The Art of Detailing: A Deep Dive into the World of Paint Correction

When it comes to maintaining the beauty and integrity of a vehicle, detailing is an essential process that requires patience, skill, and the right products. The term detailing really does apply here when you consider the hours of work involved and the various products required to do this really well. First and foremost, you've got to smear it - yes, you read that right. Smearing the paint with a compound is an important step in the detailing process, allowing the grit to do its work as you make your way through the different stages of correction.

The first pass will sort of smear it, letting the grit do its work and removing minor scratches and imperfections from the surface of the paint. This initial stage is crucial in setting the tone for the rest of the detailing process. As you move on to the next step, you'll apply a second compound with slightly finer particles, cutting through the remaining oxide and fine-tuning your work. This is where the magic happens - the second pass will begin to remove deeper scratches and imperfections, leaving the paint looking smoother and more even.

The key to success in detailing lies in applying the right amount of pressure and using the correct products for each stage of correction. It's easy to get carried away with the process, but it's essential to keep a level head and avoid over-agitating the paint. Too much pressure can damage the surface, while too little may leave imperfections behind. By mastering this delicate balance, you'll be able to achieve incredible results that will leave even the most discerning eye impressed.

The final stage of detailing involves applying a high-quality wax or sealant to protect the paint and give it a showroom shine. This is where the product really comes alive, spreading evenly across the surface and leaving behind a mirror-like finish. The secret to achieving this level of polish lies in the application technique - using a gentle touch and allowing the product to warm up before buffing it out with a microfiber towel.

One of the most common misconceptions about detailing is that you need to spend thousands of dollars on paint correction for brand new cars straight from the factory. While it's true that professional detailing services can be expensive, there are many DIY solutions and products available that can achieve incredible results without breaking the bank. The key is to do your research, invest in quality products, and take the time to learn the techniques involved.

In this article, we'll delve deeper into the world of detailing, exploring the different stages of correction, the products and techniques used, and the tips and tricks for achieving professional results at home. We'll also take a look at some of the latest products and technologies available in the industry, as well as share some personal anecdotes from our own detailing adventures.

A Day in the Life of a Detailer

As we sat down to discuss the art of detailing, I couldn't help but think back to our last adventure - taking Martin's car to the detailing shop for a much-needed makeover. When we arrived, he was less than thrilled with what he saw - scratches and imperfections covering the surface of his pride and joy like acne on a teenager's face.

But as the detailing process got underway, something remarkable happened. The technicians at the shop worked their magic, using specialized products and techniques to remove each scratch and imperfection one by one. Before long, Martin's car was transformed - the paint looking so smooth and even that it seemed almost like new.

As I watched this transformation take place, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the skill and patience involved in detailing. It's not just about slapping on some wax or using a simple cleaning product - it's an art form that requires years of practice and dedication to master. And yet, as we saw firsthand, even the most basic DIY solutions can achieve incredible results when done right.

The Science Behind Detailing

One of the most fascinating aspects of detailing is the science behind it. When you apply a compound or polish to the paint, what's happening at a molecular level? How do the particles interact with each other and the surface of the paint? And what happens when you buff out scratches - what are you actually removing, and how does that affect the paint?

These are questions that have puzzled detailing enthusiasts for years, but the truth is that the science behind detailing is complex and multifaceted. In this section, we'll explore some of the key principles involved in detailing, from the chemistry of compounds to the physics of buffing.

The Best Products for Detailing

When it comes to detailing, the products you use can make all the difference between a mediocre job and a truly show-stopping finish. But with so many options available on the market, how do you know which ones are worth investing in?

In this section, we'll take a closer look at some of the best products for detailing, from high-end waxes to specialized compounds and polishing agents. We'll also share our own experiences with different products and techniques, highlighting what works well and what doesn't.

The Future of Detailing

As we look to the future, it's clear that detailing is going to continue to evolve - with new technologies and innovations emerging all the time. From advanced polishing compounds to cutting-edge cleaning methods, there's never been a more exciting time to be involved in the world of detailing.

In this final section, we'll take a closer look at some of the latest trends and developments in the world of detailing, from electric polishing pads to nanotechnology-based waxes. We'll also share our predictions for what the future holds - where do you think detailing will go in the next 5-10 years?

Conclusion

Detailing is an art form that requires patience, skill, and dedication. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, there's never been a more exciting time to be involved in the world of detailing. With the right products, techniques, and attitude, you can achieve incredible results that will leave even the most discerning eye impressed.

