Pictures from Autogeek's Saturday Detail Clinic - April 21st

[Mike Phillips]

Pictures from Autogeek's Saturday Detail Clinic - April 21st

Today was our first Saturday Detailing Clinic that is replacing our Thursday night, "Autogeek's Car of the Week" clinics. These classes are free and because we have a full crew working in the warehouse if you find products, pads or tools you want and place your order before 2:00pm we can pull your order and you can take it with you when you leave.
(We couldn't do this during Thursday night clinics as there was no staff working that late)


Today Kevin, aka carshine drove in all the way from Merritt Island to Stuart, Florida which is almost 2 hours away, approximately 105 miles.


Kevin and his wife bought a brand new Mazda CX-9 in black and because they plan on keeping this car for a long time Kevin wanted to learn how to properly care for and detail their new Mazda. Patrick another forum member also joined us for this first clinic.

For this first clinic we basically went by the book that is my how-too book following through the chapters, step-by-step. We started out with a finish that was filled with swirls, scratches and road grime or surface staining plus some kind of contamination that had built up on the paint.

Kevin had never used any of the electric polishers that Autogeek offers so we gave him and Patrick a chance to test them all out and in the process we removed all the defects out of the hood on their Mazda and restored a factory new finish.

Here are the step we performed...

• Wiped clean using Detailers Rinseless Wash and Gloss.
• Clayed using Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay and Pinnacle Clay Lube.
• Test Spot using Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish with a Tangerine Hydro-Tech pad on a PC 7424XP.
• Tested out all tools using Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover to remove all swirls, scratches, water spots and stains.
• Re-polished using Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish.
• Sealed the paint using Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax by machine.
• Removed the wax by hand using microfiber gloves and Super Soft Deluxe Green Microfiber Towels.

Here's our project car for today's class, a Mazda CX-9 in black!



Teaching Kevin how to use a Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light to inspect the paint



The paint is filled with swirls, scratches, water spots and staining from road grime



In the next three shots you can see the swirls, scratches and stains...





In this shot, the whitish stuff is some type of stain from road grime that did not wipe off and would also not wash off...



Kevin learning how to properly using detailing clay to clay the paint, we also used the Baggie Test to check for above surface bonded contaminants.



Here you can see a brown tinge on the clay from whatever was on the paint...



Here's Kevin placing some painter's tape on the hood because I'm going to show him how to do a Test Spot




For the Test Spot we're going to take the least aggressive approach and try Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish with a Tangerine Hydro-Tech Polishing pad on a Porter Cable 7424XP




Showing Kevin how to mark a backing plate to easily see if the pad is rotating under pressure.






Here's I'm showing Kevin how to prime a clean, dry pad...




After the pad was primed we added the "working product"



Here I've buffed out a small section and demonstrated how to do "Section Passes"



Here's Kevin inspecting the before and after results using the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light



Before side - Ugly swirls



Camera Flash centered on the tape-line



After side - Huge improvement but we decided to increase the level of aggressiveness by switching to the Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover for the rest of the hood.



I taught Kevin how to clean a pad on the fly using a terry cloth towel...



I also taught Kevin how to clean a pad using a nylon Pad Conditioning Brush...



More to come...

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...


Here's Kevin using the Meguiar's G110v2 dual action polisher, he also used the Porter Cable 7424XP and the Griot's Garage Random Orbital Polisher.
(All the same "type" of tools)



Here's Kevin priming clean, dry pads on the Cyclo Polisher


Here Kevin has added his "working product" (that's the product you're going to work with)



At all my classes you get to try out all the tools, here' Kevin trying out the Cyclo Polisher...



Lightweight low vibration and balanced, you can easily use the Cyclo Polisher with one hand...






Here's Patrick testing out the Cyclo Polisher...



Here's Kevin testing out the Flex 3401 Forced Rotation Dual Action Polisher





Here's Patrick testing out the Flex 3401 Forced Rotation Dual Action Polisher





Now I'm going to teach both guys the 10 @ 10 Technique for picking up a bead of product using a rotary buffer
(Note the numbered backing plate for a teaching tool in the lower left hand side of the picture)



I have an article on this and a video on our YouTube Channel showing this technique









After picking up his bead of product Kevin places the pad flat against the paint and then spreads the product and and begins buffing with NO SPLATTER!




