Pictures: RUPES Detailing Class with Jason Rose & Mike Phillips

[Mike Phillips]

Pictures: RUPES Detailing Class with Jason Rose & Mike Phillips


On Saturday, December 2nd and Sunday, December 3rd, 2017, Jason Rose the Global Director of Training for RUPES and Mike Phillips the Director of Training for Autogeek were the instructors for 2 days of intense hands-on training here at Autogeek's Show Car Garage in Stuart, Florida!




Friday's Class
The first day was an introduction to machine polishing featuring RUPES BigFoot Paint Polishing System.

Saturday's Class
The second day covered Advanced Machine Polishing featuring RUPES BigFoot tools, pads and products.


This same class is coming up on Friday, September 14th and Saturday, September 15th at RUPES USA Headquarters in Louisville, Colorado.


Click here for more information or to sign-up online



Or call Andre at


800-869-3011 x244


Andre can answer any questions you have and get you signed-up over the phone.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

This class goes over all the RUPES long stroke orbital polishers, pads and product including the new RUPES LK 900E Mille 5mm Gear-driven Orbital Polisher and the RUPES LHR 19E Rotary Polisher.


In the front is the RUPES LHR 19E Rotary Polisher. Behind it is the RUPES LK 900E Mille 5mm Gear-driven Orbital Polisher





Like we do for ALL our classes, both classes held here at Autogeek and for our Roadshow Classes, we bring in a variety of cool cars for the class to train on.

For the Friday class, the focus was on proper techniques for,

1. Evaluating the finish.
2. diagnosing the defects.
3. Doing a Test Spot.
4. Using the RUPES BigFoot paint polishing system to undo the damage and restore a swirl-free, show car finish.

For the Saturday class, these are the topics covered,

1. Wet sanding.
2. Edge work using iBrid Nano polishers.
3. Removing sanding marks.
4. Polishing out swirl and hologram free.
5. Sealing the paint.

For the Friday class we have a Streetrod and a Muscle car, both with basecoat/clearcoat paint systems like the car in your garage or driveway. And both have horrible swirls and scratches....


1947 Ford Streetrod







1967 Chevelle
This car has the factory 427 BBC with dual quad carburetors and 4-Speed







Now take a closer look.... the 1947 Ford offers a real challenge due to all the CURVED body panels.

On the other hand, the 1967 Chevelle has very simple flat panels with a lot of tight intricate areas to polish.

Together, these two cars provide a great hands-on experience to learn the RUPES paint polishing system.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...


Classroom is set-up and ready to go....









The Chevelle you see on the other side of the 1947 Ford Streetrod was here for some video work with Jason and I the day before the class.







Class is starting!

Jason likes to start all his classes asking everyone what the most important things are that they want to get out of the class. I really like this idea and now incorporate it in all my classes and of course, give Jason due credit.







After a brief Power Point Presentation we switch over to the hands-on portion.




Jason demonstrates the Mille gear-driven orbital polisher. At this point we are doing what is call a

Test Spot

The idea being to test the products, pads and tools you think will work to one small area and prove the "system" before buffing out the entire car.




After doing some testing with microfiber pads and the Mille, we found the basecoat/clearcoat paint on the 1967 Chevelle was SUPER SOFT. Microfiber pads were removing the swirls and scratches but also leaving some light haze behind. At this point we re-tested using RUPES yellow foam polishing pads and found the very non-aggressive yellow foam polishing pad plus the RUPES Keramik Gloss Fine Cut Compound was more than enough to remove the defects and create a beautiful finish.






Second car = Second Test Spot

We also did a Test Spot on the basecoat/clearcoat paint system on the 1947 Ford Streetrod and found it to have very hard paint!

This just goes to show how important it is to ALWASY do a Test Spot on every car if you've never worked on the car in the past. You cannot know if a paint system is hard or soft or somewhere in-between without testing.

After dialing in and proving our process for both cars we turned the class loose and then Jason and I moved around the classroom watching each person work and when needed, offering suggestions to improve or tweak their technique.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

Correction Step

In RUPES lingo, this Chevelle is getting Yellow/Yellow - that is the RUPES Keramik Gloss Fine Compound with the RUPES yellow foam polishing pads...


































On the other side of the garage, the class is using Blue/Blue - that is the very aggressive RUPES blue coarse foam cutting pad with the RUPES Zephir Gloss Compound.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

Polishing Step


Next for the Chevelle everyone is using White/White - that is the RUPES Diamond Ultra Fine Compound with the ultra soft white foam finishing pads.






















On the 1947 Ford Streetrod, the class is using a combination of the RUPES Yellow/Yellow and also White/White to do the finish polishing. We wanted everyone to get a chance to use both the yellow pads and also the white pads as there's nothing smoother than finishing out a car using the RUPES Diamond Ultra Fine Compound with the ultra soft white foam finishing pads - it's super smooth and the glass like results are incredible.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

After the polishing step the paint was sealed using RUPES P808 Protective Sealant
(sorry no pictures)


RUPES P808 Protective Sealant






And here are the results....


1967 Chevelle














1947 Ford Streetrod















Two diamonds in the rough turned into glistening gemstones!






And here's the team that made the magic happen!

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

Saturday is the Advanced Class were we go over doing edge work, (working thin panels and intricate areas), as well as wet sanding, using rotary buffers and then back to orbital polishers to finish out swirl-free.

This is also what I call,

The art of polishing paint

Not as many pictures on Saturday, but enough that you can easily see there simply is no sitting in our classes. People learn best by doing, not sitting.


Here you can see the class learns to use tools like 3M Blue Vinyl Tape to protect raised body lines and edges before sanding. The blue tape is also a visual indicator while sanding because a raised body line can disappear when it's covered with sanding slurry.







Here's Jason sharing the RUPES LHR 19E Rotary Polisher and the correct way to remove sanding marks to restore a clear, glossy finish.








Everyone is hands-on in our classes....

































Time to wipe down, de-tape and prep for sealing with P808 Protective Sealant



Again, sorry, no pictures of the sealing step...

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

And here are the results.... these are off my cell phone, sorry there are not any using a real camera....
















And the good news - no one ever saw the color of the basecoat on the face of any of the pads....

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

Certification Award Ceremony

There are separate certifications for each day as the topics taught each day are different.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


Here are video testimonies by people that attended this class.

Watch the video and see what they have to say...






Note: The video will not display if you're using the Microsoft Internet Explorer.