Pictures: Detailing Boot Camp Class - September 28th & 29th 2013

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Pictures: Detailing Boot Camp Class - September 28th & 29th 2013



Wow! Another awesome group of guys that have taken one of my detailing boot camp classes. We had guys from all backgrounds in the car detailing world. Some guys were brand new to car detailing while others have been in business for decades, we even had boat detailers attending this class.

The two most common comments I heard was everyone really loved the chance to try out and use so many different tools and also working on all the cool cars. I guarantee you... the chance to buff out a 1959 Dodge Royal will probably never happen in your life again and that car looked awesome when you were all finished with it!

Bryan my co-worker did a great job of taking pictures and there's 1600 pictures on the memory card after this weekend's class! That's a lot of picture to look through!

I'll definitely get through them and post as many as I can and to get things started here's the pictures Nick took at the end of the class when certificates are awarded...


Richard, it was a real pleasure working with you but ding dang... you blinked!

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Niki it's always great to have you here at Autogeek working on all the cool projects that go through our classes...

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Chris it was great working with you all weekend watching you smile even when you're were working hard...

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Axel... what can I say...

It was great working with you and even more fun to finally put a face to an Avatar!

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Brian... you kept me on my toes with all your great questions... I could tell you were there to learn!

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David it was a pleasure having you in the class and a pleasure having both you and your wife at the "Meet & Greet". I'm confident you're ready to tackle your BLACK Challenger!

This one...
2012 Dodge Challenger SRT8 with Water Spot Imprint Rings


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Tyron, it was a pleasure working with you and I appreciate the time you took away from your business in Louisiana and invest it into our detailing classes here at Autogeek.

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Donald, like I posted above to Tyron, I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate your willingness to investigate and trust both myself and Autogeek and then leave your business in Louisiana to fly out here and attend our class. Thank you.

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Dan it was great having you in the class, I'm confident your new found skills and knowledge will make anything you touch gleam like the sun!

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Bob... it was a genuine pleasure having you at our class... I must have worked you too hard on Saturday...

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Ed... loved having you in our class... I'm sure your 1966 Corvette is going to glisten like a polished gemstone after you put your new found skills to work...

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Barry it was a blast having you in the class! I wish good fortune in your detailing business and hope to see you on the forum often...

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Desmond... I loved your passion and eagerness for trying out every tool and procedure on Saturday and Sunday. If you approach your detailing business with this same energy there's nothing that can stop you from becoming successful...

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Kyle... it was easy to tell you already have a lot of knowledge about all aspects of car detailing, I hope this class will help you to be even more successfulll...

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Tim it was great having you in the class, it's easy to tell you're a real car guy and love working on cars! I hope you enjoyed the selection we had for this class.

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Graham... you're enthusiasm to learn was refreshing, I'm confident you'll always succeed!

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Patryk, it was a real pleasure getting to know you and work with you. I could tell right away you know your way around a rotary buffer! Hope to see you at some of our Thursday night gigs...

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Andy you always looked like you were having fun no matter what we we're doing. I sincerely hope you had as much fun as you looked like you were having as you were a real pleasure to have in the class.

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Joseph... Thank you for attending and really pouring yourself into the class. I wish you success with your new detailing business!

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Dan I appreciate anyone that purchases a copy of my how-to book and I'm even more happy to not only sign the book but to spend two day working with you on all aspects of car detailing.

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:dblthumb2:
 
Another great class!

I would like to thank everyone that attended this weekends class, you were all awesome and everyone did a great job!

I'll get a few pictures up tomorrow and throughout the week. I hope you all had as much fun as we did and remember if you ever have any questions in the future don't ever hesitate to call...


:dblthumb2:
 
Hey Mike thanks again,

Really appreciate your hands on approach as well the of passion for detailing that few posses.

Great class, great people, great host Best of luck to all.


