Autopia Detail Day at Meguiar's!

[SpoiledMan]

I have to add to this, that it was great to shake the magical hand of Scottwax himself! I took away a great deal of extra knowledge from this event. I hope we can do something like this yearly at least. If any of you are ever in the LA area or coming to the LA area, please be sure and drop me an email or PM to let me know. We HAVE to hook up and shake the town!

[deft spyder]

My Experience at Meguiars

(note, I posted this at autopia but wanted to make sure everyone involved saw it.... thanks to many!)
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I had no idea who Mike Phillips was 'cept he had a black shirt on, and it had a meguiars logo, so i guess he's running this ship. What I found out about this guy over the course of the day was that not only is he guy who has way more energy than one should, he is a complete and utter fanatic about car care. His collection of wax's, cleaners (even compounds) is on the level of stamp collectors. He really does love his work.

Well, it's rare that you get to talk to someone like this, and even more the treat when someone of this caliber seems to get no more joy than sharing what he's discovered with others. We had an extremely informative class talk beforehand that set us up with the tech behind the product. This let us know really what the product is doing to the surface of your paint, and how and why that matters. No longer was I going into this blind.

Now take Mike, care care fanatic, and put him in front of one of the things most dear to you.... your car. And you get this guys opinion on your car! To get a guy like this to work on your car for FREE is amazing. Your talking MAJOR bucks normally for someone of this caliber helping you out. Dream come true for someone like me who has a black car who's paint has seen better days, and really needs a pro looking at it. I was in heaven!

Did I say one pro?

I'm not an Autotopian (yet). I have one post, and it's to sign up. I think i have more posts to Lynn (total sweetheart!) setting it up and asking questions than posts on the forum. (BTW, Lynn, Mikes wife, gets paid nothing for what she does). I had no idea that we were very lucky that day... because Autotopia had attracted several professional detailers to this particular event. Yep, we not only had Mike, but Jimamary, Rjstaff, Scottwax, Rdarwa, SqkyKln, Superior Shine, and Aurora4O walking around, sharing their tricks of the trade, talking shop, and basically expanding the knowledge level on detailing through the roof. Not only that, but a few of them seemed to have brought their own tools, so there were PC's, rotarys, and all sorts of stuff all over the place.

Now, it sounds good, right? Well here's my particular situation. I have some friends, my car, Mike, and 2 or 3 pro detailers all deciding what my car needs. (If ever someone wanted a second opinion....lol.... this was the place to be! It was like having 3 or 4 surgeons working on your procedure!) They not only helped me wash, but clay, buff, TEACH the dual action technique, give pointers... and all applying a healthy amount of elbow grease in the process. My hood was used for a demo and subsequently some nasty scratches were pulled and massaged away.

Barry Meguiar himself even made an appearance and talked shop with us all for a little while. We got some nice pics with him and the group as well!

Needless to say, I was VERY happy with the results. My paint has never looked so good. As the flagship for my company Import Precision, this car is very visible. I have to take this car to many car shows and demo our vertical doors constantly. But its no garage queeen... this is also my daily driver and it takes a beating in the socal sun. To now have my paint looking great from the Meguiars products is really a big help for me in presenting the best face possible to potential customers.

I never knew how much damage I was doing myself by not properly washing my car. I never knew how easy it could be to properly take care of the car and revive a tattered paint job.

I've ordered the pro package, the dual action buffer, and a suite of products to use with it. With the help from so may great people, I really do feel confident with that buffer in my hand. Advanced care care (and by that I mean more than just hand waxing) was a mystery to me, and I was afraid of screwing my car up. But the tools of the trade seem so easy to me now thanks to this event.

I'd like to thank all of you that lended me a hand on my car. Every time I'd look up someone would be finishing up an area, and it just seemed like everything was done so quickly! I really enjoyed working on the 350Z (perfect paint!), Brians 3000GT (amazing restoration.... the red glows with a deepness I disn't think it had in it!), and of course my 3000GT Spyder. I'm pretty sure I worked on another red car, but I can't recall the make. Thank you to Meguiars for the food, free product for the detailing, as well as the free product goodie bags that must have at least another 60 bucks worth of stuff in them they gave us to take home!

I'll be posting this text on my website soon (importprecision.com), as well as some pictures from Mike he took of my car and his write up of the days events.

Great experience all the way around.

[Aurora40]

I took a few shots of the detail day too, and figured this was a good place to put them up.

Here's another shot of Mike buffing out half that hood by PC:



Here's another after shot in the sun of the side-by-side:



and here's a reflection off Mike and Lynn's Pilot that I thought was kinda neat:

[Aurora40]

Here's Mike and Jim masking off the trim and sunroof on a G35. It was in like-new condition except for some nasty water spotting on the roof.



