Author Archives: Mike Phillips

Starting your own detailing business

Starting Your Own Detailing Business | Interview with Reflectionz by Eric

I have a very special guest with me today, Eric Robinson of Reflectionz by Eric Detailing. And what we’re going to do with this episode, instead of showing you how to work on a car, we’re actually going to tackle the topic of what is it like to start up your own detailing business, whether […]

How to Teach a Car Detailing Class

Teaching others any skill or trade—like auto detailing for example—is incredibly rewarding.  Anyone that wants to be a teacher needs empathy. That is, they need to be able to put themselves in other’s shoes and remember what it was like when they first started out.  With this mindset, you can share your knowledge with others […]

How to polish in hard-to-reach areas

How to Polish in Hard-to-Reach Areas

Polishing the paint on a car’s hood and door panels is easy — but what about those hard-to-reach areas and tight spaces? In this condensed reel from one of my recent livestreamed detailing classes, I show several methods for polishing out the nooks and crannies using a rare 1964 Amphicar as my test subject. Watch […]

Group photo of attendees from Mike Phillips’ 1-day auto detailing training course in June 2024

185 Photos from Mike Phillips’ 1-Day Auto Detailing Training Course (June 2024)

Are detailing classes worth the money? That is a great question. Watching YouTube videos and reading articles are a great way to gather a lot of information on all the different aspects of detailing cars. That said, NOTHING can take the place of attending a REAL, 100% hands-on training course. So the answer is yes! […]

Classic red car concours detailing with best show ribbon

How to Detail a Car for a Concours d’Elegance

Detailing a car bound for a Concours d’Elegance like Pebble Beach or Amelia Island is no easy task. How do you best preserve the original appearance? How do you handle washing? How should you approach paintwork correction on old school, single stage paint? I answer all these questions and MORE in this condensed reel from […]

Ceramic coating a vintage car at a Mike Phillips detailing class.

500+ Photos from Mike Phillips’ 3-Day Auto Detailing Training Class (May 2024)

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 […]

How to clean wool buffing pads

How to Clean Wool Buffing Pads

Wool pads are round buffing pads made from long fibers (typically lambswool) designed to remove deep scratches, heavy oxidation, severe water spots and sanding marks on automotive paints like single stage paints, basecoat/clearcoat paints and marine boat gelcoats. While they’re great for quickly removing heavy paint defects, their long fibers easily trap spent product and […]

Removing swirl marks and holograms on a 1963 Chevrolet Impala SS Convertible during paint correction, restoring a smooth, glossy finish on the classic car’s exterior surface

Removing Swirls & Holograms on a 1963 Chevy Impala SS Convertible

Backstory So I get a phone call from custom car builder Jeremy Miranda of mirandabuilt.com – Jeremy tells me they brought in a high dollar custom 1963 Impala, a super favorite car among customizers with a lot of mechanical problems from another shop. Basically, they’re playing Doctor and repairing the original damage to the car […]

1970 Plymouth Superbird Paint Correction by Mike Phillips

1970 Plymouth Superbird – Paint Correction with Dr. Beasley’s by Mike Phillips

When it comes to buffing out cool cars, so cool that you might only get to work on one of these cars in your lifetime, I call these Bucket List Cars. This is such an instance. This is a 1970 Plymouth Superbird but not just any Superbird, this is one of 58 built that came […]

1965 Ferrari GTB 275 - Paint Correction Case Study from Mike Phillips

1965 Ferrari GTB 275 — Hologram & Deep Scratch Correction with NSPs by Mike Phillips

“The most difficult paint correction job for any detailer is taking a finish that already looks good to an even higher level.” Abrasive Technology – the MOST important factor In the car detailing world, it’s both common and easy to take a severely neglected finish, do the necessary paint correction and show DRAMATIC before/after pictures […]