Pictures & Comments: Sept 2014 Detail Boot Camp Class

[Mike Phillips]

Mike,

Thanks so much for documenting the detailing we did at Boot Camp in September. This thread is like an encyclopedia of our work and I can see it being very helpful. I keep referring to my notes on the handout you provided us and your comments in this thread refreshes my memory.

My pleasure, more to come but I stopped working on the pictures from this class to process this project and then the pictures from this project as just my duty to be responsible to the people that trust me with their cars.

First Place for Worst Paint - 1942 Olds Extreme Makeover






On Monday I will try to share the Flex Extreme Makeover Class to the 1965 Plymouth Belvedere II which since you were there you know how bad it was before we tackled it.

It's been less than one week and I have already started using my new knowledge and skills.

Cheers!

That is very rewarding to hear Rick. Elsewhere on this forum a forum member stated their opinion was they didn't see a reason for classes like these but think and hope that what you experienced was a two-day class where you learned a ton of information and techniques that you will use the rest of you life that you didn't have to try to learn on you own over a course of years and even decades.

I honestly think I teach a damn good class and historically, the feedback I get from my class is overwhelmingly positive.

[Don M]

... Elsewhere on this forum a forum member stated their opinion was they didn't see a reason for classes like these ...



I honestly think I teach a damn good class and historically, the feedback I get from my class is overwhelmingly positive.

Are you serious!

I would give my mother-in-law to be able to attend one of your classes. Combining lecture with a lot of hands on and continued narrative DURING the hands on with a rolling explanations as to WHY the students are doing what they're doing is (IMO) the best way to teach.

The information I glean from your POSTS ALONE is more than I would pick up on my own in a lifetime ... to actually be there to see what I'm supposed to be doing would be priceless. I would personally be too afraid to touch some of the cars you 'hand over' to your students during these classes, and yet with your guidance, they are turning sow's ears into silk purses.

**End of Rant**

It's just that when you posted what you did about questioning the "reason" for your classes, it hit my buttons especially since you don't have to be doing this, you could remain a faceless person behind the keyboard letting people figure out on their own what it is you're trying to say, but you don't.

**DEEP BREATH**


**Ok, NOW end of rant**

[Aaryn NZ]

That is very rewarding to hear Rick. Elsewhere on this forum a forum member stated their opinion was they didn't see a reason for classes like these but think and hope that what you experienced was a two-day class where you learned a ton of information and techniques that you will use the rest of you life that you didn't have to try to learn on you own over a course of years and even decades.

I honestly think I teach a damn good class and historically, the feedback I get from my class is overwhelmingly positive.

I too read that & was disappointed to say the least.
For myself personally - I've been detailing for twenty years & counting. A lot of what I have learnt has been through trial & error. Yes, I made a few errors in the early days. I learnt to polish paint with a Rupes rotary & a Dynabrade DA. As much as I taught myself how to polish to a high standard & even now, I like to think the quality of work I do is right up there.

In saying that - to this day I still learn.
I'm flying over 8000 miles in January to attend Mikes Boot Camp. Though I could carry on running a successful business down here in New Zealand providing a high quality of detailing for my clients, not one of my customers would know who Mike Phillips is & regardless if I go to Boot Camp or not they more than likely wont care.
I'm going to Boot Camp to learn. Hey - maybe I've been doing things the hard way? I'm confident that if I am Mike will be the one to show me an easier/better way. We are pretty isolated down here as far as access to products is concerned. Autogeek helps with that & having the forum members input saves a lot of trial & error buying.

Anyhow - I kinda feel like I'm hijacking this thread.

I'm coming to Boot Camp, I'm going to enjoy it, I'm going to meet some great people, I'm SURE I'm going to learn plenty! Its going to cost us a lot of $$$ to get there - the bank account is going to be empty but I'm going to come back to New Zealand a very rich man.

Aaryn NZ.

[Mike Phillips]

Next Detailing Class Topic...


How to use the Flex 3401 for Show Car Detailing







1965 Plymouth Belvedere II Muscle Car

Next up in this class was learning how to do a multiple-step process or what's called Show Car Detailing to a real muscle car a 1965 Plymouth Belvedere II with a radical engine in it and a paint job that looks like it was washed with a Garden Rake!

