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

[Mike Phillips]

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Metal Polishing with NSP Primers
A few months ago while detailing a 1979 AMC Pacer with slotted aluminum mag wheels and also a 1978 Ford Bronco, also with uncoated aluminum wheels, I did some experimenting and found out that not only does the abrasive technology in the Dr. Beasley's NSP Primers excel at paint correction they also excel at removing oxidation and restoring brilliance to uncoated metals.

Here's Juan machine polishing the stainless-steel rock guards on the front of the rear fenders.

Here's Shawn removing oxidation and machine polishing the full-wheel Hubcaps.

After polishing the rock guards, Juan next tackles the wheel covers.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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Installing the Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin MX Ceramic Coating
After finishing all the paint correction steps, next the class applied the Paint Coating Builder. After removing the Paint Coating Builder, next up is to seal the paint while maximizing protection, gloss and shine using the Nano-Resin MX Ceramic Coating.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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Here's the final results...

And here's the team that put the golden shine on the gold 1941 Grahm Hollywood!

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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Sunday -Extreme Boat Detailing

I'm a nice guy. By this I mean, I may be a harsh task manager as I manage the class over the course of the 3-days, I'm not heartless. I know from experience, by the 3rd day, the thousands of people that have taken my big 3-day classes over the decades are tired! So... I start the class an hour later at 8:30am sharp so everyone can sleep in for an extra hour. Pretty nice huh?

Deep staining on the Starboard side of the hull
Because these types of boats are V-shaped, the top cap on the boat provides shade over the front of the hull. This can make it more difficult to see the extent of the damage and the current condition of the gelcoat, at least outside.

By lightening the photo - now you can see the vertical stains in the gelcoat. The staining in the gelcoat at the front of hull is just as bad and actually deeper than the staining on the middle, sides of the hull. In order to 100% remove the stains - we ended up machine wet sanding with 1000 grit Mirka Abralon sanding discs.

Ghosting
I've never seen ghosting removed 100%. Never. The good news is, if you do a great job of sanding, buffing and ceramic coating, the brand name of the boat will still be visible - but will look stealthy. In my opinion, it looks so good - there's no reason to re-apply the emblems or graphics. Instead, just go with it. You'll see below in the after shots what I mean and I think most of you will agree with my position.

Same type of deep staining on the Port side of the hull.

The section to the right side of the below picture is where the owner tried his hand and removing the oxidation and deep stains and gave up.

Interestingly, the staining was not as severe or as deep in the middle portion of the hull like it is towards the front of the hull - both sides.

Aged, dried-like-concrete adhesive
Before we can start sanding, the class will use Dr. Beasley's Prep Wash to waterless wash the boat and then they'll use a heat gun and some plastic razor blades to scrape off the old adhesive.

Bird Bomb Protection
Late Saturday night, before leaving for the day, Michael carefully moved the 24' Robalo Center Console into our training garage. We un-hooked the truck and poked it off to the side in the back as a professional courtesy to the boat owner. Right now, there is a breed of migratory birds nesting and mating on the roof of the building across from ours. As such, anything outside is getting covered with bird bombs. The good news is, our training garage is large enough and also has enough POWER to hold 3 boats this size and buff them out at the same time.

We're all looking forward to the end of the mating ritual for our feathered friends.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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It's GO TIME!

Marine Gelcoat Test Spot
In the same way any experienced car detailer knows to first start any paint correction project by doing a Test Spot, this same logic applies to boats. For a Marine Gelcoat Test Spot, you want to test and dial-in all the products and steps you THINK will work and PROVE it will work to one small section of the hull. Once you prove your process works, you'll now have the confidence to tackle the rest of the boat.

If the products and step you thought would work do NOT work - you'll be glad you only tested to a small section versus dove in headfirst buffing out the boat with a process that doesn't work.

We tested on a section of the hull just before the ghosting for the brand name Robalo on the Port side.


Here's the before pictures...

Here's the results from our process.

Machine Wet Sanding & Dry Sanding Gelcoat Boats
After proving our process, from sanding all the way through installing a single layer of the Dr. Beasley's Boat Coat Pro gelcoat ceramic coating, the class got busy machine sanding the hull. The most difficult areas to sand and buff is the further most part of the front of the hull. This is because you're basically holding the tool over your head trying to make an overlapping, crosshatch pattern.

Two types of sanding with gear-driven orbital polishers
In our classes, my goal is to share multiple techniques for every topic we cover over the course of any class, including our 3-day class where on the 3rd day we do Extreme Boat Detailing. For this the class will learn machine wet sanding followed by machine dry sanding using their choice of gear-driven orbital polishers. For the next class we'll have the Makita PO500C and the RUPES Mille for our students to use hands-on and then make-up their own mind, which TYPE of tool works best for their style of detailing.

Here's Kaiden starting out on what I consider the most difficult area of the hull, under the bow.

below

Lots of wiping and it's important to have LOTS of clean, uncontaminated microfiber towels.

Lake Country Hand Held Lights
A shout out to Bob Myers and the team at Lake Country for sending us 10 of their Hand-Held Lights for our automotive and marine detailing classes here in sunny, Stuart, Florida!

