564 Pictures - May 3-day class at Dr. Beasley's O.R. in Stuart Florida with Mike Phillips

[Mike Phillips]

564 Pictures - May 3-day class at Dr. Beasley's O.R. in Stuart Florida with Mike Phillips


Congratulations to the May 3-day class! This class detailed 5 unique cars, including sanding 3 of these cars and also sanding, buffing and ceramic coating the 24' Robalo Center Console boat. To get signed up for the next big 3-day class that includes paint correction, ceramic coatings, sanding to remove orange peel and extreme boat detailing!

Click here to sign-up for the September 20th, 21st and 22nd NO chairs 100% hands-on detailing class!


Here's the class that made all the magic happen!


Kaiden

Michael

Tyler

Juan

Edson

Jesus

Shawn

Billy

Cory

Here's the 5 cars this class detailed and the huge center console boat

1981 Corvette - Dry sanded by hand and machine - ceramic coated.
1931 Model A Streetrod - Machine dry sanded & ceramic coated.
1988 Chevy Crew Cab Monster Truck - Two step paint correction and ceramic coated.
2000 BMW Z3 - One-step paint correction and ceramic coated.
1941 Grahm Hollywood - Machine damp sanded and ceramic coated.
24' Robalo Center Console - Multiple step machine sanding, polishing and ceramic coated.


More pictures showing what our classes look like to be added...


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More... so much more...

Here's the final results beauty shots for the cars and the boat this class trained on over the course of 3 days. After this post, I'll show the ACTION shots showing this class on their feet training on multiple topics, techniques and tools for each car and the 24' Robalo Center Console. If you're considering taking a formal detailing class take a look at the pictures and then when researching other classes, try to find anything like this.



Friday

1981 Corvette - Sanded, cut and coated

This was the FIRST car the class trained on Friday morning starting at 8:30am. They dry sanded by hand followed by machine dry sanding. Then trained on how to use a rotary polisher with a wool pad with Dr. Beasley's NSP 150 to remove the sanding marks. After that they machine polished to remove any holograms using foam pads on orbital polishers. No chairs. No sitting.

Here's the happy owner driving his Corvette out of the training garage and then loading up on the car hauler in the background.

1931 Model A Streetrod - Sanded, cut and coated

Here's the second car this class trained on during the Friday session. This was after the above Corvette. For this car, the class machine dry sanded followed by how to use a rotary polisher with a wool pad with Dr. Beasley's NSP 150 to remove the sanding marks. After that they machine polished using NSP Z1 to remove any holograms using foam pads on orbital polishers. The Z1 is a Ceramic AIO - All-in-One. This means it's like an old school cleaner/wax only instead of polishing and waxing, it's polishing and ceramicing.

Saturday


1988 Chevy Crew Cab Monster Truck - Beater Detailing

This was the first vehicle the class performed an EXTREME PREP WASH too before doing the paint correction step. The class hammered HARD on the paint using a wool pad and a rotary polisher with NSP 150 followed by orbital polishers with NSP Z1 a Ceramic AIO. This teaches the class that no matter what someone brings them to detail with the right tools, pads, products and technique you can take the paint on anything to its maximum potential.

The owner texted me late Saturday night after picking up his truck and going out to dinner that his truck has never looks so good including the tires. He received all kinds of compliments.

2000 BMW Z3 Roadster

This BMW belongs to a long-time friend of mine that has me detail all his classic Corvettes. This is his wife's driver and while it is always garage-kept, it was due for paint correction. The class used NSP 95 with Lake Country Orange HDO foam pads on FLEX BEAST tools to remove the swirls and scratches followed by installing the Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin MX Ceramic Coating.

1941 Grahm Hollywood Streetrod

Out of the 5 cars used in this training class and the boat, the 1941 Grahm Hollywood was by far everyone's favorite car to train on. For this car the class machine damp sanded the paint to reduce orange peel and surface texture followed by buffing with Dr. Beasley's NSP 150. Then the class installed the Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin MX Ceramic Coating.

Here's the after results.

Saturday Night


Saturday Night Meet-N-Greet at Fresh Catch!

After some great seafood and well-earned cold drinks, upon leaving a few class members we're eaten by the Fresh Catch Shark.

Sunday

2024 Robalo Center Console Boat

This boat came in with deep oxidation, saltwater drizzle stains running down the sides of the hull, (these stains were deeper than the oxidation) and the normal dock rash, swirls, scratches and ghosting in the gelcoat where the Robalo emblems used to be attached.

The class put the gelcoat through a multiple wet and dry sanding process. This was followed by using a brand-new product Jim Lafeber has been working on for neglected gelcoat. The class used this new product with a wool pad on a rotary polisher to remove the sanding marks. This was followed by machine polishing using NSP 150 with Lake Country blue HDO foam cutting pads to remove the holograms from the fibers of the wool pad. Then to create a show car finish on a boat, the class did an optional step of machine polishing with Dr. Beasley's NSP 95 with the Lake Country orange HDO foam pads on FLEX BEAST gear-driven orbital polishers. To seal the gelcoat, the class installed 3 layers of the Dr. Beasley's Boat Coat Pro gelcoat ceramic coating.