So what are you waiting for? Grab your polishing pad, your wax, and your willingness to get dirty - it's time to dive into the world of detailing!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enin this episode of mighty car mods we are mixing things up a little bit we are working on the mirror from our feature film key to the city but before we dive into that i want to show you something very special very limited we have an all-new so good limited edition poster this is by uh jess dhoni who's a mighty car mods fan um who did this image for us we have these signed posters these are gonna be around for one week uh and then they're gone they're gone forever we will never do this uh this design again we will be signing your orders individually and these are available from the mighty car module the thing so there's a thing dropping down mightycommods.com limited edition mirror poster there's the car there's the car it's very exciting so that's the good news so grab one of them now because they'll probably be gone by the next time uh you have a look in a week's time the good news is that they're not so good news is that i parked my car and when i came back to my car as so often happens someone has put something on my bonnet walked away come back and gone i'll just grab my stuff like that that has gone there and then just box shaped massive scratch no we did not do it yes when we painted the wheels years ago that was him with a brick this is not what happened in this case um i only noticed it yesterday because i brought it in here and turned the lights on and went in my car because this car is freshly painted and freshly painted about where i park it like a lot of people modified cars so today we're gonna fix it normally there's happy music on the intro bit but there's sad music because there has been more hours of love and work gone into this car than pretty much any other project um on mighty car mods this is the one that's got the restitched floor this is the one that was half australian car half japanese car put back together it's like so much work it's not funny we had a whole group of us working on it lots of help and so when the car is all perfect and it's all done and then you have something like this it's actually what we call a wormhole it sucks in all of your time and emotional energy and that is why it must be fixed that's why it must be fixed now luckily it looks like a lot of the damage is in the clear coat um it's it's scratched from like different angles so it's it looks the size and shape of a box um which is probably what happens because people go this way though right you can see people go to the shops i mean you see all the time they get their shopping bags and they they put it on your roof or your thing and then they turn around put stuff in the car and go like that because i don't want to lift it up um dude that's the exact angle actually the way you just did it like that is the way these guys and it's super obvious in this because this is recently painted it's got quite thick clear coat on it it's been buffed it's been paint protected it's had all this stuff done to keep it looking awesome because you just wash it and it looks this shiny which is really cool but something like this is super obvious and it needs to be sorted out so we're going to go through a couple of ways you can fix this we're going to get a special friend of ours to come and give us some tips because he's a pro and does this all day every day which will help and we might even dig out one of the old panels from this car and do some experiments this here is the original panel that was on the car in japan when we were drifting it under rainbows as you can see it does have a bit of damage from its time in japan but this here is what we're going to practice on it already looked pretty beat up before it got cut in half but then when it got cut in half and put into a pallet into a container this was the outside and this is what we picked off a little while back when we put the mirror together this car was 300 in japan yeah so it's like you know it's it wasn't exactly 16. what we thought we might do that might be interesting rather than just dive straight into that we might try and educate ourselves a little bit about the different ways that we can sort of repair some of this stuff now this is fairly extreme like big scratches like that and through all the paint you're not gonna be able to repair those but ones like this that's actually similar to what we've got on the bonnet it is so we thought you might tape it up and try a few different products because one of the issues with repairing things like this is there's lots of products out there that promise you the world that say they'll fix every scratch with just a little thing and you've only got to go on like a social media thing and see one of those you know fast forward ads where people like fixes everything just with one i saw a magic cloth thing that is literally just like this and it said the cloth had nano particles in it right as does a beach and a beanbag uh no but it had nanoparticles and it basically showed this and then that someone wipes it over like this and it said before and after and had a picture of a bmw but the bmw had different wheels on it afterwards like it actually was a different car so they're just complaining we can be fairly certain if you've watched enough mighty carmel's videos that this is the same panel that was on that car not that it matters what we're doing now but what we'll do is i'm just going to wipe all the dust off it so we can see what we're dealing with and then we'll just try a couple of different things to see what we can fix up and hopefully apply some of those techniques to that um and yeah yeah so we've got some different products we're gonna do some of it by hand we're gonna use some machines um and we're just gonna see what works and then we'll have an expert come and tell us that probably everything we've done is wrong and actually show us how to do it properly so he can help us fix that we're using wax and grease remover to take off any dust and contaminants then taping the panel into sections so we can compare each of our products both typical and experimental we've got a lot of products laid out here on this panel we've got little markers between each of them so we can do some tests and show you some science we're actually not showing you science we're just showing you results martin what are we going to do we're going to start with wd-40 now i don't necessarily recommend you polish your car with it but we've heard rumors that you can do this so we're going to try it and just see what happens and we've had good success polishing wheels with that we have exactly so it works good on metal don't know how it's going to work on paint we're going to find out we've also got a few different levels of the sort of cuts and cleaners and stuff that you can buy from various shops this is like a bargain entry level type thing um cutting compound we're going to try that then we've got like a mid-level one this is where you're paying a little bit more money for it it promises to do a few more things and then we're going pro and then we've got like a pro level one um