Category Archives: Exterior Detailing

Dr. Beasley's 1-day auto detailing class in Chicago

69 Photos from Dr. Beasley’s 1-Day Detailing Class in Chicago (April 2025)

Earlier this month we hosted another 1-Day Auto Detailing Class right here at our HQ in Chicago at Simon’s Detailing! These single day classes focus on auto detailing fundamentals like washing, claying, polishing and ceramic coating to give students a foundation of knowledge they can use in their own garage or on the job working […]

Dr. Beasley’s NSP CoreCut & CoreCut+ Are Now Available

The wait is over. NSP CoreCut and NSP CoreCut+, our new heavy cutting compounds with Nano Surface Primer technology, are finally here and making their way to all those who preordered.  We’re working hard this morning shipping out all those preorders to the early adopters eager to try out the new formulations. We can’t thank […]

How to Lubricate Felt Ring on Harbor Freight Hercules Forced Rotation DA

How to Lubricate Felt Ring on Harbor Freight Hercules Forced Rotation DA Polisher

The Harbor Freight Hercules Forced Rotation DA Polisher is an almost exact copy of the Flex XC 3401 VRG Dual Action Polisher, AKA the BEAST — all the way down to the felt ring that lines the inside of the aluminum housing behind the backing plate. I noted this when I first reviewed the Hercules […]

What's the Difference Between Compound and Polish?

What’s the Difference Between Compound & Polish?

When it comes to paint correction on cars, people use the terms “compound” and “polish” interchangeably despite the fact that they refer to two completely different things. That’s a big problem. When it comes to doing any type of paint correction, you need to know the difference between a polish and a compound. If you […]

10 Tips for Speeding Up Your Paint Correction Process

10 Tips for Faster Polishing from Expert Mike Phillips

Polishing the paint on a car can take a long time, especially if you’re a beginner. If you’re working from start to finish — washing, decontaminating, polishing and protecting — it can pretty much take up an entire day, sometimes even longer.  Don’t believe me? Let’s tally up the time it takes to do a […]

How to Change Backing Plate on Bauer DA

How to Change Backing Plate on Bauer 8MM Short-Throw Random Orbital DA

Sometimes when you’re using a buffer to polish paint on a car it helps to have a smaller pad for smaller sections like A-pillars. But what if you only have one polisher that can only fit big pads? Here’s something you may not know — you can adjust the size of a Bauer 6” DA […]

Detailing a car

Top 50 Best Detailing Tips for Professional Results

When it comes to keeping your car looking good, there are an endless number of different tips and tricks you should know. In this article I’ve written out 50 of the most useful tips I rely on when detailing my own cars or a friend’s. Take some time to read through them and educate yourself […]

How to Clean Engine Bay

How to Clean an Engine Bay

Much like the outside of your car gets dirty over time, so too does the engine and engine compartment inside.  Back in the old days you’d spray heavy duty degreasers all over the engine and surrounding surfaces, scrub with a variety of brushes to agitate the degreaser before finally rinsing the loosened, oily sludge off […]

How to decontaminate matte finish paint on cars

How to Decontaminate Matte Finish Car Paint

Your car’s matte finish paint is dirtier than you think. Even after a wash, embedded contaminants will remain inside the paint’s microscopic nooks and crannies.  These embedded contaminants like iron particles and environmental fallout make the paint look dirty over time, cause rust and even prevent ceramic coatings from bonding properly.  Typically detailing professionals will […]

How to Restore Headlights by Machine Sanding

How to Restore Headlights by Machine Sanding

As I showed in my previous article and video, working by hand to sand off years of oxidation, yellowing and cloudiness from headlights works perfectly fine. I also shared how to remove the sanding marks by hand in that video and article for those that simply have no other alternative.   But for those of you […]