587 Pictures - No Chairs! No Sitting! September 2024 Detailing Class with Mike Phillips

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued....

Here's an example of Rub Marks, and there's even rust build-up on the plastic.

Repeating the Process
For the outside, I'll repeat the same process I used on the inside. Rotary to Orbital to Orbital using NSP 150, NSP 95 and NSP 45 followed by Gloss Builder.

If you look carfully, you can see the BROWN plastic material from the window building-up on the face of the pad. We are able to remove any TOPICAL browning, but it's impossible to remove the browning on the INSIDE of the plastic membrane because doing so means buffing away 100% of the plastic.

After the rotary step, I did two more orbital steps followed by Gloss Builder.

The difference is stark and dramatic!

Next up, sharing this process with the class.

Mike

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued....

How to Machine Polish Flexible Clear Plastic Windows
This actually took place first thing Saturday morning, before the class buffed out the Starsky and Hutch car and the 1962 Chevy Biscayne. If you look carefully, the clock on the walls shows it's 7:30am and it's go time, not sit in a chair time and listen to me talk about detailing.

Starting out doing the complete process to the inside portion of the driver's side of the back window. Note I'm continuing to use the soft, plush orange blanket to support the plastic as I buff.

After tackling the inside, next up we repeat the process to the outside. And of course, overlap a little into the previous side where the painter's tape divided the back window into two parts.

Rotary first with NSP 150

See it?
See the brown plastic material building-up on the face of the buffing pad? This tells us we're removing the browning, but only on the outer and inner surface. The brown fading will always affect the inside of the plastic but that's okay because the owner doesn't want to replace the plastic window, he just wants to see out of it.

Porter Cable 7424XP with NSP 95

Porter Cable 7424XP with NSP 45

Applying Gloss Builder to maximize clarity

BOOM!

Here's a few pictures of the back window outside under normal light - looks MUCHO better!

And of course, we cleaned and treated the vintage, original vinyl top to complete look of the entire car.

Next up, Day 3 - Extreme Boat Detailing

Mike

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued....

Sunday, Day 3 - Extreme Boat Detailing
Just to note, this was the last time I'm offering both car and boat detailing in a single weekend. I've done this since 2021 as a professional courtesy to those that want to take both my car and my boat detailing class. The majority of people that take any of my classes are not local but are FLYING here from other states and other countries. The reason I combined the two topics was so that people could learn the most profitable and popular topics, (paint correction/ceramic coatings, removing orange peel via sanding, and boat detailing), with only one set of,

Airline tickets
Hotel reservations
Rental car
Meals-on-the-road
Plus, the price of the class

Too many people only wanted to take the car portion or the boat portion and what people don't understand is the volume of work it takes to get all these cars here and the boats and then manage them throughout the week before and even the week after the class. Maybe I'll do it again some year, but for 2025 there are three 2-day automotive detailing classes and one extreme boat detailing class, which will be held in March.

Click here for the class schedule for 2025

Here's the 24' Sea Hunt staged outside the shop.

Large, Dark Colored Center Console Boats in Neglected Condition
Here's some before shots after moving the boat inside. The pictures of the front portion of both sides of the hull make it look like the gelcoat is in pretty good shape, but this is not accurate. It was just as oxidized and stained as the pictures showing the sides of the hull. The BIG PICTURE is, I bring in HUGE center console boats, so YOU have a comfortable training experience. And I only bring in dark colored hulls so the students can easily see the before and after transformation.

8:30am and it's GO TIME!
Because this is a 3-day class and because I know the first two days have taken a toll on everyone, including me, I show my nice side and start the Sunday class an hour later.

After some hot coffee, the class is ready to start!

First up is an overview of the problem and the solution.

Marine Gelcoat Test Spot
In the same way we should all be doing a Test Spot to the paint on a car, you should also do a Test Spot to the hull on a boat before attempting to buff out the entire boat. The idea behind doing a test spot is to dial in your process and PROVE it works to your satisfaction. Once you do this, you have the confidence to tackle the entire boat knowing it's going to come out great.

