CorvetteForum at Meguiar's!

[supercharged]

Re: CorvetteForum at Meguiar's!

Originally posted by Mike Phillips
[B]CorvetteForum at Meguiar's!

Hey! That yellow car's not a Corvette!

Hey, Mike, is that your Lamborghini?

[NelsonV98Vert]

Hey Mike-

Nelson V. here. I was at Saturday's Corvette Forum Detail Day. In case you don't remember by name, I am the long haired, pony-tailed guy that left a little early then returned; my Corvette is the black convertible with the bird drop etching you helped with toward the end of the day.

At any rate, I just wanted to take a moment to post here (I already did on Corvette Forum) to again thank you and Ben for hosting the day and providing so much useful info, to Chuck from Corvette Forum for arranging it for us, and of course Barry for making everything possible.

I've used many car care products in my 20-ish years of automotive hobbying and must admit I've never really known how to use/select them properly. I found Saturday's how-to to be a great tool in my quest for a beautiful ride. For now, I am going to utilize a few techniques I learned that are relevant to a current issues with my car. But I look forward to hopefully coming back for a refresher course when I am ready to learn/apply even more technique.

And a little puffery: I love your products - even more so now that I have little better understanding of how to use them. Thanks again!

Best Regards-
Nelson Villaruel

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Nelson,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

On behalf of everyone at Meguiar's, we thank you and all of the members of www.CorvetteForum.com for spending your Saturday with us!

You know, I should have tried to capture a photo of that bird dropping etching before we removed it. It was a good example of how well ScratchX works when applied correctly.

I'll be uploading some more photos to this thread, please feel free to share it with your friends at CorvetteForum. Also, there are number of clinics coming up in the future that will not be full, (over 30 people), you can easily sneak into one of these. Just check out the Online Calendar I keep all of the detailing clinics posted there.

Thanks again, it was our pleasure having you at Meguiar's!

Mike

[Mike Phillips]

One of the Corvettes at this clinic had some bonded contaminants on the finish that cold be easily seen and felt. This car was chosen for a demonstration on how to use clay to remove above surface bonded contaminants.

First, we needed to wipe the car down with Meguiar's Quik Detailer to remove any light dust.



The members from CorvetteForum were an enthusiastic bunch and everyone pitched in to help out!

[Mike Phillips]

After wiping the finish down with Quik Detailer, we evaluated the surface for both above bonded contaminants and below surface defects.

Here are some close-up photo's of the little black bonded contaminants on the finish,





After visually inspecting the finish, members then inspected the finish with their sense of touch to see if they could feel the bonded contaminants,

[Mike Phillips]

We determined the first order of business was to remove the bonded contaminants by claying the car. To do this we used Meguiar's Quik Clay System.

First, a quick lesson on how to remove bonded contaminants was followed with a demonstration,



Note: Even though the finish on the Corvette looked awesome, the clay reveals another story!









Here's Chuck claying an area that is often times overlooked but usually just as in need of a claying as the rest of the car's finish.



The rear-end portion of cars often get a build-up of bonded contaminants because of the air currents swirling around behind the car introducing dirt and dust in traffic onto the finish. Oftentimes the bonded contaminants found in areas like the above will be particles worn off brake pads and even tires.

[Mike Phillips]

Afterwards, everyone inspected the results. If the claying process is performed properly, the finish should now feel smooth as glass.

[Mike Phillips]

After removing above surface defects, the next order of business is to remove below surface defects such as swirls, scratches, road stain and dirt in paint.

[Mike Phillips]

Afterwards, everyone inspected the results,











Sometimes, a demonstration goes really well, sometimes it doesn't. In this case, ScratchX was able to remove the fine scratches and improve the deeper scratches but it did not completely remove the deepest scratches. This is why on the back of the label it says,

If ScratchX cannot remove a scratch or blemish, only machine applied professional formulas can o the job. Please call our technical help center toll free for further assistance on how to restore your finish 1-800-347-5700

The paint on this particular Corvette appeared to be as hard as nails and to remove the scratches completely, it would require machine applied products.

