Pictures - Black BMW Z3 and Black Nissan Altima - Extreme Makeovers at Autogeek's Show Car Garage!

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Pictures - Black BMW Z3 and Black Nissan Altima - Extreme Makeovers at Autogeek's Show Car Garage!


We knocked out two black cars with horrendous swirls, scratches and water spots tonight. Both cars came out looking show room new!

We used McKee's Fast Compound followed by McKee's Jeweling Wax and each person was free to choose the tool they liked or wanted to spend time with.


Here's a couple pictures of the final results and my extreme makeover team.

The products used for these dramatic before and after results can all be found on...


Autogeek.com


McKee's 37 Fast Compound 16 oz

McKee's 37 Jeweling Wax 16 oz

Marine 31 Clear Vinyl Restorer & Protectant

McKee's 37 Waterless Wash On The Go

McKee's 37 Universal Clay Lubricant

BLACKFIRE All-In-One Trim & Tire Protectant

Pinnacle Ultra Poly Detailing Clay and Clay Lube

RUPES BigFoot 15

RUPES BigFoot 21

RUPES Mini 12

Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher

FLEX 3401 Dual Action Orbital Polisher

Porter Cable 7424XP

 

[Craig Parker]

The cars look great Mike, can't wait for the before, during and after shots

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued...


Here's how the paint on these two cars looked before we started. It's a good idea to document the before condition because it proves your process works and your team knows what they are doing.

This is a swirl shot taken of the hood...

Swirls shot taken of the trunk lid...

And swirl shot on the rear sail panel...

Next up - the BMW Z3

Here's the hood. The two Test Spots were done my two guys taking the IDA SV test on Monday after our Competition Ready 3-Day Detailing Class.

Click here for INFO about taking the IDA SV Certification Test at Autogeek in Stuart, Florida




This is the paint just in front of the passenger side of the windshield... lots of deep scratches

The back window is pretty much useless as far as acting as a "window".

The paint on the trunk lid is trashed like you see on the hood and actually the rest of the car.

Besides all the paint defects, both cars are incredibly dirty and contaminated.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued...


Here's the convertible back window...

And after Al clayed just the trunk lid, here's what came off the paint and onto the clay...

 

[LEDetailing]

It looks like you forgot to wash the BMW before you clayed

I've never seen clay look like it was dropped in a sand box.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued....


Some of the guys that attend our Thursday night detailing classes are brand new to machine polishing. For these guys I start them out with Porter Cable 7424XP dual action polishers. These tools are simple and easy to use and with the right pads and products and work miracles.

For our regular guys I LET THEM CHOOSE which polisher they want to use. All I do is make sure they're using the correct pad for the tool and the correct product for the project.


So as you look at the pictures below you can see who likes what and who's new to the class.



This is Gary, he joined us for the first time for the Hellcat and Scatpack projects and I think he's hooked on detailing and machine polishing.

Pictures: 2016 Challenger Scatpack Shaker & 2016 Dodge Hellcat - Black Label Diamond Paint Coating

On the trunk lid of the Altima is "Rob the Detailer" using the FLEX 3401

On the passenger side compounding with the FLEX 3401 is my buddy Eric Hutter - We did an extreme makeover to Eric's center console boat a few years ago and it's featured in a number of section of my boat detailing how-to book

Paperback book - How To Detail Boats With Marine 31 by Mike Phillips

This is Frank or FrankS on the forum.

Frank is also an Alumni Competition Ready Student and for this type of hard correction work he likes the FLEX 3401 with LC Hybrid pads

I first met Frank when he joined us for a Thursday night class where we did a full wetsand, cut and buff to a 1928 Model A Hotrod and he's been attending our Thursday night classes ever since.



Pictures: 1928 Model A - Wetsand, Cut and Buff at Autogeek



Frank's First Time
Here's Frank learning all about how to wetsand, cut and buff fresh paint here at Autogeek's Show Car Garage!

This was Frank's first visit to our Thursday night gigs and he picked an great night to join us as not only did he get to see the entire process from sanding, cutting, polishing and machine waxing a very cool traditional hot rod but he also was able to helps us restore the original paint on a 1956 Chevy Bel Air.

After Shot

This is Al, he's our local SUPER BMW Enthusiast! Al has been coming to our Thursday Night Classes for about 4-5 years. One thing I love about Al is I can fully trust him to give any project 100% of his attention. In the picture below Al is using a tool he loves! It's the RUPES Mini 12mm Orbital Polisher. He's using the new 3.5" Lake Country ThinPro orange foam cutting pad on this RUPES polisher to compound the swirls and scratches out of the rear bumper cover.

Switching back over to the Altima - here's "Rob the Detailer" using the Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher with the Lake Country 3.5" ThinPro orange cutting pad to remove swirls and scratches out of the rear bumper.

This is Gary - I think this is Gary's 3rd or 4th time attending our Thursday night detailing class. The first thing Gary did when he arrived was he starting pulling cords. This mean he started laying out extension cords around the cars to make it fast and easy for everyone to get started. Thanks Gary!

The gentleman at the front of the car is the owner Jim. This was Jim's first time machine polishing and he did a great job for his first time.

This is Robert DiTerrlizzi one of my oldest friends since I moved from SoCal after leaving Meguiar's to Stuart, Florida. Robert is a huge fan of the RUPES orbital polishers....