Here she is early Saturday morning parked next to the other cars for this detailing class. In the shade the paint looks pretty good....




Special Interest Vehicles
One of the reasons I like to bring in cool cars for our classes is to make the class both fun and memorable but also because muscle cars from the 1960's and 1970's tend to be very large compared to modern transportation cars so there's PLENTY of room for everyone to get lots of hands-on time working on the car.







Later in the day, when the sun came out I took these pictures....




Horrendous swirls




Wet Sanding Scratches
This is a close-up taken out of the picture above. What you see here is hazing looking paint but what it really is are WET SANDING SCRATCHES that were not removed by the other guy that sanded and buffed this paint job.





Here's the other side of the hood....







Our Detailing Classes are fun!
Here's Nick backing the Plymouth into the Show Car Garage. Nick and I have a lot of fun driving these hotrods, kustoms and classics at our detailing classes.





Swirled-out Mess!
Now with the car inside the garage under the florescent lights, you can see the paint is nothing but a hazy, swirled out mess!









And as you can imagine, the entire car looks like the above pictures.

[Mike Phillips]

A glossy finish starts with a smooth surface

When trying to create a true show car finish that has that deep, wet shine we all love, it starts with removing any and all above surface bonded contaminants to create a smooth surface before machine polishing.

A common question on this topic goes like this,

Won't machine compounding remove contaminants?

The answer is,

Compounding will remove "some" contaminants but anytime you're using a foam pad because the foam has a uniform surface texture it will tend to glide over contaminants not kick them off.


Now a wool pad on a rotary buffer will tend to remove contaminants because it's the most aggressive buffing procedure there is and the fibers of a wool pad spinning in a circle on the paint is very aggressive especially when you add an abrasive compound.

But when the plan is to use foam pad then it's a good practice to mechanically remove contaminants before you do any buffing.


After using Detailer's Waterless Car Wash to wash this muscle car, the next order of business is to inspect the paint.


The Baggie Test

Here's Axel and Rick feeling the paint on this 1965 Plymouth Belvedere II using the Baggie Test. Not only is the paint filled with millions of swirls, scratches and sanding marks it's also heavily contaminated.





When doing the baggie test you start by feeling the paint with your clean, bare hand. For most cars, paint will often feel smooth to the touch when using only your skin to inspect the paint.

Next, place a clean, sandwich baggie over your hand and feel the same area of paint you previously felt and in most cases the paint is going to feel rough, like it has little bumps all over it. These bumps you feel are contaminants that are BONDED to the paint as though they are glued to the paint. Normal washing, rinseless washing and waterless washing won't remove these contaminants, you need to do something mechanically to convince them to leave.



Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads

Nanoskin offers their unique products in various forms including,

Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads - for use by machine
Nanoskin Autoscrub Towels - for use by hand
Nanoskin Autoscrub Wash Mitts - for use by hand













This is a cropped out section from the above with no resizing...





Fine and Medium Grade Pads
The blue foam indicates the fine grade while the yellow foam indicates the medium grade Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads.





So next up the class is going to use Nanoskin products including the Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads on the Flex 3401.

[Mike Phillips]

Decontaminating Beast!

First a demonstration on how to correctly use the Nanoskin Autoscrub pad with a Flex 3401 Forced Rotation Forced Oscillation Dual Action Polisher.






Then the class takes over the process... here's Kevin with a Porter Cable mechanically decontaminating the hood.

In front of him is Willy using the Nanoskin Towel.





Here's Dave using the Flex 3401 with a Fine Grade Nanoskin Pad on the roof. Dave is alumni having previously attended on of our Detailing Boot Camp Classes back in May of 2014




Here's Chris from Flex Power Tools helping out on the back of the car....

[Mike Phillips]

How to remove swirls and scratches with the Flex XC 3401

After decontaminating the paint, (that's removing defects on top of the paint), the next step is to remove the defects below the surface, this would be the swirls, scratches and sanding marks.

First a demonstration on how to use the Flex 3401 for heavy correction work with Wolfgang Uber Compound and Lake Country Orange Hybrid Cutting Pads.






Here's Sam working the swirls and scratches out of the trunk lid...




Here's Dave and Richard on the hood....




