Category Archives: Exterior Detailing

Can a DA polisher remove sanding marks?
18
Sep
Auto Detailing Training Classes, Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, Garage & Equipment, Live Detailing Classes, Paint Correction, Videos & Media

Rotary vs. DA Polishers: Can You Use DA Polishers To Remove Sanding Marks?

Posted on by Mike Phillips

Livestream Transcript So today’s topic is a question I’ve been asked all my life, well, all my detailing life. Can a DA polisher or a random orbital polisher be used to remove sanding marks? For example, this 1992 Chevy just got a custom paint job. It’s got a lot of orange peel. We’re going to […]

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How to wet sand black paint to remove orange peel
23
Sep
Auto Detailing Training Classes, Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, Guides & Tips, How To, Paint Correction, Professional Detailing, Videos & Media

How to Wet Sand Black Cars to Remove Orange Peel

Posted on by Mike Phillips

Transcript So what we’re going to do today is we’re going to show hand wet sanding to remove orange peel, surface texture, and then this car actually has fish eyes and DIP, which stands for dirt in paint. A lot of times, you know, if you’ve got a shoddy paint booth or a contaminated shop, […]

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Comparison of cordless rotary polishers from Flex, Harbor Freight, and Milwaukee for car detailing
24
Jun
Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, Garage & Equipment, Guides & Tips, Live Detailing Classes, Paint Correction, Professional Detailing, Videos & Media

Which Cordless Rotary Polisher Is Best? Flex vs. Harbor Freight vs. Milwaukee

Posted on by Mike Phillips

There are so many cordless (battery-powered) rotary polishers on the market today versus 10, even 5 years ago. With all these new options comes analysis paralysis, and I’m here to help YOU make an informed decision before investing in a new tool. It’s all here in this clip from one of my recent LIVE monthly […]

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Car polisher and diamond with "Hard or Soft?" text
14
Jun
Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, How To, Live Detailing Classes, Paint Correction, Videos & Media

How To Tell If A Car Has Hard or Soft Paint

Posted on by Victor Espeland

How hard or soft a car’s paint is affects what processes, tools, pads and products you’ll need to achieve your paint correction goals. The question is, how do you know the difference? In this edited clip from a recent LIVE detailing class, our Chief Education Officer Mike Phillips explains his method for telling the difference […]

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Close-up of hand holding clay bar with imprint marks showing contaminants removed during car detailing with header text that reads "what are clay bars?"
11
Jun
Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, Garage & Equipment, Guides & Tips, How To, Paint Correction, Professional Detailing

What Does a Clay Bar Do? Detailing Clay, Explained

Posted on by Mike Phillips

A clay bar removes above surface bonded contaminants off the surface of your car’s paint to restore a clean and smooth surface. However, there is some confusion over the topic of how a clay bar works, why you should use one and what it does for a vehicle’s paint.  Let’s take a deeper dive. Myth […]

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28
May
Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, Garage & Equipment, Guides & Tips, Paint Correction, Videos & Media

Which Polisher Should You Use On A Car’s Paint?

Posted on by Mike Phillips

Choosing the right machine to polish a car’s paint is essential to getting the best results. Yet there are so many different machines on the market — random orbital, forced rotation, rotary — it can be hard to know what to use and when. Our Chief Education Officer Mike Phillips recently covered this topic in […]

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Live discussion of orange peel with Mike Phillips.
04
Oct
Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, Guides & Tips, Live Detailing Classes, Paint Correction, Professional Detailing, Videos & Media

Talking Orange Peel with Mike Phillips

Posted on by Victor Espeland

What is orange peel? Recently, for our weekly live detailing class series, Chief Education Officer Mike Phillips did a solo explainer on the topic of orange peel — what it is, why it happens, how to remove it, and why you probably don’t want to if you’re detailing with an OEM (factory) paint system. There’s […]

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AIO swirl removal online detailing class promotional graphic
16
Oct
Behind the Detail, Ceramic Coatings, Exterior Detailing, How To, Live Detailing Classes, Paint Correction, Professional Detailing, Videos & Media

How to Remove Swirls w/ AIO | LIVE Online Detailing Class with Mike Phillips

Posted on by Victor Espeland

When you’re polishing a car, you’re not always going to be doing a multiple stage paint correction followed by ceramic coating application. Sometimes you need results faster — and that’s where AIOs come into play. “AIO” stands for “All-In-One”, and it refers to products that can polish and protect paint in a single step. In […]

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17
Nov
Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, Guides & Tips, Live Detailing Classes, Paint Correction, Videos & Media

How to Remove Bird Dropping Etching | Live Online Detailing Class with Mike Phillips

Posted on by Victor Espeland

Bird droppings are a major annoyance for just about any car owner. They stain your paint finish, and if left to sit for long enough, eventually turn acidic, resulting in an etch mark or indentation in your paint that looks like a faint circle. At this point, only abrasive methods like polishing can level the […]

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06
Jan
Behind the Detail, Exterior Detailing, Paint Correction

1964 Amphicar – Paintwork, Glass & Plastic Correction

Posted on by Mike Phillips

I feel very blessed that I’ve had the opportunity to work on a lot of very cool, interesting and even rare cars in the detailing industry. Anytime I work on something I’ve never worked on before and it’s highly likely that I’ll never work on again, I refer to this car as a Bucket List […]

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