Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

[Mike Phillips]

Acurazine.com at Meguiar's - December 2nd 2006

Acurazine.com



Class starts in a few hours!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

Members from Acurazine ready to start class!




Barry stopped by in his 2-door Ford!




Here's our demo car for the day, my camera gave up the ghost so I didn't get many pictures...









Hopefully a few members that attended today will chime in and describe what they witnessed during the before and after transformation...


A big THANK YOU to everyone that attended today!

[CHROMETIDE]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

It was like magic! I thank Mike for all the help. It was one of the best Saturdays I've spent this year. I can finally get the swirls off my car.

[MrHeeltoe]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

Mike, this class is awesome. I am definately going to make note and bring back a friend.

I came in not really know it expect. First off, I thought that Meguiar's was just a well marketed brand name. I had no idea they had been around so long, manufactured their own product, private labeled product, and had such a history with professional product. I mistakenly took the retail product marketing as hype, but now I know some real facts. Step one is getting my attention: mission accomplished.

Next, I thought I knew a few things about detailing cars. Coming from a dealership background I picked up a lot over the years. As it turns out there is a lot more out there that I did not know. I, too, thought that swirls and scratches were just a way of life and that covering them up was the only thing to do. Well, now I know better.

At this point I came to realize that I don't actually know that much about paint. This actually is the reason I as excited about the class. I knew there was information to be learned, and I was surprised at how much I picked up. Truth be told, I intended to get up and pass out some stickers and business cards, but I never got the chance because I was so absorbed in the information.

Anyway, one of the comments that I really zeroed in on was when Mike said that using one system to clean the paint was the way to go, rather than mixing and matching products from different manufactuers. I use this same theory when suggesting engine camshaft packages. Some of my customers like using cams from brand X, valve springs from brand Y, and retainers from brand Z. I always suggest against this because all the manufacturers design their products to work together. Best results will be had when sticking to one brand. It only makes sense than car cleaning supplies would work generally the same, and I am a little emberrased not to have realized that myself.

Learning the difference between polish and wax was an eye opener. Yes, all these years I have definately been doing something wrong.

One of the things I have also been doing wrong is expending all of that elbow grease. I am most definately going to pick up one of those G-100 polishers. I have tried using a buffer and not only was I unable to get the results I wanted, I was tired and frustrated in the end. The Meguiar's polishers looks a lot more user-friendly! I am definately getting one.

I would have liked to learn a little more about cleaning wheels. It seems like a simple enough thing, but I have messed up wheels with some products, and I have used others that were downright ineffective. ONe thing is true across the board, I hate cleaning mesh wheels. Mike did outline the different wheel products, but a more scientific explaination on how they work would have been enlightening.

I drove to the class in my Tealtoe Product car, a 1994 Honda Civic in Aztec Green. Honda-folk simply call it teal though The focus of this car is not to be a whiz-bang, blow-you-away project, but yet to be the average enthusiast's car-build. I am using products in my own inventory, and documenting the build on my website, heeltoeauto.com. The car is the perfect example of what someone might build for a nice daily driven street performance import. The paint, for example, is far from perfect. It photographs ok, but looks rather poor in person. A long-time friend of mine and I went to work with a high-speed buffer, and we got nowhere. I was really discouraged with the lack of results and pretty much wrote off the whole thing. But this class has given me new hope!

As such, I intend to acquire everything I need to get a nice Meguiar's finish on this car and document it in an upcoming Tealtoe installment! Should be coming up a few weeks from now. Link will be available here!

http://heeltoeauto.com/httech/YaBB.pl?board=tealtoe

And after that, I am going to attack my 98 Odyssey. This car has a single-stage white paint on it, and I am getting tired of watching the terribly oxidized paint drip off the car when I wash it. I use this van for parts will call and delivery runs, but there is no reason for it to look so bad.

So, in summation, great class, learned a lot, very encouraged, going to give the Meguiar's full line a go!

Marcus
Owner, Heeltoe Automotive

https://www.heeltoeauto.com

[sikemcl]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

Mike, first off Thanks for delivering such an oustanding performance in car detailing. Its just that there is so much more than wash and dry, and with your class,it gives it so much ease to make the little things in maintaining your vehicles look of perfection. it wasn't my first time there but I can honestly say that I still learned alot of new things . thanks again, Anthony Sikemcl

[TripleDES]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

First of all, thanks to Meguiar's for hosting such a class. It's above and beyond what any manufacturer has done for enthusiasts. An extremely great thanks must go to instructor Mike Phillips for his passion, knowledge and ability to articulate a subject that most vehicle owners take for granted - comprehensive vehicle care. He really added to the value of the class!

Mike's class was nothing short of awesome. Since I've been reading much from this and other forums from so called "detailing gurus", I didn't anticipate gaining much from this class. I figured I would gain a few tidbits here and there. Of course, I was wrong!! Mike dispelled so many myths and urban legends in paint care. It makes you realize how something seemingly so trivial as paint care is actually extremely involved!