that we've used with great success in the past as well covered all the logos just because it doesn't matter go to the shop and you can work out exactly what's what coming up next month this is where we've got some interesting stuff we have had some great success in the past uh a combination of urine and toothpaste there's no urine in there yet there will be soon just giving you give me a minute uh and also avocado which you may have seen in the past we had great success buffing headlights to get rid of all of that cloudy stuff with avocado so we're going to be using that as well now martin we just need to control because it's science control of how they're applied and how they're buffed so let's show the people that and then let's kick the music and get into the experiment first up we have to apply the products there's two ways to do that you can do it by hand or you can use various machines this is what's known as a rotary buffer yes it looks like an angle grinder because it basically is one and you can buy these pads you can buy different kind of pads one that are specifically for cutting different grades we've got a black one which is more for finishing but what we're going to do today this will be totally fine or you can apply it by hand with something like that which is basically just a little sponge now once the products are applied with that then they're going to be buffed off there's a couple of ways you could do it you could buff them off by hand using some little microfiber cloths or you could use something like this which is a cordless buffer now we just uh roby didn't actually send us this we just went and bought it retail 99 but full disclosure ryobi is a sponsor of the show but this here is a battery operated buffer that says it's good for cars get out get out and this here is um not how you open the box so i've never seen this product before but that's going to go on there there's a battery i gather somewhere on here there's a button there it is that made that weird off it goes into my ears so we're going to put a little buffer on there pad look at that thing so these are really good particularly if you're like waxing a car or something um or a boat or a boat or a dolphin particularly that's what they're for now the rotary thing i showed you before that's for getting a lot of heat and friction into the panel and like removing stuff this is really good particularly if you are applying wax or something to be removed but we're actually cutting into the surface look at that that's good it pretty much saves you a whole lot of elbow grease of using microfibers back and forth for 10 minutes i'll do it in a couple of seconds and battery powered which is excellent okay mark get into it let the science begin all right step one wd i got high hopes for the wd mate um so we're gonna apply it look it looks good because we are rubbing we've had a blowout on the urine bottle we're we're rubbing in like a lubricant and a like thinner type material into the panel so look it looks amazing i don't know that i recommend coating your entire car in wd-40 um but you can't argue with that what it's not doing is taking out any scratches and i don't think it's going to because it's not really abrasive i'm going to unfill this urine bottle because it just keeps falling down i'll be back in a minute i think it's fairly safe to say that that's not going to remove any scratches it looks nice and shiny because we've essentially rubbed an oil into our panel so i'm going to call it a win next up we have your bargain basement cutting compound this is the kind of stuff you can buy at your supermarket or even a servo it full disclosure has been sitting in the cupboard for a little while so it'd be interesting to see how well it actually works but it pretty much just looks like that and you just apply it to the panel and this is designed to cut back scratches and stuff like that as well so you apply it by hand and just rub it on imagine it as like liquid sandpaper by hand it is going to take some time um these all these compounds and polishes and stuff the more sort of mechanical friction you can put into it the quicker it's going to go but you can get results by hand as well so if you've got a little scratch this will take it out it will also take off like any wax or anything else that's on your paint as well so be aware of that that if you cut this back you're cutting back actually abrading the clear coat that's on it or if it's a single color car then you're actually cutting back the paint itself which you mostly see on older cars this is clear over base so it has like the metallic and then the clear coat over the top so there you go it's a little bit of crap coming off you can easily check the sponge and just see what's on there and this this will you also notice if your paint's really dirty that it'll start to discolor the sponge so that's applied you can rub it and rub it rub it keep rubbing it and we take that off with another cloth and see what it looks like it should shine up a little bit hopefully there you go mate let's see what we've got yeah it's definitely shiny it's taken off like any kind of haze of rot that's on there although at the moment looks pretty similar to our wd-40 there we go we'll know at the end martin that there we go there's a bit of yeah dirt and bit of stuff coming off good next up we'll move to the kind of mid-range this is your kind of super cheap auto cut and polish isn't it yeah exactly you're kind of this is going to get all the range rather than sending you back sort of like 10 bucks is going to say 20 or 20 30 or 30 yeah probably close to that this is also a cut cutting compound as well um you can get various levels a lot of the time they have a scale on the bottle that tells you what sort of level of cut it's going to give you and based on how scratched or how dirty it is you can choose what you need you apply it rub it on this action now is what's actually going to remove any scratches or imperfections you really got to get into it or it doesn't do anything at all right using a different bit of this cloth that's actually looking pretty good it looks good yeah it's taking out a bit more of the scratches but by hand it's always yeah actually can't argue with that that looks pretty good like some of the really light scratches and some of these heavier ones are still there you know what i reckon we do afterwards once we've done this is i reckon we use then a machine for each of them quickly again try a machine machine machine and buff off with their aov as well cool all right let's try the pro one next up we have like a pro grade compound so this is the kind of thing that panel shops will use painters and detailers and stuff all have their own you know preferences of what to use based on their experience but this is a good one that we have used in the past with some success it's also if you're doing this all day every day a lot of the time the kind of products that you're going to use are going to be ones that might be like less dust come out of them when you buff them off maybe they're water-based so they're not as hard to clean out of all your materials you can reuse your sponges all that kind of stuff so that's sort of what