Here's a short before and after video showing the transformation

Each car and the truck came out amazing. The transformation to the boat is nothing short of phenomenal.

The next and last 3-day class for 2024 takes place on September 20th, 21st and 22nd. These 3-day classes are $1,795.00 - a BARGAIN when you consider there's zero sitting around in chairs watching a PowerPoint presentation but instead, you're ON YOUR FEET working with your hands, training on cool cars and boats in horrible condition. There is simply NO other class like this on planet Earth - I guarantee it and with the pictures in this thread and other write-ups I created over the last 15 years - proven it. No one else has as much photo-documentation showing exactly what you get to do for your hard-earned dollars.

Click the link below to get signed up.


Click here to sign-up for the September 3-day class! $1,795.00


Questions? Shoot me a text or give me a call. I'm always happy to answer all your questions.

760-515-0444


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

Friday morning - Dr. Color Chip Rock Chip Repair System presentation by Tony Pando

We start our classes early and on time. The reason why? In order to cover more topics, more tools, more products and more techniques.

Here's Friday class and Tony ready to get started!

Off to the right is Alexa from Relevant Marketing & Events to capture some material for social media.

I've known Tony for years, probably decades and he's a consummate professional and an excellent teacher.

Tony shows how easy the Dr. Color Chip System is to use on his mobile demo panel.

He dabs some paint IN FRONT of the chip, not IN the chip.

Then using his thumb, spread the paint into and over the chip. That's it. Move onto the next rock chip while the paint in this first rock chip dries.

While the rock chips Tony filled with touch-up paint are drying - he uses the BMW to demonstrate that even if the touch-up paint is left to dry for extended periods of time - you can still remove it using their proprietary Sealact. The point being, if you're not happy with the results you can simply remove the touch-up paint and try again. And when you're happy - it's a permanent repair.

Tony will let this touch-up paint fully dry while going back to the demo panel to finish the demonstration.

Tony explaining how the Sealact works...

Dr. Color Chip private labels for respected names in our industry.

Now to show that even after a half hour and if needed days later - you can remove the touch-up paint. And when you're happy with the results - it's a permanent repair, meaning normal exposure to the world will not remove the paint.

BOOM! Touch-up paint removed.

Finishing the demo and taking questions.

Real-world color picking demo

Tony asked if there were any unique colors I needed for the cars in the class that I might not have in the Dr. Color Chip Commercial Kit we have here at Dr. Beasely's. I told him I found a few rock ships in the 1941 Grahm Hollywood and that it was repainted using a color used for the Chrysler PT Cruiser. Tony brought some color swatches and shared how the experts at Dr. Color Chip can custom blend any color.

Tony placed the closest matching colors on the hood.

Looking down on the color chart, I picked what I thought was the closest match.

Tony told me the correct choice was this color in the lower left hand corner. When looking at the color chart from OVERHEAD my choice looks correct and his choice looks incorrect.

BUT - when you look at the color chart from a different angle and from further back - you can see Tony's choice is correct and my choice is wrong!

Tony said he would send me the correct match touch-up paint and true to his word - the correct color was delivered the next business day!

Now that's great customer service!

Thank you Tony Pando and all the team at Dr. Color Chip!



Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

1981 Corvette - Removing orange peel, fisheyes, dirt-in-paint and surface texture via dry sanding

Immediately after Tony Pando wrapped up his presentation, there's no breaks, there's GO TIME. We started at 7:30am sharp with the Dr. Color Chip presentation and now it's 9:00am and instead of talking about detailing - the class is diving in headfirst hand sanding by hand followed by refining via dry sanding by machine. And for anyone not paying attention - this is the FIRST day, still early in the morning!

Dry sanding by hand demo & Rotary Test Spot
First, we started with a demonstration on how to use the Eagle Abrasives Sanding Block with the Peach K-1500 sanding sheets to sand next to edges, raised body lines and the larger, easier to sand section.

After the demo and doing a Test Spot to dial in the buffing process and prove our process works, I turn the class loose and then continually walk around the car monitoring the class. When someone is using correct technique I tell them and reinforce what they know and are doing. If I see room for improvement, a way to tweak the technique, then I step in and provide input. The class has 100% one-on-one interaction with me for the entire 3-days.

Here's the results from the first sanding step. Notice the shiny paint by all the raised body lines and edges? This is my own technique that I teach to keep sanding and buffing REAL WORLD for detailers. See my video on The Rule of Thumb below.

The Rule of Thumb

And ask ANY person that has taken any of my classes over the decades and learned this technique and they will tell you - unless you're working in a body shop or for people like Dave Kindig or Chip Foose, then this is how it's done in the REAL WORLD.


Questions? Interested in taking a hands-on class like this one? Text or call me, happy to answer all your questions.

760-515-0444

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

And more....