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued...

You're wondering?

What about that clear plastic window in the convertible top?


Inside the BMW is the owner AJ. This is AJ's FIRST time doing any type of machine polishing. I point this out because machine polishing flexible clear plastic takes a little bit of skill to get it perfect. Also, this back window was in horrible condition. To take horrible to like-new simply takes time since the plastic is thick, at least thicker than the clear layer of paint on your clearcoated car and this enables you to polish and polish and polish until you're happy. I think there's still room for improvement if AJ is willing to put in a little more time.

That said... for his first time ever using a Porter Cable 7424XP I think you'll agree - he did a pretty good job!

That's AJ's hand holding the Porter Cable against the inside of the plastic window. You have to be CAREFUL when machine buffing flexible clear plastic windows so that you don't create a warm to hot surface and STRETCH or WARP the window. I've been buffing out clear plastics of all types for 30 years so I have a little bit of experience with this type of material.

Here's I've used the flash on my camera to light up the scene for a better look...

Now pay attention....

The entire inside has been machine polished once.
The passenger side of the outside has been polished once and we left this quarter section of the outside original to show the difference as I move my camera to take pictures across the back of the back window to show the transition.


IF you look to the right hand side of the overhead florescent light reflecting off the window you can see the border for before and after.

Now I've moved to take a picture of the overhead florescent light RIGHT on the border line of before and after.

Now I've moved the camera to take a picture with the light PAST the original section.

And now I've moved to show the passenger side that has had the inside and the outside machine polished one time.

After getting the before and after pics it's time for AJ to finish the last section of oxidized, scratches clear plastic.

Here's the final results - not perfect but getting there. I'll have AJ bring the car back and we'll do a little more polishing and my guess is we can get this close to new condition again.

This was BEFORE

Nice work AJ!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued....


Here's the beauty shots!

To all the guys that helped out thank you.

To AJ and Jim - Thank you for trusting Autogeek with your rides!


The products used for these dramatic before and after results can all be found on...

Autogeek.com



McKee's 37 Fast Compound 16 oz

McKee's 37 Jeweling Wax 16 oz

Marine 31 Clear Vinyl Restorer & Protectant

McKee's 37 Waterless Wash On The Go

McKee's 37 Universal Clay Lubricant

BLACKFIRE All-In-One Trim & Tire Protectant

Pinnacle Ultra Poly Detailing Clay and Clay Lube

RUPES BigFoot 15

RUPES BigFoot 21

RUPES Mini 12

Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher

FLEX 3401 Dual Action Orbital Polisher

Porter Cable 7424XP

 

[Jeremy1976]

Nice job guys!

 

[FrankS]

Nice write-up Mike!

The paint on the BMW was really trashed but we saw a tremendous improvement with the products used.

 

[LEDetailing]

The BMW window and paint look great. The Nissan looks new. Nice work!

 

[Mike Honcho]

Oustanding!!!

 

[axel06]

holy cow great work guys !!!!

 

[GSKR]

Sorry couldn't make it Mike,some last things popped up.

 

[Craig Parker]

Excellent work to everyone involved Mike, cars look awesome!:xyxthumbs:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Nice job guys!

On behalf of the team... thank you!

Nice write-up Mike!

The paint on the BMW was really trashed but we saw a tremendous improvement with the products used.

Thanks Craig!

The BMW window and paint look great. The Nissan looks new. Nice work!

The good news is now AJ can see through the window and that's a major safety improvement.

Outstanding!!!

On behalf of the team... thank you!

holy cow great work guys !!!!

On behalf of the team... thank you!

Sorry couldn't make it Mike,some last things popped up.

No problem Jeff.... family and life come first...

Excellent work to everyone involved Mike, cars look awesome!:xyxthumbs:

On behalf of the team... thank you!

 

[custmsprty]

Outstanding work guys.

That's amazing. I would never have thought you could restore that rear plastic window that well.

 

[VISITOR]

wow, nice job and great team effort!

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful work on the cars Gentlemen!

I'm honestly a bit surprised I didn't see the PE14/wool being used for chop work on the BMW. How were the paint readings?

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

People been looking for and hoping for a way to get more use out of their Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher for as long as I can remember!


Recently Lake Country introduced a 3.5 inch version of their ThinPro pads (exclusive to Autogeek). I wrote about them here,



NEW! 3.5" ThinPro Foam Pads! Thin is in and you're going to love these new small foam pads!



The new 3.5" ThinPro pads fit the factory backing plate on the Griot's Garage 3" Min Polisher.

Here you can see they are very thin, about as thin as the backing plate itself...

And now HERE you can see them in action.


This is Al, he's our local SUPER BMW Enthusiast! Al has been coming to our Thursday Night Classes for about 4-5 years. One thing I love about Al is I can fully trust him to give any project 100% of his attention. In the picture below Al is using a tool he loves! It's the RUPES Mini 12mm Orbital Polisher. He's using the new 3.5" Lake Country ThinPro orange foam cutting pad on this RUPES polisher to compound the swirls and scratches out of the rear bumper cover.

Switching back over to the Altima - here's "Rob the Detailer" using the Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher with the Lake Country 3.5" ThinPro orange cutting pad to remove swirls and scratches out of the rear bumper.

Just wanted to make sure all you small polisher guys saw these pics...