371 Pictures - 2-Day September 2025 Car Detailing Class - 8 Cars Detailed! - No Chairs! - ALL Hands-on PLUS REVIEWS!

[Mike Phillips]

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Here's the BEFORE videos for the 2007 Corvette Z51

Arriving to our shop

Here's a closer look at her current condition.

Before pictures

Headlights Before

Here's the AFTER pictures for the 2007 Corvette Z51

Great job everyone!

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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First Tool You Learn How To Use - Rotary Polisher
First up, the class did show car detailing, starting with large wool pads on rotary polishers also known as American Style rotary technique. For each primary topic we cover, there are two cars for the students to choose from to do the training. In the above pictures, you see the 2007 Corvette, but right next to the Corvette was this HAMMERED 1972 Chevell.

1972 Chevelle 486 Big Block 6-Speed Car - Show Car Detailing
For this extremely neglected Chevelle, after dialing-in the Test Spot, the class proceeded to,

Step 1: Cut using Dr. Beasley's CoreCut with Buff and Shine Wool Pads on Rotary Polishers.
Step 2: Polish using Dr. Beasley's NSP 150 with Buff and Shine EdgeGuard Foam Pads on Your Choice Gear-Driven Orbital Polishers.
Step 3: Install Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin 2.0 Ceramic Coating


Learning by doing, for most people that want to learn how to detail cars, this is the best way.

Here's Mitchell running the FLEX Rotary Polisher like a BOSS!

Here's Paden working the driver's side rear fender.

Here's Brad working the trunk lid.

Here's Quintin working the other side of the trunk lid.

Here you can see Yancy giving Hunter a few tips on how to use the rotary polisher.

After a little coaching, Hunter looks like he's been using the rotary for years!

Here's Gilberto working the passenger side of the hood.

As the saying goes, all hands on deck!

Minimal PowerPoint
Yancy and Jared on the front clip. If you look on the back wall - this is as complicated as my PowerPoint gets, you see the same cars in the slide that the students are working on and the steps listed below the pictures of the cars.

Here's Roger doing Topical Glass Polishing to remove decades of water spots and traffic film.

Thanks Roger!

Chrome Polishing
Cool classic cars have CHROME bumpers and trim and, in most cases, the shine is dull from years of neglect and traffic film. In our classes you learn how to tackle EVERYTHING!

If it has paint, it gets polished!
This is my own philosophy and the name of an article I wrote years ago. Here's Brad proving the point of the idea...

Step 2: Using Gear-Driven Orbital Polisher to remove any holograms to create a perfect, swirl-free finish.

Gilberto using the RUPES Mille - this is a 5mm gear-driven, orbital polisher.

Yancy doing a little coaching on using the FLEX Supa BEAST, which is an 8mm Gear-Driven Orbital Polisher with Buff and Shine EdgeGuard foam polishing pads.

Installing the Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin Ceramic Coating

Great teamwork everyone!


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

Before and After Pictures

Here's a short video showing the Chevelle as it arrived.

Here's the Chevelle as she looked when she arrived at the Dr. Beasley's Detailing Training Acadamy in Stuart, Florida.

Here's why I don't use WHITE and LIGHT-colored vehicles as well as boats for our car and boat detailing classes. If you look closely, you can see the swirls and traffic film build-up on the white SS stripes on the hood of the Chevelle. They are really bad, they just don't showcase well via pictures and videos - at least not like medium, dark and black cars.

Now I've moved so the sun is reflecting down on the red portion of the fender. This is the exact same clearcoated paint, but now you can accurately see the true condition of the red paint under the clearcoat, which is also the same condition the white paint is under the clearcoat.

The below picture is the same picture as above, only I've cropped in much tighter.

Same condition paint all over the Chevelle

Inside Before Shots
I also document the before condition once the car is moved inside using both overhead LED lights and swirl finder lights.

No pretty - at least not for a super cool Chevelle with a radical 496 Cubic Inch Big Block Chevy Engine

Here's the AFTER pictures!

And this wraps up the photo-documentation for the first two cars this class detailed SHOW CAR STYLE!

Great job everyone!!!


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

Next topic - 2-Step Paint Correction & Ceramic Coating
For this second topic, now that the class is fully warmed-up after buffing out the 1972 Chevelle and the 2007 Corvette, we move onto the 1979 Corvette, (with single stage paint), and the 1970 Plymouth Satellite with a modern basecoat/clearcoat paint job.

For this topic, the topic, the focus is on gear-driven orbital polishers, but any of the students are encouraged to use a wool pad on a rotary polisher if they see that it would be the right tool for the job.

First, here's a couple of videos showing the before condition.

It's GO TIME!
Here's Mitchell starting out using the FLEX cordless PE-150 Rotary Polisher with a Buff and Shine wool cutting pad and Dr. Beasley's CoreCut

Single Stage Paint
If you've never buffed on single stage paint, what you see below is NORMAL. Single stage paint is resin plus pigment but no top coat of clearcoat paint. Thus when you buff on the paint you see the color of the pigment used to create the color for the paint.

Dead, Oxidized Paint
If you look at the Corvette in the background, you can see the paint is becoming very clear and glossy, with excellent richness-of-color. And if you look at the face of the pad you'll see all the faded, oxidized paint that was removed off the body panels. And of course, the class learns the importance of cleaning their pads and cleaning them often.