I truly appreciated all the aspects of the class. It was more comprehensive than I would have ever expected. In fact, we went into such detail regarding some subjects, that we were only able to touch upon others. Sure, there's a bit of marketing involved, but the techniques and concepts can be applied to any vendor/manufacturer of car care supplies. However, given the history of Meguiar's and experiencing their products first hand, I would be hesitant in recommending anything else.

Thanks again!!

PS. I found the knowledge gained more satisfactory than the pizza!! (And that was darn good pizza)

[sokiet]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

I found the class to be extremely rewarding. After some seven-odd hours of class that involved Power Point presentation and hands-on activities, I found that I learned more than what I had previously learned in the last 5 years.

Thanks to Meguiar's for allowing this to happen and a big thanks to Mike who was incredibly knowledgeable. I definitely recommend this to anyone who has not yet attended the class.

[hybridnrg]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

first off....big big thanks for Mike teaching our class, your knowlege and experence is par none. Great info, and I never knew soo much about Meguiar's before. I was always a Meguiars user, but didnt know if i was using the products right. This class helped me know if i was doing it right or wrong, now that i know i will always go Meguiars and recommend it to everyone. And thank you meguiars for the free products, there was a few things i wanted to get, and it matched perfectly to what you gave out...THANKS!!

[hybridnrg]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

[LacViet]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

Wow...Amazing...Wow....Oh my god..... are the only words that I hear from everyone around when Mike Phillips shows us the result of using Meguiar's products to remove swirls/scratches on a neglect car. For a person who seen the incredible result before (I had attended few classes before this), it's still amazing me when looking at the transformation from ugly duckling to Cinderella when we bring the car out to the sun to see the result. Hand on practice is great, but slide show presentation is great by itself. Learning the history of Meguiars, the different between wax/polish/cleaner, the myth and inaccurate advice from "internet gurus", and common mistakes/how to avoid them are some of the topic I learn today. Thank you Meguiars for giving me and other serious "car crazy" the opportunity to learn proper techniques and using great products to make our cars just like "show car"!

Talk about how great Meguiars class is and didn't talk about the man behind the class is a big mistake. Thank you Mike for pouring your heart and soul to teach us today! Your technique of teaching and humors make me and everyone feel right at home and certainly make us easier to absorb vast amount of information within reasonable short amount of time (little more than 6 hrs of non stop talking and teaching. Yes, 6hrs and you read it right). Talk about how passionate you are! Hats off to you, and please keep up the good work!

I'll post pics a bit later.

[SDCLS]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

so this is where everyone is posting...
this class was well-worth waking up early and driving to. i gotta give thanks to Meguiar's first of all. and then to Mike. i have to say that there weren't any flaws in your presentation or instruction. it just couldn't have been done a better way. your experience just plain shows. i definitely have to come out to another of these, but will most likely bring along friends cos they have to see this for themselves.

i had posted the pics from our meet in the original thread but, here go the few that i snapped.

[asianspec]

Thanks for the Class Mike!

Your information has helped me to be a better "car crazy" person. lol From learning new ways to approching how to wash the car to techniques that i would never think of doing is something to really remember. Big thanks for picking my car to demo for the class. I hope there is another class sometime soon so i can learn more stuff about detailing.

[LacViet]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

Here are some pics from mine. Some of them are repetitives, but I'm too lazy to sort and remove them out. Enjoys!


The Man: Mike Phillips


The Acuraziners




What's a surprise! Looks who coming down?










Horrible swirls/scratches/and water spots:





Did you spray "quick detail" on the car before wipe off? Everyone is so exciting to clean the car that they just wipe off the dirts without spray lubricant on!


Now, everyone should have one bottle of lubricant on hand


Learn how to clay



ScratchX by hand:



Learn how to use Dual Action Polish the right way!




Which product do I use today?


Swirls?......what's swirls?



The owner is learning proper technique of using G-100










After 3 applied of ScrathX by hand:


Porter Cable (G-100) with M#80

[steadydaddy]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

I HAD FUN! Yes, seven weekend hours well spent. If Food Network has Alton Brown, Kar Krazy has Mike Phillips. For those not familiar with the show 'Good Eats', its a cooking show that educates the cooking enthusiast the science, techniques of preparing food with a little anthropology thrown in. I'd say this class is the equivalent for auto detailing.

Thanks to the Meguiar's organization for providing these valuable educational sessions. Mike's presentation educates the enthusiast the fundamentals of automotive finishes. He has condensed and distilled his experience into a 7-hour session and dismissed the common myths about auto paint finish and maintenance for the layperson. Without a doubt Meguiar's has solidified its position in the market and will be around for long, long time. It's also a great American story. It was a treat for Barry to drop by with his ride.

Huy, you done it again. Thanks for 'hooking up' the club to this splendid program. These pics are superb. You are truly Kar Krazy.

[SDCLS]

Re: Acurazine.com at Meguiar's

Thanks to the Meguiar's organization for providing these valuable educational sessions. Mike's presentation educates the enthusiast the fundamentals of automotive finishes. He has condensed and distilled his experience into a 7-hour session and dismissed the common myths about auto paint finish and maintenance for the layperson. Without a doubt Meguiar's has solidified its position in the market and will be around for long, long time. It's also a great American story. It was a treat for Barry to drop by with his ride.

werd. Very well put there, Ed.