Tweet
An interesting night in the garage...... a first time attendee who confessed to not reading the directions before getting started with the DAMF System, a neglected Mercedes Benz S500 that appeared almost hopeless at first, and a car who's high tech coating was behaving badly.
Randy brought in his daily driven, parked outside 24/7, 100,000+ mile Toyota pickup that he buffed out with the DAMF System. And then he read the forum write up and realized he did a bunch of stuff wrong. Still, the truck looked pretty darn good (truth be told, it was pretty fantastic, but we don't want that to go to Randy's head so keep it quiet, OK?) considering all the technique errors he admitted to. So we gave him a crash course in proper technique and cut him loose. He ended up doing less work and got even better results.
Here's one area where he still struggled a bit, but he eventually dialed it in; See how flat the pad is to the paint in this picture? Nice!
But as the hood slopes down, he wasn't rotating the tool to keep the pad in touch with the paint. See how, on the right side, it's lifting off the paint. Not so nice.
You may recall some pictures of a tail light restoration we did at a previous TNOG.... well, the vehicle owner brought the whole truck in this time and we did a bit of clean up on the headlights. Right side done, left side ready for some cleaning. We've seen far worse, of course, but these still benefited from a little TLC.
This Mercedes S500 was in desperate need of serious help. A 2002 model year car that sits outside and, according to the owner, hasn't been properly washed in 10 years or more. It's been hosed down and left to air dry, and that's about it. No polish, wax.... no nothing.
Plenty of swirls though!
Things didn't get any better when we rolled it into the garage and put some different lights on it.
A quick run over with a clay bar and...... yuck. This is from an area maybe 2' x 2' on the trunk lid.
One pass with the DAMF System and here's our half & half. An amazing turnaround with ONE pass!
Time to let the car owner get a feel for the process.
Paint problems were not confined to the trunk; this scratch is on the driver's side quarter panel.
Same spot after a couple of slightly aggressive passes and the scratch is gone.
High up on the same quarter panel are these scuff marks.
They're gone too.
Art brought his car in and pointed out what looked like nasty oxidation on the hood of the car. Strange thing is, he had buffed it out before applying one of the new crop of semi-permanent coatings, and several months later the hood looks horrible. Lots of swirls, a serious lack of clarity, and what looks like bad oxidation. The hood had been repainted a year prior to the coating application. Was that the cause of this issue? We don't really know, but we do know how to fix it.
This is the quality of reflections present before buffing.
A good, solid pass with the DAMF System and we get this. A huge difference, and a great plan of attack for Art to use on the rest of the hood.
The side mirrors exhibited the same weird oxidized appearance.
Another quick pass with the DAMF System and we're much closer to what we want. A little bit of haze from the cutting pad and compound, but we can clean that up with a bit of light polishing.
Randy brought in his daily driven, parked outside 24/7, 100,000+ mile Toyota pickup that he buffed out with the DAMF System. And then he read the forum write up and realized he did a bunch of stuff wrong. Still, the truck looked pretty darn good (truth be told, it was pretty fantastic, but we don't want that to go to Randy's head so keep it quiet, OK?) considering all the technique errors he admitted to. So we gave him a crash course in proper technique and cut him loose. He ended up doing less work and got even better results.
Here's one area where he still struggled a bit, but he eventually dialed it in; See how flat the pad is to the paint in this picture? Nice!
But as the hood slopes down, he wasn't rotating the tool to keep the pad in touch with the paint. See how, on the right side, it's lifting off the paint. Not so nice.
You may recall some pictures of a tail light restoration we did at a previous TNOG.... well, the vehicle owner brought the whole truck in this time and we did a bit of clean up on the headlights. Right side done, left side ready for some cleaning. We've seen far worse, of course, but these still benefited from a little TLC.
This Mercedes S500 was in desperate need of serious help. A 2002 model year car that sits outside and, according to the owner, hasn't been properly washed in 10 years or more. It's been hosed down and left to air dry, and that's about it. No polish, wax.... no nothing.
Plenty of swirls though!
Things didn't get any better when we rolled it into the garage and put some different lights on it.
A quick run over with a clay bar and...... yuck. This is from an area maybe 2' x 2' on the trunk lid.
One pass with the DAMF System and here's our half & half. An amazing turnaround with ONE pass!
Time to let the car owner get a feel for the process.
Paint problems were not confined to the trunk; this scratch is on the driver's side quarter panel.
Same spot after a couple of slightly aggressive passes and the scratch is gone.
High up on the same quarter panel are these scuff marks.
They're gone too.
Art brought his car in and pointed out what looked like nasty oxidation on the hood of the car. Strange thing is, he had buffed it out before applying one of the new crop of semi-permanent coatings, and several months later the hood looks horrible. Lots of swirls, a serious lack of clarity, and what looks like bad oxidation. The hood had been repainted a year prior to the coating application. Was that the cause of this issue? We don't really know, but we do know how to fix it.
This is the quality of reflections present before buffing.
A good, solid pass with the DAMF System and we get this. A huge difference, and a great plan of attack for Art to use on the rest of the hood.
The side mirrors exhibited the same weird oxidized appearance.
Another quick pass with the DAMF System and we're much closer to what we want. A little bit of haze from the cutting pad and compound, but we can clean that up with a bit of light polishing.
Comment