Machine dry sanding - refining K-1500 to K-2500 sanding marks

After learning how to dry sand by hand, next the class learns how to dry sand by machine. TWO sanding skills along with muscle memory and first-hand experience that will help them the rest of their lives if ever asked to do this type of high-end detailing.

For this we're using 6" sanding discs with the FLEX FX3411 Cordless Dual Action Sander and 3", 2" and 1" sanding discs with the FLEX PiXiE using the 6mm drive unit specially made for yours truly by FLEX. Have you seen anyone sitting in a chair yet?

A bit of history
When the PXE-80 or as I call it, the PiXiE, (note the tool name is in capital letters), was first introduced everyone was excited to have a cordless micro polisher for doing paint correction. Me? I saw the newest and best sander on the market. The issue was, this tool came with 3 drive units when first introduced.

Rotary drive unit - Great for major and minor paint correction.

3mm drive unit - Good for 1" dirt nib sanding discs.

12mm drive unit - Not really effective for anything. Another example of a company jumping on the LONG STROKE bandwagon for it only to be a mistake. Other tool companies have also done this with 15mm, 21mm and 25mm long stroke free spinning orbital polishers.

I sent an email to the engineers at FLEX along with pictures and videos showing why 3mm was too anemic for 3" sanding discs and 12mm risked sanding ON edges or raised body lines. I asked them to make something in-between and they sent me a prototype 6mm drive unit. I still have this prototype today. And the rest as they say... is history. If you do any level of machine sanding, be it wet or dry - do yourself a favor and get the 6mm drive unit and thank me later.

At this time there is no better 3" sander on the market and cordless at that. The really BIG PICTURE however as you'll see in the pictures below is our class gets TONS of hands-on time learning by doing.

Here's Kaiden machine sanding the driver's door.

Here's Cory sanding on the hood.

Here's my long-time friend and Alumni student Dan Beadle aka Detail Doctor Florida sharing technique tips with Juan. On Instagram @detaildoctorfl

Looking good and flat!

Here's my long-time friend and Alumni student of MULTIPLE classes, machine sanding the passenger door.

As you look through all these pictures, notice all the electrical power outlets around the walls? We're wired to run up to 25 corded rotary polishers at ONE TIME! This training center was purpose wired to teach car and boat detailing classes with all the power we need and never, ever blowing a breaker.

Down in front is Tyler using a 3" disc on the lower front passenger fender.

Show off! Seriously - these FLEX PiXiE's are super easy to control for PRECISE sanding next to edges and raised body lines - BUT you need the 6mm drive unit.

Dan using a 1" K-2500 sanding disc to get into tight areas.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

Something unique happens as the different people work together, they get to know one another and after a while, they start to gel.

How to correctly use a rotary polisher

Every professional detailer should know how to use a rotary polisher for those times when the right tool for the job is a rotary polisher. If you're an enthusiast detailer, maybe you only work on your own cars or other things like boats, same thing goes, knowing how to correctly use a rotary polisher is a valuable skill set.

In our 3-day classes, besides the sanding tools, the FIRST polisher you're going to get hands-on time with and learn how to use is the rotary polisher. Then over the coaruse of the 3 days you'll get lots of experieince and this leads to CONFIDENCE! When you leave here, you can teach others how to use one of these powerful tools.


Hey Cory! Don't look at me! Focus on the task at hand! LOL

Notice the hand positions Cory is using and Tyler just as well. You don't always want your hand on the head of the tool. Sometimes you want to hold the body of the tool so you can better see and monitor where the edge of a spinning wool pad is at and what it's doing!

This was Kaiden's first time using the rotary polisher and there's no better way to learn but to train on a BLACK Corvette you've just sanded down flat.

Here's Dan sharing some technique tips with Michael.

Here's Juan, using the rotary like a BOSS!
This is the second 3-day class Juan has taken with me, the first time when I was at another company but since I left - they no longer offer classes.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...


Removing holograms and perfecting the paint

After the sanding marks were removed using NSP 150 with wool pads on rotary polishers, next we re-polished the entire Corvette switching over to NSP 95 with foam pads on orbital polishers. One thing you have to know is that anytime you're using a FIBER pad to polish paint, if using a rotary polisher you risk putting hologram scratches into the paint. If using any type or brand of orbital polisher you risk instilling micro-marring into the paint. Two very different scratch patterns.

By switching over to a foam pad, the UNIFORM surface of the foam works together with the unique spherical abrasive technology in the NSP 95 to further flatten and perfect the paint removing the holograms at the same time.

Cory and Kaiden tag-teaming the hood on this sexy 1981 Corvette!

Hey hey hey.... get that cord over your shoulder Cory!

Juan and Tyler knock out the roof sections...

Shawn working on the passenger side rear fender...

Here's Michale wiping off the NSP 95 and inspecting the results...

Looking GREAT! Especially compared to how this paint looked before they started. (see below_

Here's a few before pictures showing the orange peel

Here’s a before walk-around video

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

Here's the final results...

