What is big and yellow, has more than 144 wheels and SHINES ??

[Andres]

Re: What is big and yellow, has more than 144 wheels and SHINES ??

good good good JOB!!!!

[Nappers]

Re: What is big and yellow, has more than 144 wheels and SHINES ??

All I have to say is WoW! You do amazing work. I have a ton of stuff on my Christmas list from the little woman and have learned a lot from you guys. I only hope with practice to be close to what you have made an art.

I take great pride in how my cars look and mine is actually not too bad (a few very minor swirls on my cars) but would like to improve on it. I have people asking me to do their cars but have put them on hold until I get the appropriate materials.

My wife said that Irvine is not too far away to learn from the masters. Hmmm, road trip in the future???? LOL.

Good job Joe, you truly are an artist.

Aaron

[Superior Shine]

Re: What is big and yellow, has more than 144 wheels and SHINES ??

Where did you find your crew?

I used a local company that is very similar to labor ready.

[davey g-force]

Re: What is big and yellow, has more than 144 wheels and SHINES ??

I just got a call, we are doing the buses again this year!!

Be sure to take some pics again! Will you do anything differently?

[Detaillab]

Re: What is big and yellow, has more than 144 wheels and SHINES ??

Where did you find your crew?

[Superior Shine]

Re: What is big and yellow, has more than 144 wheels and SHINES ??

I just got a call, we are doing the buses again this year!!

[mdahls]

Greetings!

This is my first post! I face a similar task as the one undertaken by SuperiorShine and could use some advice.

I work for a large bus operator and I'm trying to establish some new routines in regards to the appearance of our buses (~50 at this particular depot). The color of the buses happens to be pretty similar to the school bus yellow and they all have large vinyl decals covering parts of the surfaces.

Buses are washed daily in your basic automated truck wash facility: pressurized water mixed with car schampoo and two large nylon brushes working the surfaces. This works pretty well. The paint is hard and the vehicles look pretty clean. What I'm looking to do is complement this with a yearly effort to restore the shine that inevitably gets lost to oxidation and micro scratches from the brushes. Cost is an issue, and the biggest cost of course is the time needed to perform this; a one-step process will have to do.

I have limited experience with detailing, but none when it comes to heavy duty vehicles. My questions are:

1) For a polishing machine, I'm leaning towards the Cyclo. Dual pads should speed things up. Also useful for interior work (floors etc). Good idea?

2) Most of the front and rear of the buses is made of fiberglass. Will this require a different approach?

3) What kind of products to use (not only brand-specific, please)? Fairly aggressive cleaning is needed, but should we even bother about protection? I'm mainly thinking about the 350+ passes of the brushes per year...

I'll try to take some pictures if it'll help...

Thanks in advance!

[Superior Shine]

Originally posted by jake11375
That is just plain wild! You are a brave man to tackle such a huge task. Good you had some good help though.

I sure did!

We will do them yearly!!!

[jake11375]

That is just plain wild! You are a brave man to tackle such a huge task. Good you had some good help though.

[rusty bumper]

OK, thanks, that was interesting. Not sure if I've seen anything like that around here yet.

[Superior Shine]

In this picture you can see a wash rack. The wash rack has a built in clarifier. Most of the water ran into the wash rack. We had some flow into the dirt toward the back of the yard but according to the regulations I was given by the city it was legal.

I do have two water containment systems for jobs that don't have wash racks or other form of water containment.

[rusty bumper]

Just curious Joe, did you have to capture all of the wash & rinse runoff from the busses for proper disposal?

[Superior Shine]

No clay but we will decontaminate them with a three step "A-B-C System" that is a neutralization and wash system formulated to remove industrial fallout, rail dust, hard water deposits, acid rain residue and other forms of pollutants.

The cleaner we can get the paint the better the wax/sealant step will go.

[gb387]

Re: tee hee.

Originally posted by Godiva
So next time...will you clay them first?

That sounds like fun!

[Godiva]

tee hee.

So next time...will you clay them first?