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- What's going on friends and family,
thanks so much for tuning in for Friday's episode
of Chemical Guys Detail Garage.
The owner of this BMW i3 brought it into the shop
because she just got it back from the dealership
where they gave it a detail and now the hood
has scratches on it, there's swirls.
They dressed the plastics, but there are some areas
that they missed.
So, we're gonna go over it, giving it the proper treatment
to give it the best overall look.
And to do that, what we're going to do is start
by wiping it down using Swift Wipes Waterless Wash.
Now, we could foam this car up, but we're trying
to give it the easiest to do process.
So, shake the bottle.
And this is going to gently remove the light dust
that's on the vehicle because it was already washed.
And now, we're just going to use our clean
microfiber towel, and a pro tip is to also dampen the towel,
this way any abrasive particles aren't being dragged
across the surface, scratching it.
And, also using linear motions is going
to prevent any kind of swirls.
And as I'm wiping, I'm also rolling the towel
so I'm creating a new edge.
This way, the abrasive particles of dust and road debris
aren't being ground into the paint work.
And now, let's flip it over and buff away any of the excess.
As I'm sure you guys can tell, we're outside of the detail
garage today because today is the last day
of our five day masters' course, TSDU.
So, if you guys are looking for any hands on training,
be sure to check that out.
That's going on today.
But, now we're going to just wrap up our video here.
Or, let's get underway on a new video actually.
But, uh, the owner told me that the car
was recently washed, they polished it where it now
has this light marring on there, which you'll see
in some of those b-roll shots.
And also, it has a lot of scratches and swirls on it,
but the interesting thing is, is this isn't a metal finish.
This is actually a piece of plastic,
which anyone that has a BMW i3, I'm sure they know.
But, if you didn't this all's a plastic body.
So, it doesn't change the whole process of the polishing
or your detailing, but you just have to be careful
you're not putting too much heat on there because
that can obviously warp or damage the plastic.
So, take that kind of precaution.
But, I'd still use the same products and process
to get the same finish as you would on a metal finish.
So now, we're going to go over to our bucket where I
have a TORQ 15DA with a white hex logic pad.
This is a fine polishing pad,
or more of a finishing polishing pad.
We're going to attach it to our TORQ here,
it's already plugged in because I can smell voltage.
And we're going to be using Slick Finish,
which is a cleaner wax.
Which, many people don't know this, but there's actually
a micro-abrasive in here that gently diminishes
minor scratches and swirls, oxidation, light marring
to reveal a fresh shine and it's also gonna leave behind
a little bit of a kind of a wax to give you some protection
as well as some added gloss.
But, with any kind of polishing, we're going to use five
dime-sized drops, which is about the size of one hex.
And then we're also going to spray the pad with a
little bit of pad conditioner.
And what this does, is it helps to moisten the pad
which is also going to help reduce any kind of dusting,
but also helps to properly diminish your product
that you're using because any type of compound
or polish has a certain work time, so you want to
make sure that it's not burning up
or drying out too quickly.
This way, again, you can get the best result.
So, now we're going to go over to the vehicle and I'm
going to start by blotching this out.
The reason for this is so that we don't have a heavy
glob of product in one area, which could fling as we turn
the polisher on.
And, if you're new to polishing, there's different names
for different kinds of buffers; but this would be considered
a dual-action, or random orbital.
Which means that it oscillates while also orbiting
that same oscillation.
So it's doing two actions, as opposed to a rotary
which is going to basically spin in one direction
in one centralized area.
And the difference between the two is:
I consider this to be more like a butter knife
where a rotary's going to be more of a scalpel
where it's very precise, but it's also, uh,
very dangerous if you don't have the proper experience.
So, it's best to have the tool that best suits you.
A lot of guys who are getting new into the detailing
game, or looking for a polisher, this is a great way
to go.
Using a dual-action or random orbital because it's super
easy to use, it gets you the same results, just takes a
little bit longer.
But this is a great way to hone your skills.
Also, whenever using any kind of polisher, you want to
make sure that you're not applying too much pressure
because this could create a lot of heat.
And that generation of heat will cause friction,
which causes marring.
And also, you want to make sure that you're not
leaning the pad too much either direction.
