Pictures & Comments: May 2015 Detailing Boot Camp Class!

[Mike Phillips]

How to use the Rupes Bigfoot Orbital Polisher Detailing Class


For the Rupes Bigfoot Orbital Polishers I have a very beautiful 1955 Chevy Bel Air with horrible water spots plus millions of swirls and scratches.

The owner paid over $15,000.00 to have this car painted after the restoration and hotrodding of his car. He told me that after the paint job it never looked right. It never looked like he thought it should.

After my class attacked the paint using the complete Rupes paint polishing system and the owner picked up the car he was absolutely FLOORED at how beautiful his dream car looked when the paint was right, that is when the paint was properly buffed out.




Process

1. Rinseless wash with DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss
2. Mechanically decontaminated using Nanoskin Autoscrub pads and towels.
3. Remove water spots, swirls and scratches using Rupes Bigfoot 21, 15 Duetto, Mini and TA50 Orbital Polishers plus the Rupes coarse blue foam cutting pads with Rupes Zephir Gloss Coarse Compound.
4. Polish to a high gloss Rupes ultra soft white foam pads with Rupes Diamond Ultra Fine Cut.
5. Machine wax using Rupes Bigfoot 21 Orbital Polishers with fresh clean Rupes white foam pads and Pinnacle Liquid Souveran Paste Wax.

First a few pictures showing the swirls in the paint....


















AFTER Nanoskin
This shot was taken to show that mechanically decontaminating paint, no matter how you do it, be it using detailing clay or tools like the Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads or the Nanoskin Autoscrub Towels, doesn't remove below surface defects like these Type II Water Spot Etchings and Water Spot Imprint Rings.

To remove below surface defects you must abrade the surface in some manner. For this car we're going to use the Rupes Paint Polishing System.





How to use a Rinseless Wash
Nick demonstrates the correct technique for washing a car using a Rinseless Wash.








Hands-On Training
After the demo it's time for the class to go into action while Nick and I walk around and watch and correct their technique plus answer questions.

The detailing classes here at Autogeek are about 90% hands-on action. The only time you're sitting at one of our classes is for a brief portion of a Power Point Presentation to go over the tools, techniques and theory behind the the process to be taught hands-on next.





Physical Inspection
After getting the paint clean and free from any loose dirt we then go over how to feel the paint with your bare hand followed by the baggie test to inspect the paint for above surface bonded contaminants.

For every procedure we also tie the procedure into how to market your detailing business to dominate your market.





Here's Billy trying the baggie test...
The paint on this Bel Air was about as rough as sandpaper. It might not look like it to the casual observer but the baggie test tells no lies.





Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads
To remove all the topical contamination we taught how to use the Nanoskin Autoscrub pads as well as the Nanoskin Autoscrub Towels.

[Mike Phillips]

The correct technique for using Rupes Bigfoot Orbital Polishers

After mechanically decontaminating the paint we went over the specific techniques for using Rupes orbital polishers, pads, compounds and polishes.

We did a Test Spot at the same time and found because the Type II Water Spot crater etchings were so deep and the basecoat/clearcoat paint on this Bel Air was so hard that we needed the most aggressive pad and compound in the Rupes line to correct the paint.









Hands-on Training
After the demonstration the class was turned loose to use the complete line of Rupes polishers while Nick and I monitored each person's technique and when needed made suggestions and/or made corrections in technique to get optimum results.







Machine Polishing
After the paint was corrected the class moved onto machine polishing using the Rupes Diamond Ultra Fine Cut Polish with the Rupes ultra soft white foam polishing pads.

For those wondering why we followed the coarsest pad with the softest pad and lightest cutting polish it's because if you work the Zephir Gloss Compound thoroughly with the Rupes blue coarse cutting pads you end up for the most part with an LSP ready finish.

See my article here....

Mind Blowing - Rupes Blue Foam Cutting Pad and Zephir Gloss Coarse Gel Compound













Machine Waxing
After the polishing step we switched to fresh clean 7" Rupes white ultras soft pads and machine applied the Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax.





Here's the car completely machine waxed!





So important....
Anytime you're working on a show car that you just compounded, polished and waxed by machine it is so important to carefully remove the wax so that you don't re-instill swirls and scratches. And of course in the class we go over lots of tips and techniques on exactly how to do all of these things for professional quality results every time you work on a car.













Wait for it.....

[Mike Phillips]

BOOM!



















That's what I'm talking about....

[Mike Phillips]

Dave Harris, the owner of a couple of car washes, (one in Colorado and one in Texas), attended this class and also took some pictures.... here's one of his shots he sent me....




Dave also attended a few of my Meguiar's detailing classes back when I worked for Meguiar's and taught all their Detailing 101 and 102 Saturday classes from 2002 to 2009.

Dave has been sending his employees to my classes for a few years now as he says it make his business more profitable.



It was great to see you again after all these years Dave!

[Mike Phillips]

How to use the Flex 3401 Detailing Class


For the Flex 3401 Forced Rotation/Oscillation Orbital Polishers I have a a black 1955 Chevy 210 in what I would consider absolutely horrendous condition.

This car will really put my class to the test. So far every tool they've used is of the free spinning spindle design. Now they're switching over the the gear-driven Flex 3401, a tool that is very different than everything they've used so far at our 3-day class.






Process

1. IronX to chemically decontaminate the paint - The paint on this Chevy bled like a stuck pig
2. Foam gun to wash the car
3. Foam gun plus Nanoskin Autoscrub Mitts to mechanically decontaminate the paint.
4. Remove holograms, swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation using Wolfgang Uber Compound with LC 6.5" and 5" Hybrid White Foam Polishing pads
5. Polish to a high gloss using Wolfgang Finishing Glaze with LC 6.5" and 5" Hybrid Black Foam Finishing pads.
6. Machine wax using Wolfgang Fuzion Paste Wax with 6.5" and 5" LC Red Foam Waxing pads.

First a few pictures showing the swirls in the paint.... here's how the car looked when she arrived....










This is a section cropped out of the above picture to really give you a full dose of ugly!






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





This is the middle area of the hood out in front of the windshield....






This is the driver's side of the roof....





Here's the driver's side of the trunk lid - the holograms are super visible in this shot...




A close up of the same section of paint in the above picture....





The above were taken BEFORE we used the IronX, Nanoskin Wash Mitts an Foam Gun to wash the car to prep her for machine buffing.

[Mike Phillips]

Here's a few shots of the paint once we removed all the dirt that was on the paint....

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

First up a demonstration on how to use the Flex 3401 to correct the paint and the specific tips and techniques for using this tool.












I love it when people inspect closely!







How to buff out thin, tight panels....

[Mike Phillips]

Time for our students to get busy!



Machine Polishing














Machine Waxing












This is a machine applied layer of Wolfgang Fuzion Paste Wax!







Microfiber gloves and Gold Plush Jr. Microfiber Towels....

[Mike Phillips]

The results to the black paint on this 1955 Chevy were the most dramatic our of all the cars the class worked on during the 3-day class.

The owner thought we painted his car!


































Nice.....

[Dave Hamlin]

This was my third boot camp with Mike. It amazes me how much I took away from this class. The key to being successful in anything that you do is to never stop learning, and Mike makes sure that there is always something new to take away from his class. The three day format was a relief from the two day, the class felt less rushed and more informative. Truly appreciated. Thanks again, Dave