Meguiar's Roadshow Goes To Dallas!

[viet]

that last picture hurts my eyes

[Mike Phillips]

Before claying, we quickly recapped the benefits of claying the finish using detailing clay.

• * Removes above surface bonded contaminants that normal washing won't remove.
  * Enables wax to bond or adhere better to the paint and thus last long and protect longer.
  * Restores smoothness to the finish and this restores and improves gloss for a beautiful finish.
  * Unlike an old-fashioned rubbing or polishing compounds, claying does all of the above without removing paint and without instilling scratches during the process.

To clay the car we used Meguiar's new Smooth Surface™ Clay Kit as well as the Mild Clay from Meguiar's Professional Line, both of which Wash Solutions carries in stock. Meguiar's new Smooth Surface Clay Kit comes with two individually wrapped clay bars so you can use one clay bar and save the other clay bar until you've completely used up the first clay bar.

Two clay bars in the new Smooth Surface Clay Kit




Here two class members try their hands at claying for the first time...




[b]If you wipe off any leftover residue from the Quik Detailer as you're moving around the car with a microfiber like Meguiar's Supreme Shine Microfiber, the paint will be ready to move on to the next step.




After claying the car we asked a few people to turn their clay wafers over and show the results of the kind of contaminants being removed from the paint, look at the icky brown gunk that was actually bonded to the clear coat that the detailing clay removed. Often times you eyes cannot see this type of build-up, but the clay bar will remove it and reveal it to your eyes.







Then everyone felt the amazing difference in before & after...

[Mike Phillips]

After claying the finish, the next step is to remove the swirls. Meguiar's classifies swirls and scratches as below surface defects. Below surface defects are removed after the above surface bonded contaminants have been removed, the idea being that you first remove the contaminants on top of the surface to get them out of the way so you can then go after the defects below the surface, so clay first, then use a product formulated to safely remove swirls and scratches.


Here's a shot of the paint just above the BMW emblem on the hood of Steve's BMW.




And here's a section cropped out of the photo above. Neither have been retouched in any way.





What we're going to do is tape-off a section in this area and demonstrate the technique for applying a hand applied paint cleaner like Meguiar's ScratchX to remove a little bit of clear coat paint in this one section which is how you remove the swirls and scratches.

To understand more about what it means to remove swirls and scratches you can read this article in the Hot Topics sub-forum in the Information Station. I have also included it below so you don't have to click out of this thread to read the article.

• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Begin Article
  What it Means to Remove a Scratch
  
  In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must,
  
  Remove material around the scratch until the surface is level or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or scratches
  
  The below diagram is for paint but the the same thing applies to just about an surface material or coating you may be contemplating working on, (Aluminum, Glass, Stainless Steel, Plastic Lens, etc.)
  
  
  
  In essences, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch. This being true, then the big question becomes,
  
  Is the material or coating workable
  
  That is, can you abrade small particles of it while leaving behind an original looking surface. For example, some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches with a different set of scratches.
  
  The next questions is, how thick is the surface material you're working on or how thick is the coating you're working on. Remember, you are limited to what you can do by the thickness of these to things, (surface coating or surface material), and whether or not this surface is workable.
  
  Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try. It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (By hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good. It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo.
  
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  End Article

Understanding that in order to remove swirls or scratches out of an automotive clear coat finish actually means that you have to gently remove a little bit of paint surrounding the scratches is important because there is actually a science behind removing a scratch, while at the same time not instilling scratches. We're going to show you how Meguiar's has mastered this science, which will empower you to do just this on you own car in your own garage.

What we've done here is we've placed some Blue Painter's Tape down in the section we're going to work to show the dramatic before and after differences from correctly applying a hand-applied paint cleaner to remove swirls and in this case an etching left in the paint by a bird dropping.

In the photo below the light shows the swirls in our Control Area, and until we move the light up to where my finger is pointing, you cannot see the Bird Dropping Etching, but in the next photo, you will be able to. This photo is just the [b]Framing Photo to give perspective to what we're about to do by hand and to document that the swirls are everywhere in the finish.




Here's the section we're going to work, the section above the tape line that includes this bird dropping etching.




Here's a close-up of the etching for your viewing pleasure




While the clear coat on this BMW has more Bird Dropping Etching's in other random places that Steve can go after on his own time, what's important to keep in mind is that the swirls you see here are actually evenly distributed throughout the entire finish.

Swirls in your car's paint is the Number One Customer Complaint about automotive finishes. Modern clear coats are Scratch-Sensitive, so even while they may last longer than traditional single-stage paints, we have to be more careful about the way we care for them as well as whose product we trust when it comes to choosing products for use with our cars.

What we're going to do is to show everyone here two procedures and the products to use with these procedures to remove the swirls and restore optical clarity to the clear coat finish. By restoring clarity to the clear coat finish, we'll be able to see the beauty of the color coat under the clear coat finish.

[Mike Phillips]

The techniques were about to use can all be found right here in this article, How to remove a defect by hand using ScratchX


When removing swirls, scratches and etchings out of the paint, you want to first apply some ScratchX to your applicator pad.






