O.C.Detailing (Lynchburg, VA.) - Black 2008 Mercedes Benz S550

[O.C.Detailing]

How many Surbuf pads were used on this? Also, do you prefer them? I'm thinking about ordering 1 or 2 just to try them out. And given your fantastic job, I just might.

Here's a tip for ya. Being as the 5.5" Surbuf are only like $11.00 for 2, just bite the bullet and order 3 packs for a total of 6 pads. You can use one pad on a car all day long so long as you clean it with a foam pad brush after every section. Once product starts to cake up too much, take it to the sink, rinse it with warm water, use your foam pad-cleaning brush while running warm water under it and scrub gently until the water runs clear and the micro-fingers are clean. Put the pad on your polisher, spin it on full-speed inside of a trash can or bucket till it's dry and continue to use it.

The pads themselves have ZERO absorption qualities, so you don't have to worry about moisture like you do with foam pads. They have no backing adhered to the back of the pad to separate so using water on them will not affect the backing adhesive. The ONLY thing you really have to worry about is the micro-finger pad separating when you use them for a long time on severely damaged/oxidized paint or use them while not flat on a panel. That's not very often if you're mindful of it. Don't worry about the marring left behind or the hazing for that matter. All of that comes out SUPER easy with M205 or Ultrafina on a white pad on our Griot's machine. I would imagine it'd be the same on any other current DA. Stick with the 5.5" pads. The 6.5" pads I have no experience with, but you'd be hard-pressed to get a better correction from a rotary with wool when using the 5.5" Surbuf pads on either the Flex or Griot's. Not so sure about the PC7424XP being as it's quite anemic compared to the two top-runner machines in terms of power.

The most important part of all of this, as Jonathan stated, SHRINK YOUR WORKSIZE to 9"x9" or at MOST 10"x10". Any more than that and your product will dry TOO quickly. Spread your product at speed 1 very quickly, then zip to speed 6 on the fly. Make your first 2-3 passes pretty fast. Use LIGHT pressure and actually allow the pads to spin quickly while keeping enough pressure on the machine to keep control. As your product begins to dry, slow down and start focusing on the deeper scratches. Once your products dries completely and is doing nothing but dusting, STOP BUFFING, use your foam pad-cleaning brush to brush used product and removed clear until your micro-fingers are re-fluffed. Use 2 slightly smaller than pea-sized drops of product on the pad and repeat.

Here's another tip: DO NOT PRIME THE SURBUF PADS!!!!!

All you'll do is gum up the micro-fingers making them pretty ineffective at correcting to their fullest extent. Once the product is spread, you'll use every single bit of it as you're correcting and you won't be dry-buffing anyway.

I'll also add that I DO NOT like the Kevin Brown Method with the Surbuf pads as all the pads do is sling the water everywhere, even on low speeds due to the fact that there is no absorption qualities to the pads at all. I'm not saying it doesn't or won't work, I'm just saying that it's VERY messy and not worth the clean-up afterwards.

If all else fails, and you get the Surbuf pads and you're not getting the same results, please PM me and I'll make an instructional video to show you HOW I get the results I got on this car using them. I love to share my knowledge, and accept CONSTRUCTIVE and respectful criticism very well. So if you see me doing something you think I might be doing better, please share. I'll try anything once if it makes sense. I hope this helps anyone wondering how to use the Surbuf pads to their full effectiveness.

One last tip, don't get frustrated with the hazing and marring left by the Surbuf pads. It's superficial and will come right out with a white pad on your second step. Look PAST the hazing and marring and make sure you're removing the deeper defects. Once they're all gone, grab your fine polish and polishing pad and watch how easily that hazing and marring goes away. Then you'll see what truly clear paint and severe defect removal is like with the newer, more-powerful DA machines and Surbuf pads. I doubt most of you will ever touch a rotary again once you do. Good luck.

 

[Irish]

Just looking at that beast makes me tired. Nothing like 47ft of land-yacht to take it out of you. Great work as always. :xyxthumbs:

 

[O.C.Detailing]

Thanks Irish. It was a fairly large car, but to be honest, it wasn't quite as much realestate to cover as a BMW 740Li. I've done a few of those.

 

[VISITOR]

nice work adam, i'm sure the owner must of been thrilled :xyxthumbs: . with the greatness of M105, it's always interesting/exciting to see what new products that are in the works that will move forward and keep improving even more as new technology allows (another top notch detailer gmblack3a has been using the M105/surfbuf combo with excellent results for quite some time as well). though it could be true or false, someone on Autopia mentioned that megs is working on something new. http://www.autopia.org/forum/profes...ssion/129219-rumors-new-product-meguiars.html

btw, are those shoes comfortable? when i saw those, it reminded me of the little caesars pizza guy LOL...

 

[O.C.Detailing]

nice work adam, i'm sure the owner must of been thrilled :xyxthumbs: . with the greatness of M105, it's always interesting/exciting to see what new products that are in the works that will move forward and keep improving even more as new technology allows (another top notch detailer gmblack3a has been using the M105/surfbuf combo with excellent results for quite some time as well). though it could be true or false, someone on Autopia mentioned that megs is working on something new. http://www.autopia.org/forum/profes...ssion/129219-rumors-new-product-meguiars.html

btw, are those shoes comfortable? when i saw those, it reminded me of the little caesars pizza guy LOL...

