From working by hand to working by machine - You can do it.

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

From working by hand to working by machine - You can do it.


Hey we all start out in the same place and that's knowing nothing. Most of us started out working by hand, by this I mean polishing and waxing the paint on our car by hand.

Then, with the help of discussion forums like this one many of you reading this made the jump from working by hand to working by machine.

Can I get a witness?



Pictures: 4th Autogeek's Cars & Coffee

At the 4th Autogeek's Cars & Coffee I met Mitch, the owner of a 2003 Mustang Mach 1 in Azure Blue. In the below picture you can see Mitch's Mustang with the hood up and Mitch is the guy with the sunglasses on drinking coffee talking to the guy in the green shirt to his left.

There were some rock chips in the front and Mitch asked me the best way to deal with them and I recommended the Dr. Color Chip rock chip repair kits sold by Autogeek. Mitch purchased the kit but was a little apprehensive about using it so I invited him to Autogeek and offered to lend a hand.

When Mitch arrived I inspected the paint and it had the normal swirls, scratches and rock chips...


Swirls and scratches photographed using the technique I share in this article.

Close-up...

Major Rock Chip

Another rock chip smaller in size...

How to remove swirls and scratches

Now Mitch told me he had never used a machine to polish his car and instead had always worked by hand. I said we're going to change that today and in just a few minutes taught him how to use a simple, entry level dual action polisher called a Porter Cable 7424XP with Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover and a Lake Country Yellow Foam Cutting pad and Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish and a Lake Country Black foam finishing pad.

These are the same polishes that are now used in Wayne Carini's shop so Mitch is in good company.

First we removed the swirls....

Then re-polished to maximize gloss and clarity....

Then I showed Mitch how much easier and faster it is to machine apply wax...

Here's what a machine applied coat of Pinnacle Liquid Souveran looks like....

Here's the results after wiping off the wax....

Mitch isn't ever going back to working by hand but I do expect a LOT of people to start asking him,

How did you get your Mustang's paint to look so good?

Product used....

On Autogeek.net

Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover

Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish

Pinnacle Liquid Souveran Car Wax

Pinnacle Clay Lube

Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay

Porter Cable 7424XP Dual Action Polisher

Lake Country 5.5" Pads

Lake Country 5" Backing Plate

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

Dr. ColorChip Rock Chip Repair System



See how we used the Dr. ColorChip Paint Chip Repair System on Mitch's Mustang here,

How to use the Dr. ColorChip Paint Chip Repair Systems

 

[KMdef9]

Very awesome of you Mike!




Can't wait for write up on the Dr. Color Chip!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Can't wait for write up on the Dr. Color Chip!

I've never used the Dr. Color Chip products till this project. I've watch them in use and it always looked pretty straight forward.

I'm happy to say it's just as easy to use as it looks.

The key thing is to have realistic expectations. If you think after using this or any touch-up paint system that no one, especially you the owner will never be able to see any trace of the damage then live with the rock chips or have your car re-painted.

If you understand that after using this kit you can stand around 5-6 feet and the panel will have a uniform appearance with no eye sore white spots of primer sticking out like a sore-thumb then you'll be very happy.

In this example, the owner was very happy with the kit, the color match and the results.


I was impressed by how well the products and technique worked and I would buy this kit and recommend this kit again.


:xyxthumbs:

 

[Hoytman]

Very nice, as usual, Mike.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Very nice, as usual, Mike.

Thanks Bill...

Still haven't got a witness... :laughing:


I figured there would be lots of people over the years that came here or to MOL only knowing how to work by hand and then after getting help on this forum moved up to machine polishing. Some have even gone on to start detailing businesses.

Some hang out on this forum, other forums and even blogs taking what they learned here and helping others that like them, use to work by hand.

:laughing:

 

[Setec Astronomy]

Still haven't got a witness... :laughing:

I figured there would be lots of people over the years that came here or to MOL only knowing how to work by hand and then after getting help on this forum moved up to machine polishing.

OK Mike, I got into using Mirror Glaze products 100 years or so ago, but we had a couple rounds of water rationing here in the late 90's and I had kind of gotten less enthused with detailing. My friend got a new car in 2003 and I decided the OTC Meguiar's stuff would be better than my old Mirror Glaze stash, but we were disappointed with that route.

So off to the Meguiar's website in 2004 to see what was new, and a link to their discussion forum, MOL...wound up with a G100 and 80-series polishes to replace my 2/9/7/26 by hand (and once with a "wax spreader" that I decided was more trouble than it was worth).

Haven't looked back and now I have too many machines, too many brands, too many towels, too many forum posts, etc.

 

[Justin at Final Inspection]

Great work Mike! I was parked a couple cars over from that Mach 1 at the last cars and coffee. Can't wait to see it in person.