Note that I applied the ScratchX to the outer edge of the applicator pad and not the center.

Here's a quick lesson on how to hold an applicator pad when applying paint cleaners, polishes and waxes. As when you grip the applicator pad, your 4-fingers, (the fingers that will be doing the work), will be placed on the outside edge of the applicator pad on one side and your thumb will be sandwiching the applicator pad between your fingers like this,




When you turn the pad over, your 4-fingers should be placed around the outer edge of the foam pad but still inside the edge about a half inch or so...




Because your 4 fingers applying the pressure over the foam are placed around the outer perimeter of the applicator pad, you want to apply your dollop of ScratchX in this area also on the face of the pad. Like this,




When you're ready to start, the first thing you want to do is spread the ScratchX out over the area you're going to be working on, this acts so simply spread the product-out






--> After <-- you have spread the product out over the area you're going to work on...
--> Then <--, begin to work the product against the finish.








When applying ScratchX with the intended goal of removing swirls and scratches, the idea is to work the microscopic diminishing abrasives against the finish with some force so that you will in essence cause the diminishing abrasives to take little bites out of the paint in an effort to level the upper most surface with the lowest depth of the scratch.

You cannot get results by merely wiping ScratchX on, (gently, like a face creme), as this won't work. ScratchX must be worked against the finish by you putting a little passion behind the pad.

After you have worked the ScratchX against the finish for a 1-3 minutes, depending upon how large or small an area you carve out and how aggressively you're working it, you can stop and wipe any excess residue off the paint because ScratchX does not need to dry before removing it. Often times, if you're working on a darker color paint, the product will start out as an opaque, or whitish color film and after you've effectively worked it against the finish it will turn clear and oily looking, somewhat like baby oil or Vaseline would look if you were to apply it to some paint.


The idea is to work this product against the finish, the diminishing abrasives do their work and after they have done their work and broken down, (now they're no longer working, or abrading the paint, it's now time to remove the product as their is no further benefit to the paint or the process to allow the product to dry.

• 1. Apply
  2. Work against paint
  3. Wipe off
  4. Repeat if necessary

In most cases, in order to remove swirls and scratches, you will need to apply around 3 applications over each section. Sometimes more. In the case this BMW, we removed the swirls after 3 applications and about 99.9% of the Bird Dropping etching with a total of 5 applications.

How many applications of a hand applied product like ScratchX is determined by,

• A) Paint hardness or softness.
  B) The depth of the defect you're trying to remove.
  B) Your skill and ability - Practice makes perfect.

Often times the question of which direction to move your hand comes up either at a class like this or on our forum... we have you're answer right here...

Circles or Straight Lines?


My own personal preferences are to spread the product out using circular motions and the to work the product against the finish using back & forth, or straight-line motions and then finish the area off with some cover passes in circles, so I use a combination of both.

Remember, after each application you will need to remove any left over residue from off the paint before applying fresh ScratchX so you don't dilute, or adulterate the fresh product with the old product.

[Mike Phillips]

After removing the swirls, the next step in Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle is to apply the pure polish.

• Step 1 Wash
  Step 2 Clean
  Step 3 Polish <--
  Step 4 Protect
  Step 5 Maintain

This is an optional step, but a step that most serious enthusiast will follow a dedicated paint cleaning step with if they have a medium to dark colored car because it will tend to add richness, gloss and clarity to the paint over and above what the paint cleaner by itself will do.

In this case, Deep Crystal Polish which is a non-abrasive pure polish.

In Meguiar's line, we offer two types of polishes, cleaner/polishes, which contain a diminishing abrasive, and pure polishes, which are completely non-abrasive and are used solely for the purpose of creating brilliant gloss. Deep Crystal Polish is a pure polish.



The way you apply a pure polish is akin to applying a skin lotion to your skin. That is you apply the polish to a small section at a time, work the product in thoroughly.




After thoroughly, (but gently with care and passion), remove any excess polish with a clean, soft premium quality microfiber polishing cloth or 100% cotton towel.

Like ScratchX a paint cleaner, it is not necessary to let a pure polish like Deep Crystal Polish dry before removing it. Allowing a polish to dry will not add anything beneficial to the process, so after you work it in well, go a head and remove it.


At this point, we have cleaned and polished the finish. The cleaning step removed the swirls and the polishing step restored optical clarity, depth, reflectivity, richness of color and brilliant gloss.


Next we're going to apply a coating of Meguiar's NXT Generation Tech Wax



Note to self, remember to remove the Safety Seal off all new bottles before the class






We're going to allow the the wax to dry until it Swipes Clear, you can learn more about what this means by clicking this link,
How to tell when a Meguiar's wax is ready to remove - The Swipe Test

[Mike Phillips]

While the NXT Tech Wax was drying, we moved on to the G100 Dual Action Polisher Demonstration and this gave the NXT Tech Wax some time to dry. Remember, temperature and humidity affect drying times for waxes and in this case it was cold and humid. I don't remember how long we let the wax dry, but our Swipe Test proved to us the wax had fully dried when we came back to it, so we when ahead and removed it using a folded Supreme Shine Microfiber polishing cloth.




