Pictures - September 18th 19th 20th 2026 Class in Stuart Florida - Dr. Beasley's & Mike Phillips

[Mike Phillips]

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Training Car #7—the 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner! Before & AFTER!

Before I share how the class sanded and buffed this freshly painted muscle car, let’s take a look at what they accomplished!

Look at the reflected lights. In the before picture, their edges look wavy and distorted from the orange peel. In the after picture, the orange peel has been dramatically reduced, and those reflections are now sharp and clear!

Now consider this: For most of the 15 students, this was their FIRST time sanding the paint on some other dude’s muscle car!

The goal was to give every student a solid FOUNDATION they could build on. Nobody becomes an expert at sanding and buffing a custom paint job their first time.

But there’s a HUGE difference between watching someone sand paint and picking up the sanding paper, working through the process and seeing the results of your own work.

After this class, I’m confident these men have a much clearer understanding of the work, care and responsibility involved in taking a custom paint job through sanding, cutting, polishing and ceramic coating.

They didn’t just watch the transformation. They made it happen!

Coming next: the process, from hand wet sanding and machine dry sanding to rotary cutting, orbital polishing and ceramic coating.

No chairs. ZERO sitting. Real hands-on training—and results you can SEE!

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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We start early and we start ON TIME!​

7:30 AM Sunday morning—time to get AFTER IT!

My FLEX 100th Anniversary watch tells the story: Day Two starts bright and early!

After detailing SIX cars on Saturday, these guys are back for another full day of hands-on training. Fourteen of our 15 students were ready to go when this picture was taken, and Wesley arrived shortly afterward.

Waiting for them? Training Car #7—a freshly painted 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner!

Today, they’ll learn how to reduce orange peel through hand wet sanding and machine dry sanding, then bring back the shine with rotary cutting, gear-driven orbital polishing and ceramic coating.

The rotary skills they learned first thing Saturday morning? Today, they’ll put them to work removing sanding marks from this classic muscle car!

New day. New skills. Another cool car.

No chairs. ZERO sitting. No PowerPoint.

Let’s get to work!

Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

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Hand DRY sanding—with a purpose!

We started the hood on Training Car #7, the 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner, using the Eagle Abrasives by KOVAX hand dry sanding system with Super Assilex Peach K-1500 sheets.

This system combines flexible abrasive sheets, a foam hand block and an interface pad to produce a consistent, shallow sanding scratch pattern.

But choosing the abrasive was only part of the lesson. We also had to choose the right process for THIS paint job.

The glossy purple section running down the center of the hood was sandwiched between matte black paint on both sides, with more matte black on the tops of the fenders.

Our goal was to reduce the orange peel in the glossy paint while protecting the surrounding matte finish.

Normally, I would hand wet sand for this type of orange-peel leveling. For this section, however, I wanted to keep water away from the protective painter’s tape covering the matte black paint.

That’s why we chose hand DRY sanding.

With the matte areas masked and covered, the students could focus on carefully sanding the glossy center section. Working dry also let us wipe away the sanding dust and inspect our progress as we went.

Learning to sand paint includes learning WHY you choose a particular tool, abrasive and process.

Real paint jobs require decisions—and this class gives you firsthand experience making them!

No chairs. ZERO sitting. Tools in your hands and skills you can take home!

Mike