1981 Corvette - Sanded, cut and coated

This was the FIRST car the class trained on Friday morning starting at 9:00am. They dry sanded by hand followed by machine dry sanding. Then trained on how to use a rotary polisher with a wool pad with Dr. Beasley's NSP 150 to remove the sanding marks. After that they machine polished to remove any holograms using NSP 95 with foam pads on orbital polishers. No chairs. No sitting.

Here's the happy owner driving his Corvette out of the training garage and then loading up on the car hauler in the background.

Nice work everyone!


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More....

1931 Model A Streetrod - Machine Damp Sanding

This Model A was painted on Thursday, May 25th. We're sanding and polishing on Friday, May 3rd. This is about as FRESH as you can get as she was just popped out of the paint booth.


Here's how she looked after the owner purchased and the car hauler dropped her off.

Here she is at the body shop being prepped for paint.

Here's she is fresh out of the paint booth

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

It's now 8 days later, the second car our class will be training on for the first day of this 3-day class. If memory serves me correctly, we started this second training car shortly after lunch, so around 2:00pm

Thin paint
I saw the receipt for this paint job and on it was a comment to spray extra paint because this car is going to be sanded and buffed. When we measured the paint on the hood, it measured in the range of 2.8 mils to 3.4 mils. Originally, we we're going to use this to teach the dry sanding process used on the 1981 Corvette. That is dry sanding by hand with K-1500 followed by machine sanding with K-2500 to refine the K-1500 sanding marks. Because the fresh paint measured what in my opinion, for fresh paint, is thin paint, we changed things up. This is why we used the dry sanding process on the Corvette because we switched over to damp sanding for the Model A.

Scuff & Buff
The term scuff and buff is something I coined about 10 years ago when being asked to sand thin, fresh paint job. The BIG PICTURE idea and primary goal is to above all - STAY SAFE. The secondary goal of course is to knock-down the orange peel, dirt-in-paint and surface texture. The Scuff & Buff technique for sanding is to reduce orange peel, not totally remove orange peel. This is also a great approach for people that are brand new to sanding and buffing. You can learn the process in a very safe manner, then later, when you return to your world, when you have thicker paint to work with, use more aggressive sanding techniques and go nuts.

For this training car, the class is going to machine damp sand using the 3M Trizact 3000 grit sanding discs in both 6" and 3".


Here's Michael and Shawn working on the front of the Model A. Michael is misting the paint with a clean water source with just a few drops of Dr. Beasley's Premium body Wash added to the water. This tiny amount of soap will lubricate the sanding or abrading process to make it smoother as well as help prevent the face of the 3M Trizact discs from loading up with removed paint.

Juan joins in after getting set-up.

The FLEX FX3411 cordless DA sander with an Eagle Abrasives interface pad and a 3M Trizact 3000 sanding disc.

As mentioned in the 1981 Corvette sanding section above, the FLEX PXE-80 aka the PiXiE makes a GREAT micro-sander. It's easy to control and guide along a panel and this enables you to sand with precision. For all our sanding procedures, we are using the 6mm drive unit.

Here's Tyler working at the back of the Model A. I'm going to guess this is the first time Tyler has ever sanded down some other dude's streetrod and likely the same thing goes for the rest of the team.

Here's Jaiden edging a panel with the PiXiE.

Teamwork makes the dream work. Also notice the Test Spot on the front driver's side whitewall tire?

Here she is scuffed and buffed using my technique, The Rule of Thumb.

I took this picture just to show that this is a modern SINGLE STAGE urethane paint job, not a basecoat/clearcoat paint job. You treat the paint the same way as a basecoat/clearcoat paint system.

Same shot only now we've wiped off the slurry from the panel.

As you're looking at the sanded body panels - note how dirty the vinyl top is?

There's also some red overspray paint on the vinyl top.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

We finished the sanding and starting in with rotary polishers at 4:00pm.

Academic versus Hands-on - You decide
Except for a short lunch break, this team has been going uninterrupted since 7:30am and no complaints, in fact, just the opposite. I've been teaching detailing classes since the 1980s. I use to teach what I call academic classes. I did this for Meguiar's and Autogeek. An academic class is a class that starts with a PowerPoint presentation in a classroom setting. Nothing wrong with this and in fact, some people learn how to detail a car better with this format.

Evolution
There simply came a time where my classes went through an evolution. Because I cover so many topics and techniques, I had a choice. Teach using a PowerPoint and then try to squeeze all the hands-on portions in at breakneck speed, or simply drop the PowerPoint. I chose to drop the PowerPoint presentation and instead of showing a slide with a tool, product or technique, I gather the students around the training car, do a demonstration of the process and then instead of the class LOOKING at the tool in PowerPoint slide, I put the tool in their hand and turn them loose.

The results?
The people that are attracted to his format of training LOVE these types of classes. No complaints. No breaks except a short lunch break and the rest is all hands-on or as I like to say, learning by doing, not sitting in a chair.