Here's Quintin, Mike and Scott tackling the driver's side of this super cool Corvette.

Correct Technique
Here you see Quintin and Mike holding the cordless rotary polishers in a way that the buffing pad is TILTED so that only a portion of the spinning wool pad is touching the surface. This is correcti technique. Others are free to disagree, but anytime someone tells me this is wrong technique - it tells me they've never buffed out a large boat.

Here's Josh tackling the lower quarter panel...

The gentleman on the left-hand side of the below picture is Brad, the owner of this 1979 Corvette. And yes, Brad purchased the Corvette as you see it in the before pictures. He was elated with the final results!

I agree with Quintin - I love using my cordless FLEX rotary polisher for heavy cutting.

No Chairs. Zero Sitting
If you learn better by doing than sitting in a chair looking at a PowerPoint while someone drones on and on and on, then clear your schedule and get signed up for one of our future classes. With the cars change, the format is always the same. You're on your feet with tools-in-hand, training on actual cars, and also super cool cars. Other classes? Normally what you get to train on are demo hoods, test panels and rental cars. That's after sitting for hours.

Do-it-Yourselfers and Pro Detailers
Our classes are tailored for both absolute beginners to seasoned experts and Josh is here becoming an expert!

See the orange paint on the face of the buffing pad? The pigments show up on both wool pads and foam pads. Nothing to worry about.

Here's Brad testing out the Griot's Garage G9
This is a 9mm free spinning, random orbital polisher and as of the time and day I'm typing this, in my opinion and experience, this tool does the best job out of any other free spinning, random orbital polisher I've ever used. It is the tool in this category to beat. And this means both short stroke and long stroke options.

Here's the BEFORE condition

Here's the final results!

Nice work everyone!
While both cars came out looking amazing, its the extreme transformation that you see with the paint on the 1979 Corvette that was freaking amazing!


Mike

p.s.

Be sure to click on the numbers below to go to the next page of this write-up.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Continued...

1970 Plymouth Satellite
While half the class was training on the 1979 Corvette, the other half of the class is training on the 1970 Plymouth Satellite.


Here's a short video for when the Satellite arrived...

Here's Ray using the original FLEX XC 3401 VRG aka the BEAST!

For the hard paint on the Satellite, the class is using the very aggressive Buff and Shine EdgeGuard blue foam cutting pads together with the Dr. Beasley's CoreCut

Here's Roger showing correct technique and that's having the cord placed over his shoulder, so it doesn't rub against the fender.

Perfect Technique
Here you can see Roger tilting the gear-driven Supa BEAST to focus just a portion of the spinning buffing pad into the corner of the back of the hood. This technique enables you to remove the swirls in the small section of paint surrounded by to edges without buffing hard on the edges.

Here's Jared, Hunter and Sean all tackling the passenger side.

Paden travelled all the way from California to take this class!
Here's Paden who has opted to do the heavy lifting using a rotary with a wool pad. Because the FIRST tool everyone learns and trains with in our classes here in Stuart, Florida is the rotary polisher, I know he has the confidence to know when to use a rotary and how to use a rotary. Nice work Paden!

Next Paden inspects to see if the defects are removed or if he needs to spend some more time buffing.

Here's Roger and Ray tag-teaming the hood.

It's common when first learning paint correction to forget to place the cord over your shoulder, but that's what I'm here for, that is to gently remind people of correct technique.

Griot's Garage GG9
On the back of the Satellite, Jonathan is testing out the Griot's Garage G9 - which is a 9mm free spinning, random orbital polisher.

After the heavy cutting step, everyone is switching over to the white Buff and Shine EdgeGuard foam polishing pads and NSP 150.

The RUPES Mille!
Here's Gilberto testing out the RUPES Mille, which is a 5mm gear-driven orbital polisher.

Here's Hunter testing out the cordless BEAST aka the CBEAST!

After all the paint correction steps, the class then installs the Dr. Beasley's Nano-Resin 2.0 Ceramic Coating to both training cars.

The Buddy System
I teach the Buddy System in our classes as simply a way to be time efficient. Here's Ray installing the coating followed by Jonathan leveling the coating and removing any excess.

Ceramic Coating their FIRST 1970 Plymouth Satellite Convertible - A true Bucket List Car!
In this example Jared installed the coating followed by his son Hunter leveling and removing any excess.

Here's the BEFORE condition
Admittedly, the paint on this car is not the worst that I've ever had in a class, but the class found out the paint was on the HARD side and this makes doing the paint correction step a little more intense than when working on medium or soft paints.

Holograms = Misuse of a Rotary Polisher
The wispy looking lines that show up with the sun high overhead are the tale-tale sign of hologram. This means the last person to buff out this car using ONLY a rotary polisher and probably a wool cutting pad. Nothing wrong with STARTING with a rotary polisher with a wool pad but you should never END with a rotary polisher and a wool pad.

Here's the FINAL results!

Here's the team that made the magic happen!

And a great selfie from Yancy!

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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Meet & Greet at Fresh Catch!

Work hard, play hard, or in the example - EAT GREAT FOOD! After calling the class over on Saturday, later Dr. Beasley's hosted a Meet & Greet at one of my favorite local seafood restaurants. Thank you to everyone that attended!


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Mike