session to talk about the tools, pads, products & all the in between bits of machine polishing ...








So, we were really to get hands on tools & tools onto paint. I gave a quick demonstration of carrying out a section pass & then let them at it. A couple were very very nervous at this point & after some reassurance, we were all set to go ...


Got them in close Mike ...















Everyone was having a blast with tools in hand. Now I consider myself very fortunate to be in the position to pass on the knowledge I have gained over the course of 25 + years in this industry & I also consider myself extremely fortunate to be the only person in New Zealand to have Three of the family of four FLEX Cordless tools. To date the only Cordless FLEX available in NZ is the XFE15 150 & by the end of the lockdown I believe the PE-150 will be available too but for now the FLEX XCE 8-125 (CBEAST) the PXE 80 12-EC (PiXiE) & the PE-150 are limited to the ones in my possession.

This group of four are most likely the only folks inside New Zealand aside from myself to use these tools & I was only too happy to oblige ...


FLEX CBEAST in action - let them at it ...

















... to be continued ...


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[fly07sti]

Ur killin it Bro! If you tell me I can smoke cigars down at the shop, I may just have to move.

[Aaryn NZ]

... continued ...

Everyone loved the FLEX Cordless polishers ... haha, I kinda knew they would ... now, if only I was a reseller ...


The PiXiE got its fair share of work too, & yeah, this was a crowd favourite. The FLEX PXE 80 12-EC is a hard tool to dislike.















So we carried out a solid two step polish & a hand applied sealant on this to try & maximise efficiency for them & the dealership whilst still producing great results. They were very happy with the ease of achieving said results & the time in which they did so, plus, they all had a fun time doing so.















Unfortunately due to the amount of information & work we had to get through, I didn’t snap any before & after pictures of the car itself but all in all it came out really good. Sure was hammered before too so it was a good indication of what can be done.

In my opinion a lot of the time dealership work can be cut down to the basics of a really well done AIO & I demonstrated this with the use of Free Spinning Random Orbital DA’s & the help of 3D HD Speed. Everyone loved the ease of this process & the results achieved.

















And after a solid debriefing at the end of the day, that was us, we were done & everyone went away buzzing with excitement & enthusiasm. I caught up with a couple of people who work at the dealerships to see what the consensus was amongst the students when they returned to work (& didn’t feel obliged to say it was great) & I’m really happy to report that although a couple had doubts about the worth of our class, all were incredibly impressed & blown away with what they came away with.

Pretty proud of Ange & myself to be fair ...




Thank you all for taking the time to check this out, I appreciate it! Stay safe & Well Everyone.


Aaryn NZ.




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[Mike Phillips]

Awesome!

I agree, you're killing it!



Now you need to create a really nice certificate of completion for your students. You're qualified, so do it.

I think I've now seen more pictures of people on their feet, tools in hands, getting real-world hands-on training than anyone else that teaches classes. (outside of my own photo-documentation of classes)


That's the way you do iit! A picture tells a thousand words my friend....



Also - are you charging for your classes yet? If not, that's the next step.


I'll send the link to this thread to FLEX.


:bow: :bow: :bow:

[Aaryn NZ]

Ur killin it Bro! If you tell me I can smoke cigars down at the shop, I may just have to move.

Haha, thank you my Brother.

Don, you guys are always welcome here .... I’ll buy the matches my friend.

Awesome!

I agree, you're killing it!



Now you need to create a really nice certificate of completion for your students. You're qualified, so do it.

I think I've now seen more pictures of people on their feet, tools in hands, getting real-world hands-on training than anyone else that teaches classes. (outside of my own photo-documentation of classes)


That's the way you do iit! A picture tells a thousand words my friend....



Also - are you charging for your classes yet? If not, that's the next step.


I'll send the link to this thread to FLEX.


:bow: :bow: :bow:

Thank you Mike.

I appreciate the kind words & the encouragement.

We do in fact have, what I think are pretty cool Certificates ... at first I thought I wasn’t really worthy of being able to create such a document but then I figured that if these folks see me as being worthy enough to pay money to learn from, then yeah, yeah I can give them something in return. I will get a picture of them when we’re allowed out again ...

Thank you for the support my friend.


Aaryn NZ.