Do you own research as there are some really great instructors and detailing classes to choose from. But after looking at the pictures in this write-up, if your gut tells you, this is the type of training class you want to attend, then go to Dr. Beasley's website and get signed-up for an upcoming class.

Click here to see dates, location, topics and pricing


If coming to Stuart, Florida, I've done all the legwork for you to make travelling here and staying here easy.

Airports - Hotels - Restaurants - Plus things to do in Stuart Florida!

The Major Paint Correction Step
After sanding, it's time to remove 100% of the sanding marks. The class is now BUILDING on the skills they learned using a rotary polisher on the first car we sanded and buffed this morning and building on these skills as they dive into this sanding car. The class has also come to truly understand what I mean when I say,

Don't put sanding marks where you cannot get a spinning woo pad on a rotary buffer. Where the rubber meets the road is, if you sand down a car to remove orange peel, you also have to buff each square millimeter of paint and remove your sanding marks. And as the class learned,

Sanding is easy, it's putting scratches into the paint. The tricky part is getting 100% of the sanding marks out of the paint. So don't sand where you can't get the edge of a spinning wool pad and this means using my technique - The Rule of Thumb



Dr. Beasley's NSP 150
The abrasive technology used in all the NSP Primers is unique to Dr. Beasley's brand. The abrasive particles are spherical in shape with multi-faceted surface. So no matter where the spherical abrasive particles are at on the surface, they cut and cut in a uniform manner. The carrying agent is nanogel. Nanogel is a 100% inorganic formula that the sphereical abrasive technology is suspended in. You get smooth, even cutting and leave a surface behind that is ready to install a ceramic coating over without the need for a panel wipe, or perfectly prepared for the next step.

On some paints, NSP 150 finishes down perfect. Because we're using a wool pad on a rotary polisher, the FIBERS that make up the wool pad will leave hologram scratches behind thus we'll do a second paint correction step using Dr. Beasley's NSP Z1. NSP Z1 is a ceramic AIO or All-in-One product. This means after using Z1 the paint is both polished and sealed with a ceramic coating. Thus we're using Z1 as a polish to remove the holograms but we're finished after wipe-off. Then the owner can maintain with either LS10 (water lays flat - no risk of water spots, or Bead Hero, (water beads-up and runs off the paint).

When the class starts buffing, it sounds like a hornet's nest that's been disrupted - it's noisy with full-on polishing action.

See the red paint on the face of the wool buffing pads? This is a single stage, modern urethane paint system. One benefit for using a single stage paint system - there's never any risk for clearcoat failure. Pretty smart.


A chair!
While there are no classroom chairs here at the O.R. in Stuart, Florida, I do have my office desk chair and I let Tyler use it to make buffing out the large back panel on the Model A easier and more comfortable. So yeah, I have A chair. LOL

By now all the students are familiar with and confident in using the FLEX cordless PE-15 Rotary Polisher. The Mercedes-Benz of rotary polishers.

Minor paint correction step
After cutting the paint to cut-out the sanding marks, the next step is to perfect the paint by switching over to flat-faced foam pads on FLEX BEAST polishers to quickly remove the holograms and leave a layer of ceramic protection behind on the paint.

Look at the paint. Notice how glossy it's becoming?

Looking good!



Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

Tires, vinyl tops and running boards
The owner Mike told me he had a set of gangster white wall tires on some old baby moon wheels he's been holding onto for years until just the right project came along. This Model A was the right project. Mike asked me if there was anything we could do to remove years of dirt, stains and browning that had turned the whitewalls UGLY. I just happen to have a unique technique I've NEVER seen anyone else use or share publicly. So let this class be the first to show you how it's done.


Bringing the dead back to life
I already guess some of the hard-to-please people will look at the after results and say,

They're not perfect.

Take a hike. These tires were hammered. Most people wouldn't know what to do to fix them and I don't believe anyone or any process could ever get them perfect. Maybe if a recap shop has the right machine, they could do a better job, (I've worked at a tire recap shop and there are tools for grinding down whitewalls and white lettering). For our purposes, we were asked to do the best we could and using the technique I'm sharing below - I'm convinced the class did a great job and did it in a matter of MINUTES - not days.

The paint came out so great that it would be a crying shame to let this car leave with the tires looking so dirty and worn.


Before

Look at all the SCARRING or SCRATCHING in the rubber. Scrubbing tire whitewalls like this with a tire cleaner, Brillo or SOS pads, Westleys Bleche-Wite (yes, this is how the original product was spelled, now it's Blackmagic Bleche-Wite), or any other common remedy will not get you the results you'll see below.

Supplies needed

• Mirka Abralon 500 and 1000 grit 3" sanding discs. (you can sand to an even finer grit if you like, for example 2000, 3000 and 4000 grit.
• 2-3 three inch foam interface pads - you want some cushion, so use more than a single interface pad.
• Clean water source - we're using Dr. Beasley's Prep Wash.
• Rotary polisher - we're using the FLEX cordless PE-150 Rotary Polisher.

