Ok, so WOW! What a positive experience today was. I'm very tired, but at the same time quite pumped!
It's been said that the Australian detailing industry has a severe lack of training avenues when it comes to helping upskill and further budding detailers, or even for those like me who live and breath this industry as a extreme hobby. The body shop industry certainly has avenues for training, but that is quite a different trade entirely. So for detailing, you either teach yourself, or go and work for someone who can guide you along. Me personally, up until today, I've been 100% self-taught, aided in the last decade by Youtube and online forums.
For a few years now, I have eyed off the training workshops offered by Waxit. As far as I can see, other than the occasional brand event offered elsewhere, Waxit seem to be the only ones offering such avenues for training and upskilling. The training sessions started about seven years ago with just one singular class, but it has built and built since then to the point where they now offer nine different classes several times a year, catering to the beginner right up to the pro.
The classes range from basic detailing skills and polishing to advanced polishing and detailing, basic and advanced interior detailing, ceramic coatings, authorized installer accreditation, they even now offer PPF preparation and installation workshops. Other than the PPF classes, each workshop is run by Sandro from Car Craft Auto Detailing. Not only is Sandro one of the best detailers in the country, but he also has the best Australian-based YouTube channel of the same name. I'll cover this later, but the chance to meet Sandro, someone who is highly respected in the detailing world, had great appeal too.
(3) Car Craft Auto Detailing - YouTube
For me, it was the paint correction side of things I wanted to hone. I've been machine polishing for more than a decade now, self-taught via my little Concourse Polisher that was sold via Waxit as a beginner's kit. After chatting with Sean from Waxit, he confirmed that I would be best to skip straight to the Advanced Paint Correction 202.
The basic class is more of an introduction to random orbital (DA) polishing, the advanced class looks beyond that to higher levels of paint correction, wet sanding and exploration of different machine types. With my leave approaching a few months ago, it was now or never, so I took the plunge and booked my spot in the latest round of workshops starting late November.
For the Advanced Paint Correction 202, the class is made up of five students, giving each plenty of one-one with Sandro. Proceedings start with usual introductions in the classroom, then an outline of the day's activities. For anyone who watches Sandro's videos, the following shots will look familiar. The Waxit warehouse is the location for the training sessions, but also the studio where Sandro makes his videos. Sandro doesn't necessarily work directly for Waxit, but works with them to deliver these workshops and help test new products and tools.
It was also great to see the inner workings of a company I have been buying from for more than a decade. I would love to work there, even if the place has a lingering scent of iron remover.
After an introduction to the pads, compounds and machines at our disposal today, it was into action. All pads today were from ShineMate, which included foam, wool and microfiber pads. Compounds were mostly Scholl, with a couple of NV and Rupes on hand too. Machines included ShineMate and Rupes, they even had a gear-driven Mille on hand.
Where the Random Orbital Clinic is taught around test panels, the Advanced workshop uses an actual car, in this case a Waxit employee's Subaru Forrester. We were then given a demo and explanation as to why taping is so important, then set about getting the car taped up. I always thought I was pretty ordinary with my taping skills, it's a job I hate doing, but it seems I did pretty well when compared to Sandro's work and the other students. Sandro, of course, makes it look easy.
After a tea break, it was then time for measuring the paint depth. I've never seen one of these in action before, and while not a 100% indication of the paint you have to work with, its an important tool for discovering potential resprays or areas thinner than expected.
Up next, a wet sanding demo on a test panel, something I have never done. In this case, Sandro went over the various methods for sanding deeper scratches and etchings that otherwise wouldn't be removed via polishing alone. Both machine and hand sanding techniques were covered, followed by refinishing the sanded section via polishing. While I would still be apprehensive, I feel like I could tackle this myself now.
That same test panel was then used to demonstrate each student's technique using a dual action and rotary polisher. This was more about showing Sandro where he could help us improve. Me? I move too quickly, which I already suspected, but its good to have it confirmed. Apart from 1-inch pads on my iBrid Nano, this was the first time I have used a rotary polisher. The machine in question was a 6-inch ShineMate battery powered machine, and as I suspected, I didn't like it. Some of that will be a lack of experience, but I didn't like how it would steer itself with even the slightest movement and needed constant adjustment. And that was on a completely flat panel, on a door with plenty of curves, it would be nightmare.
The lunch break was quite insightful too. Mainly because for the first time in my life, I had five other people in the room who were as into detailing as I am. The chat wandered from talking about polishing machines, to chemicals, to distribution and pricing concerns, and cars in general. Actually, one of the students recently had to turn down work on a brand new black Mustang Darkhorse, the paint quality was full of solvent pop and nibs that he refused to work on it and that the customer should be perusing it with Ford. While both of my Mustang's have had a few factory installed blemishes, they were nowhere near the bad stories being told today about Mustang paint, and that included Sandro.
After lunch, it was time to get on the tools. First up, a test section demo by the master. In most cases, Japanese paint, and Subaru's in particular, are known to be soft. But this car needed quite a bit of aggression to remove car wash swirls and a smattering of random isolated deeper scratches (RIDS). In the end, the combination of a 5-inch ShineMate battery machine, ShineMate yellow foam cutting pad and Scholl S2 Black was needed. Each student was then assigned to a panel to correct, then allowed to select the machine, pad and compound they wanted to use. With Sandro insisting on a 95% correction, mainly to assess our skills and ability, we were then left to get on with it. Sandro then moved from student to student to guide where needed, make suggestions.
A variety of ShineMate and Rupes machines were on offer, and it was interesting to see where others gravitated towards. One guy found the battery placement a hindrance and therefore went with a corded ShineMate. Another wanted to experience rotary. Myself, I went with an old favorite, the ShineMate EB351-15, then decided to try out some of the machines that I don't currently have. The first being the Rupes HLR75, which is their battery powered 3-inch. I also wanted to try out the ShineMate EB210 with the swappable heads. I then started with a combo I have used before, a blue ShineMate pad and Scholl S20 Black, but ended up needed the S2 and yellow pad.
One of the main takeaways for me today was that, in the past, I have probably been way too conservative with my choices of pad and compound. In this instance, what is normally a decently aggressive compound and pad choice actually finished out to near perfection as a single step when used with a DA machine. The guy working next to me did his panel with a rotary to cut, then went back with a lighter pad and polish to remove the holograms installed on the first step. I'd say his panel probably had some additional clarity at the end, but obviously required more work, more pads and more compound to achieve what I did with a single step.
After finishing our panel, Sandro then inspected our results, my panel meeting with his approval. The tape was removed and the car wiped down with IPA.
To wrap up the workshop, it was back into the classroom for a final Q&A and presentation of our certificate.
To be continued....................................
️
) so you forge ahead and do what YOU do
