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Another great Saturday Class with an enthusiastic group of students. And one pickup truck in serious need of TLC!
Water spots, anyone?
Would you like a side order of swirls with those spots?
Aside from all the marring in the paint, the truck was also dirty and loaded with bonded contaminants. So we cleaned it with a little Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere to start.
And then we hit with the clay bar..... this is what was lifted from just a small area on the hood.
We discussed and demonstrated both traditional foam polishing as well as the DA Microfiber Correction System. Regardless which system you choose, technique is critical. Below is an all too often seen example of poor technique: the tool is tilted so the backing plate is at a steep angle to the paint, which will cause the pad to stop rotating and you'll lose cut.
This is what you strive to achieve at all times when working on flat surfaces.
Curved body panels, whether a gentle curve or a tight radius like the front of this hood, can easily be polished simply by keeping the center line of the pad in contact with the paint rather than using an edge. This way the pad will continue to rotate, maximizing cutting ability of any pad/product combination.
Next we moved on to the DA Microfiber System. Here it is critical to fully prime the pad with D300 before starting, so in the image below we're rubbing the product into the pad in order to fully coat the microfiber filaments.
Fully primed and blown out with compressed air, we're ready to start polishing paint.
Add just three drops of product to the pad once it's primed and you're ready to start. Using more product than this is not going to help you and can actually make the polishing process slower and less effective.
Again, keep the pad flat against the paint and use moderate pressure with smooth, overlapping strokes.
After polishing a section the fibers will become matted on the face of the pad. These need to be either blown out or brushed out to remove spent product and abraded paint residue. This must be done after every section you buff.
While compressed air is the best option, a pad conditioning brush will also do a great job of cleaning the pads.
Step two in the process is to swap over to a microfiber finishing pad (notice the black foam on this pad compared to the burgundy foam on the previous pad used with D300) and D301 Finishing Wax.
Results of our two test spots: foam with Ultimate Compound/Ultimate Polish/Ultimate Wax on the left and microfiber with D300/D301 on the right.
A closer look at the microfiber corrected side.
The original paint condition.
Time to let the students have a go with the buffer. Of course we let the car owner go first, so here's Trenton working the microfiber system.
Paying close attention to curved body panels.
Teamwork!
We have a new rule in the training garage: if you're caught wearing a watch when you start buffing, I add it to my watch collection.
The concentration is contagious.
Keeping a close eye on the progress.
A big thank you to Trenton for allowing us to use his truck as a demo, and to Jo for being our photographer for the session!
Water spots, anyone?
Would you like a side order of swirls with those spots?
Aside from all the marring in the paint, the truck was also dirty and loaded with bonded contaminants. So we cleaned it with a little Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere to start.
And then we hit with the clay bar..... this is what was lifted from just a small area on the hood.
We discussed and demonstrated both traditional foam polishing as well as the DA Microfiber Correction System. Regardless which system you choose, technique is critical. Below is an all too often seen example of poor technique: the tool is tilted so the backing plate is at a steep angle to the paint, which will cause the pad to stop rotating and you'll lose cut.
This is what you strive to achieve at all times when working on flat surfaces.
Curved body panels, whether a gentle curve or a tight radius like the front of this hood, can easily be polished simply by keeping the center line of the pad in contact with the paint rather than using an edge. This way the pad will continue to rotate, maximizing cutting ability of any pad/product combination.
Next we moved on to the DA Microfiber System. Here it is critical to fully prime the pad with D300 before starting, so in the image below we're rubbing the product into the pad in order to fully coat the microfiber filaments.
Fully primed and blown out with compressed air, we're ready to start polishing paint.
Add just three drops of product to the pad once it's primed and you're ready to start. Using more product than this is not going to help you and can actually make the polishing process slower and less effective.
Again, keep the pad flat against the paint and use moderate pressure with smooth, overlapping strokes.
After polishing a section the fibers will become matted on the face of the pad. These need to be either blown out or brushed out to remove spent product and abraded paint residue. This must be done after every section you buff.
While compressed air is the best option, a pad conditioning brush will also do a great job of cleaning the pads.
Step two in the process is to swap over to a microfiber finishing pad (notice the black foam on this pad compared to the burgundy foam on the previous pad used with D300) and D301 Finishing Wax.
Results of our two test spots: foam with Ultimate Compound/Ultimate Polish/Ultimate Wax on the left and microfiber with D300/D301 on the right.
A closer look at the microfiber corrected side.
The original paint condition.
Time to let the students have a go with the buffer. Of course we let the car owner go first, so here's Trenton working the microfiber system.
Paying close attention to curved body panels.
Teamwork!
We have a new rule in the training garage: if you're caught wearing a watch when you start buffing, I add it to my watch collection.
The concentration is contagious.
Keeping a close eye on the progress.
A big thank you to Trenton for allowing us to use his truck as a demo, and to Jo for being our photographer for the session!
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