comes into it with a pro level one and people think these are direct to detail like you can't buy these at a shop they're not a retail product now it's the kind of thing that you you get at a panel shop and you're buying bulk because you'd go through a lot of it yeah um so yeah again most of these are designed to be used with a machine but we're going to do it by hand first and see what kind of results we get then we might try it with the machine as well okay that's on all right we'll get rid of that one yeah unsurprisingly that looks pretty good yeah straight away it is at least as good as that one and looks nice and shiny but it's actually you can see it's cutting and it's taking a bit of the dirt off as well yep use a clean use a clean towel every time you take it off yeah so this is a new one or i'm kind of turning over but this is a new towel you know what it just looks a bit smoother than that yeah oh creamier you know what i mean yeah there's still something a bit more finished hard to see on a black panel as well sometimes but that looks pretty good so i reckon we'll um we might do the same thing with the various three various compounds that we've used and hit it with the machine and just see if that gets any more off it this is where you can damage your car if you use a machine like this and you use a compound incorrectly so read up be careful takes a bit of practice go slow get an old panel try it at first and when you're confident then do it on your car let's do it but after that we actually get to the science and see whether an avocado which we have had legitimately excellent results with in the past works or um the warm urine was it warm and the toothpaste because it's fresh and the toothpaste as well we're gonna try those as well and we have had some success with them in the past so we'll see so we'll machine the proper products first and then we'll see how they hold up against these bad boys man let's do it do all right so we've used the machine on all the cutting compounds the various levels they've all kind of done basically the same job you can see that the machine upgrades it way more and it actually feels smooth as well yeah yeah which is pretty cool nothing's going to save these big scratches that have gone all the way through the clear coat but any areas that don't have damage they look they look great like if your whole car had pain of that level that was a bit faded and you just buffed it it would look amazing what's interesting from what we can see is that the pro level stuff looks the best like unquestionably like you can see that that is better than anything else that we've done so far the mid-range one though looks really good the difference between these two is not huge no the difference between these two is huge which means don't go for the really really cheap stuff um go go for the mid-range stuff so that's we basically got winner a close second and lucky last and wd well we didn't use a machine on that but it is what it is and i reckon if you're desperate you can probably use that but still we haven't even got to the good stuff yet people important stuff so now it's time next up we've got toothpaste and urine me all right you know what's interesting about that that is as good as that but not as good as these two yes i would agree okay so it's done something it's done something so teeth it's better than that toothpaste and urine looks equivalent to the cheapest product we use but not nearly as good as these two but it's also taken off all this rubbish when you compare it to next door like look at that that's still smashed but now people are under the good stuff yeah which is the avocado i got high hopes so let's kick into it since the video we did all those years ago with avocado there has been some contention in the comments about whether you use the skin or whether you use the flesh basically we're just going to keep rubbing the skin until the goo comes out without the avocado though the avocado is proving a little bit more challenging dude it's done something it's done something look look it's actually it does work me it's just put a lot of avocado in my fuel filler flat but look that's way cleaner than it was it's actually cleaned the paint i don't know if i call it polish or compound but i'd call it paint cleaner really yeah look how clean that is wow i would say it's more effective than piss in a highly scientific peer-reviewed study in which we were rated five stars do you know who rated us that me um we've got our panel now unsurprisingly the compounds did what you'd expect the wd-40 came off as soon as i like removed the stuff with the alcohol because it's basically oil looks better than nothing but it didn't take off any scratches exactly and if you're buying a used car be careful of that because sometimes unscrupulous car dealer people occasionally will coat an entire car in silicon or oil or something like that it's an amazing engine base particularly the first time you wash it it ends up looking like this panel so keep an eye for that that's a good example of how it works the compounds work well this one's the smoothest a lot of this is about feel as well you can feel how it's taken off all the sort of bumps and scratches and stuff the professional one is the most professional it is um the toothpaste and piss is the most useless i reckon in terms of the alternative methods better than water better than water but this one the avocado is amazing so over here is our control the avocado we were just trying to hypothesize maybe the outside of this because it's kind of hard it's kind of like a rubbery sandpaper but then it was also hypothesized avocado oil it's a thing and it's used for oiling things and in a sense we have nourished the panel so the winner is the professional product for the diyness it's the avocado what we still haven't done yet though is fixed the car but luckily our mate trung is coming over and then he's probably gonna go this is all and just get out something completely different and show us how to fix it but he's on his way here now so let's get to actually fixing the problem we started with which is marty's shagged bonnet yo hey how are you doing right it smells like we just were doing a scientific experiment over here checking out different ways to repair paint and urine was used all right what do you reckon which you use in your professional paint shop right which one which one do you reckon the best yeah don't look at this which piece of that panel looks the best the fuel flap the fuel flap avocado no yes yeah that's the avocado it's smooth man it's all oiled up well done um yeah we thought we'd experiment with some stuff on there but this is obviously the fresh paint that's on the mirror and i might have got a little bit of polish on it so sorry about that uh but yeah as you can see i think someone put a box on it it looks like a box went on it and then a box went off it and it's gone scratch scratch scratched the whole way down can you show us what you're going to use like can you lay it out and show us what because i want to see how different it is to what we've been using we're repairing the scratched paint by polishing or buffing it out using a compound which is another