:dblthumb2:
 
thank you!!! for your expert advice. its very rare to have a place to experance all the tools that where there to try and on all the cool cARS. i gunna try and get a a few to come on down for the next class..
and thanks to da crew at autogeek wishing you all the best.. axel :)
 
Really enjoyed the class thanks for all the knowledge and hands on

Sent from my MB855 using AG Online
 
It's Monday morning, the day after this last weekend's Detailing Boot Camp Class and that means time to move all the training cars out of the garage and start in on the clean-up work.

Before I disappear though, here's a few pictures of everyone that attended this class!


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More pictures later and throughout the week!


:dblthumb2:
 
Awesome Weekend! I had high expectations before the class, but it was better than I could have ever imagined. Mike has a great approach to teaching by offering hands on training which makes everything even more interesting. It was great to try out all of the tools and different chemicals. If anyone is thinking about going to the next class I highly recommend it!

Thanks Mike, Nick and everyone at Autogeek!

Chris:xyxthumbs:
 
The class was fantastic! I learned a lot of great things I can apply to my business and met a lot of really cool people.

Mike was great, as expected. And Nick really helped walk me through a lot of decisions on products and equipment. He's practically a walking catalog!

I hope to come down for a Thursday sometime, but the eight hour drive may delay that for a while. (Let me know when you do something in Georgia!)

I need to get back to my shopping now (thanks, Nick!:xyxthumbs:). I'll start posting some of my projects soon!

Thanks again!
 
Hey Mike thanks again,

Really appreciate your hands on approach as well the of passion for detailing that few posses.

Great class, great people, great host Best of luck to all.


:dblthumb2:


Thanks Patrk, I really enjoyed having you in the class and like I said numerous times, I have two passions...

  1. Making cars shiny!
  2. Showing others how to make cars shiny!
I had a blast at the class too!


thank you!!! for your expert advice. its very rare to have a place to experience all the tools that where there to try and on all the cool cars. i going try and get a a few to come on down for the next class..

and thanks to da crew at autogeek wishing you all the best.. axel :)

It was a pleasure having you in the class Axel and most of all finally meeting the guy behind the Avatar! Always love your posts!


Really enjoyed the class thanks for all the knowledge and hands on


It was great having you in the class Barry... hope to see you on the forum more often!


More pictures tomorrow guys!



:dblthumb2:
 
A few more pictures before I leave for the day... (I'm dragging today)


I took these shots of the 1959 Dodge this morning in full sun to show the show car results...

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And here's how this car started out...


The lines you see are the tale-tale sign of holograms inflicted by the misuse of a rotary buffer.

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You can see the hologram lines in this shot too...

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While these look just like cobweb swirls, this section of paint was buffed the same way as the hood you just don't see the hologram lines but these swirls were caused by a rotary buffer also...

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All of the above was done using,

Flex 3401 polishers
Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover
Detailer's Paint Coating Prep
Detailer's Paint Coating.


:dblthumb2:
 
Nice pictures! I wish I had decided I wanted to attend this class earlier so that I could save up!

When is the next class supposed to be?
 
:cruisin: i wanna do it again and again and again.....
 
I had a great time at boot camp! It met and exceeded all of my expectations. The hands-on training was great; we got to try out so many products and different pieces of equipment.

Many thanks to Mike, Nick, Brian, and Andre for putting on such a great event. I highly encourage anyone who is thinking about going to get signed up.

I am usually not up early on the weekends, but I was so excited to get to class Saturday and Sunday that I was up and out of bed as soon as the alarm went off.

Today was a different story, knowing that I just had to head to the airport to fly back home.

What else can I say other than Mike :urtheman:
 
The class was great. It introduced all the fundamentals to the novice and taught new technologies and techniques that any seasoned veteran could use to improve their craft. Mike was the best instructor/teacher I have every had, he was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, concerned, and encouraging.
 
More pictures....

Note: This car has a basecoat/clearcoat paint system just like most modern cars and probably the car in your garage.