Process

1. Spray Prep Wash onto tire sidewall.
2. Carefully machine sand the whitewall using the two-step approach using Mirka Abralon sanding discs.
3. Wipe tires clean and dress with Dr. Beasley's Tire Conditioner.

Here's Tyler knocking out the front passenger side tire.

Here's Juan knocking out the rear passenger side tire.

Here's Cory knocking out the driver's side front tire and inf you look to the far right - that's Jaiden's knee as he tackled the driver's side rear tire.

After
Not perfect but respectable and the process was fast and easy.

Cleaning a vinyl top
Some younger folks may not know this but a lot of early cars from the 1920 and the 1930s had fabric tops as the technology in steel had not yet developed to permit large sheets of steel to be stretched enough to make an entire roof panel. Original tops were made with a type of rubberized fabric that is the precursor to what we call vinyl today. At some point in the last 90 years, (this car is 93 years old as I type in the year 2024), someone replaced the original roof material with a more modern vinyl cover.

Over the years, the vinyl cover on the Model A looks to have little in the way of maintenance and thus was faded and dull. The body shop also got red overspray paint on it.

Here's another trick I share in our classes when it fits the car/material and that is machine cleaning. Below Shawn is machine scrubbing the vinyl top using Dr. Beasley's Interior Cleanser with a soft, wool finishing pad on a FLEX cordless rotary polisher. LIGHT pressure must be used, and you can also do this with any orbital polisher. We chose the rotary because the vinyl top was in such horrible, neglected condition that we felt we need some extra powerful scrubbing action.

After cleaning and wiping the top dry, Shawn then machine applies the Dr. Beasley's Plastic Conditioner - Vinyl is a type of plastic.

Freaking incredible before and after results and this process adds the finishing look to this sanding project.

We also machine scrubbed the aged and weather looking vinyl running boards using 5" rotary brushes on rotary polishers. Same way we clean tires and plastic cladding when we go over how to do an Extreme Preop Wash.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

Here's how this car looked when it arrived...

These are far shots but if you look anywhere the overhead lights are shining down on the paint you can tell the paint has orange peel.

Here's the final results...

Most important - Mike is happy with all the results, paint, top, running boards and tires!

And the team that made the magic happen!

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

Saturday

First thing Saturday morning we go over how to do an Extreme Prep Wash. In case you didn't know, there are 2-ways to wash a car.

1. Prep Wash
2. Maintenance Wash

A prep wash is the style of wash you do when prepping a neglected car for paint correction and detailing. A maintenance wash is the style of wash you do AFTER a car has been detailed and perfects. Stay tuned for new videos showing these two styles Mike Phillips style.

Starting time at 7:30am sharp!

Note there's 3 interface pads on the cordless rotary polisher for machine sanding headlights.

Start at the bottom and then go to the top
Historically all the traditional and conventional sources for accurate how-to information always tell people when washing a car, to start at the top and then work your way down. The problem with this outdated process is for the average person to sit on the ground in front of a single wheel and tire to adequately wash and clean the wheel, tire, fender well, etc., will take at least 15 minutes, maybe longer depending upon how neglected the wheels and tires.

4 sets of wheels and tires times 15 minutes equals 1-hour. If you wash the car first and then tackle the wheels and tires, this means standing water on the paint can lead to one of the WORST types of paint defects to have to remove and that's Water Spots. More specfically Type II and Type III Water Spots, which are Imprint Rings and/or Crater Etchings respectively.

Because a car, or truck, doesn't care which order you wash it, work smarter instead of harder and tackle the wheels and tires first.


Here's Michael machine scrubbing the tires on the BMW

To know the tires are thoroughly clean - you want to see the tire cleaner foaming white. If you see brownish, blackish foam or no foam at all, chances are good, the tires are still dirty.

Here's the secret
When trying to get to white foam, if you never clean the brush, then each additional time you machine scrub the tire you take all the gunk in the brush and re-apply it to the freshly rinsed tire. Instead, make the brush clean itself after each scrubbing. Simply hold the brush against the ground, run the polisher and flush clean water into the spinning bristles. This will clean the brush and when you go back to scrub tires a second time, third time, etc., when the tire is clean you'll see white foam. This is the visual indicator that you're done with this tire and ready to move onto the next tire.

The Wheel Woolies brand of brushes are high quality and last a long time. It's important to invest in quality brushes.

Here's Kaiden tackling the front tires and wheels.

Juan tackling the rear wheels and tires

Don't forget to wash the Fender Lip

The correct way to clean canvas cloth top convertibles
Cleaning vinyl tops is pretty straight forward, as long as you use quality brushes and products, you can't really screw up a vinyl top. Not so with canvas cloth tops. The secret to correctly and safely cleaning cloth tops is to use quality products but also - the correct style of brushes.

To clean this cloth top we're using Dr. Beasley's Carpet & Upholstery Cleanser

For brushes, you want to use a brush specifically made for canvas tops. RaggTopp makes a great brush and Horsehair Brushes are also a safe option.

After rinsing and applying the cleaner, gently rub the brush over the weave of the canvas cloth top and then rinse.