word for polish stage systems result in the shiniest smoothest finish possible all right so we are ready to go now you've got gloves we're going to shake hands welcome to the mighty car mods hq all right run us through what you're going to do mate so we can try and do it ourselves later on wreck our bonnet all right so i'll get some 3m grit uh 3000 grit just give it a sand with a bit of water and then 5 000 and then sanding it with water's known as a wet sand right believe it or not good and then after i would wipe it down and then hit it with a buff okay and the buff have a product on it a very specific product so just step one uh stage one 3m yep with a rupes green green pad cool how far do we go like do we get up to tune and exhaust as well do we get stage two or we just go on stage one today just the just flash we'll go to three stages yes we love three stages it's not that uncommon for some car owners to spend thousands of dollars on paint correction on brand new cars that have just come straight from the factory the term detailing really does apply here when you consider the hours of work involved and the various products required to do this really well first you've got to smear it yep and then the first pass will sort of you're smearing it and you're letting the grit do its work and then the second pass all the oxide cutters have diminished so you're sort of buffing those coarser scratches out and then before you move on to the next step and how much pressure you sort of applying we do it because it's kind of hard to see are you really pushing into it or is it just the weight of the machine um it depends on how deep the scratches are so because we've already 3000 and then 5000 grit you can pretty much you can sort of hand polish it it will come out but obviously it's a lot faster with this yeah and but you don't have to apply that much pressure a lot of it should come out yeah it already looks mad so we're just seeing the product sort of swirl up there hey yeah oh wow it's like a mirror finish this the second pass will be you sort of let the pressure off a bit yeah so that'll sort of makes it less coarse cutting with a different product uh with the same thing the same same one but just sort of release the pressure a bit go for it mate all right here we go oh we'll spread it first just slowly right just give it a dab just move it around that yup dab it around all right here we go and keep it flat yeah keep it flat i don't know if that works what do you reckon yeah that looks pretty good so just yeah see hey the scratch is gone yeah there's some really light ones still there yeah but i might have done that with the deep scratches removed with the first stage compound the finer compounds will remove any marks left over from the second and again to the third each one a little smoother than the previous to finish it off trung is going to apply some carnuba wax which will help achieve a mirror finish applying it by hand warms it up and it can then be buffed to a shine with a microfiber towel remember the best way to fix scratches is to not get them in the first place don't put stuff on other people's cars be aware of opening doors on windy days return that shopping trolley and just generally try and be a team player when it comes to mad looking rides professional products work because they're made for doing professional things but if you really need to go for a homemade solution then avocado is going to give you a better result than urine we did it so you don't have to and just look at the finished results the mirror is incredible around about 24 hours ago life was a bit lemony i had my mad mirror with big scratches on it because someone dragged something over the bonnet it was upsetting me a lot and because of my good friend here we've now turned it into some some delicious glossy lemonade i don't know if it's because of me i mean we were meant to be doing another episode today of unloading a box full of jdm parts that we got from japan and then marty's like look what happened to my thing and i was like let's just make a video it's a car it's needs work that's kind of what we do how you feeling martin i'm stoked it's it's it's amazing it looks good we learned some stuff with our experimentation that we've been wanting to do for a long time we did my bonnet's fixed chung taught me how to use a buff which i'm still a little bit scared of i'm not going to lie thank you trung by the way thank you very much for coming now still got the big box of jdm goodies right up there that we're going to unpack in an upcoming episode that's right of course if you do want one of the limited edition mirror posters so cool these will be signed and we ship them worldwide you can get them now martin's going to get the previous one these will be individually signed they're not printed or anything if you order one look at exciting sign you want your name on it if you've got one of the previous ones you can hang them side by side but if you don't or you missed out on that one this is your chance they're available right now but they are limited never doing this design again once they're gone they're gone martin i suggest we go feast on some male yak milk really yes i want yak milk ice cream would you go that do you know some people there's human boob ice cream no i'm not gonna love it oh they had that then they banned it you got me booby milk ice cream that would make me yakin this episode of mighty car mods we are mixing things up a little bit we are working on the mirror from our feature film key to the city but before we dive into that i want to show you something very special very limited we have an all-new so good limited edition poster this is by uh jess dhoni who's a mighty car mods fan um who did this image for us we have these signed posters these are gonna be around for one week uh and then they're gone they're gone forever we will never do this uh this design again we will be signing your orders individually and these are available from the mighty car module the thing so there's a thing dropping down mightycommods.com limited edition mirror poster there's the car there's the car it's very exciting so that's the good news so grab one of them now because they'll probably be gone by the next time uh you have a look in a week's time the good news is that they're not so good news is that i parked my car and when i came back to my car as so often happens someone has put something on my bonnet walked away come back and gone i'll just grab my stuff like that that has gone there and then just box shaped massive scratch no we did not do it yes when we painted the wheels years ago that was him with a brick this is not what happened in this case um i only noticed it yesterday because i brought it in here and turned the lights on and went in my car because this car is freshly painted and freshly painted about where i park it like a lot of people modified cars so today we're gonna fix it normally there's happy music on the intro bit but there's sad music because there has been more hours of love and work gone into this car than pretty much any other project um on mighty car mods this is the one that's got the restitched floor this is the one that was half australian