For the 1963 Ford Galaxie we used the Rupes Bigfoot 21 and 15 polishers to remove the swirls and scratches and then we went over how to machine apply a paste wax using DA Polishers. We also went over correct techniques for how to carefully remove a wax by hand and by machine.

The vinyl top on this Galaxie was incredibly dirt with lots of brown staining so we also went over how to machine scrub the vinyl top using Cyclo polishers and Porter Cable polishers using Cyclo brushes. For the cleaner and protectant we used 303 Aerospace products so you'll see some pictures below of a dazzling white vinyl top.


First here's how this car looked when it arrived...


BEFORE

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And here's how it looks after the Rupes treatment...


AFTER

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Nice work guys!



:dblthumb2:
 
Nice pictures! I wish I had decided I wanted to attend this class earlier so that I could save up!

When is the next class supposed to be?


Great question and because we have a lot of people that fly in from around the world and around the country, 3 years ago we established a regular schedule for these classes. Here it is...

Last weekend in January.

First weekend in May

Last weekend in September


Just look at any current calandar and find the appropirate weekend and those are the dates. For calendar year 2014 its' goign to be,


January 25th & 26th

May 3rd & 4th

September 27th & 28th


I always have cool cars and sometimes very special surprise guests...


VIP Guest Marco D'Inca from Rupes at Autogeek's Detailing Boot Camp Class




I'm already lining up cars for the January class and of coruse the January class is post-SEMA so we always have new pads, products, tools, etc. for people to play with and often times long before the rest of the world.

And you can sign up by looking for the below graphic on the top of any forum page and >clicking< on it.







:)
 
Looks like fun. I like the Dodge.
 
Richard thank you so much for leaving a gift here for me, I love it, when it gets colder I will have to
put it on and get a picture for you!
I love hoodies, and with this weather we are having I will have to wear it with shorts and flip flops!
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One of the classes I teach at Mobile Tech Expo is called,

How to detail a car – Order of steps


And there is no concrete rule as to how you go about detailing a car as in the oder of the step you take to get from start to end but there are some steps you can do to either save time or avoid repeating steps.

For example, if you sand and polish the headlights before you wash the car you can save time wiping any compound splatter off areas surrounding the headlights because the splatter will get washed and rinsed off when you wash the car.

This same idea applies to any glass polishing or engine detailing you plan on doing.

So after introducing the class, going over some basic info, like turn off cell phones, remove watches and jewelery, etc. we start in on the Power Point Presentation followed by hands-on training.

In this case we're going to machine sand the headlights using the Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher with Meguiar's 3" Unigrit Sanding Discs.


Going over some basic info as the class gets started...

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OEM Coating Failure
Talking about how to deal with headlights after the OEM Coating has failed and is flaking off. At this point the only option is to sand what's left of the OEM Coating off and get down to a clean base of pure plastic.

Just by coincidence, of our forum members attending this class had this issue with his Mini Cooper as well as a thread right here and my reply can be found in post #13

Is sanding bad for headlights?


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How to machine sand yellow, hazy oxidized headlights
Sure you can hand sand but I'm a machine guy so I show alternatives to doing any work by hand in these classes including sanding headlights by machine.

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Two layers of Detailer's Masking Tape
This protects the paint in case a person looses control of the sander or the rotary buffer. Some guys will also open the hood and this not only gets the hood paint out of the way but it also enables you to sand the top of the headlights.

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Demonstration on how to machine sand

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Time for hands-on for the class...

Axel machine sanding headlights...

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Desmond getting some hands-on training to machine sand headlights...

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Andy machine sanding headlights...

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Brian machine sanding headlights...

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Tyron machine sanding headlights...

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Joseph machine sanding headlights...

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Graham machine sanding headlights...

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Tim machine sanding headlights...
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Chris machine sanding headlights...

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Patryk machine sanding headlights...

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Donald machine sanding headlights...

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David machine sanding headlights...

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I think most everyone would agree it's a lot faster and easier to work by machine instead of working by hand...


:)
 
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