Good job Kevin!





Already buffing like a Pro!


Lightweight, compact Flex PE14 Rotary Polisher




More to come...

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...


Here's Kevin learning how to machine apply Pinnacle Souveran Paste wax









Here's Patrick and Kevin learning techniques I show in all my classes on how to carefully remove waxes and paint sealants using microfiber gloves and premium quality microfiber towel.




Here's some after shots... the hood on this car went from a swirled-out mess to a show car finish by a guy who has never machine polished in his life!












Here's all the products and tools we used today and if you attend any of my classes you get to use these and much much more...










Thank you Kevin and Patrick for attending today's Saturday Detailing Clinic at Autogeek in Stuart, Florida.

Next Saturday Detailing Class will be May after my Detailing Boot Camp Class, probably the 19th.

Watch the bottom of the forum home page for the date or send me an e-mail for more information.

[Mike Phillips]

Resources


All the tools, pads and products used today can be found on Autogeek.net or you can call our Customer Service Tech Line and reference this thread and our friendly staff can help you.

1-800-869-3011


All the techniques used today can be found in my how-to book or any of my how-to DVD's plus I have articles for everything we did in my article list.


E-book
(Displayed on iPad - iPad not included)


Paperback








How to Properly Use the Porter Cable 7424XP Dual Action Polisher Updated!



Pinnacle Complete Car Care System Instructional How-to DVD



Mike Phillips' The Art Of Detailing Audio Book



Mike Phillips' Principles of Machine Polishing

[Schiffdog]

Mike after you did Test Spot using Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish with a Tangerine Hydro-Tech pad on a PC 7424XP, when you switched over to the advanced swirl remover did you also switch to a cutting pad or did you stay with the tangerine polishing pad?

[carshine]

Mike,

Thanks for posting all of those photos of me from our detailing 101 class today - Wow, the computer must put on on extra 10 lbs.... at least. haha!!!

Like we discussed earlier, I have been in the car care business for years, and I thought I knew a ton about detailing. Although I was already proven wrong by joining this forum a couple of days ago and reading a lot of posts by true experts, I was really proven wrong earlier today when I spent the morning learning directly from you. Thanks a lot for the instruction - it truly will come in handy.

I am fortunate to live about 1 1/2 hours away from the AutoGreek.com facility, and I happily took the opportunity today to attend Mike Phillips' Saturday auto-detailing 101 clinic. Other than professionally demonstrating to me what a detailing moron I really was, Mike was terrific. He took half his day on a Saturday to spend time and teach just one guy because the other attendees had show cars and they couldn't make it due to the inclement weather.

Mike introduced me to some great products and great detailing equipment and techniques, and he gave me hands-on instructions on how to properly use each item to gain the best benefits.

We worked on my 2011 black Mazda CX-9, which I bought new and owned for just 9 months. Until Mike pointed it out, I never realized the deteriorating condition of the paint as a result of the nasty environmental hazards in Florida. But, as poorly as the paint condition was, the new techniques that I learned from Mike easily got the paint looking like new again.

I now plan on doing a much better job caring for my car's finish, and I am confident the routine maintenance will keep the paint job in new showroom looking condition. It is one thing to read the articles by the experts, but it is something entirely better to get hands-on instruction.

If anyone has the opportunity to attend one of these classes, then please do yourself a favor and make sure you go.

Thanks again Mike.

[EPK711]

looks like a fun and productive day. I'll have to make it up for one of these clinics soon.

[frank s]

Here's my experience: The photo essays and videos help a great deal, BUT you have to be there to gain the full benefit of Mike's expertise! (Do I dare say "Irvine" in this venue?)

Cheers!

[carshine]

looks like a fun and productive day. I'll have to make it up for one of these clinics soon.

It is definitely worth it, and you have no excuse being so much closer to the shop than I am

[Mike Phillips]

Here's my experience: The photo essays and videos help a great deal, BUT you have to be there to gain the full benefit of Mike's expertise! (Do I dare say "Irvine" in this venue?)

Cheers!

Definitely better to learn with some real hands-on training... did a LOT of that for Meguiar's from 2002 until I left to come to Autogeek in August of 2009


I'm going to guess you've attended one of my Meguiar's Detailing 101 Classes or TNOG's?


It's all good...