12 different people - 6 different polishers and 1 jeweling wax = wet paint

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

12 different people - 6 different polishers and 1 jeweling wax = wet paint


Last night we held one of our Wednesday night project classes with a special guest all the way from Argentina!

This Gustavo. Gustavo reached out to me via e-mail to let me know he was going to be in Stuart and wanted to know if we had any classes he could attend? My answer?

You bet!




1968 Camaro Z28 Rally Sport

So I had this old 2-door Chevy in the garage left over from a video Yancy and I made and it was in dire need of some machine polishing so I invited Gustavo to stop in and then opened the doors to any locals that wanted to learn more about the different types of polishers at Autogeek and to also test out Pinnacle Jeweling Wax.

We had 12 people attend last night. I shared the unique characteristics about all the orbitals in the garage as well as the history of the orbital polisher and then told everyone after doing a waterless wash and claying the paint they could choose and use any orbital polisher they wanted to try out. The other requirement was to stick with foam polishing pads in keeping with the recent article I wrote here.



First up - Waterless wash with Pinnacle Waterless Wash

Next - Claying the paint to remove the above surface bonded contaminants.

Using the SCANGRIP Color Match light I captured the before condtion

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued....


Time to get polishing....

Wax on!

Swirl finder light

Beauty shots....

Here's the tools used....

Here's the team that made the magic happen!

Here's the wax we used - that's right, just a this wax, no compounding or polishing....

Now that looks right!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued....


Here at Autogeek, we carry a wide variety of brands and types of orbital polishers. All of them can and will take a diamond in the rough and turn it into a glistening gemstone. As you can see from the pictures above, we had people from all backgrounds, some experienced and some had never machine polished before. Yet the results were consistent no matter which tool or which person did the work.

Besides a quality tool though, quality results and consistent results over a wide spectrum of paint types starts with great abrasive technology. Pinnacle Jeweling Wax is an All-in-One or one-step cleaner/wax that uses great abrasive technology. You can use it with any machine or even by hand. It works great as you can see by the results on the paint on the Camaro and wipe-off is super easy.


On Autogeek.com


Pinnacle Souveran Jeweling Wax

Griots Garage 6 Inch Random Orbital Polisher

Flex XC 3401, FLEX Orbital Polisher,flex XC 3401 VRG dual-action polisher,flex XC3401VRG,Dual Action polisher,FLEX buffer

FLEX XFE7-15 Long Stroke Orbital Polisher

RUPES BigFoot LK 900E Mille Gear Driven Polisher

https://www.autogeek.net/rupes-12e-duetto.html

https://www.autogeek.net/makita-po5000c-orbit-polisher.html

https://www.autogeek.net/meguiars-mt300-dual-action-polisher.html

 

[Bradposton]

Awesome job on that RS. Love the hideaway light on those.

 

[Justin at Final Inspection]

Very nice work! That Z is looking wet!

 

[SWETM]

Awesome work and results speaks for it self!

A very nice thing to setup a class for a visitor from a foreign country!

/Tony

 

[JWallace]

Awesome class/project Mike. Thanks for having us. Was a really cool car to do my first waterless wash. I’ve watched a few of your videos but it’s nice to be their in person.

The history lesson on the tools was awesome too. Since the Jeep/corvette class I picked up a flex 3401 and love it. This time I Got to play with the Makita PO5000C and the rupes Millie both great tools but happy with my choice on the 3401.

Big thanks to frank and Robert for there time also. Was another great expierence thanks for all you do and I look forward to the next one.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Awesome class/project Mike. Thanks for having us. Was a really cool car to do my first waterless wash. I’ve watched a few of your videos but it’s nice to be their in person.

I took a screenshot of a comment posted by a facebook detailing expert the other day ago, he said taking detailing classes was scam. But you make the point that he somehow missed, and that is while watching videos and reading articles are all good but nothing beats working hands-on in the real world.

The history lesson on the tools was awesome too.

Sad to say, I'm one of the few guys that knows our history, (car detailing history), that also talks and types on multiple platforms. I know a few guys that know the history of our industry, but they either don't hang out on forum (or facebook) nor do they type or interact with the public in a educational way.

The reason I took a few minutes to share a portion of car detailing history as it relates to tools is because at the New Jersey Roadshow Class, while administering the IDA Skills Validation tests, one of the guys I tested did not recognize the Porter Cable 7424 dual action polisher or even recognize the "name" of the tool when I said the name and also pointed at the tool. Yeah... that caught me off guard. The Porter Cable dual action polisher, actually dual action WOOD SANDER is the tool that opened to doors for everyone and anyone to polish paint without screwing it up and it's also the tool that all other dual action polishers, both free spinning and gear-driven are a direct evolution from this simple tool.

I share the story behind the Porter Cable here,

The Free Floating Spindle Bearing Assembly - The Story Behind The Story...


So before we started, while introducing all the other tools that everyone had the option to test out, I though I would share where they came from. Plus I also have in my antique wax collection the first foam buffing pad for use on the Porter Cable. And from this simple foam pad we now have hundreds of foam pad choices.

I share the first dual action foam pads here,

The history behind polishing paint with a DA Polisher

Since the Jeep/corvette class I picked up a flex 3401 and love it.

That would be this Wednesday night project,


2017 Jeep Wrangler MONSTER JEEP Mike Phillips Autogeek

This time I Got to play with the Makita PO5000C and the rupes Millie both great tools but happy with my choice on the 3401.

Correct. Actually all three of these gear-driven orbitals are great tools and when a person spends enough time behind them they can make them dance on paint.

Big thanks to frank and Robert for there time also.

Both of these guys are always an asset when they join us for a project.

