Pictures: Detailing Classes at Autogeek - May 2014

[Mike Phillips]

Pictures: Detailing Classes at Autogeek - May 2014

We had awesome people and awesome cars our May 2014 Detailing Class here at Autogeek. Here's two pictures showing 4 of the cars for this class, these pictures were taking around 7:00am as the class starts at 7:30am sharp.


Show Car Detailing using Porter Cable, Meguiar's and Griot's Dual Action Polishers







Here's a few pictures of the action!

Started out with Charlie's swirled-out Dodge Ram Truck. This truck was painted back in November and then hacked-up with the misuse of a rotary buffer.

The first class of Saturday morning was focused on how to use basic dual action polishers like the Porter Cable 7424XP the Meguiar's G110v2 the Griot's Garage DA Polisher as well as the Cyclo Polisher.

My class also learned how to use the Nanonskin Autoscrub Pads to mechanically decontaminate this truck before starting.






















Here's what this truck looked like before....

[Mike Phillips]

Second Car

After warming up on the Dodge Ram Truck and learning how to use the basic polishers we then moved onto the black 1958 Impala. This is a true show car except that whoever buffed it out last used only a rotary buffer and left holograms in the paint.

We also did the Baggie Test and the entire car was covered with some type of above surface bonded contaminant so after using Detailer's Waterless Auto Wash to clean this classic we then used Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay to clay then paint. Then we used the Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover and Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish to remove the swirls and perfect the paint and then sealed the paint using Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax.













Here's how the paint looked before....

Holograms

The lines visible in the paint as revealed by bright overhead sun show that the paint on this car has holograms.

The holograms are faint, that is hard to see and without the bright overhead sunlight chances are very good most people would never see them at all.

But I have a trained eye and full overhead bright sunlight.





To make sure everyone understands it's the lines and not the swirls I'm referring to, I've drawn an outline around the holograms using the same picture as seen above.




Plus the normal swirls most show cars acquire after years of being wiped clean with dusters and spray detailers.

[Mike Phillips]

Third Car

Next we learned how to use The Rupes Paint Polishing System including,

Rupes Bigfoot 21
Rupes Bigfoot 15
Rupes Duetto 12
Rupes Mini 12

And after going over with the class how to do a test spot and dial in the perfect combination of Rupes polishes and pads to remove the holograms we chose the Rupes Zephir Gloss Compound with the Blue Foam Cutting Pad followed by the Diamond Ultra Fine Polish with the White Foam Finishing Pads.


First we go over how to do a Test Spot and then evaluate the results.










Here she is in full sun!










And here's how this 1964 Impala looked when it arrived....

Holograms

[Mike Phillips]

Fourth Car

This old streetrod, a 1939 has been neglected for years, maybe decades. The paint truly looked like it was in category #12 of the list of "Paint Condition Categories" in my how-to book.

Category #12 is Past the Point of No Return.

We used the Flex 3401 Forced Rotation, Forced Oscillation with Lake Country Hybrid Foam Cutting and Finishing pads with Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover and Advanced Finishing Polish and then sealed the paint by machine using Dodo Juice
Hard Candy Carnauba Wax.


To mechanically decontaminate we used Nanoskin Autoscrub Towels and Wash Mitts with Detailer's Universal Clay Lube as this car felt like rough sandpaper to the touch.

















I'm so glad I took some before pictures, I let the pictures do the talking....

[Mike Phillips]

Fifth Truck


Next up is my buddy Dave's son Josh's truck, a 2004 Dodge Ram 4x4. I'm not sure Josh has washed this truck in a few years and he works at a boat yard as a welder so the truck is parked in an area of heavy industrial pollution.


First we washed wheels and tires as that's the order I follow for my own vehicles and the order I teach in my classes. Next we sprayed the entire truck down with Iron X and you can see the results. This is called chemical decontamination.






Then we washed the truck using the Foam Gun... everyone loves to use the foam gun....




Production Detailing for Daily Drivers
Next we machine polished it using Pinnacle XMT 360 which is a light cutting cleaner/wax.

First a quick lesson on how to use a cleaner/wax by machine when working on neglected paint.





























And that's how you do it!

[Mike Phillips]

Sixth Car

We used this 1963 Impala to teach how to wetsand by machine and how to use rotary buffers.






The Rupes TA50 with #3000 Trizact being used to "Edge a Panel".

[Mike Phillips]

So many more pictures to share from this class but first it's time to do an extreme makeover on the garage!

[irsankao]

So many toys to use!

[Tato]

Wonderful! Congratulations to the students,

Incredible how you can prepare the follow up steps to cover such ample aspect of detailing, looks like everything was covered, in such a didactic manner...

The 'basic polishers', the Rupes, the 3401, decontamination and claying by all means, sanding, rotaries; everything! You even covered many different colors of vehicles to work on, which also increases the learning.

Congratulations to the teacher!

The results on every car were the best possible.

Congratulations to everyone!

Thanks for sharing.

Hope someday I'll be one more on this crowd.

Kind Regards.

[Mike Phillips]

Wonderful! Congratulations to the students,

I agree. They all worked hard and accomplished a lot.

Incredible how you can prepare the follow up steps to cover such ample aspect of detailing, looks like everything was covered, in such a didactic manner...

The 'basic polishers', the Rupes, the 3401, decontamination and claying by all means, sanding, rotaries; everything! You even covered many different colors of vehicles to work on, which also increases the learning.

Keen observation. We covered 6 different categories of tools on 6 different vehicles and not just any vehicles.


And the chance to machine sand a 1963 Impala SS to learn how to wetsand, cut and buff a car is flat out over the top. This is just another in a series of cool cars we've had here at Autogeek to teach the skills needed to wetsand or more specifically machine damp sand a classic car and then go over all the tools, pads and procedures to remove the sanding marks and create a show car finish.

And I'm pretty sure this is the first class taught in the U.S. where the students had the opportunity to machine damp sand using the Rupes TA50 with 2" sanding discs. This is an awesome tool.


Working on the cars for the September class right now. For everyone reading this into the future, the September class always fill up the fastest so if you want to learn how to use all the cool tool and do all the different procedures as it relates to car detailing then get signed up before the class is full.

Sometime this week I'll post some pictures of the cars I have lined up for the September class.


More pictures to come...