Removing Dock Rash
When it comes to boat hulls, dock rash, which is deeper scratches, gouges and scuffing of the gelcoat from the boat banging against a dock. Sometimes you can remove 100% of the dock rash, but often times, the scratches and gouges are so deep, it's safer to improve, but not 100% remove these defects as you don't want to remove too much gelcoat. PLUS, if dock rash has happend in the past, there's a good chance it's going to happen in the future. So keep it real.

Mike

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued....

Machine Wet Sanding using FLEX 8mm Gear-Driven Orbital Polishers
Years ago, instead of using the NORMAL sanders everyone else uses, that is free spinning random orbital sanders, I switched my classes over to a FASTER way of sanding gelcoat. Instead of using sanders that will stall-out and thus take longer to get the job done, the FLEX family of BEAST tools, the original BEAST, the Supa BEAST and the CBEAST, will knock down deep oxidation plus level swirls, scratches and dock rash faster and much more efficiently.

For the first step, the class is using Mirka Abralon 1000 grit sanding discs. After the initial cutting and mowing down of the deep oxidation, the class refines 1000 grit sanding marks by re-sanding with 2000 grit.

Mike

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued....

Refining - The most important step when it comes to sanding
When moving from a more course grit to a fine grit, it's important that you make enough sanding passes to sufficiently refine or LEVEL all the previous sanding marks to the next level of sanding disc. If you don't, you will find it more difficult and time-consuming to remove the deeper sanding marks during the compounding step with rotary polishers.

Here's Billy using the NEW FLEX 24 Volt 15mm free spinning long-stroke polishers. Billy is an alumni student of multiple classes and already knows the gear-driven tools are faster. In this example, he simply wanted to test out the new 24 volt FINISHER for refining.

Machine Dry Sanding with 2000
After 2 machine wet sanding step, next the class switches over to the Eagle Abrasives by KOVAX K-2000 sanding discs to re-sand and FLATTEN-OUT the surface of the gelcoat to maximize the D.O.I. for a show car finish on a boat. These thin sanding discs work so much better than foam-backed sanding discs, (like the Mirka), for flattening the surface because the foam-backed sanding discs allow the sanding action to sand both the high points and the low points. The Eagle Abrasives by KOVAX sanding discs focus all the sanding action on the high points.

Generally Speaking, A Smooth Surface Will Last Longer than a Textured Surface
The goal is to create the nicest looking finish but also the smoother the surface, the less prone it is to future oxidation.

Machine Dry Sand with 2500
Next up, more refining to flatten out the surface and refine 2000 grit sanding marks to 2500 sanding marks.

Machine Dry Sand with 3000
For the final and last step, the class refines all the way out to 3000 grit, and I teach this for a very specific reason. Most experienced boat detailers can stop at 2000 and easily remove their sanding marks with a great compound and rotary polisher with wool pads. But a lot of the time, I have people that are brand new to this type of work and keep in mind, they are already TIRED after two FULL days of car detailing. By finishing out with 3000 grit, it makes it much easier and faster to remove 100% of the sanding marks and this is the criteria in my boat detailing classes.

Mike

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued....

Third Day Using a Rotary Polisher
Next up, the class switches over to using rotary polishers to remove 100% of the sanding marks. This is now the third day of hands-on training with the formidable rotary polisher. Each day, each car and now this boat, the students become more skilled at using and controlling rotary polishes.

My goal is for when these people leave is they,

Know when to use a rotary instead of an orbital.
Know how to use a rotary successfully.
Have a foundational skill set they can continue to build-on when they return to their world.
And most important - have CONFIDENCE when using this tool.

Girl Power
The most muscle-intensive section of a center console boat to buff is the curved section at the bow. I'm totally impressed that instead of working on the sides of the boat, Ashley took the challenge to sand and buff the hull at the bow of the boat. Way to get after Ashley!

Machine Polishing with NSP 150
After the rotary step using fiber wool pads to cut the sanding marks, the next step is to remove any holograms left by the fibers of the wool pad and perfect the gelcoat to maximize smoothness, gloss, depth-of-color and shine. For this we continue using the 8mm gear-driven FLEX family of BEAST polishers due to ZERO PAD STALLING and thus the fastest way to do this step humanly possible while maintaining pro-quality results.

For this step the class used the Dr. Beasly's NSP 150 Primer with the Buff and Shine Blueberry EdgeGuard Heavy Polishing Foam Pads.