It took a few minutes, to locate where the bird dropping etching was originally,





After a few moments we did find it however, or I should say we found where it wasn't





After the wax had been removed, the differences were very dramatic. you can see by the below pictures that we removed 99.9% of the swirls and the etching left by the bird dropping was almost non-existent.



Before




After

[SiriusRIMZ]

Wow great pictures mike! Thanks for posting even though you are under the weather! Feel better soon!

and for anyone who cares, I'm the young dashing fellow in the khaki jacket with the green trim around the collar checking for bonded surface contaminates... and yes I was the late one hehe.

[Dragpakmach]

Looking good Mike.

[Mike Phillips]

Just to note, someone e-mailed me and asked me why in some of the pictures the paint appears to be blue while in other pictures the paint appears to be black, the answer is I don't know why.

I brought my camera, a Cannon 6.3 Mega Pixel Digital Rebel and one of the forum members at the class had the same camera only a couple of years newer and with over 8.0 Mega Pixels resolution.

Most of the pictures were taken by Logan with his camera and then give to me to copy on to my hard drive. As a practice, I don't manipulate photos except to crop and resize, which doesn't alter their color or appearance, just their size.

My camera has the standard lens while Logan's camera had a lens I'm not familiar with, that could explain the differences.

In the big picture, and I'm sure all that were there will back me up on this, the changes in before and after as far as removing the defects and restoring a better than new finish were dramatic and real and demonstrated in a way that anyone present at this class could duplicate with their own hands in their own garage.

I have a few more photos to wade through and upload which I plan on doing today.

[Paulvr4]

Mike,

Your broke the steps down very well!

Even though I know a lot more than I used to I feel that each time I read a new post whether it is an old topic I already know it still feels like Im getting something out of it that I may have missed throughout the years!

I will lay my Scratch X on first.

Excellent as always - Keep up the good work. Thanks.

[Murr1525]

I dont know if I ever paid that much attention to how I was holding the applicator pad.

Do you rotate it at all to 'expose' clean pad, or keep using the same area for all 3 applications of ScratchX? Or rotate at all as you work around the car with a polish or wax?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Murr1525
I don't know if I ever paid that much attention to how I was holding the applicator pad.

Do you rotate it at all to 'expose' clean pad, or keep using the same area for all 3 applications of ScratchX? Or rotate at all as you work around the car with a polish or wax?

Generally, you would hold the applicator in the same place for all three applications, however it's always a good idea to turn the pad over after each application and inspect it for any dirt particles that may have entered into the process and if discovered, remove them from the applicator pad or switch to a new pad.

This information is actually in the Meguiar's FAQ somewhere.

[Murr1525]

Thanks Mike,

I dont know where it is in the FAQ, I dont see anything on how to apply products, or applicators, etc. Must be really buried.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Murr1525
Thanks Mike,

I don't know where it is in the FAQ, I don't see anything on how to apply products, or applicators, etc. Must be really buried.

The part about turning your pad over and inspecting for dirt particles is buried in there somewhere, not the other techniques.

[Mike Phillips]

After learning the proper techniques for using your hands, we then moved on to how-to use Meguiar's G-100 to remove swirls and restore a show car finish.

We actually followed the steps outlined in this how-to article, skipping the M83 step and starting right in at the M80 step.

Using the G-100 to remove swirls with the Professional Line

First we went over the basics, such as,

• * Ergonomic stance - so that you don't hurt your back
  * Location of the on/off switch and how important it is to not turn on the machine until the face of the pad is in direct contact with the finish and likewise to never lift the face of the pad off the finish until first turning the machine off.
  * Keeping the cord from dragging over the finish by placing it over your shoulder.
  * Pad choice.
  * Product choice.
  * Speed setting options.
  * Product placement on the face of the pad.
  * Amount of product to use initially.
  * Amount of product to use after the pad has been broken in.
  * Determining how large of an area to work at one time.
  * Spreading the product out before working it in.
  * Arm Speed - Slowing down for good results during the cleaning step.
  * Downward pressure.
  * Path of travel and changing directions.
  * Overlapping passes.
  * Overlapping section.
  * How long to buff one section.
  * Re-polishing a section before moving on.
  * Speed setting for applying a wax.
  * Pad selection for applying a wax.
  * Pressure and Arm Speed for applying a wax.
  * Using the Swipe Test.
  * Removing wax using a Microfiber polishing bonnet.
  * Pressure and Speed Setting for removing wax.
  * Cleaning a bonnet on-the-fly.
  * Cleaning foam pads after use and on-the-fly.

And probably a few other things I've left out )



After recapping how to use the G100 Dual Action Polisher and then demonstrating the techniques for using it, we then asked for a volunteered from the audience to show all the big, strong Texas guys how to work magic on paint





After a few moments on her own, we then gave a little hands-on training to help keep the focus on holding the pad flat, downward pressure, arm speed and path-of-travel.




In a few more moments she was polishing like a Pro!