Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

[Michael Stoops]

Pictures from July 31st, 2010


Class starts in a couple of hours and we've got a full roster! Pictures will be up sometime tomorrow so check back then.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

OK, pictures!!

As always, following classroom instruction we selected a car with a lot of swirls to use for our demo. This Corolla was washed with a broom so it was loaded with swirls and scratches. Yes, you read that right - washed with a broom. Ouch.

Our first order of business was to evaluate the surface, feeling for bonded contaminants and looking for below surface defects. You could see the below surface defects a mile away! The bonded contaminants weren't too terrible though.



Still, a bit of claying was called for so we did just that.



Once satisfied that the clay had done its job, we moved on to dealing with below surface defects.



We taped off the hood to mark off a couple of test spots - one for working by hand and one for working with the G110v2 buffer. We then started with Ultimate Compound applied by hand.





We followed that up with Deep Crystal Polish and a thin layer of NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0, then covered that spot and got to work with the G110v2



A little demonstration of cleaning the pad on the fly. It is important to do this from time to time while buffing out a car as it prevents the build up of excess product in the pad. You want to use fresh product as often as possible and prevent the pad from loading up, from product drying on the edges. Keeping things clean while working on the paint helps ensure maximum results, regardless of which product you're using.



Yeah, that looks much better!



We then pulled the car out into the sunshine to give it a critical evaluation. The left spot was the hand work section, the right side the G110v2 side. The test spot for the hand work side tells us that we've removed the vast majority of defects with a single application, so a second application should give us excellent overall results. Obviously if we've removed this level of defect with a single pass, there is no need to step up to a more aggressive product.



Here, the G110v2 worked side shows just a couple of minor RIDS left. Again, this was a single pass of Ultimate Compound and part of that application demo included how NOT to use the tool!



Here's a bit broader view of the two test spots showing clearly just how effective these two processes were.



We then rolled the car back in the garage and let our students loose on the hood to finish it off.





After finished the regularly scheduled aspects of the class Chad asked if we could take a look at his Subie STI. Seems it got hit with some nasty sprinkler water that just baked into the paint. This was a horrible combination of above surface deposits and some etching below the surface.



Chad actually used a razor blade to remove the spots from the windows of the car, but earlier attempts at using a paint cleaner by hand yielded only minor improvement. The paint felt horribly rough to the touch, so we went at it with our C2100 aggressive red clay. That pulled a lot of contaminants off the surface and made it feel smooth again, but the spots had also etched into the paint. Clay was not going to help that aspect of this mess. Since Chad had not yet used a buffer on it, we gave it a shot with a couple passes of UC on a G110v2, and even an aggressive pass with M105. We made some progress and under the garage lights it looked pretty decent. But closer inspection showed the spots were very stubborn indeed. After stepping up to a rotary buffer it was determined that some very aggressive steps were going to be needed to correct this. Fortunately he's got a friend who is very experienced with the rotary so he'll be handling the final correction - but at least now he has a game plan to fix the problem.





Thanks to all who came out to spend the better part of a beautiful Saturday with us, to Miguel for letting us demo on his Corolla (to his cousin for washing it with a broom so that we had such a great demo car!) and to Adrian for being our cameraman for the day!

[StuSSYsporT]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

Thanks again to Meguiars and to Mike for putting this on! learned alot about basic car care techniques and products.

as for my subaru.... i still need to get to work on that. Thanks again for helping me out with a game plan to work my way thru fixing the paint.

-Chad

[KaraYama]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

This was such a great class. Thank you so much for putting this together. I learned so much.

[jlaksmana]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

Thanks Mike! Awesome class and I learned a lot from it.

[Slick]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

I'm curious about that Subie... what about trying a vinegar wipedown (diluted at first, full-concentration if necessary)??? Then maybe a distilled water rinse, then some polishing... would be nice to get as much of the calcium-based residue off before proceeding to the polishing step. Would hope that claying would remove most of the bonded contaminants, but hard water spots are definitely a challenge!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

I'm curious about that Subie... what about trying a vinegar wipedown (diluted at first, full-concentration if necessary)??? Then maybe a distilled water rinse, then some polishing... would be nice to get as much of the calcium-based residue off before proceeding to the polishing step. Would hope that claying would remove most of the bonded contaminants, but hard water spots are definitely a challenge!

The finish felt not only rough to the touch, but actually sort of "wavy" (a little difficult to describe, actually) but after claying with our C2100 aggressive red clay it felt totally smooth. So the clay was removing anything physically left behind when the water evaporated, but there is definite etching of the paint at this point. A vinegar rinse is certainly worth a shot (we don't usually stock distilled white vinegar at Meguiar's garage) but these water spots are so extreme that such a rinse, or even claying, is just the first step.

[Bill Davidson]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

(we don't usually stock distilled white vinegar at Meguiar's garage)

I didn't know distilled vinegar was available. I'm out... and plan on buy a jug (for cooking). Good to know.

[105wrx]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

It was a great class and I learned a lot. Already picked up the Meguiars DA and used it on my hood with some ultimate compound and have almost completely removed all the swirls. Chad will have to come over one day so we are able to use the rotory on the rest of the hood and side panels...

Chris

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

Sounds great, Chris. Remember, if you ever need any pointers on using the G110v2 come on down to a Thursday Night Open Garage and we can help you out.

[105wrx]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

Ya I would like to swing by one Thursday to chat some more. I have a few questions that chad and I were talking about. We were wondering if we should try the burgandy pad on the hood to see if it will remove the spots or just go straight to the rotary? Also we just bought the mirror glaze and was applying it with the black pad at speed three and it seems to get really tough to remove when only polishing it for a few minutes. Just wondering if it is like that or if we are using too high of a speed or too much time in one area...

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

Ya I would like to swing by one Thursday to chat some more. I have a few questions that chad and I were talking about. We were wondering if we should try the burgandy pad on the hood to see if it will remove the spots or just go straight to the rotary?

Chad had PM'd me about using the burgundy pad on the D/A instead of using a rotary to get rid of those water spots. While you certainly can try that, from what we saw the night the car was here you're going to need M105 with a wool pad on a rotary to get rid of that mess.

Also we just bought the mirror glaze and was applying it with the black pad at speed three and it seems to get really tough to remove when only polishing it for a few minutes. Just wondering if it is like that or if we are using too high of a speed or too much time in one area...

Mirror Glaze is an entire line of products, which one did you pick up? M105, M205.....? If M105 then speed 3 on a finishing pad is sort of an odd combination and we can see where M105 might not play well under those conditions. If M205 then you should be able to buff it like that all day long without it drying up on you.

[105wrx]

Re: Pictures from July 31st, 2010 - Saturday Open Class

It is the Mirror Glaze Professional Show Car Glaze 7...