We are now in W. Virginia! What a beautiful drive from Ohio through the mountains. I have never seen so many trees!!  Tomorrow we head to Williamsburg for a few tours.

Today's Pictures

After three wonderful days in Dayton, we are off to Wiliamsburg tomorrow. Below are links to our pictures from the week. Highlights include visiting the Union Station Museum, dinner with family, visiting school friends, swimming, and going to the movies.


http://picasaweb.google.com/cimiregan/UnionStationMuseum#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cimiregan/20100715#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cimiregan/BallardFamilyAndWorkingOut#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cimiregan/DayOneInDaytonLastTrainSightingOfBoys#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cimiregan/2ndAlbumOfStageOne#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cimiregan/FirstStageOfTrip#.

We have arrived in Dayton! 42 hrs. of Amtrak and 5 hrs. of driving mark the first stage of our 25 lday field trip. Amtrak was a blast! We crossed the Missouri and Mississippi River, saw ol' Fort Madison, watched antelope run from the tracks, and enjoyed good ribs and steak. After arriving in Chicago and getting our rental car, we drove the 5 hrs. to Dayton. I found out that if you really know ONE way to get somewhere, just do what you know. I followed my new GPS and it lead us down old country roads (in the dark) and for a while, thought we would end up in a head-on collision. We'll be here for a few days before driving to Williamsburg. Here are some pictures of the trip thus far...

Pictures!!

Today was Day II of training. I began by completing the detail on the Nissan Z. This process was slow going, but rewarding. The paint went through very careful and precise polishing steps- eventually ending with a streak free, halogram free, swirl free finish. I was able to remove about 98% of all the surface scratches. With the depth of the paint at only 3.3 in many areas, more aggressive methods could have been a lost effort for those few scratches if we had compromised the clear coat.

In the afternoon I took my first attempts with an orbital sander- yes, a sander! I used 1500, 2000 and 3000 grit paper to prep the surface for polishing. The paint was in very poor condition. We found that the hood was measuring 13 mils in some areas! This is a sign of a clear repaint. The orange peel on the hood and front left panel were completely different in texture. After the 3000, I could see how clear and bright the paint was slowly becoming. Tomorrow I will polish the surface to remove any sanding scratches and go from there. I'll begin at 7AM and catch my flight for home at 5PM. Here are some pictures from today. I will have video up by the weekend.

Happy Detailing,

Robert Regan

Auto Detailing Teacher

Santa Barbara, CA

The right side of the line is NOT done. The left was done with 105 and 205. The little white spots were on my lsense. UGH! the clarity was incredible, but this was not the best picture. I'll try more tomorrow. Renny is seen in the reflection on the left.

I arrived yesterday to find a very nice gift basket waiting for me in my hotel room and was soon off for a walk around Boise before starting my 3-day training.

After a nice 8 mile walk, I rested for the upcoming day that began with a complimentary breakfast- paid for by Attention to Details. The training day started at 8:30 and ended at 5:30. The plan was to use 2000 paper to dry sand our first car and perform a $400 exterior detail. That plan ended when we used our paint depth gauge to find out that around the ENTIRE car, it never measured more than 4.3 mils and the entire hood was never higher than 3.3 mils. At this point, we decided to go with Meg 105, the Flex and a wool polishing pad. Besides 2 to 3 heavier scratches, most of the paint was covered in car wash type scratches.  I used a product called, "Poly" as a waterless wash, detail spray, and as a primer for the pads. The stuff was easy to used and did not leave any residue on the surface. Naturally, we used only TowelPros Microfiber towels!

Here are some pictures of me using this process. We constantly inspected work using the Z light.

Here I am using 105 to remove all the surface scratches.

Until today, I had only used UNO and Optimum Hyper with LC foam pads. This process, while it will put out dust, did an amazing job at leveling the paint and not creating any swirls. I followed with 205 below and a white foam pad and the results under this light were amazing- and not that hard to obtain. Tomorrow we are getting another car with enough paint that we'll dry sand and do an all day exterior paint correction. In the works are headlight restoration and using a new clay process- clay goes on the PC!

Happy Detailing!

Robert Regan

Our good friend, Jim Goguen of Jim's Auto Installations and Detailing, is headed to Boston this weekend for the World of Wheels Show. You can click here to see a video of his booth and one incredible truck that he customized. He has won several awards from this single truck.

Or...click here to see his winning certificate for Best in Class!

Congrats, Jim!

Auto Detailing Teacher Team!

The Auto Detailing Teacher- Santa Babara's Auto Detailing Company- has created a Facebook account! We would love to have you as a friend! Soon, we will post videos, pictures of our work, and send updates via our FB page about anything auto detail related! We hope you become a part of our auto detailing family.

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