Mike and Jim improved them a lot, but the spots were too deep to safely remove and still leave enough clear coat. Jim was using the paint thickness gauge on this car to keep an eye on things.

[Scottwax]

Since we are posting pics from the meet....

How about another shot of that hood?



Here is Ronnette (rdwara) working on the same red Accord:



Inside limo shots:



Brian (SqkyKln), Bob (Aurora40), Scott-me! (Scottwax), Bob (rjstaff) and Jim (Jimamary)




Joe (SuperiorShine), Ronnette (rdwara), Brian (SqkyKln)

[Tim Lingor]

Hey Scott,

Looks like everyone had a great time! I wish I could have attended, but my work schedule would not permit it.


Cheers!
Tim

[Scottwax]

Tim-I wish you could have attended also.

[Mike Phillips]

Meguiar's is proud to host a Detail Day at Meguiar's for members of the Autopia Discussion forum!

This event started at 8:30am and continued on into the night. Sometime around 6:00pm, one of Meguiar's Special Events rigs pulled into the parking lot to pick up some supplies before heading off to the next show.

The Driver, John Schaublin, told me that somehow the side of the trailer picked up some pretty heavy-duty scuffs and scratches while parked at a car show. He asked if while the truck was there if it were possible to remove them.

I asked our guests from Autopia if they would like to each take a stab at helping to remove the scratches using the rotary buffer. In true Autopian form, they all said "Yes". Here's some shots, notice it's getting dark! (long day of detailing behind us now).

Here's Aurora40 taking his turn,



Here's jimamary taking a stab at it,



And here's rjstaaf giving the rotary buffer a work out,



While the scratches and scuffs covered two panels on this truck, (about 8 feet long), can you imagine wet-sanding and then cutting and buffing out the entire truck? Our Customer Care Hotline Team, Special Events Team as well as our Warehouse personnel and many others worked together to create this rolling piece of art work. Here's a pictures that should put things into perspective. Below is jimamary removing some Tech Wax using the G-100 with an Ultimate Bonnet,




Here's jimamary and rjstaaf giving the panels a final wipe,



And here's one more of jimamary posing by the flipped up hood while removing some light dust with a microfiber polishing cloth and some Quik Detailer.



More to come...

[2000]

what!!!!!!!!!!
they got to buff the meguiars rig!!!!!!!
now thats just rubbing it in! (no pun intended)
hope it was as fun as it looked.

[soarer]

Make the next event!

To everyone that attended the event on May 8th, would you agree that there was always excitement in the air.

Some of the activities were not rehearsed or scheduled, like the Meguiar's showing up, Scottwax, Jimamary, Patrick, Sqkykln, Aurora 40, Rjstaff, Rdarwa, and the people, cars, The Meguiar's big rig, 57 chevy, etc.

It felt like a room full of celebrities, who where all taking part in something.

One was like a sponge, constantly absorbing knowledge in many directions.

If anyone is planing to attend the next Meguiar's event, do what ever it takes to make it. Some people few in, some drove distances. Even a seasoned Autopian will learn from the experience.

When you Learn, Teach. When you Get, Give.

Thanks Mike and Lynn, for Teaching and Giving.

~Soarer

[Mike Phillips]

Here's a group shot,

[Mike Phillips]

Some of the members from Autopia flew in Wednesday to attend this event. On Thursday was a Limousine trip to Jay Leno's Garage followed by a special tour through the Petersen Museum. On Friday Mike Pennington held a condensed version of his 3-Day Professional Class.



Barry stopped by on Friday to meet members from Autopia, answer questions and talk shop,



On Saturday, Members from Autopia joined into the fun, we had a full class on Saturday morning!

[Mike Phillips]

Here's Scottwax giving rdarwa, some tips on how to use the PC,



And here's Scottwax using the PC himself to polish out this 350Z,



(Hey Scott, I think you missed a spot!)

[Mike Phillips]

One of the coolest cars at the event was this 3000 GT with Gull Wing Doors...

Too cool!

Here's the owner polishing the paint using a PC with some Tech Wax,



After some extensive scratch removal and final polishing, the car was pulled out into the sun for inspection,



There was also a highly modified red 3000 GT at Meguiar's that was warmed over by the professional touch of jimamary. Here's a reflection shot of the red 3000 GT on the black Spyder,



And here's jimamary removing some oxidation and restoring the gloss to the wing using the rotary buffer.

[Scottwax]

Mike...I missed a spot? Unpossible!

I hope one of these days I can attend another meet.