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Advanced Class - Pictures & Comments
Meguiar's Car Care 201
Saturday May 5, 2012
More damp sanding and rotary buffing - a first for everyone in this class!
We start with some basic theory in the classroom before heading out for some practical work. We start by damp sanding with a Unigrit 1500 grit finishing disc on a DA sander, then refine those sanding marks with 3000 grit finishing.
Here, 1500 grit starts cutting the clear coat, which accounts for the white foam you see here.
Following the 1500 grit sanding this is what you should see - a very uniform and totally matte finish.
We then refined the sanding marks with 3000 grit media.
As you can see, we're actually gaining some gloss back after refining with 3000 grit. You can start to see the reflection of the overhead lights in the paint again.
From there we move on to rotary compounding. Clean your pads often when working with a rotary and you'll obtain a better result in less time. Here we spur the wool pad to remove any old, dried compound.
We started at 1800 rpm and kept the pad nice and flat against the paint. This maximizes results and minimizes the chance of inflicting buffer swirls (AKA holograms).
Put the pad up on an edge like this, and move it very quickly over the paint, and you will get holograms. So don't do this!
We also demonstrated the W7207 foam cutting pad, and talked about how much more quickly it can build heat than a wool pad can. Where we quickly stabilized at about 120F with the wool pad, we could quickly reach 150F or even more with the foam cutting pad. Getting aggressive on an edge of the panel with this pad very quickly brought us close to 170F, and that's getting dangerous. Things you would do without worry when using a DA can turn around and bit you pretty quickly with a rotary. Pay attention to what you're doing!!!
A final finish polish with M205 on a W9207 Soft Buff 2.0 foam finishing pad and the paint is once again clear and highly reflective.
After a quick lunch, it was time to turn the students loose on our test panels.
Thanks to everyone who came out for the day, and we hope to see some of you at an upcoming TNOG!!
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