Pictures: The Art of Polishing Paint Advanced Detailing Classes

[Mike Phillips]

Pictures: The Art of Polishing Paint Advanced Detailing Classes

These classes are totally focused on the art of polishing paint. The focus is on all aspects of polishing paint from doing production work to maximize profits to show car paint polishing to how to wetsand by hand and wetsand by machine for a true show car finish. These classes must be reserved in advance for small, private groups. If you want to be placed on my contact list for the next advanced class, send an e-mail to:

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek.net



First up will be this classic 1959 Chevrolet Impala. This car has been repainted using a basecoat/clearcoat paint system so it has the same type of paint modern cars come with from the factory.


1959 Chevrolet Impala - Remove Swirls & Scratches

[Mike Phillips]

When it come to working on antiques, classics and streetrod here at Autogeek, I teach people to never wash these types of cars but instead, use either a rinseless car wash or a waterless car wash with the best option being the waterless car wash.

The reason for using a waterless car wash is to reduce the amount of water being introduced to the car where it can get into places where it can be a rust issue.

We started the 1959 Impala project by wiping the paint clean using Detailer's Waterless Auto Wash Concentrate poured off into Kwazar Mercury Pro 33 ounce bottles because they will lay down a lot of product very fast which is what you want when doing a waterless wash.










Exterior Paint Inspection and Evaluation

Next up I introduced the guy to,

The Baggie Test - How to inspect for above surface bonded contaminants

Not only so they can get an accurate feel for the true condition of the paint but to also use to market their business and educate their customers.





Even the sides of the car were contaiminated...





Speedy Prep Surface Towel to Decontaminate the Paint
To remove the above surface bonded contaminants, we used the Speedy Prep Surface Towels with Detailer's Universal Clay Lube.














How to tape-off and cover up a car before detailing

Before we stared machine polishing, I pointed out to the guys that you almost always find compound and polish splatter down inside the fresh air intake grill because this area was not taped-off.

I teach my students to always cover this area and to also tape-off any panel edges and raised body lines, especially if you're going to be doing major correction work and especially wetsanding.

















Removing Swirls and Scratches

Next up, the guys are going to get some hands-on time behind the pneumatic 15 and pneumatic Mini Polishers.



Rupes 21
Giving Mike a little hands-on training on arm speed, pattern and downward pressure, this is the first time Mike had ever used the Rupes 21 polisher...






Rupes 15
Working with Derek and the Rupes 15 Polisher...









Both guys have experience using Porter Cable and Griot's Garage DA Polishers and picked up really quick on how to use the Rupes polishers...

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...




























For getting the thin panel between the hood and the stainless steel trim we used the Rupes LHR75 3 Inch Pneumatic Random Orbital Polisher

[Mike Phillips]

While Mike and Derek were working the Rupes polishers up front, I shared with Dan how to use the Flex 3401 with the Wolfgang Twins and LC Hybrid pads.

Showing Dan how to pick up a bead of product using a tweaked version of the 10 @ 10 technique used with rotary buffers. Since the pad rotates counterclockwise, (opposite a rotary buffer), it works best to pick up a bead of product using the 10 @ 3 position.






A little hands-on training to show how much downward pressure and arm speed for moving the tool over the surface.










Here we're inspecting the results using the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light and it's pretty easy to see the swirls and scratches are now gone and what remains is swirl-free finish.




Derek and Mike finished the front so now they're testing out the Flex 3401's for the first time and now they can compare how these tools work as compared to the Rupes they just used on the front clip.

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

Pictures look great, how many guys did you have total in the class, I know you said it was going to be small.

[57BORNTORUN]

I saw the 55 Ford on Sunday at a car show.It came out great.

[bmwgeek]

Would be interesting to hear their comments on the flex 3401 and rupes.

[Mike Phillips]

Pictures look great, how many guys did you have total in the class, I know you said it was going to be small.

My new advanced classes are limited to 8 or less people. We had five people signed up and two late minute cancellations due to travel arrangements. I have another advanced class in the works with more cool cars and a focus on the art of polishing paint.

Anyone reading this that wants to be notified for my next advanced class, these are $1000.00 for the two-day weekend class and you need to send me an e-mail and I'll put you on my contact list for these classes.

mike.phillips@autogeek.net

I saw the 55 Ford on Sunday at a car show. It came out great.

Good to hear, that was a fun car to work on and it's also the car I did the Rupes Polisher Time Lapse video with...

Rupes Polisher Time Lapse Video - 1955 Ford Crown Victoria


Here's the time-lapse video Yancy took for me as I buffed this classic out from start to finish...

On the passenger side I used the Rupes 21 and on the driver's side I used the Rupes 15. There was about a 20 minute time savings using the larger pad, larger stroke machine over the smaller pad, smaller stroke machine but my opinion is that for most body panel designs on modern cars the 6" pad will be a better match.

This tool definitely has a lot more correction ability plus power over a traditional DA Polisher like the Porter Cable 7424XP.

I did find that when buffing a curved panel, either concave or convex, the uneven pressure applied to the face of the pad will slow down and even stop pad rotation. The key is to focus on the panel and keep the pad as flat as possible to the surface.


Came out nice...

Would be interesting to hear their comments on the flex 3401 and rupes.

Interestingly, none of the guys that attended this class are members of this forum... yet. I've asked them to join and when they return home and get caught up I'm confident you'll see them chime in on this thread with their thoughts on my advanced class.

[Mike Phillips]

After completely buffing out this Impala using both the Rupes System and the Flex 3401 with Wolfgang products, there were still a few RIDS in the hood as well as orange peel.

Because the hood is a dark color and what I call a "Gloss Panel", that is a panel that gets a lot of attention, I decided to use the hood to train the guys on how to machine sand using a very fine grit sanding disc and then the art of using a rotary buffer to remove their sanding mark and finish out hologram free.

Training on this 1959 Impala would perfectly prepare them for the next car, wetsanding the new paint job on the 1964 Chevelle Malibu.


Here's the Porter Cable with 3M #5000 Grit Sanding Disc. The cut is so light it's PERFECT for anyone brand new to machine wetsanding, especially on a restored classic car.




I demonstrated the technique on the driver's side...



Then taught the guys using the passenger side...












PERFECT




Edging
Now the guys are using 3" wool pads with Meguiar's M100 Pro Speed Compound to surgically remove their sanding marks around the perimeter of the panel. I call this edging.




















Major on the majors
Now that the perimeter of this panel has been edged, it's time to knock out the major portion of the panel, I call this majoring on the majors.












After a little hands-on training the guys have it down, they thought they wouldn't like using rotary buffers and found out they really like using them...






Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer
I stress working clean in all my classes and this is especially true when working wetsanding, cutting and buffing a show car. Here's the guys using a pad washer to remove the spent compound and abraded paint.




Back to the task at hand removing 100% of the sanding marks as that's my criteria.







Next up... foam pad polishing and foam pad jewelling...

[Mike Phillips]

As you read through this thread and look at all the pictures, keep in mind...

This is just ONE of the cars these guys learned on. We still have two more cars to go through...