You want to clean canvas cloth tops carefully so you don't tear-up the fibers and make the top look fuzzy. Not only does it take away from the beauty of the canvas top, it OPENS UP the cloth making it harder to seal it later and more prone to degradation over time.

After cleaning the top, next the class performs a contact wash using Dr. Beasley's Premium Body Wash

Mechanical Decontamination
After a full contact wash and thorough rinse - next we use clay towels to mechanically decontaminate the paint.

Then a final rinse and blow-dry.

This BMW is surgically clean and ready for the next step - paint correction.


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More....

Beater Detailing
I don't always have the right vehicle to teach what I call Beater Detailing, but for this class I had such a vehicle. This is my long-time friend Davy's 1988 Chevy Crew Cab Monster Truck. I remember when he built this about 13 years ago. Davy is more concerned with the mechanical drive train and less concerned about appearance. Perfectly okay, we all have our personal preferences. I was over at Davy and his dad David's shop, Neptune Fabrication when I noticed how neglected the truck was looking. I asked Davey if he would like my class to squeeze as much shine as possible out of what was left of the paint and the body panels, and he said yes!


First up, getting these huge tires clean. Cleaning the small tires on the BMW was easy due to their small size and of course you could scrub the tires using your hand, a brush and some elbow grease. When it comes to cleaning much larger tires, the class QUICKLY saw the benefit to machine scrubbing. Machine scrubbing does a better job faster. Period.

Having learned the proper order for an Extreme Prep Wash, the class takes over.

As you're looking at these pictures, take note of how trashed the paint is on the various body panels. You're going to see a dramatic transformation!

Kaiden also machine scrubs the bead lockers

This is how it's done.

The truck was caught in a barn fire, no fire damage but a lot of smoke damage and residues on the exterior. Normally I never show the Comet Technique on basecoat/clearcoat paint jobs but in this instance, the paint was so bad - there is nothing we could do to make it worse. The big picture goal was to get the paint as clean as possible.

Machine sanding headlights
For our classes, I show how to do things the FASTEST while keeping your quality high. To remove years of oxidation, cloudiness and yellowing, the class is going to machine scrub the plastic headlights using Mirka Abralon 3" sanding discs in 500, 1000 and 2000 grit.

The SECRET to safely machine sanding headlights with a ROTARY POLISHER is to use multiple foam interface pads. The increased cushion provided my 2-3 foam interface pads enables the face of the sanding disc to flex and conform without GAUGING the plastic. Without the foam interface pads it's very easy to gouge the plastic and then the only way to remove the gouge is to BLOCK SAND until the surface surrounding the gouge is flattened to match the depth of the gouge. Don't ask me how I know this.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

Beater Detailing - The major paint correction step
Like mentioned previously, this is an old, neglected and abused truck. It lives on a farm and the owner takes it mudding offroad. The expectations for finish results are low. But I have a saying that goes like this,

Take your car's paint to it's maximum potential

This takes into consideration that not every paint job can be restored to look like a show car. For some cars, all you can do is all you can do. This is the point of Beater Detailing. We're not painting this truck, we're simply going to do the best we can to squeeze as much shine out of the paint as possible.


For the first step, the class is going to continue building on their rotary polisher skills. They will use NSP 150 with a wool pad and a rotary polisher and CHOP on the paint HARD. I was busy helping to do some headlight sanding and headlight ceramic coating on 2 other vehicles in the front of the shop, so sad to say, I didn't get a lot of pictures showing the class using rotary polishers on this truck but that is what they used for the first step. To show them how it's done, I personally jumped in and showed them how to LEAN INTO A ROTARY POLISHER to make it cut the paint hard.

Here's Juan working on the hood.

After the rotary step, we switched over to BEAST tools with foam light cutting pads and using the same product, NSP 150 we cut her again.. See the gloss on the hood now? Before the paint was as flat as chalk.

Everything was cut with the rotary and then the orbital including the chrome and the taillights.

Bead Hero
After the paint correction steps, the class applied the Dr. Beasley's Bead Hero, a hydrophobic one-year spray-on ceramic coating. Not only does it protect the paint it adds gloss and slickness.

Machine dressing tires
Not only does the class learn how to machine scrub tires, they also learn how to machine apply tire dressings. Much much more efficient than the wimpy human hand holding some type of sponge or paint brush.

Here's before, the tire is exceptionally clean after machine scrubbing. But you can see polish splatter has landed on the tires since cleaning. No problem. The machine will fix this no problemo.

For this we're using the Dr. Beasley's Tire Conditioner.

Here's Juan getting after it!

Wiping off any excess to avoid product sling.

Done and done.

Dr. Beasley's Tire Conditioner dries to the touch and leaves a natural dark finish. For higher gloss, apply a second application.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

Somewhere I have a few more before shots, if I find them I'll add them. I may have deleted them while cleaning pictures off my phone. But suffice to say, in the below condition, she's ugly.


Before

After - Inside

After - Outside

My comments...