Luckily, a red Corvette would soon be pulled in where we were able to remove about 99% of the scratch by hand using ScratchX.

[Mike Phillips]

After working on the white Corvette, we turned our attention to this beautiful red C5



While the above photo shows a beautiful Corvette, when up close and in person, it is easy to see a single, unsightly deep scratch in an arc shape going across the hood.



The above photo help to show the location of the scratch. Below are some photos showing the scratch up close. (It was hard to capture a really good photo of the scratch on red paint)





The scratch was at least 12 inches long and distracts your attention from an otherwise pristine Corvette to this one single eye-sore in the middle of the hood.

[Mike Phillips]

We pulled the red Corvette into the Meguiar's Garage wiped the hood down with some Quik Detailer to remove any light dust and then proceeded to remove the scratch using ScratchX and the techniques outlined in the How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX

Here's the owner working the ScratchX over the scratch.



Here's another forum member applying a second application,

[Mike Phillips]

After removing about 99% of the scratch, we applied a coat of Meguiar's NXT Generation Tech Wax and then pulled the car out into the sun to inspect the results,

The scratch is gone and the finish is drop dead gorgeous!



(Note the lack of any swirls)

And here's the owner happy to be rid of the unsightly scratch!

[Mike Phillips]

Next up, our attention was focused on removing the swirls and restoring a rich, wet-looking high gloss finish to this black C5

The owner of the Corvette told us that he had over 12 layers of Zaino on his car.



In the above photo, the Corvette looks OK, but when viewed up close and in person, the finish is dull and hazy side because of the thousands of swirls in the finish. The black paint has what people call a plastic or plasticy look. It lacks clarity and richness.



The swirls on the left hand side are an accurate representation of the overall finish with 12 + layers of Zaino on it.


Here's a dramatic Before shot taken with my Sony camera which tends to capture cobweb-effect and buffer swirl better than my Cannon.

[Mike Phillips]

We pulled the Corvette into Meguiar's Garage and let it cool down. Then we taped off the hood with some blue painters tape separating the drivers side from the passenger's side.

Then, with no other prep work, two members from CorvetteForum applied one application of Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax by hand. We waited for approximately 10 to 15 minutes and then removed the dried Tech Wax and backed the Corvette out into the sun to inspect.

I stayed behind to take capture the members of CorvetteForum inspecting the results. Note: I didn't see the results till after I took these pictures.







Here's Chuck, the owner, looking into the finish...



And here are the results as captured by my digital camera. First a full shot resized from the original to 600 pixels wide.



In the below photo, I have cropped out a 700 pixel wide section from the original and uploaded this raw photo to my gallery. This photo shows a full-on sun shot of Zaino on the passengers side. (12 plus layers of Zaino according to the owner)



Here's a sun shot on the NXT side, remember, this is one coat applied by hand over the existing Zaino layers. According to most Zaino users, the cleaners in NXT will have removed any existing Zaino, so according to them, the results you see will have been produced by the merits of the NXT and not the NXT aided by layers of Zaino,



About this point I asked everyone there which side looked the best and everyone said the NXT side looked the best.

One thing I pointed out was how the NXT Tech Wax added richness to the paint, restored the clarity and eliminated about 90% of the swirls and cobweb-effect.

I then asked everyone there which side they would like their car to look like... the deep, dark, rich looking, optically clear swirl-free side, or the Zaino side. (You can probably guess the answer).

Mike

[Mike Phillips]

Here's a few more shots I snapped with the Canon Digital Rebel with the sun in different locations.







Below is the same photo as above except that it is a raw photo, meaning I haven't resized it or changed it in any way, it is a 600 pixel section cropped out of the original.



The above raw photo shows that while one application of NXT Tech Wax easily made Chucks black Corvette look dramatically better, there are still light swirls in the finish. I asked Chuck if he would like me to show him how to effectively remove these and he said of course!