So, a little tip that I tell people is to just
rest your hand, whether you're left handed
or right handed, rest your hand on the head
and also use your guiding hand on the back here.
Just gently grasping it.
And then put it right here on the center,
and what this does is it helps to keep the polish
from tipping from side to side.
This is something I learned from an old body shop guy.
When you're using a hammer to do glancing blows, you
keep it right here in the center.
This keeps your hammer from sliding off to either way.
So, it's the same thing for the polisher.
Now what we're going to do is just turn the machine on
and with the dual-action, you want to turn it on
on the vehicle or on the surface that you're polishing
so you're not flinging product all over the place.
And also, to not damage the bearings on the inside.
But if you're using a rotary, I'm sure you know by now
that you spread your product out and then, with the machine
already spinning, then you put it on and then start
gently spreading out your product and then bumping it
up to the highest speed or the appropriate speed
to do your polishing.
When you're using a random orbital or a DA buffer,
you want to use speed setting six, or the highest speed
setting on the machine.
This way you're properly breaking down the polish
that you're using or the compound that you're using.
But on a rotary, it can all depend on the OPMs,
or the RPMs rather, to get the best results.
But now, as I said, we're gonna start it on the lowest speed
and we're gonna just spread this out.
And on our highest speed, we're going to be breaking down
the polish.
And what we wanna do is make sure that we're keeping
the pad completely flat.
Watch out for these lines continually spin,
which means that the polisher's doing it's job.
If it looks like it's not spinning or if it's vibrating,
it's not polishing.
And also, we wanna make sure that we're covering about
50% of our last pass.
This way we get even removal or even refinement,
get the perfect shine.
All right, so now, on the lowest speed setting,
we're gonna spread this out; and the highest speed setting,
we're gonna refine this.
And I'll give you guys a little before and after,
which is why I've taped it.
And, if you're wondering why we're not claying it,
it's because the vehicle was already clayed, uh,
at the dealership and I've inspected it in a few
different areas and it looks like they did a decent
job with that, even though it's marred.
But, uh, the reason why it was marred, probably cause they
were using something too abrasive or too aggressive.
But, it's fine for polishing.
And now we're going to move on to the actual
refinement steps.
(polishing machine whirs) (synthesized music)
(polishing machine whirs)
So, as you see I was using the 50% crosshatching pattern
to ensure that I removed the same amount of paint
or the same amount of material as I'm working here,
giving it the uniform shine.
Also, a lot of things, that--
Or, a lot of questions that I get is
"how fast is your arm supposed to be moving?"
And that's about an inch per second when you're using
a dual-action polisher, which means your arm speed,
or how fast you're moving the polisher itself,
is about one inch per second.
This way, you're not creating any kind of tiger stripes,
which is that--
Looks like the hologram, or it looks very hazy
in certain sections and that's because the pad is moving
too fast and also your self is moving too fast.
So, it takes a lot of patience and a lot of practice
to get this kind of delicate procedure done.
But, when it's done correctly,
it obviously looks really good.
Now we're going to take a clean micro-fiber towel.
Using of our green workhorse microfiber towels,
and buff off any of the excess spent product.
You can see the lines from the 50/50 passes, it's
like cuttin' a lawn or mowin' your grass where you
overlap it so there's not anything left behind.
Same thing with your paint, you wanna knock down
the same amount over the entire surface so it looks uniform.
It gives you the best overall result.
And it looks really dark and really deep and black,
which is what you want, especially on a dark finish, so.
So now I'm gonna take it out to the light
to give you guys that before and after to show you
the true difference that's been made here.
Obviously, it's a little different polishing outside,
but we're taking advantage of the cooler weather.
As well as that we're in the shade here, so it's fine
to polish outside as long as it's not going to be too hot.
So make sure that the surface of your vehicle is cool to
the touch before you do anything like this.
But, if you guys wanna check out these products,
head over to our website:
chemicalguys.com or to your local detail garage.
If you like today's video, be sure to give it a thumbs up.
Drop your comments down below for future videos.
You guys have been doing so well with all of
your kind words.
I just wanna say thank you so much for all of that
and we'll see you guys next time, right here
in the detail garage.
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