 

[Chevota Guy]

.........Still haven't got a witness... :laughing:


I figured there would be lots of people over the years that came here or to MOL only knowing how to work by hand and then after getting help on this forum moved up to machine polishing.:laughing:.........

Okay, I'll confess although I'm going to date my self in doing so. In high school I worked part time and summers for a friend who had a body shop. He specialized in absolutely stunning multi layer lacquer paint jobs on custom cars. I learned the hard way how to sand entire cars between each coat, and final buff by hand. He was a perfectionist and showed me what a show car finish with a customized clear coat could look like. Production base coats/clear coats weren't around yet.

All of these years, I worked by hand..........until I discovered AGO about a year and a half ago. Now I have a PC, Flex 3401 and just ordered the PE 14-2. I can't do much any more without a machine. The only thing that hurts now is my wallet, but I'm not complaining one bit.

 

[Guessless]

Still haven't got a witness... :laughing:

OK my hand is up, c7424:
got the similar version to GG 6 from Europe and done my windows with Ceriglass and Carpro pads, still waiting for my foam pads & polishes to arrive so I can get on the paint. Still horrified of the thoughts of putting the machine on the paint though, specially since it took 6 years to restore the ride, oh well.....
Oh Mike, have been reading lots of your posts and learning a lot,as well as reviews by the likes of Swanicyouth, Ceedog and others.
Muchas Gracias Guys. rops:

 

[Craig Parker]

Hey Mike, I remember doing everything by hand from the late seventies, until I bought your dvd on show car detailing where you detailed the 1960 black corvette. That when I made the decision to buy a porter cable dual action polisher and start using the techniques that you demonstrated on the dvd. I finally attended your boot camp in Sept 2012 where I learned so much more about the detailing world, I will be attending the next boot camp again this Sept and I can't wait to see the demo cars that we will be working on. Thanks Mike!!:dblthumb2:

 

[Capn Blackie]

Hey we all start out in the same place and that's knowing nothing. Most of us started out working by hand, by this I mean polishing and waxing the paint on our car by hand.

Then, with the help of discussion forums like this one many of you reading this made the jump from working by hand to working by machine.

Can I get a witness?

AMEN and pass the polish!

I was the guy who would spend 3 hours taking my dirt bike apart, taking off everything that would unbolt and clean it with a toothbrush then rub on wax to everything I could and then polish up the wheels and spokes. Then I would go get it dirty again and clean it again next week.

I learned to have real issues with silver paint as my first hand me down car had some really crappy Ford silver paint that fell apart and I couldn't do a thing with it. I'm slowly getting past that silver paint thing but it a long process.

Then I would wash and wax dad's little Fiat spider so I could take it out on weekends.

I bought a Craftsman orbital polishers with the terry cloth bonnets years ago but I could never do much with it.

Now, I get "it" and am heading in the right direction, have a decent DA, some of the right products and know what I need to get more of, and my MF supply is growing. ALOT!
(place crazy mad scientist laugh here.)

I love this stuff and swirls are my mortal enemy. None shall pass.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

My friend got a new car in 2003 and I decided the OTC Meguiar's stuff would be better than my old Mirror Glaze stash, but we were disappointed with that route.

So off to the Meguiar's website in 2004 to see what was new, and a link to their discussion forum, MOL...

wound up with a G100 and 80-series polishes to replace my 2/9/7/26 by hand (and once with a "wax spreader" that I decided was more trouble than it was worth).

Haven't looked back and now I have too many machines, too many brands, too many towels, too many forum posts, etc.

That is actually about a typical of a story as it can get... and back then M80 and M83 were about the only game in town when it came to removing swirls with a dual action polisher. Now M80 is gone... discontinued....

Thanks for sharing your testimoney...


:dblthumb2:

 

[highimpact]

My car is the ’03 Mustang Mach 1 Mike Phillips used in this write-up. It has 53,000 miles on it, and has suffered from road rash to the hood, front fenders, etc. After much research, Dr. ColorChip was the only one we could find that had an OEM color match for the Azure Blue paint on my car.

(This color is rare because it was only offered on the 2003 & 2004 Mach 1.)

I asked Mike if he had any past or present experience with Dr. ColorChip. Sensing my apprehension, Mike invited me to bring in my car to engage in a recorded project using the Dr. ColorChip product to document how well it worked and matched my car. I gladly accepted his offer, and went over to AutoGeek on Thursday, July 31.

Before we got started with Dr. Color Chip, Mike suggested that in order to ensure optimum results we needed to make sure that the hood and fender areas were flawless. Who could argue with Mike who’s knowledge and skill is indisputable when you see his results? So, under Mike’s tutelage we began by claying the area first. Then we used Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover and Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish. All this was followed by a final coat of Pinnacle Liquid Souveran Polish. And OMG!! The car looked SO unbelievably fabulous!

