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Pictures from October 23rd, 2010
What a hearty group! We normally cancel these classes in the event of rain but the forecast on Thursday and Friday was for decent weather. But, um, it didn't turn out that way - at least not to start the day!
Nonetheless, we had a good sized class full of guys eager to learn. And that black 1999 Mercedes SL500 AMG roadster you see above became our demo car for the session, thanks to its owner, Gregg.
Once we got through the classroom session (and the coffee, donuts and pizza!) we headed out to the garage and got to work.
We did a quick demo on how to clay but this car was in good shape with regard to bonded contaminants so there really wasn't anything to show other than proper technique. But the swirls!
So we taped off a couple of test spots and got to work; first by hand then with the G110v2. Here we apply some Ultimate Compound by hand to remove swirls and other below surface defects.
There was a spot with a more severe defect that required some concentrated effort to remove, so we did just that. A fresh application of UC in a very small area, applied with a lot of passion.
We followed the UC with some Deep Crystal Polish, wiping it off before it dried, of course.
A thin coat of NXT Tech Wax 2.0 was then applied to finish off the test spot. From there we moved on to machine application on the other side.
Here we demonstrate how NOT to hold the G110v2. By putting pressure on the base of the handle the pad starts to lift onto an edge - this will stop the pad from rotating and reduce cut. This is poor technique, but a common mistake.
This is proper pressure, applied on top of the tool directly over the pad. The pad stays flat and you get consistent cutting power throughout the paint correction process.
We noticed a bit of hazing following UC due to the somewhat delicate nature of this paint. Gregg is doing another test spot with SwirlX instead to see if it yields a better result.
What we saw following SwirlX was still a little hazing but much less less defect removal compared to what we got with UC. The defects were bad enough in this paint that we needed the extra power of UC, so it was decided that an initial pass of UC was needed to correct the defects, and then a light follow up of SwirlX to remove the haze from the aggressive correction step. We also tested ColorX as a follow up to UC and it worked beautifully to remove the haze and add a layer of wax protection in one step. But this older AMG is a weekend toy that Gregg wants to give some extra attention to, so the three step of UC, SwirlX (or even M205) and NXT won out over a two step process. For a daily driver the two step would probably have been enough, but for the truly Car Crazy, a little extra work pays off big dividends!
Looks pretty clear from here, huh?
We put a coat of NXT Tech Wax 2.0 on our G110v2 test spot and let it dry before removal.
When the tape was removed this is what we saw.
Mother Nature decided to suddenly cooperate and the skies cleared just as we finished our test spots. Pulling the car into direct sunlight gave us the real story - look at the difference in that finish!! Nice reflections of the clouds in the corrected area compared to horrible swirls in what looks like dull, gray paint.
So it was back in the garage to let our attendees put the G110v2 in their own hands and get a feel for it. There's no better way to learn proper technique than hands on.
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