Nice website and video! Dave is the man.
He attended one of the local gatherings we hosted here in NOVA. It was great to have his presence as he has many years of experience under his belt. I've learned a few tips and tricks from him myself.
You did the right thing by letting him show you the ropes to this art. Top notch stuff. Excited to see your work after you get the hang of detailing.
:cheers:
Jake, thank you for contributing to Monica's thread.
I really anticipate the next Northern Virginia Team Detail meet. With Colt back in PA terrorizing his grandmother (my mom) it'll be great to be more involved in the work of the detail. I'll share anything that I have to help the group and I'm sure I'll learn some things from you guys as well.
Very very cool story Monica.
Very nice of your (Dave) to help out Monica. Your a true gentle and sharing your knowledge with others.
Monica you have a great teacher there that I know many of us including myself would love to learn from.
I have been tossing around the idea to try to get together a PA detail meet up together for sometime.
Thanks for the kind words Evan. I noticed your activity here at the Geek and I enjoy reading your posts. It would be nice to meet you in person someday. It's quite a trip from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh but if you do have a PA get together I hope you'll start a thread here about it to let us all know when and where it will be held.
Thanks Paul. I consider you an old timer on the forums. That is, you were here before me and I've always looked up to you and always click on your threads or posts if I see them. It's because of guys like you that I've held the interest in these forums to date.
I will let Dave explain this...
But from what I understood, the HF is stronger than the GG and some of those other ones.
Dave did polish with the Flex.... haven't gotten that video done yet.
From what I see reading up in the thread about the HF DA, these machines can be hit or miss. That is, some of them have great performance like the one I have, and some can be a bit under powered and have issues with noisy gearboxes. I have worked with some of the generation 1 and generation 2 Griot's Garage units and can't really say the ones that I have used have any more power than the HF unit. They too are coming from China in a mass produced fashion and from what I've seen the GG can be hit or miss too.
It's nice that Griot's offers the lifetime warranty and that's a nice selling point for them. The way I think, I'd rather pay the extra few bucks for the no questions asked replacement contract at HF and be able to drive across town to get my replacement if needed. That's just me.
As i had told Dave in a previous discussion, I wish I lived closer to dave.....
ROFL so cal [close(r) <---
]
anyway Monica is truly fortunate to be gleaning knowledge from someone who not only knows his craft.. but enjoys talking aboout it...
Monica, how on earth do you already have a flex at home if you just jumped in?
Or did you REALLY JUST JUMP IN??? :laughing:
There are some great teachers out there in California too Christopher. I saw a while back where Kevin Brown and a few other greats were teamed up and offering some educational courses on detailing and paint correction. Now that makes me wish I were closer to California, or so situated to make the trip. I can't seem to make the trip to Florida to one of Mike Phillips classes or to attend Detail Fest so California definitely isn't happening anytime soon.
Thx for jumping in Dave :xyxthumbs:
We actually, for a brief moment, talk about wetting agents. But it was a brief second. Like you said, we were talking about how the products work so much there was not a lot of time to get in other subjects. I'm fine with this... like I said, I'll be back as long as you'll have me
I started really practicing the use of supplemental wetting agents when I was a rotary only guy. Since working through the learning curve of using the microfiber cutting disks with a DA polisher and developing my technique with them combined with M-105, I have just begun studying the way the wetting agents (water) increases the cutting action of M-105 in conjunction with the microfiber disk.
I'm usually running low on extra spray bottles for water so I haven't been putting a ton of time in on the experiment, but I just stopped at a local detailing supply and picked up 4 extra bottles and sprayers. I'll study the use of wetting agents harder and post my findings here in this thread.
All I can say at this point is that the cut is definitely increased and the product goes further when using a spritz or two of water to re-hydrate the compound after working a few section passes.
@ Christopher.Brown- I actually bought the Flex off a friend of mine who offered it to me. He said he had too many polishers and wanted to sell it and know I was looking to get into detailing.
He gave me a 10 min. lesson on how to use it and sent me on my way. I've been using it for the past 1.5 years and have managed to not F anything up. But I've always stuck with "mild" products to be safe.
I'm to the point of wanting to take that leap of faith :buffing:
The HF DA felt a lot different than the Flex to me. I think I will be doing a lot of test spots on my husband's truck and/or Jeep to get more comfortable using it before taking it to my beloved MINI.
The two machines are worlds apart in how they work as you could see when we removed the backing plates and discussed how they work.
Both machines are very capable and they have their places in the order of getting certain tasks completed. We discussed how filling scratches with a glaze using fillers such as kaolin clay manipulates the shape of the scratch so that light can't reflect or refract back to your eyes, creating the illusion that the scratches are gone.
Well the traditional style DA, or Porter Cable (PC) style DA such as the HF unit tends to work the fibers of the microfiber pads in a way that the fibers and the abrasives that are attached to them can get down into the scratches and round over not only the sharp edges at the top of the scratch but also the sharp edge at the base of the scratch, essentially muting the light's ability to shine back out of the scratch.
The major benefit of this is that you get the illusion of paint that has been leveled to below the base of the scratches without actually removing near as much clear coat as actually leveling the paint, leaving more clear and prolonging the life of the paint system.