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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Major Gelcoat Correction Step
After the machine wet and dry sanding steps, next up is probably the most difficult and physically intense portion of this 3-day class and this is cutting out the sanding marks using a wool pad on a rotary polisher with the Dr. Beasley's NSP Primers.

With a large center console boat, there's plenty of real-estate for each student to hone their skills.

We cover so many techniques in our 3-day classes. Just ONE of the techniques is the easy way to buff out vertical sides.

Nice finish on this gelcoat considering the section you're looking at was cut with a WOOL pad plus NSP abrasive technology. And this is just the FIRST polishing step.

Comfortable learning experience
We bring in HUGE center console boats for you to train on. You can take these skills and apply them to ANY boat, not matter what the size or shape. But our GOAL is to make learning the various steps for restoring a neglected gelcoat boat is to make it comfortable. Other classes? Just remember what you're seeing here and I've photo-documented for decades now - that is, I have the longest history in the boat detailing industry for bringing in HUGE center console boats.

Second gelcoat paint correction step
The class has finished removing the sanding marks, now it's time to refine the results by removing any holograms from the fibers of the wool pad. For this step, our Test Spot showed us to use the Dr. Beasley's NSP 150 with Lake Country light cutting blue foam HDO pads on BEAST polishers.

Quality Hand Held Lights
All through the process for all the training cars and now the training boat, you need a great hand-held light to inspect your results and monitor your progress. For our classes, we're using the Lake Country Hand Held Lights and as you can see in the picture below, they really LIGHT UP the work area.

Learning made comfortable by design

Note the reflections
As you look through the pictures, remember we started with 1000 GRIT sanding discs to remove the deepest of the stains, oxidation and most of the dock rash. NOW as you look at the pictures, notice the reflections in the gelcoat? This class has performed a very controlled, multiple-step process to this boat and the results are a mirror finish on gelcoat.

Wow! But we're not done yet!
The results at this point look great and most people would be happy with these kinds of results and go to the next step, sealing the gelcoat with a ceramic coating. But in our classes, we show you how to create a show car finish on a boat and to accomplish this, the class is going to do a third machine polishing step.

Dr. Beasley's NSP 95
For the third and last machine polishing step, the class will now switch over to the Dr. Beasley's NSP 95 with Lake Country orange foam HDO polishing pads.

Here's Kaiden doing the final polishing step before we move onto installing the ceramic coating.

Out back at the Stern, Michael restores the factory Yamaha basecoat/clearcoat paint on the motor.

Here's the final results after a multiple step sanding process and a multiple step polishing process.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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Dr. Beasley's Boat Coat Pro Gelcoat Ceramic Coating
The final step is to seal the gelcoat, or as I like to say, seal in all your hard work. For this the class will install 3 applications of the Dr. Beasley's Boat Coat Pro, waiting 30 minutes in-between each application.

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Here's the after pictures...

v

How about with a little light?

How about a little more light?

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Ghosting

Remember the ghosting appearance of the original Robalo emblems on the gelcoat hull after they were removed?


Here's before on the Starboard side

Here's after on the Starboard side

Here's before on the Port side

Here's after on the Port side

In person it's easier to see, but at the same time, you don't really see it unless you look for it.

Just saying... in my opinion, you get the benefits of the brand name on the side of the boat, albeit subtle or stealthy, without having to re-apply fresh emblems or graphics. With his idea, you no longer have to work around them, i.e. wash, clean, wax, polish, coat, whatever.


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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Always an honor to be asked to autograph a polisher!

Pad Cleaning
At the very end of the class, we go over the 2 best dedicated pad cleaners on the market.

The Grit Guard Pad Washer and the Grit Guard Universal Detailing Cart

The Lake Country System 4000 Pad Washer

My comments...

It's like each class I teach raises the bar to an even higher level than the last class and this class is no exception. Stellar, hardworking people that show-up on time ready to learn and ready to work. Each car came out perfect. The boat came out perfect. We cover more tools, topics, techniques and products than any other class on planet Earth.

This class was a lot of work but it was also a great class for the people that attended. We started ON TIME each day with only a short lunch break. I figure I have these people for 3-days and over the course of these 3-days I like to what I call a BRAIN DUMP - backed up with years of real-world detailing experience.

Thank you to everyone that attended.



Question?
Are you the kind of person that learns like you've seen in these pictures? By this I mean, do you learn better by doing versus sitting in a chair? If so, get signed-up for one of the last remaining classes for 2024. And like a lot of people, you've been following me for years and even decades trying and hoping to take one of these Mike Phillips style classes - here's my advice, arrange your schedule and get signed-up sooner than later. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to continue teaching these no chairs, 100% hands-on car and boat detailing classes.


The last upcoming class for 2024

September 3-Day Class - Training Cars and Boats - No Chairs! No Sitting! No PowerPoint Presentation
Click the link above to see the boat I have confirmed for this class. Will update with the paint correction and sanding cars as I confirm them.


Questions? Text or call me during normal business hours at 760-515-0444


I hope to see you at a future class!


Mike Phillips