Then it was time to apply Dr. ColorChip. Mike followed the processes described in the instructions, all of which takes only minutes. After the final wipe with a micro fiber cloth, like magic the road chips disappeared! It actually became difficult to photo document since it was very difficult to find the chips that Mike had addressed. Needless to say, I was elated with not only the results of Dr. ColorChip and Mike’s application of same, but with the ENTIRE outcome! I would definitely recommend Dr. Color Chip.

In closing, let me first thank Mike Phillips for not only choosing to use my car for documenting the Dr. ColorChip/AutoGeek experience, but also for his hard work, dedication, and his technical teaching technique.

Thanks also to the Owner, Mr. Bob McKee, and his employees who represent his company with such professionalism, knowledge and technical expertise. I can’t thank everyone at AutoGeek/Palm Beach Motoring Group enough.

And Mike is right — I’m now a believer in & convert to working by machine. Both the difference in results and the amount of time saved is incredible!!!

I would DEFINITELY recommend AutoGeek for all your car-care needs as well as to get knowledgeable, honest answers to whatever questions you may have regarding the best products for your vehicle.

Good Luck and Continued Success. See you all at Cars & Coffee.

Regards,
Mitch Lippmann

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I would DEFINITELY recommend AutoGeek for all your car-care needs as well as to get knowledgeable, honest answers to whatever questions you may have regarding the best products for your vehicle.

Thanks for sharing your experience here at Autogeek Mitch and most of all...

Thank you for trusting us with your Mustang!


:dblthumb2:

 

[Hoytman]

Thanks Bill...

Still haven't got a witness... :laughing:


I figured there would be lots of people over the years that came here or to MOL only knowing how to work by hand and then after getting help on this forum moved up to machine polishing. Some have even gone on to start detailing businesses.

Some hang out on this forum, other forums and even blogs taking what they learned here and helping others that like them, use to work by hand.

:laughing:

Sorry...:laughing:

Years ago I too did everything by hand, mostly waxing since every compound or polish product I tried to use by hand seemed horrible to use. We're talking mid-80's here. Of course, all I had to go by then were the label directions which were mostly vague.

It wasn't until I began reading your articles here at AutoGeek around 2009-2010 (not exactly sure, but I lurked a long time before deciding to register) that I began to understand how certain products were made and how/when to use them. The part of all this learning was the products were being used with a machine that I felt comfortable using on paint, so I bought a G110V2 and went to town...and will never look back.

Since then I've used a rotary polisher on gel-coat many times and have also gained confidence in using it on paint if the need arises. Best part of this was knowing that I could remove any holograms I made just by changing the action of the tool by using my G110V2 couples with the proper pads and proper.

Even though I used to work by hand some, I realize now that most of what I did was with bad technique. When I have to work by hand now I certainly use better technique and have more knowledge than in times past. My technique still isn't perfect, but at least now I know where to turn should I need help. That said, working by machine is king and I couldn't fathom taking on a large scale project without my machines.

 

[rms64]

Consider me a witness!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/58599-new-me-bmw-any-hope.html

 

[Setec Astronomy]

Years ago I too did everything by hand, mostly waxing since every compound or polish product I tried to use by hand seemed horrible to use. We're talking mid-80's here. Of course, all I had to go by then were the label directions which were mostly vague.

That is actually about a typical of a story as it can get... and back then M80 and M83 were about the only game in town when it came to removing swirls with a dual action polisher.

It really needs to be said again, what a huge improvement today's products are even over when I started on detailing forums a decade ago, and what a huge improvement forums/internet have made to the experience vs. pre-internet.

As a group, detailing enthusiasts have access to a range of products and instruction that we couldn't even dream of 30 years ago. If I did the Biff from Back to the Future and went back to talk to myself 30 years ago when I was slathering on some heavy paste wax like Collinite (thicker is better, it will last longer, right?) and told me that in 30 years people would be wiping on a clear liquid "wax" that would flash and disappear, and wouldn't need to be buffed, and that we'd be washing cars without hoses, I would have said to myself "you're a crazy old man, now make like a tree and get outta here!"

 

[Jaretr1]

I cant imagine doing a lot of things without a machine now as well. Paint correction without a machine? I cant imagine trying that again!

Spreading wax with a machine may or may not be faster than by hand but it does ensure even uniform coverage and more than likely helps in using the minimal amount of product possible.

 

[UglyBetty]

I'm a "semi-witness".....

I did everything by hand for about 15 years. I spent about $75 on one of those 10" craftsman orbital polishers. I thought I died and went to heaven, I was the Adonis of detailing my personal vehicles with that thing(in my mind)!

After 10 years of my Craftsman / Adonis wax spreading......I found Autogeek, the rest is history. Now I have more polishers than cars, and I believe the next purchase I make needs to be multiple therapy sessions.