What you really see when you look at swirls and scratches under a light source such as the sun is the light itself reflecting or refracting off of one of the flat sides of the scratch itself. So you are really seeing light, not the scratch itself. Round over the top edge and also round the base of the scratch and the light can't reflect directly back out of the scratch in one direction, so you don't see the light the same as you could before working with the DA and MF cutting disk. The PC style DA seems to achieve this better than the Flex 3401.
The Flex 3401 works much better on jobs where working with an AIO product or a cleaner wax is involved using foam pads. I couldn't be without the Flex 3401 when I work on really large jobs such as race car trailers, big RVs or toy haulers. These rigs are typically painted with either very soft pre-painted aluminum panels, so soft that a rotary can easily abrade off the paint completely, or some are gel coat which depending on the severity of the condition, a rotary may or may not be needed to recondition the finish of these units.
Where the Flex 3401 excels is in just performing a clean & shine type of polishing or finish polishing in a multi step correction, regardless of what you're working on and regardless of the shape of it. The forced rotation can't be stopped and the 9600 strokes per minute work great to work the cleaning solvents and wax down into the paint very quickly.
One day I did a big job and gave my helper my Flex 3401 to use because it's so easy to use without the need to have any learned technique to keep the pad rotating and there is very little risk of burning anything. I was stuck that day using either my Makita rotary or my Meg's G110V2, neither of which worked very well on that particular job. That night I went right home and ordered a second Flex 3401 so I never got caught in that position again while employing a helper for the day.
The Flex 3401 is quite capable of correcting paint but in my experience works best with foam pads or wool pads for doing so.
FYI- I am fanatical about my car (I must subconsciously think it's a Ferrari or something) and only let a few people touch it, drive it, work on it. I was so psyched to have Dave do his magic... to me, that speaks VOLUMES. I may not know exactly what he's doing, but I know it works!
Thank you again!
And please keep the discussions going... just leave my lovely video editing skills alone :righton:
She's not kidding here. Her Mini looks outstanding inside and out. It has a lot of really cool custom touches that she did herself. I was quite impressed with the car and how it looks. A perfect car to make as perfect as possible!! :goodjob2:
I love threads like this...
You're right. There's a LOT of information on this forum and while it can be overwhelming for anyone just getting into detailing, in my opinion, it's better to have this kind of volume of information covering all spectrums of car detailing.
If you think about the opposite of too much... that would be too little...
Not only is there a lot of helpful information on this forum but this forum also attracts very high caliber people like Dave that are always willing to help bring others up the road further and faster than if the person were just on their own.
There's an old saying that goes like this,
"Each one teach one"
Dave is an example of living this philosophy and now because of Dave's tutoring, you're in the same position, that is to take what you've learned and share it with someone else, help to bring them further up the road.
Classy.
Taking the time to give due credit where credit is due is very classy as well as professional.
I remember the day you joined this forum as I remember when a lot of people join, it hasn't even been a month yet.
New detail nut here
It's very rewarding to watch your progress and your success...
I'm so glad to see you post in this thread Mike. Thanks for the kind words and for all the leadership you share with the world in more ways than just teaching detailing and paint correction. You possess a true professionalism that I myself strive toward every day. Thanks for all that you do.
Honestly, when I feel like I can't go on, sometimes I think of you and all the projects you are involved in all the time and it gives me the strength to push forward.
Thx for the reply Mike... Dave spoke very highly of you.
I don't know how much I could pass on yet from the other weekend, but hoping to get to that point down the road.
It is true what you said- the caliber of people on here is outstanding. I think I am in a great place.
I really am looking forward to growing and being successful in becoming a badass little detailer :xyxthumbs:
Funny you remember me joining.. although I've been told I make a lot of commotion wherever I go
You'll get there. It takes time and practice, but it helps to have some knowledge up front. Whenever you think you're ready for detailing 101 round 2, just get with me and I'll find time or make time to spend another day with you.
I'd really like to come out to one of the events your car club has sometime to get a feel for what the member's interests concerning the things they'd like to learn about detailing and what they'd like to see from me, that way I can better prepare to hold a more effective training seminar that will be tailored more directly to your club's specific needs and desires. We'll talk about that when the time is right.
How many members does your Mini Cooper club have?
Awesome videos.
When I first came on here about a month or two ago, I went and visited Dave as well.
That will not be my last trip either - his knowledge is head spinning and impossible to absorb in such a short amount of time.
Thanks for helping me, and others, Dave!
You're welcome buddy. See you on the 24th right?
WOW... tons of info here.
Thank you very much on sharing this.
If you have more... I would certainly appreciate it.
Altho this right here is going to take me a day or two to digest.
You're welcome. Reading Kevin's writings are very interesting. As you develop your skills and feel you're ready for more info, you can reread his works and find more info you didn't catch the first time around. It's almost as if his works evolve as you do, but I assure you Kevin's works are thoroughly packed with overwhelming amounts of science, physics, technique and tons of character. I thought I was a deep thinker until I discovered Kevin Brown's works. Talk about head spinning!!
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