car half japanese car put back together it's like so much work it's not funny we had a whole group of us working on it lots of help and so when the car is all perfect and it's all done and then you have something like this it's actually what we call a wormhole it sucks in all of your time and emotional energy and that is why it must be fixed that's why it must be fixed now luckily it looks like a lot of the damage is in the clear coat um it's it's scratched from like different angles so it's it looks the size and shape of a box um which is probably what happens because people go this way though right you can see people go to the shops i mean you see all the time they get their shopping bags and they they put it on your roof or your thing and then they turn around put stuff in the car and go like that because i don't want to lift it up um dude that's the exact angle actually the way you just did it like that is the way these guys and it's super obvious in this because this is recently painted it's got quite thick clear coat on it it's been buffed it's been paint protected it's had all this stuff done to keep it looking awesome because you just wash it and it looks this shiny which is really cool but something like this is super obvious and it needs to be sorted out so we're going to go through a couple of ways you can fix this we're going to get a special friend of ours to come and give us some tips because he's a pro and does this all day every day which will help and we might even dig out one of the old panels from this car and do some experiments this here is the original panel that was on the car in japan when we were drifting it under rainbows as you can see it does have a bit of damage from its time in japan but this here is what we're going to practice on it already looked pretty beat up before it got cut in half but then when it got cut in half and put into a pallet into a container this was the outside and this is what we picked off a little while back when we put the mirror together this car was 300 in japan yeah so it's like you know it's it wasn't exactly 16. what we thought we might do that might be interesting rather than just dive straight into that we might try and educate ourselves a little bit about the different ways that we can sort of repair some of this stuff now this is fairly extreme like big scratches like that and through all the paint you're not gonna be able to repair those but ones like this that's actually similar to what we've got on the bonnet it is so we thought you might tape it up and try a few different products because one of the issues with repairing things like this is there's lots of products out there that promise you the world that say they'll fix every scratch with just a little thing and you've only got to go on like a social media thing and see one of those you know fast forward ads where people like fixes everything just with one i saw a magic cloth thing that is literally just like this and it said the cloth had nano particles in it right as does a beach and a beanbag uh no but it had nanoparticles and it basically showed this and then that someone wipes it over like this and it said before and after and had a picture of a bmw but the bmw had different wheels on it afterwards like it actually was a different car so they're just complaining we can be fairly certain if you've watched enough mighty carmel's videos that this is the same panel that was on that car not that it matters what we're doing now but what we'll do is i'm just going to wipe all the dust off it so we can see what we're dealing with and then we'll just try a couple of different things to see what we can fix up and hopefully apply some of those techniques to that um and yeah yeah so we've got some different products we're gonna do some of it by hand we're gonna use some machines um and we're just gonna see what works and then we'll have an expert come and tell us that probably everything we've done is wrong and actually show us how to do it properly so he can help us fix that we're using wax and grease remover to take off any dust and contaminants then taping the panel into sections so we can compare each of our products both typical and experimental we've got a lot of products laid out here on this panel we've got little markers between each of them so we can do some tests and show you some science we're actually not showing you science we're just showing you results martin what are we going to do we're going to start with wd-40 now i don't necessarily recommend you polish your car with it but we've heard rumors that you can do this so we're going to try it and just see what happens and we've had good success polishing wheels with that we have exactly so it works good on metal don't know how it's going to work on paint we're going to find out we've also got a few different levels of the sort of cuts and cleaners and stuff that you can buy from various shops this is like a bargain entry level type thing um cutting compound we're going to try that then we've got like a mid-level one this is where you're paying a little bit more money for it it promises to do a few more things and then we're going pro and then we've got like a pro level one um that we've used with great success in the past as well covered all the logos just because it doesn't matter go to the shop and you can work out exactly what's what coming up next month this is where we've got some interesting stuff we have had some great success in the past uh a combination of urine and toothpaste there's no urine in there yet there will be soon just giving you give me a minute uh and also avocado which you may have seen in the past we had great success buffing headlights to get rid of all of that cloudy stuff with avocado so we're going to be using that as well now martin we just need to control because it's science control of how they're applied and how they're buffed so let's show the people that and then let's kick the music and get into the experiment first up we have to apply the products there's two ways to do that you can do it by hand or you can use various machines this is what's known as a rotary buffer yes it looks like an angle grinder because it basically is one and you can buy these pads you can buy different kind of pads one that are specifically for cutting different grades we've got a black one which is more for finishing but what we're going to do today this will be totally fine or you can apply it by hand with something like that which is basically just a little sponge now once the products are applied with that then they're going to be buffed off there's a couple of ways you could do it you could buff them off by hand using some little microfiber cloths or you could use something like this which is a cordless buffer now we just uh roby didn't actually send us this we just went and bought it retail 99 but full disclosure ryobi is a sponsor of the show but this here is a battery operated buffer that says it's good for cars get out get out and this here is um not how you open the box so i've never seen this product before but that's going to go on there there's a battery i gather somewhere on here there's a button there it is that made that weird off it