Was another great experience thanks for all you do and I look forward to the next one.

And thank you for taking the time to share your experience from this project in this thread.

I hope some of the other people that attended will chime in with their experience and thoughts about the tools or the wax, or even the cool old 2-door Chevy.

 

[Jerry0]

Mike, As always, thanks for doing these classes on your free time. Especially providing us with top of the line polishers, compounds and polishes to try out. I'm just a hobbiest with a 6 inch Griot's Garage, but, it's only a matter of time until I upgrade to one of the long stroke machines. These classes let me Try Before I Buy. I'll see you at the next one.

 

[Kamakaz1961]

Way cool Beautiful Camaro! All you guys ROCKED IT!

 

[Patrick73RS]

Beautiful 69 Z-28 Mike. I have a 1971 Camaro Z-28 RS (Spilt bumper) and I wish I was closer as I’d love for you to work your magic on it. The crew did an amazing job on that one!

 

[DaveT435]

That thing looks incredible!!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

For reference, this is a before shot from my iPhone....

Sure it looks good to the untrained eye and without the correct lighting to reveal the swirls and scratches.

But in person, with a swirl finder light, the car looked horrible.


Just for reference.

 

[TheBandit]

That is truly spectacular Mike. I wonder if I should try that type of AIO for the single stage paint on my Nova?

How did you approach the trim, door handles, and emblems on that car? It looks like you did not tape them off or remove them. Did you just stay away from those areas with the polishers?

 

[JustJesus]

Nice work. Cool class. Neat car.

Gotta say, that Jeweling Wax looks like a heck of a product.

 

[Red Lehr]

Fantastic job everyone !! I grabbed a bottle of the Jeweling wax on my last order and it really is amazing stuff.
Mike, I was curious about what pads you used while buffing ? It looks like orange pads first then white pads and blue for final buff ?
That would be three rounds of buffing, correct ?
Forgive me if I missed any of this info in the post...Thanks !

 

[RSAUTOSPA]

Great Job Guys!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike, As always, thanks for doing these classes on your free time. Especially providing us with top of the line polishers, compounds and polishes to try out.

I'm just a hobbiest with a 6 inch Griot's Garage, but, it's only a matter of time until I upgrade to one of the long stroke machines.

These classes let me Try Before I Buy. I'll see you at the next one.

Thanks for always taking part in these classes Jerry, I have a few more coming up, so stay-tuned....

Fantastic job everyone !! I grabbed a bottle of the Jeweling wax on my last order and it really is amazing stuff.

Helped this car to get Jay Leno's Big Dog Award!

Jay Leno BIG DOG Award to 1965 Buick Skylark Grand Sport - Pinnacle Jeweling Wax

Mike, I was curious about what pads you used while buffing ? It looks like orange pads first then white pads and blue for final buff ?

I looked through the pictures and it looks like for some panels we did use foam cutting pads. My guess these were primarily for the horizontal panels.

Here's the deal.... in a perfect world you want to try to stick with foam "polishing" pads when using an AIO. If you use a foam "cutting" pad you'll get better defect removal but you RISK leaving PAD HAZE in the paint. Pad haze is micro-marring caused by the sharpness of the pad when buffing medium to soft paints.

You might not see pad haze on a light colored car but you will on black and dark colored cars. So be careful.

When I need more cut and I'm using an AIO like the Pinnacle Jeweling Wax I will start with a foam cutting pad and then re-polish with a foam "polishing" or foam "finishing" pads to ensure any pad haze is removed.

I know some guys might say,

If you need more cut why not just use a compound?

That's a good question and my answer is ridiculous. The Pinnacle Jeweling wax wipes off so much easier than a compound it makes it an attractive product to choose simply to make wipe-off easy. I call it the Lazy Factor.

That would be three rounds of buffing, correct ?

Forgive me if I missed any of this info in the post...Thanks !

You didn't miss it, I didn't dwell on the pads used much in the thread. If you look through page 1 and page 2 of this thread I had already included a TON of info and pictures and sad to say, you simply won't find this volume of pictures with detailed information anywhere else now days on the Internet. Maybe on DetailingWorld.uk but certainly not on Facebook groups, they just don't work well for sharing any sort of formatted text and pictures in a linear manner that makes the information and the pictures easy to absorb and actually use.

But at some point - I have to wrap-up my typing and pictures and move on. For whatever reason - I simply didn't dwell much on the pads used.

Great questions though and thank you for asking.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

That is truly spectacular Mike. I wonder if I should try that type of AIO for the single stage paint on my Nova?

Thanks for chiming in and also thank you for sharing what you were able to do to the single stage paint on your Nova here,

The Secret to Removing Oxidation and Restoring a Show Car Finish to Antique Single Stage Paints

How did you approach the trim, door handles, and emblems on that car?

It looks like you did not tape them off or remove them.

Did you just stay away from those areas with the polishers?

Great questions! I wish you could have attended the Roadshow Class I taught at 3D in Santa Clarita last summer. I cover this topic in person in all my classes.


That was a great class too.... didn't get a ton of pictures up but a few - shows we we're really there....


Roadshow Class - Canyon Country, California - July 13th, 14th at the 3D Training Center with Mike Phillips at Autogeek


The simple answer to your question though is you simply buff over the chrome and clean it up and make it just as shiny as the paint. Everything on the outside of a car gets a road film stain over time or just any type of contaminant build up. By buffing over the chrome you remove any oxidation and any other "substance" that shouldn't be on the chrome. It is so much more fun to buff out real cars with chrome than BIC Lighter Cars with plastic trim.


Good question - thank you for asking.

 

[fightnews]

Looks great I might have to try it. Is the wax strong enough to remove the ceramic left behind by Carpro essence?