General , Great work!
Ray: I understand what point your trying to make. Most consumers DONT follow proper procedures when "waxing" and are essentially relying on the polishing properties of the Cleaner/wax they are applying.
Maybe alot of this comes from people not understand the various PROPER terms for products and what said products are designed to do to revitalize a painted surface?
Im trying to pick up a few tips and learn how to properly buff out modern paints here
Which specific products (Brands, compounds, pads, sealants) are you using for the fast polish jobs? Whats your procedure?
I can't write a book here, and that's what it would take. There are a lot of different things involved, depending on the condition of the vehicle. And I don't want to have to debate all of it.
I will tell you this much:
The best advice I can give you is to start out doing the vehicles by hand, and when you have an understanding of the products and how to use them, then you can graduate to using them with a buffer.
I use foam buffing pads. Buffing the latest vehicles, especially with foam pads, can generate heat very quickly, which can result in damage to edges, stripes, painted moldings, and trim work, or worse. Knowing what areas to avoid, and tricks like where to apply masking tape before hand to protect these areas, is essential to avoiding tedious hand work and saving time. Learning these lessons practicing on older vehicles first, is the best way to get through this process.
What should be common sense time savers like, if you spend <2 minutes masking off the cowl area before you buff the vehicle, you won't have to clean all the splatter off the wipers and grilles, when your done buffing, are often over looked. I am always amazed that this thought never occurs to most people. This concept will also save time keeping splatter from other areas that can be difficult to clean, such as black textured plastic trim pieces. Using simple techniques such as this, I can also easily eliminate the step of having to wash, and dry, the entire vehicle after buffing it.
I recommend a product called Crystal Shine, made by Car Brite, it is amazing. You will likely have trouble finding it locally, check with your body shop suppliers, it is a professional use only product, so it is not for sale in retail stores. They do package it in small bottles, but that is even harder to find. We bought it in Cleveland, through William Wolf Co. I used a lot of it when we had our shop, when I wanted a one step product to quickly restore a finish. It works well, by hand or with a buffer.
Our customers always wanted us to recommend products for them to use many years ago, when there were very few consumer products that were effective. So, I decided to sell Crystal Shine to our customers. It generally took less than 60 seconds of hand polishing a spot on their hood, to convince them to buy it.
Even my father, who worked in the business all his life, refused to believe one product could do what I was telling our customers Crystal Shine did. Until one Friday, when I sold a bottle to an older woman, (gray haired), who owned a black Tempo. I explained the procedure: Apply the product to a balled up t-shirt, rub in a circular motion, working small areas at a time, flip over the t-shirt and buff the area until it is dry, repeat. This vehicle was as rough as the black explorer illustrated earlier by General Lee. She returned Monday to show me the results, (and buy more product for the rest of her family). She followed my instructions, and worked on the car, off and on, over the weekend. This product reduced a job that normally requires a tremendous amount of effort for an average person who would be working by hand, to a job an older woman could do working at her leisure, over a weekend. The result was the finish had been restored to nearly perfect condition. It's not rocket surgery, even your grandmother can do this.
The closest retail product to Crystal Shine I have found is, Meguiars Crystal Finish, (coincidence?). Which as developed sometime later. People who still ask me for Crystal Shine now, find this an acceptable substitute.
If your vehicle is beat to death, once over will of course not usually get the job done. You simply repeat the process until you achieve the desired results.
Once you have restored the finish to look like you want it, or if the vehicle is fairly new, or in good condition, an occasional once over with a product like this, (by hand, which does not take long at all), will keep it clean and shinny.
I certainly have not used everything out there, so there could be other products that work just as well.
A good, and fair priced liquid rubbing compound is Triple Cut Compound from Fiberglass Evercoat. (Another body shop supply only product). The 3M products are all good, just really overpriced.
If you have a good air supply a 2" micro air buffer with a foam pad, is another way to save time. These can eliminate much of the hand work in tight areas. I have several with different size pads, (buy a full size 9" foam pad, and cut out your own, to suit the area). You can use up to 5" pads on these.
3M, and most paint manufacturers make a water based prep solvent. These do a fantastic job cleaning unpainted exterior, and interior trim. These leave the surface looking exactly as it did when it was brand new, without the amateur, slippery, ArmourAll residue all over everything. Unfortunately, you won't want to spend the $50 for a gallon to try some. But, you probably would if I could show you how well it works. You can clean the dirtiest interior like new, quickly.
This would not even be all of chapter one, if I tried to tell you everything. :thumbsup:
If you have specific questions, you can pm me.