goes into my ears so we're going to put a little buffer on there pad look at that thing so these are really good particularly if you're like waxing a car or something um or a boat or a boat or a dolphin particularly that's what they're for now the rotary thing i showed you before that's for getting a lot of heat and friction into the panel and like removing stuff this is really good particularly if you are applying wax or something to be removed but we're actually cutting into the surface look at that that's good it pretty much saves you a whole lot of elbow grease of using microfibers back and forth for 10 minutes i'll do it in a couple of seconds and battery powered which is excellent okay mark get into it let the science begin all right step one wd i got high hopes for the wd mate um so we're gonna apply it look it looks good because we are rubbing we've had a blowout on the urine bottle we're we're rubbing in like a lubricant and a like thinner type material into the panel so look it looks amazing i don't know that i recommend coating your entire car in wd-40 um but you can't argue with that what it's not doing is taking out any scratches and i don't think it's going to because it's not really abrasive i'm going to unfill this urine bottle because it just keeps falling down i'll be back in a minute i think it's fairly safe to say that that's not going to remove any scratches it looks nice and shiny because we've essentially rubbed an oil into our panel so i'm going to call it a win next up we have your bargain basement cutting compound this is the kind of stuff you can buy at your supermarket or even a servo it full disclosure has been sitting in the cupboard for a little while so it'd be interesting to see how well it actually works but it pretty much just looks like that and you just apply it to the panel and this is designed to cut back scratches and stuff like that as well so you apply it by hand and just rub it on imagine it as like liquid sandpaper by hand it is going to take some time um these all these compounds and polishes and stuff the more sort of mechanical friction you can put into it the quicker it's going to go but you can get results by hand as well so if you've got a little scratch this will take it out it will also take off like any wax or anything else that's on your paint as well so be aware of that that if you cut this back you're cutting back actually abrading the clear coat that's on it or if it's a single color car then you're actually cutting back the paint itself which you mostly see on older cars this is clear over base so it has like the metallic and then the clear coat over the top so there you go it's a little bit of crap coming off you can easily check the sponge and just see what's on there and this this will you also notice if your paint's really dirty that it'll start to discolor the sponge so that's applied you can rub it and rub it rub it keep rubbing it and we take that off with another cloth and see what it looks like it should shine up a little bit hopefully there you go mate let's see what we've got yeah it's definitely shiny it's taken off like any kind of haze of rot that's on there although at the moment looks pretty similar to our wd-40 there we go we'll know at the end martin that there we go there's a bit of yeah dirt and bit of stuff coming off good next up we'll move to the kind of mid-range this is your kind of super cheap auto cut and polish isn't it yeah exactly you're kind of this is going to get all the range rather than sending you back sort of like 10 bucks is going to say 20 or 20 30 or 30 yeah probably close to that this is also a cut cutting compound as well um you can get various levels a lot of the time they have a scale on the bottle that tells you what sort of level of cut it's going to give you and based on how scratched or how dirty it is you can choose what you need you apply it rub it on this action now is what's actually going to remove any scratches or imperfections you really got to get into it or it doesn't do anything at all right using a different bit of this cloth that's actually looking pretty good it looks good yeah it's taking out a bit more of the scratches but by hand it's always yeah actually can't argue with that that looks pretty good like some of the really light scratches and some of these heavier ones are still there you know what i reckon we do afterwards once we've done this is i reckon we use then a machine for each of them quickly again try a machine machine machine and buff off with their aov as well cool all right let's try the pro one next up we have like a pro grade compound so this is the kind of thing that panel shops will use painters and detailers and stuff all have their own you know preferences of what to use based on their experience but this is a good one that we have used in the past with some success it's also if you're doing this all day every day a lot of the time the kind of products that you're going to use are going to be ones that might be like less dust come out of them when you buff them off maybe they're water-based so they're not as hard to clean out of all your materials you can reuse your sponges all that kind of stuff so that's sort of what comes into it with a pro level one and people think these are direct to detail like you can't buy these at a shop they're not a retail product now it's the kind of thing that you you get at a panel shop and you're buying bulk because you'd go through a lot of it yeah um so yeah again most of these are designed to be used with a machine but we're going to do it by hand first and see what kind of results we get then we might try it with the machine as well okay that's on all right we'll get rid of that one yeah unsurprisingly that looks pretty good yeah straight away it is at least as good as that one and looks nice and shiny but it's actually you can see it's cutting and it's taking a bit of the dirt off as well yep use a clean use a clean towel every time you take it off yeah so this is a new one or i'm kind of turning over but this is a new towel you know what it just looks a bit smoother than that yeah oh creamier you know what i mean yeah there's still something a bit more finished hard to see on a black panel as well sometimes but that looks pretty good so i reckon we'll um we might do the same thing with the various three various compounds that we've used and hit it with the machine and just see if that gets any more off it this is where you can damage your car if you use a machine like this and you use a compound incorrectly so read up be careful takes a bit of practice go slow get an old panel try it at first and when you're confident then do it on your car let's do it but after that we actually get to the science and see whether an avocado which we have had legitimately excellent results with in the past works or um the warm urine was it warm and the toothpaste because it's fresh and the toothpaste as well we're gonna try those as well and we have had some success with them in the past so we'll see so we'll machine the proper products first and then we'll see how they hold up against these bad boys man let's do it do all right so we've used the machine on all the cutting compounds