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Pictures from Meguiar's July 15th, 2017 Saturday Detailing 101 Class
We started off this weekend's Saturday Detailing 101 Class as usual with our classroom portion of the day from 8:30 - 12 in Meguiar's Training Room. You may ask yourself what could they be talking about for 3 and 1/2 hours?! Attendants to Meguiar's Saturday Detailing 101 Class can expect to learn the following & more:
Walk through of Meguiar's 5 Step Paint Care Cycle discussing each step in detail:
We also cover basic information for interior care including odor elimination solutions & wheel & tire care.
After a great session in the training room & some pizza for lunch, we moved out into the garage to work on our project car for the day, a 2016 Ford Explorer Platinum in the color black (also had a very mild metallic in the color)
Meguiar's often hears the comment "Why don't you demonstrate on an older car?" or "Why don't you work on something that has more defects?" The reality is that even a brand new car which is washed improperly once or twice can be full of swirls, scratches, & stains. The below car was purchased new 6 months prior to us working on it for our Saturday Class & check out the condition in proper lighting:
With the vehicle fairly dirt & in need of wash, we started by using Meguiar's Ultimate Waterless Wash & Wax as an alternative to a traditional wash
Now since the paint was clean & dry, it was time to evaluate for above surface contaminants, by feeling the paint to inspect if it feels rough. Again, this car is a 2016 and was purchased 6 months ago, and it already felt rough to the touch, indicating there are above surface contaminants present. We used our Smooth Surface Clay Kit to properly remove the contaminants. For more information on our Smooth Surface Clay Kit, check out the below Quik Tip Video:
After claying, we inspected the car again under proper lighting to reveal any below surface defects.
We then explained the differences in some of the common tool used for paint polishing on automotive paint.
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, Polish, and Wax, combined with our MT300 Dual Action Polisher & Soft Buff DA Foam Discs.
First it was time to perform a test spot. With the level of defects in this black paint, I determined we for sure we would need the Soft Buff Red Foam Cutting Disc paired with Ultimate Compound. Keep that in mind, because that ended up not being the case.
Although optional for foam pads, we chose to fully prime the pad with Ultimate Compound prior to the initial pass.
Ultimate Compound was pressed & smoothed into the foam pad with the above yellow plastic card to prime.
Ready for the initial pass.
MT300 Dual Action Polisher, Ultimate Compound, 5800 OPMs, Moderate Pressure, Moderate Arm Speed, 4 section passes. This combination eliminated all the defects to our satisfaction, but it also left behind quite a lot of DA Haze in this black paint. This was an indication the paint was fairly soft. In most cases little to no haze is left behind, even after a aggressive foam cutting pad & compound. DA Haze can be removed with the polish step, but ideally our compound step should produce little to no haze. In this case is was generating too much for our liking.
Below is a picture of the paint finish after Ultimate Compound on a Soft Buff DA Foam Cutting Disc. This was a great lesson for the attendants to see what DA Haze looks like, and how to remove it. If they can work on a fairly soft black paint, most everything else is going to be much easier! We were actually fairly able to remove the below DA Haze with our Ultimate Polish on a Soft Buff DA Foam Finishing Disc.
Since Ultimate Compound on a Soft Buff Red Foam Cutting Disc eliminated the defects with such ease and left quite a lot of DA Haze on this softer paint, we wondered if a less aggressive process would still eliminate all the defects with less haze? Less DA Haze means less to clean up or "polish out."
We stepped down to Meguiar's Ultimate Compound on a clean Soft Buff DA Yellow Foam Polishing Disc, and performed 5 sections passes, moderate pressure, moderate arm speed, and 5800 OPMs. This combination removed all the defects and left much less haze!
