Pictures from February 8, 2014 Saturday Open Class

[Michael Stoops]

Another enthusiastic group, and some long drives to here this time around with folks driving in the night before because of the distance! We appreciate so much that people are not only willing to spend a Saturday with us, but to drive many hours just to get here!

As per usual, we selected a car that was driven to the class that morning, and in this case it's a Honda Accord in desperate need of some TLC. Even with this slightly out of focus picture you can clearly see the swirls and etchings that need some serious work.


Our first order of business was to remove any loose contaminants from the hood (we used D115 Rinse Free Express Wash for that) and then we clayed.


This is from just a small area on the hood, which explains the very rough texture we felt.


Clay attack!!!


Ultimate Compound on a W8207 foam pad at speed 5 with moderate pressure. Our typical starting point for a test spot.


Changing direction; you can see the side to side pattern in the image above, and the up and down pattern in the image below. Work the area thoroughly in two directions to ensure full coverage and uniform defect removal.


The next step was Ultimate Polish with a W9207 foam finishing pad.


On the other side, the DA Microfiber Correction System


Not too shabby for one pass!!!


Father and son going to town on their car.


And then we turned more students loose on the hood to finish it up!

[The Guz]

Re: Pictures from February 8, 2014 Saturday Open Class

I have read that paint on a hinda is typically soft. Was this the case for this one as well?

Was D302 used as part of the DMAF or just D300 and D301?

Either way the results look good from both DAMF and non-DAMF.

[ctriggs]

Thank you!!

Just wanted to say thank you Michael and Meguairs!! For having a free class that not only teaches the basics and clarifies a lot of mumbo jumbo out in forums and the interwebs. And thanks again Michael for being an awesome instructor and enthusiastic about your practice! Can't wait for the advanced class!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Pictures from February 8, 2014 Saturday Open Class

I have read that paint on a hinda is typically soft. Was this the case for this one as well?

Was D302 used as part of the DMAF or just D300 and D301?

Either way the results look good from both DAMF and non-DAMF.

While we have indeed worked on Hondas that had very soft and delicate paint, that was not the case with this particular car. Don't get us wrong, it wasn't super hard by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure wasn't super soft, either. We'd call this one pretty much middle of the road. The biggest difference: we achieved not only more defect removal in less time with the microfiber system than we did with foam, but we also saw more clarity in the reflections with the microfiber system on this particular car.

It's important to keep in mind that what you read online regarding the hardness or softness of paint is really only accurate with respect to a particular vehicle. Sure, there are indeed trends and you can maybe use that as a guide (BMW Jet Black is super soft and delicate, Audi paint is ridiculously hard, etc) but even those aren't 100% consistent. Case in point: I have personally worked on BMW Jet Black paint that was so delicate that it was a total pain in the backside to correct, but it was another Jet Black BMW that had the single hardest paint I've ever encountered in my life. And within a week or so of someone on another forum saying that everyone knows how incredibly hard Audi paint is, we had two different black Audis in our training garage, both just a couple months old and both non metallic black, that had paint that was just a dream to work on even with horrible rotary swirls present.

[The Guz]

Re: Pictures from February 8, 2014 Saturday Open Class

Thanks for the reply Michael. I was just curious on how the honda responded as I read different things. I'm a fan of D300 and the microfiber cutting pads.

For example, both of my cars, my parents cars and my brothers car are all GM. I read all the time about GM paint being hard. That being said all of them respond differently when being polished. For example my 02 Camaro and my dad's 02 Camaro both have hard paint and D300+MF gave better results with less passes than M105 or UC on a foam pad. My 99 pontiac grand prix and my brothers 03 grand prix have paint that I would consider medium and M205 is more than enough to get the job done. If I need something more aggressive UC gets the job done on both grand prix's.