Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - November 5th, 2009

[Michael Stoops]

Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - November 5th, 2009



Our last session of the year, and what a night! We certainly had a packed house, and plenty of cars with issues that needed fixing!

We had just a few of the new products for 2010 to play with, but we made good use of them!



Among the cars in most dire need of help was a two month old VW GTI with a nasty etching all over the hood. Some thought it was bird droppings, but it didn't really look like that way due to the overall size. Someone else theorized it might have been pterodactyl droppings because of the size, but the odds of that happening are pretty slim. Whatever it was, it wasn't pretty. And it was fairly tenacious. And VW paint tends to run hard.

After trying a few mild approaches with very limited results, we ended up with M105 on a W5000 wool pad via rotary at 1500 rpm. Twice. But look at the results!

This was a large area of etching toward the cowl end of the hood:




This was closer to the front end of the hood, just above the headlight. There were more, smaller marks scattered over the hood as well.


Here's part of the long trail of etching running diagonally down the hood. Part of it has already been eliminated, and what you see here as actually be reduced after an initial pass of M105/W5000/rotary.


Buffing in action...



Half and half near the cowl - you can see the etching just STOP where the tape was. Oh, the tape in question was our new T38MM 1-1/2" Professional Masking Tape - no lifting of the edge even running the wool pad over it, and a nice, clean release when done.


Since we went after the etching pretty aggressively, and pretty quickly, there were some holograms. But a long, slow follow up with M205 on a W9207 Soft Buff 2.0 Finishing Pad at 1000 rpm via rotary took care of that problem, and left a beautiful finish to boot!


Just the weight of the machine, steering from the end of the handle. M205 is just such a joy to work with!


Look at that!!


Getting ready to apply some new Gold Class Carnauba Plus liquid wax using a W9207 Soft Buff 2.0 Finishing Pad with a new S6HP 6” Unigrit™ Hand Pad. Everyone who tried this loved it as a great way to hand apply wax!






Look at that super thin coat applied with this method. Swipe test complete (the new Gold Class Carnauba Plus dries super fast and wipes off effortlessly)







Meanwhile, other projects were underway elsewhere in and around the garage.

Here's some badly scoured paint, half and half with M105 via G110/W8207 pad:




Harry gives an important tip that should be adhered to when using any D/A polisher - keep the pad flat!!!










Getting ready to some spot buffing with a new W7204 4" pad on the rotary.








Paul helps out with Instructor duties!





Another properly thin wax application - not bad for a first timer, eh? Must have been Paul's excellent instruction


And another beautiful wipe off and shine, thanks to new Gold Class Carnauba Plus wax!!


Working, and chatting, late into the night.







Proudly flying the Meguiar's logo!! Thanks Andy!!

[schctrg]

Definitely a fun night! Having the Meguiars logo now just makes me more OCD about keeping my car clean

[FastEddysDetailing]

I want that Megs logo!!! How much?

[Newport Viper]

Great nite as always! Thanks Mike and Meguiar's! Look forward to seeing you all again in the spring!

[biglou468]

great night!!!! it was my first time at meguiarsand i must say it blew my mind, when i saw mike working on the black vw i said to my self no way that stain is coming out but me being a nubi what do i know! leave it to a pro to prove me wrong,after mike was done, the finish look like nothing was ever on it . now with what i saw i'm going to start working on my black mpv . thanks mike,harry,paul for all the great info, and advice i'll keep you posted on my progress.

[sdprius858]

Thanks again guys, it was nice to get back up there and just hang out with everyone. I will def. be putting the Meguiar's logo on my car, only problem is where to put it? Somewhere were everyone can see it top up or down

[bene vita]

Mike,

The November 5, 2009 Thursday Night Open Garage was, as usual a really great time. It’s always fun to see the
“Regulars” and meet the “New Kids on the Block”. Thank you Mike for spending so many hours to “baby sit” all of
us and to Mr. Meguiar for allowing it to happen on a regular basis.

Speaking of the New Kids: How about that Vincent aka Amok5 who did an outstanding job of polishing his Dad’s
Black Corvette. His Dad, a former U.S. Marine must be very proud of his Son Vincent for a “job well done” using
tons of elbow grease, many ounces of Meguiar’s M151, a couple of buffer pads and lots of Love.

Another “New Kid” to keep your eye on is Louis aka biglou468. He sat me down in the Training Room for about 30
minutes near the end of the evening and ... with a notebook and pen, proceeded to “pick my brain” about nearly
EVERY Meguiar’s product on the display shelves. Seemed like a “test” to see if I really knew the products. (does he
work for Brian?) I’m sure that by now he has been in contact with every supplier of Meguiar’s products and has
ordered a bunch of stuff. Wait until next year ... as they say in Baseball ... Louis’ truck will no doubt be a “Show
Truck” when TNOG returns in 2010.

To the Meguiar’s Staff, the “Regulars” and the “New Kids on the block ... have a wonderful Holiday Season.
Mike Stoops, Mike Pennington, Bob - coffeemanbob, Mike - Mikejl,
Jeff - captaincog, Dave - Newport Viper, Erik Mejia, Paul - the other pc Louis - biglou468, Vincent - Amok5, Dick - RE Clarke, Ryan, Shawn & Shannon - MaximusZTS

See you all next year.

Harry - Bene Vita

[Michael Stoops]

Great post, Harry, thanks for that!! We really appreciate the time you spent with Louis schooling him on the wide range of Meguiar's products. Which reminds us how remiss we'd be if we forgot to mention the help offered regularly by certain "regulars" to our TNOGs:

The guys who are here almost religiously - Andy (bmrfan), Paul (the other pc), Shawn (MaximusZTS), Jesse (Hemin8r), Ryan (Ryan L.) and Dave (NewportViper) - all have great experience with a very wide variety of tools and products and regularly share that knowledge in a very user friendly way that is a huge help not only to other attendees, but to us at Meguiar's as well. We really appreciate you guys helping out!!!!

[Mike Phillips]

Nice job Mike!

Very well done...


: : :

[Michael Stoops]

Originally Posted by Mike Phillips

Nice job Mike!

Very well done...


: : :

Thanks Mike, it means a lot coming from you!