On the right is Craig and Chris on the hood....




Here's Ron and Will working on the trunk lid....




Justin is on the right in the picture below....






Machine Polishing with the Flex XC 3401
After the compounding step everyone switches over to the Black Hybrid Pads with the Wolfgang Finishing Glaze and re-polishes every inch of paint.

Here's Willy....




That's Adam working on the passenger side with Willy up in front of him...





Machine Waxing
After the polishing step we switched over the fresh, clean Black Hybrid pads and machine apply the Blackfire BlackICE Hybrid Montan Sealant Wax.








Pulling cords
After each project car to keep things orderly we pull all the extension cords and set them on the floor next to were they are plugged in so they are not a trip hazard. This gives the wax or sealant time to dry.







How to safely and correctly remove a Hybrid Paste Wax
Next the class inspects their microfiber towels and then puts on their microfiber gloves and using the technique they learned when working on the first car of the day carefully removed all the Blackfire BlackICE Hybrid Montan Sealant Wax










Class Shot
Here's the class right after wiping the sealant off the Plymought....





Sun Shots!
Then we moved the car outside and took a few sun shots while we still had sunshine!

[Mike Phillips]

And here are the beauty shots....











Reflection Shot of the back wall




This is the same picture as above only I've flipped it vertically...











Orange Peel
Because of the amount of orange peel in the paint that you can easily see now that we've restored clarity to the clear coat I'm going to guess the guy that was paid to wetsand this car after it was painted only sanded the horizontal surfaces...

The owner trusted me to use this for my wet sanding training car but I didn't feel comfortable re-doing someone else's hack work on the horizontal surfaces so we just went with swirl and scratch removal for this car in this class. Perhaps we'll have this car back for a future project as it could really use some help below the trim line running down the center of the vertical panels.













Nice work class!

[Don M]

Sweet Plymouth, I'm partial to the old Mopars

[Mike Phillips]

I'm a new member of the forum and this is my first post.

I've been researching and reading so much about detailing since I decided to pursue this art. Part of that research was looking for schools to attend.

I found Mike's approaches, responses in forums that I read and his willingness to help others interesting. So, I focused on his company.

I always find it interesting how people find our classes and then make the decision to go for it.

I missed the cutoff for the September class and didn't want to wait so I emailed him about availability and was able to get into the class (last spot).

Really glad you could make it Jeff as this was truly a chance of a lifetime to work on the unique collection of cars I was able to round up. The chance to do the #7 rub-out on original single stage paint is unheard of in the detailing world. There's just no other place where you can get this kind of opportunity.

The chance to machine buff out a Richard Zocchi car is unreal. This just doesn't happen at other classes. If it does... where's the pictures?

Now about the staff and class.

Mike and Nick are professional, highly skilled but also extremely genuine folks. There's no doubt they are there to give their best to all in the class and answer all questions.

I know I speak for both Nick and myself when I say we take our performance at our classes dead serious. Most people never see all the prep work that goes into just getting set-up for these classes and then the time, energy and work required to conduct the classes.

There's no room for mistakes in any aspect and we aim for 100% satisfaction for everyone involved.

Also at this class were two outstanding folks from Flex who were there in support and to learn. Bob and Chris are equally genuine and supportive. I was there to learn everything as this art is new to me but was welcomed by staff and the other great folks in attendance.

I agree. It was a real blessing to have both Bob and Chris attend. I'm hoping we can get more industry insiders involved in future classes.

A non competitive environment, everyone was willing to help, talk, share, etc. I won't go into the course outline as you can view it yourself. I will say that I learned so much about the art, the tools, products, the folks at Autogeek, my awesome classmates and myself.

That's powerful Jeff.

If you have not attended, not only do I highly recommend it for those thinking about attending but also to those who have been in the business for sometime as technology changes. I'd also recommend it as a life experience as the folks at Autogeek are interesting, your classmate experiences and lives will enrich you and you will grow if you allow it.

Stop thinking about it, just do it.

Jeff "JP"

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with our forum, I always start my classes the same way and that is I tell you,


I'm going to pour my heart and soul into this class and all I ask is for everyone to post their true experience to the Pictures & Comments Thread.


So thank you very much for sharing your experience... you now I appreciate it.