Not Pictured
After machine polishing with NSP 150 and the heavy polishing foam pads, the class did a final polishing step to maximize gloss and clarity while prepping the gelcoat for the ceramic coating using the Buff and Shine Yellow EdgeGuard Foam Pads.

Mike

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued...

Installing the Dr. Beasley's Boat Coat Pro Gelcoat Ceramic Coating
Once all the polishing work was completed, it's time to seal the gelcoat using the Dr. Beasley's Boat Coat Pro Gelcoat Ceramic Coating. For this last step, the class applies 3 applications of the coating waiting 30 to 45 minutes in-between coats. I'm asked if a 3rd application is really needed? My answer and thoughts on this step is, the class has just put this gelcoat through a multiple-step process so while the boat is here, prepped and ready to, we go ahead and apply a 3rd layer of coating just to know we've done everything we can to seal this gelcoat for maximum longevity and performance.

Here's Ashley applying some of the coating to an Autofiber Coating Saver Applicator Pad.

Next she applies the coating working carefully around the recently installed graphics. Jason follows here to level the coating and remove any excess paying careful attention to the edges of the graphics.

See Billy pointing to the strip of tape on the top cap?
This is a technique I started teaching about 10 years ago. The strip of tape is a visual indicator to enable people to see and know the width of the section they are working. This applies to sanding, compounding, polishing and coating.

Check out the Mirror Finish and maxed-out D.O.I.!

The color of the gelcoat is called Admiral Blue and look how dark and rich in color it is as the class works around the boat installing the ceramic coating.

Done!
It's now 1:30pm and the class has gone from start to finish in around 5 hours - with no breaks. These are hard classes, but you learn a ton and you can take a break after the day is over and/or when you get back home. I figure I have these people for 3 days and during this time I do a Brain Dump and also teach as many tools, products and techniques as possible.

Mike

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued

Here are the final results...

Hi-Powered Swirl Finder Lights Don't Lie!

The new graphics look phenomenal over the top of the perfectly sanded, polished and ceramic coated gelcoat!
More about this as you scroll down the page

How about some reflection shots outside?

Ready to dunk back in the water! (After 2-3 days of final curing)

Mike

Mike Phillips · Dec 2, 2024

Continued...

Certificate Award Ceremony
At the end of the class, we hold our Certificate Award Ceremony. Some people want a certificate to show they attended one of my classes, some people don't but I'm proud to say, that our Certificates not only look great, but they also list a majority of the topics covered in the class. This way people not only see the certificate, but they also see the topics and techniques you trained and learned.

Charles
(Somehow we didn't get a Cert Picture with Charles or I simply cannot find it)

Tome

Eric Hoover

William Vaccaro

Steven

Christopher

William

Keith

Wayne

Travis

Jim

Tyler

Ashley

Jason

Corey Richland

Group Shot

THANK YOU!

Thank you to everyone for trusting in my name and the good name of Dr. Beasley's to travel all the way to Stuart, Florid to take this class.

I hope you found it exactly as advertised and that's, No Chairs. No Sitting. No Down Time. No PowerPoint. In other words, 100% hands on from the time we started early in the morning until the end of each day and all topics for that day were covered.

I appreciate each and every one of you for staying focused on the task-at-hand so there were no mistakes and each car, and the 24' Sea Hunt boat came out perfect!

If there's ever anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to email, call or text - I'm always available to you.

Sincerely,

Mike Phillips
mike@drbeasleys.com
Cell: 760-515-0444

Mike Phillips · Dec 4, 2024

Continued...

Installing Graphics on a Gelcoat Boat
The owner of this boat is lucky in that Yancy Martinez, my long-time friend and absolute perfectionist when it comes to installing graphics on cars and boats, was also my assistant for this class. The original emblems and graphics were HORRIBLE looking after years of exposure to the corrosive salt water and UV rays from the sun. The owner purchased new, replacement graphics and after all the gelcoat correction and polishing was finished, but BEFORE installing the Dr. Beasley's Boat Coat Pro Gelcoat Ceramic Coating, Yancy installed the graphics.

Starboard Side
Here's Yancy and Jason installing the graphics on the Starboard side of the 24' Sea Hunt Center Console Boat.