PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - SoCal Mercedesshop, Meguiars Detailing Day In August

suginami · #88 09-04-2002, 02:05 PM

This is the first time that Mike Phillips has done this at Meguiar's since he was just hired.

The guy that usually does it is Mike Pennington, and I guess he is a chemist or something in charge of research.

From how Mike explained it, the DA is just a "jiggle machine", and is good at only getting out the most minor imperfections. Also, #82 is more polish than anything else. It has very small amounts of abrasion. It is for paint that is new or like-new.

Also, he explained that Meguiar's really never lets the average Joe use the De Walt rotary buffer because you need to be an experience professional. Mike Pennington, in particular, doesn't like to use the DeWalt rotary buffer in front of customers in fear that they may go home and buy one, and then ruin their paint. Mike Phillips exlained again and again that you need to practice on something else, like a hood on a car at a wrecking yard, or an old car that you own that you don't care if you make a mistake on.

But the fact remains that a rotary buffer is the only machine that will do some work on your paint. The DA will not allow you to really get out imperfections that are more than the most minor.

He used the machine for all of us, and allowed us to only us the DA to apply polish (like #82) and wax (usually gold class).

Basically, the idea is to use the least aggressive product possible, so we generally started out with #82, and then depending on the condition of the paint, went and used the De Walt rotary buffer with #83, and then #84 if #83 couldn't take out the flaw or scratches in the paint. I think on only one of our cars he used #85, but generally, there were flaws in the paint the Mike thought were best left alone. At the end of the day, all the protection you have is your clear coat. In many cases, the scratches are so deep that you'd have to go through your clear coat, so it's clearly (no pun intended) not worth it.

Actually, I purchased the DA from Meguiar's about two years ago and was so disappointed in the machine that I returned it. I ended up buying the exact De Walt rotary buffer that Meguiar's had in their shop, and I have buffed out dozens and dozens of cars, so he let me us the rotary buffer on my car. In all the hundreds of hours I've used my machine, I've never burned through paint. You just have to get a feel for the machine and know how to use power tools in general. It helps if you've done woodworking and used a detail sander. Heck, the DA is really a Porter Cable detail sander for wood. You just have to have a light touch, keep the foam pad wet with product, and keep the machine moving and don't let the paint get to hot. In the end it's abrasiveness of the pad / bonnet you're using, the abrasiveness of the product you're applying and heat generated by friction that removes layers of paint.