We stepped down again to further refine the paint, with Meguiar's Ultimate Polish on a Soft Buff DA Foam Finishing Disc. We had now found our process and were finished testing:
MT300 DA Polisher/ DFP5 Soft Buff DA Foam Polishing Disc/ Ultimate Compound/ 5 passes per section/ moderate Pressure/ moderate Arm Speed/ 5800 OPMs
MT300 DA Polisher/ DFF5 Soft Buff DA Foam Finishing Disc/ Ultimate Polish/ 5 passes per section/ moderate pressure/ moderate arm speed/ 4800 OPMs
MT300 DA Polisher/ DBP3 3 Inch Backing Plate / G3509 DA Power System Waxing Pad / Ultimate Paste Wax / Light Pressure/ 2 overlapping passes/ 3800 - 4800 OPMs
Now it was time for the classes attendants to try the MT300 DA Polisher. Our goal for this portion of the class is to provide information on proper use of a dual action polisher, and also to allow anyone who wanted to try the machine, to be able to. Everyone in this class did a really great job for their first time and I did not have to provide much direction at all!
For the last step we chose to apply Ultimate Paste Wax with a DA Power System Waxing pad on the MT300.
While the Ultimate Paste Wax was drying, we couldn't let the owner leave without as least cleaning up the rest of the car, so we all pitched in a used our Ultimate Waterless Wash & Wax to perform a waterless wash.
Now it was time to wipe off the wax. This is another fun part of the day since there are usually many attendants who have never seen wax wipe off so easy! Super thin & even coat is all that is needed.
BEFORE
AFTER
Thanks to everyone for coming out and for such a fun class! I felt like I answered 200 questions at the end of the day! To class attendants, feel free to post about your experience in this thread. For other MOL members, feel free to post or contact me with any questions.
We started off this weekend's Saturday Detailing 101 Class as usual with our classroom portion of the day from 8:30 - 12 in Meguiar's Training Room. You may ask yourself what could they be talking about for 3 and 1/2 hours?! Attendants to Meguiar's Saturday Detailing 101 Class can expect to learn the following & more:
- A little about Meguiar's Company History
- Differences in Meguiar's various Product Lines
Walk through of Meguiar's 5 Step Paint Care Cycle discussing each step in detail:
- Washing
- Meguiar's Definition of Washing
- Information on Car Wash Solution products
- Information on differences in Washing accessories
- Proper Washing Technique
- Clean/Prep
- How to evaluate for Above Surface Contaminants & Below Surface Defects
- How to properly remove above surface contaminants
- How to properly remove below surface defects
- Information on liquid paint cleaners & compounds
- Information on difference types of paints, paint thickness & "polish-ability"
- Polish
- Differences in the two types of Polishes Meguiar's offers and when they are common used (Cleaner/Polishes & Pure Polishes)
- How to apply a polish by hand or machine
- Wax
- What a Wax, Protectant, or Synthetic Sealant provides
- Differences in Formulations
- Durability Expectations & Variables which can impact durability
- Proper Application
- Differences in types of Waxes Meguiar's offers
- Maintain
- Quik Detailers vs. Quik Waxes
We also cover basic information for interior care including odor elimination solutions & wheel & tire care.
After a great session in the training room & some pizza for lunch, we moved out into the garage to work on our project car for the day, a 2016 Ford Explorer Platinum in the color black (also had a very mild metallic in the color)
Meguiar's often hears the comment "Why don't you demonstrate on an older car?" or "Why don't you work on something that has more defects?" The reality is that even a brand new car which is washed improperly once or twice can be full of swirls, scratches, & stains. The below car was purchased new 6 months prior to us working on it for our Saturday Class & check out the condition in proper lighting:
With the vehicle fairly dirt & in need of wash, we started by using Meguiar's Ultimate Waterless Wash & Wax as an alternative to a traditional wash
Now since the paint was clean & dry, it was time to evaluate for above surface contaminants, by feeling the paint to inspect if it feels rough. Again, this car is a 2016 and was purchased 6 months ago, and it already felt rough to the touch, indicating there are above surface contaminants present. We used our Smooth Surface Clay Kit to properly remove the contaminants. For more information on our Smooth Surface Clay Kit, check out the below Quik Tip Video:
After claying, we inspected the car again under proper lighting to reveal any below surface defects.