I love those shoes!!! I bought them in Nepal for $4. SUPER comfy and I don't have to worry about getting them wet or dirty. Thanks for the compliments as well. I love new products. I'm actually interested in the Mother's pro line, but worried it won't live up to the "pro" name. I"m not sure how Meg's will top M105/205, but I'm excited to see what they're working on.

 

[VR8]

Sweet write-up Adam/Jon. Great results on the black. I think you should advertise that you only do black.

How's the heat been in the garage?

 

[sullysdetailing]

Very Nice looks great

 

[O.C.Detailing]

Sweet write-up Adam/Jon. Great results on the black. I think you should advertise that you only do black.

How's the heat been in the garage?

Hey John! Thanks man! lol It does seem like I only ever do black doesn't it? We did a silver 335i and a Goldish Audo S4! lol Do those count? I just didn't get any pictures of them.

The heat isn't too bad. JD opened the window in the washbay and the small window, that has an exhaust fan in it, above the bench in my bay. We turn on the small fan, JD faces the big shop fan towards the bay and I have 2 box fans that blow down either side of the car we're doing. Keeps us fairly comfortable, though there have been a few days where it was all FAR too muggy to be working and M205, Ultrafina and PO85u were doing some pretty funky things...I see you've been busy!

Very Nice looks great

Thanks Sully. We worked hard to get it that way, glad you all can see the effort we put into it.

 

[Da Fats]

So your saying Surfbuff + 105 on a DA cut better then Wool + rotary + 105?

10x10 sounds like an awful lotta sections to polish no wonder it took 32 hours!

Have you tried Kompressor pads?

 

[O.C.Detailing]

So your saying Surfbuff + 105 on a DA cut better then Wool + rotary + 105?

10x10 sounds like an awful lotta sections to polish no wonder it took 32 hours!

Have you tried Kompressor pads?

Yes, I have a heavy cut Meguiar's wool pad and tried it on this car. Took twice as many passes and left heavy marring where as the Surbuf pads left light marring and removed the defects faster.

9x9 or 10x10 sections, yes. You would think that, but when you're not allowing 105 to dry out and using it wet, it corrects faster and removes deeper defects. Put it this way, you would have to hit a 12x12 section 2-3 times to get the same defect removal it takes me to get rid of those same defects on a 9x9 or 10x10 section with 1 pass simply due to the fact that you're trying to stretch your M105 too far and allowing it to dry before your polisher even touches it. By the time you finished your 12x12, I'd have done 2 9x9 or 10x10 sections and had the same or better correction because I used my M105 more effectively.

One of the biggest and most important things I've learned detailing cars is this...You have to SLOW DOWN to SPEED UP! If you try to rush a full correction job, you get terribad results. If you take your time, then you get results like I try to post.

Like I said, I could have gotten this done faster, but I had the car in my shop for a full week because the customer was out of town and couldn't pick it up anyway. I also had other cars to get done that week and was a bit worn out. One last thing, the TOTAL detail took that long, interior and exterior. The paint correction still took the majority of the time, but we spent a good 2-3 hours cleaning the inside as well, which translates to 4-6 man hours. This is also a VERY scratch-resistant clearcoat...so yeah, naturally, they take a bit longer to correct to the level we achieved on this vehicle. If the paint were a standard clear, like on your everyday Mitsubishi or Honda, then it wouldn't have taken anywhere near as long.

I haven't used Kompressor pads, but on the foam cutting scale, they still don't have any more correction capabilities than any other foam that Lake Country makes. I use 5.5" yellow LC flat pads which do a decent amount of cutting on standard paints and will mar pretty heavily on some, but for scratch-resistant clears, they are like using an Orange 5.5" LC flat pad with 205 to remove heavy defects, it just doesn't work.

 

[jmp09fg2]

Yes. We tested two sections side by side on a different black Mercedes and got wayyyy better results from Surbuf+105+Griot's DA. I'm not saying that every DA will get these results, but the Griot's seems to be able to take out just about anything.

The 10x10 was just during the compounding stages.

I haven't tried the compressor pads, yet. I think Adam may have.

Edit: Guess what Adam? I GOT A NIKON D3000!!!!!!! It won't be here until later this week/early next week. But still very exciting.

 

[DaVinciAutoSpa]

That is some impressive work you two. I'm in awe,...seriously. I see that and it makes me want to go step my game up. Way to raise the bar. rops:

And it looks like I'll be placing my sur buf order here in a little bit.

If you have time, post a vid. That would be awesome.

As for your pricing, I understand evrything you've said. I'm on the West Coast and the economy is dictating a lot obviously. But I'm still busy.

Keep up the great work.

 

[O.C.Detailing]

That is some impressive work you two. I'm in awe,...seriously. I see that and it makes me want to go step my game up. Way to raise the bar. rops:

And it looks like I'll be placing my sur buf order here in a little bit.

If you have time, post a vid. That would be awesome.

As for your pricing, I understand evrything you've said. I'm on the West Coast and the economy is dictating a lot obviously. But I'm still busy.

Keep up the great work.

Thanks so much! As another member recently said to me on a comment I made to him, I am truly humbled by your compliment and can't help but to respond by saying "I still have a TON to learn".

I"ll try to get a video up as soon as I get another car in need of their corrective abilities. As of now...it seems everyone in Lynchburg has decided NOT to get their cars detailed, even though the weather is PERFECT for a well-detailed car. I just need to let everyone know that I can do the typical 1-step polish out if they need it for an affordable price that won't take all day to do.