Rain or shine, we always hold our Tech Session in our air-conditioned TV Studio and fully stocked Detail Garage.
Tech Session Topic: Hand vs Machine - Removing Swirls
Despite the rain, we have 50+ plus people attend our Tech Session on Saturday morning....
Barry Meguiar's was scheduled to Skype in for a Q & A session but due to schedule conflicts was unable to make it so Bob, the President and CEO of PBMG stepped in!
Bob took a few questions on behalf of Barry Meguiar who will be with us at a future C&C
Reality Check
We know a lot of people still work by hand, or at least "think" they can work on their car's paint by hand but the truth is, modern clear coats are so hard that it's almost impossible to remove all the swirls over an entire car by hand while maintained some level of quality.
You certainly cannot get as good as result by hand as you can by machine and working by machine is a heck of a lot faster and easier.
Inspect the paint
First I had some volunteers from the crowd inspect the paint with their sense of touch and by using the baggie test. We found the paint had contaminants and the first step before machine or hand polishing is to remove the contaminants.
Machine Remove Contaminants
Next we went over the Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads and how to make quick work of remove all the above surface contaminants using a Porter Cable 7424XP. Common contaminants are things like overspray paint, industrial fallout, air pollution and tree sap mist.
Boom Camera
During our Tech Sessions, Yancy runs the boom camera and broadcasts all the action taking place on the car onto the big screen on the back wall. This means no matter where you're sitting or standing you can clearly see all the action!
Quick wipe-off of the residue and we're ready to move on....
Man versus Machine
Next up, Nick's going to show how fast and easy it is to remove the swirls and scratches by machine using the Porter Cable 7424XP while I demonstrate the proper technique for using your hand to rub-out scratches.
The key difference is I'm going to break a sweat while Nick is going to relax and let the machine do all the work.
Here's Nick removing swirls and scratches the easy way.... if you look to the right side of the picture you'll see my hand rubbing the paint with a foam wax pad....
Inspect the results
Next we had some volunteers inspect the results and what they saw was that using good technique and a quality compound like the Wolfgang Uber Compound you can in fact remove swirls and scratches by hand but it takes a lot of technique as well as perspiration!
The Polishing Step
After compounding we moved onto polishing. For this we used the Wolfgang Finishing Glaze which is actually not a glaze but a fine cut polish and what it will do is refine the results from the compounding step to make the paint look better than factory new.
Again I'm working by hand and Nick is working with the Porter Cable....
Inspection Time
We had two new volunteers inspect our results...
Wrap-up
After inspecting we sealed the paint, this is important because neither compounds or polishes provide any long term protection, they primarily remove defects. To seal the paint we used Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0 for a deep, wet shine that lasts up to 6 months.
Short but interesting...
Our Tech Sessions are short but interesting. We share tips and techniques pros use that anyone attending can use on their own cars in their own garage. The Tech Sessions are right about 15-20 minutes long so afterwards everyone can get back to cars and coffee before leaving to get an early start on their weekend.
