Removing water spots with Rupes Bigfoot 21 Orbital Polisher

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Removing water spots with Rupes Bigfoot 21 Orbital Polisher



For the Rupes Bigfoot Orbital Polishers I have a very beautiful 1955 Chevy Bel Air with horrible water spots plus millions of swirls and scratches.

The owner paid over $15,000.00 to have this car painted after the restoration and hotrodding of his car. He told me that after the paint job it never looked right. It never looked like he thought it should.

After my class attacked the paint using the complete Rupes paint polishing system and the owner picked up the car he was absolutely FLOORED at how beautiful his dream car looked when the paint was right, that is when the paint was properly buffed out.




Process
  1. Rinseless wash with DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss
  2. Mechanically decontaminated using Nanoskin Autoscrub pads and towels.
  3. Remove water spots, swirls and scratches using Rupes Bigfoot 21, 15 Duetto, Mini and TA50 Orbital Polishers plus the Rupes coarse blue foam cutting pads with Rupes Zephir Gloss Coarse Compound.
  4. Polish to a high gloss Rupes ultra soft white foam pads with Rupes Diamond Ultra Fine Cut.
  5. Machine wax using Rupes Bigfoot 21 Orbital Polishers with fresh clean Rupes white foam pads and Pinnacle Liquid Souveran Paste Wax.
First a few pictures showing the swirls in the paint....

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AFTER Nanoskin
This shot was taken to show that mechanically decontaminating paint, no matter how you do it, be it using detailing clay or tools like the Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads or the Nanoskin Autoscrub Towels, doesn't remove below surface defects like these Type II Water Spot Etchings and Water Spot Imprint Rings.

To remove below surface defects you must abrade the surface in some manner. For this car we're going to use the Rupes Paint Polishing System.

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How to use a Rinseless Wash
Nick demonstrates the correct technique for washing a car using a Rinseless Wash.

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Hands-On Training
After the demo it's time for the class to go into action while Nick and I walk around and watch and correct their technique plus answer questions.

The detailing classes here at Autogeek are about 90% hands-on action. The only time you're sitting at one of our classes is for a brief portion of a Power Point Presentation to go over the tools, techniques and theory behind the the process to be taught hands-on next.

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Physical Inspection
After getting the paint clean and free from any loose dirt we then go over how to feel the paint with your bare hand followed by the baggie test to inspect the paint for above surface bonded contaminants.

For every procedure we also tie the procedure into how to market your detailing business to dominate your market.

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Here's Billy trying the baggie test...
The paint on this Bel Air was about as rough as sandpaper. It might not look like it to the casual observer but the baggie test tells no lies.

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Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads
To remove all the topical contamination we taught how to use the Nanoskin Autoscrub pads as well as the Nanoskin Autoscrub Towels.

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The correct technique for using Rupes Bigfoot Orbital Polishers

After mechanically decontaminating the paint we went over the specific techniques for using Rupes orbital polishers, pads, compounds and polishes.

We did a Test Spot at the same time and found because the Type II Water Spot crater etchings were so deep and the basecoat/clearcoat paint on this Bel Air was so hard that we needed the most aggressive pad and compound in the Rupes line to correct the paint.




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Hands-on Training
After the demonstration the class was turned loose to use the complete line of Rupes polishers while Nick and I monitored each person's technique and when needed made suggestions and/or made corrections in technique to get optimum results.

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Machine Polishing
After the paint was corrected the class moved onto machine polishing using the Rupes Diamond Ultra Fine Cut Polish with the Rupes ultra soft white foam polishing pads.

For those wondering why we followed the coarsest pad with the softest pad and lightest cutting polish it's because if you work the Zephir Gloss Compound thoroughly with the Rupes blue coarse cutting pads you end up for the most part with an LSP ready finish.

See my article here....

Mind Blowing - Rupes Blue Foam Cutting Pad and Zephir Gloss Coarse Gel Compound


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Machine Waxing
After the polishing step we switched to fresh clean 7" Rupes white ultras soft pads and machine applied the Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax.

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Here's the car completely machine waxed!

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So important....
Anytime you're working on a show car that you just compounded, polished and waxed by machine it is so important to carefully remove the wax so that you don't re-instill swirls and scratches. And of course in the class we go over lots of tips and techniques on exactly how to do all of these things for professional quality results every time you work on a car.


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Wait for it.....


:D
 
Beautiful color. Any closeups or 50/50 of water spot etching
 
Mike, well done!! You led your team to another awesome looking car. Love it!!!


Thanks.

Just to point out, you can't really find any other class where the people attending the class get to fix cars like these. Usually they sit in chairs while someone talks or watch someone do a demo on a hood. Nothing wrong with that type of class but I think people learn best by doing, not watching.


:)
 
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