We then explained the differences in some of the common tool used for paint polishing on automotive paint.
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, Polish, and Wax, combined with our MT300 Dual Action Polisher & Soft Buff DA Foam Discs.
First it was time to perform a test spot. With the level of defects in this black paint, I determined we for sure we would need the Soft Buff Red Foam Cutting Disc paired with Ultimate Compound. Keep that in mind, because that ended up not being the case.
Although optional for foam pads, we chose to fully prime the pad with Ultimate Compound prior to the initial pass.
Ultimate Compound was pressed & smoothed into the foam pad with the above yellow plastic card to prime.
Ready for the initial pass.
MT300 Dual Action Polisher, Ultimate Compound, 5800 OPMs, Moderate Pressure, Moderate Arm Speed, 4 section passes. This combination eliminated all the defects to our satisfaction, but it also left behind quite a lot of DA Haze in this black paint. This was an indication the paint was fairly soft. In most cases little to no haze is left behind, even after a aggressive foam cutting pad & compound. DA Haze can be removed with the polish step, but ideally our compound step should produce little to no haze. In this case is was generating too much for our liking.
Below is a picture of the paint finish after Ultimate Compound on a Soft Buff DA Foam Cutting Disc. This was a great lesson for the attendants to see what DA Haze looks like, and how to remove it. If they can work on a fairly soft black paint, most everything else is going to be much easier! We were actually fairly able to remove the below DA Haze with our Ultimate Polish on a Soft Buff DA Foam Finishing Disc.
Since Ultimate Compound on a Soft Buff Red Foam Cutting Disc eliminated the defects with such ease and left quite a lot of DA Haze on this softer paint, we wondered if a less aggressive process would still eliminate all the defects with less haze? Less DA Haze means less to clean up or "polish out."
We stepped down to Meguiar's Ultimate Compound on a clean Soft Buff DA Yellow Foam Polishing Disc, and performed 5 sections passes, moderate pressure, moderate arm speed, and 5800 OPMs. This combination removed all the defects and left much less haze!
We stepped down again to further refine the paint, with Meguiar's Ultimate Polish on a Soft Buff DA Foam Finishing Disc. We had now found our process and were finished testing:
MT300 DA Polisher/ DFP5 Soft Buff DA Foam Polishing Disc/ Ultimate Compound/ 5 passes per section/ moderate Pressure/ moderate Arm Speed/ 5800 OPMs
MT300 DA Polisher/ DFF5 Soft Buff DA Foam Finishing Disc/ Ultimate Polish/ 5 passes per section/ moderate pressure/ moderate arm speed/ 4800 OPMs
MT300 DA Polisher/ DBP3 3 Inch Backing Plate / G3509 DA Power System Waxing Pad / Ultimate Paste Wax / Light Pressure/ 2 overlapping passes/ 3800 - 4800 OPMs
Now it was time for the classes attendants to try the MT300 DA Polisher. Our goal for this portion of the class is to provide information on proper use of a dual action polisher, and also to allow anyone who wanted to try the machine, to be able to. Everyone in this class did a really great job for their first time and I did not have to provide much direction at all!
For the last step we chose to apply Ultimate Paste Wax with a DA Power System Waxing pad on the MT300.
While the Ultimate Paste Wax was drying, we couldn't let the owner leave without as least cleaning up the rest of the car, so we all pitched in a used our Ultimate Waterless Wash & Wax to perform a waterless wash.
Now it was time to wipe off the wax. This is another fun part of the day since there are usually many attendants who have never seen wax wipe off so easy! Super thin & even coat is all that is needed.
BEFORE
AFTER
Thanks to everyone for coming out and for such a fun class! I felt like I answered 200 questions at the end of the day! To class attendants, feel free to post about your experience in this thread. For other MOL members, feel free to post or contact me with any questions.