The owner texted me later in the night after picking his truck up, he said he and his girlfriend went out to dinner and while in the parking lot he was getting all kinds of compliments. The paint is not perfect, but what's left of it is shiny and protected.

More important, the class learned how to deal with older vehicles and take what they have and make the best of it for a happy customer. Of if it's their own beater, how to shine her up.

And as a bonus, again the class had more time behind the rotary to hone their newly acquired skills and also machine scrubbing HUGE tires and machine sanding headlights. I do my best to cover more topics, more techniques, more tools and more products in our classes so you get an exhaustive hands-on learning experience.


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...


Next up, the 2000 BMW Z3 Roadster

One-step Paint Correction & Ceramic Coating
This BMW belongs to a long-time friend of mine that has me detail all his classic Corvettes. This is his wife's driver and while it is always garage-kept, it was due for paint correction. The class used NSP 95 with Lake Country Orange HDO foam pads on FLEX BEAST tools to remove the swirls and scratches followed by installing the Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin MX Ceramic Coating.

If you detail for profit
If you detail either full-time or part-time for profit, then you need to have a minimum of 3 exterior packages to offer your customers. One of these packages should be a One-step paint correction + ceramic coatings. For this type of package, you cannot promise the customer that 100% of the swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation will be removed. If a customer want's maximum defect removal, you should offer this as a two-step paint correction + ceramic coating package and you're happy to do it - but it costs more. Time, labor and materials are the primary factors to determine your packages and pricing.


Turn off the lights!
Sometimes, when inspecting the paint on light colored cars, it can help your eyes to see the level of swirls and scratches by turning off the overhead lights, (ambient light), and then inspect using a strong hand-held light.

Here's this technique being demonstrated for the light metallic brown paint on this BMW. This is just one of hundreds of techniques you learn at any of our auto and marine detailing classes.

After doing a Test Spot to dial-in our process, the class gets busy doing machine paint correction to the 24-year-old factory basecoat/clearcoat paint system on the 2000 BMW Z3 Roadster.

Dr. Beasley's NSP 95 Primer - works great for one-step paint corrections.

Jaiden tackling the passenger door.

Here's Tyler working over the driver's side of the hood and fender.

Taping-off and protecting canvas cloth tops
After a gentle cleaning during the Extreme Prep Wash step, the LAST thing you want to do is get any polish splatter onto the fabric. Of course you can remove it using a detailing brush, but it's so much safer and faster to simply cover over the top with a plastic drop cloth, cut to fit, using painter's masking tape like you see here. Another important technique taught at our classes to make sure any of our students know what to do when they return to their world.

Here's Michael doing the paint correction step to the trunk lid and rear portions of the BMW

Dr. Beasley's Paint Coating Builder
After the paint correction step using NSP 95, there's no need to use a panel wipe to prep the paint because the NSP Primers are 100% in-organic. You can go right to the installation step of the Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin MX Ceramic Coating Kit

Dr. Beasley's Nano Resin MX Ceramic Coating
After removing the Paint Coating Builder, next the class installs the Nano-Resin MX Ceramic Coating.

Here's the final results - hard to believe this car is 24 years old!

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

Late Saturday afternoon session
The class has detailed 4 cars so far. This includes sanding the Corvette and the Model A. This also includes doing an Extreme Prep Wash to the Chevy 6-pack and the BMW. It's been 100% hands-on from the start of each morning until all topics for each day are covered. To round out the sanding training, the class is going to machine damp sand the custom basecoat/clearcoat paint on the 1941 Grahm Hollywood.

3M Trizact
For this training car, the class is going to learn how to damp sand by machine using the Trizact sanding discs in both 6" and 3" from 3M. This will be the 3rd type of sanding to remove orange peel for this bar-setting 3-day class.

Dr. Beasley's NSP Primers & Ceramic Coatings
After sanding, the class will use the Dr. Beasley's NSP Primers to remove the sanding marks, perfect the paint and prepare the paint for the Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin MX Ceramic Coating.

Machine damp sanding
After a quick demonstration to show the difference between dry machine sanding and damp machine sanding, the class takes over.

Here's the results after machine damp sanding with 3M Trizact 3000 grit sanding discs.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

More...

Test Spot Time
Kaiden performs the Test Spot. The goal is to remove 100% of the sanding marks and polish out show car quality in 1 or 2 machine paint correction steps. What Kaiden and the class found out is the paint on Goldie sands easy and buffs easy. In fact, this is a textbook example of how NSP 150 with the right pad, tool and technique combination can do it all.

Dark Room Technique
Using the technique of turning off the overhead, ambient lights, the class then inspects the results from the Test Spot carefully. They are looking to see if the sanding marks are completley removed and also that the resulting finish is mirror shine perfect without any micro-marring from either the pad or the product.

Test Spot - Process Proven
After close inspection by everyone, the consensus is the combination of NSP 150 with a light cutting Lake Country blue HDO pad on BEAST tools will get the job done and create a finish perfect for ceramic coating.

It's GO TIME!

Mike