the various levels they've all kind of done basically the same job you can see that the machine upgrades it way more and it actually feels smooth as well yeah yeah which is pretty cool nothing's going to save these big scratches that have gone all the way through the clear coat but any areas that don't have damage they look they look great like if your whole car had pain of that level that was a bit faded and you just buffed it it would look amazing what's interesting from what we can see is that the pro level stuff looks the best like unquestionably like you can see that that is better than anything else that we've done so far the mid-range one though looks really good the difference between these two is not huge no the difference between these two is huge which means don't go for the really really cheap stuff um go go for the mid-range stuff so that's we basically got winner a close second and lucky last and wd well we didn't use a machine on that but it is what it is and i reckon if you're desperate you can probably use that but still we haven't even got to the good stuff yet people important stuff so now it's time next up we've got toothpaste and urine me all right you know what's interesting about that that is as good as that but not as good as these two yes i would agree okay so it's done something it's done something so teeth it's better than that toothpaste and urine looks equivalent to the cheapest product we use but not nearly as good as these two but it's also taken off all this rubbish when you compare it to next door like look at that that's still smashed but now people are under the good stuff yeah which is the avocado i got high hopes so let's kick into it since the video we did all those years ago with avocado there has been some contention in the comments about whether you use the skin or whether you use the flesh basically we're just going to keep rubbing the skin until the goo comes out without the avocado though the avocado is proving a little bit more challenging dude it's done something it's done something look look it's actually it does work me it's just put a lot of avocado in my fuel filler flat but look that's way cleaner than it was it's actually cleaned the paint i don't know if i call it polish or compound but i'd call it paint cleaner really yeah look how clean that is wow i would say it's more effective than piss in a highly scientific peer-reviewed study in which we were rated five stars do you know who rated us that me um we've got our panel now unsurprisingly the compounds did what you'd expect the wd-40 came off as soon as i like removed the stuff with the alcohol because it's basically oil looks better than nothing but it didn't take off any scratches exactly and if you're buying a used car be careful of that because sometimes unscrupulous car dealer people occasionally will coat an entire car in silicon or oil or something like that it's an amazing engine base particularly the first time you wash it it ends up looking like this panel so keep an eye for that that's a good example of how it works the compounds work well this one's the smoothest a lot of this is about feel as well you can feel how it's taken off all the sort of bumps and scratches and stuff the professional one is the most professional it is um the toothpaste and piss is the most useless i reckon in terms of the alternative methods better than water better than water but this one the avocado is amazing so over here is our control the avocado we were just trying to hypothesize maybe the outside of this because it's kind of hard it's kind of like a rubbery sandpaper but then it was also hypothesized avocado oil it's a thing and it's used for oiling things and in a sense we have nourished the panel so the winner is the professional product for the diyness it's the avocado what we still haven't done yet though is fixed the car but luckily our mate trung is coming over and then he's probably gonna go this is all and just get out something completely different and show us how to fix it but he's on his way here now so let's get to actually fixing the problem we started with which is marty's shagged bonnet yo hey how are you doing right it smells like we just were doing a scientific experiment over here checking out different ways to repair paint and urine was used all right what do you reckon which you use in your professional paint shop right which one which one do you reckon the best yeah don't look at this which piece of that panel looks the best the fuel flap the fuel flap avocado no yes yeah that's the avocado it's smooth man it's all oiled up well done um yeah we thought we'd experiment with some stuff on there but this is obviously the fresh paint that's on the mirror and i might have got a little bit of polish on it so sorry about that uh but yeah as you can see i think someone put a box on it it looks like a box went on it and then a box went off it and it's gone scratch scratch scratched the whole way down can you show us what you're going to use like can you lay it out and show us what because i want to see how different it is to what we've been using we're repairing the scratched paint by polishing or buffing it out using a compound which is another word for polish stage systems result in the shiniest smoothest finish possible all right so we are ready to go now you've got gloves we're going to shake hands welcome to the mighty car mods hq all right run us through what you're going to do mate so we can try and do it ourselves later on wreck our bonnet all right so i'll get some 3m grit uh 3000 grit just give it a sand with a bit of water and then 5 000 and then sanding it with water's known as a wet sand right believe it or not good and then after i would wipe it down and then hit it with a buff okay and the buff have a product on it a very specific product so just step one uh stage one 3m yep with a rupes green green pad cool how far do we go like do we get up to tune and exhaust as well do we get stage two or we just go on stage one today just the just flash we'll go to three stages yes we love three stages it's not that uncommon for some car owners to spend thousands of dollars on paint correction on brand new cars that have just come straight from the factory the term detailing really does apply here when you consider the hours of work involved and the various products required to do this really well first you've got to smear it yep and then the first pass will sort of you're smearing it and you're letting the grit do its work and then the second pass all the oxide cutters have diminished so you're sort of buffing those coarser scratches out and then before you move on to the next step and how much pressure you sort of applying we do it because it's kind of hard to see are you really pushing into it or is it just the weight of the machine um it depends on how deep the scratches are so because we've already 3000 and then 5000 grit you can pretty much you can sort of hand polish it it will come out but obviously it's a lot faster with this yeah and but you don't have to apply that much pressure a lot of it should come out yeah it already looks mad so we're just seeing the product sort of swirl up there hey yeah oh wow it's like a mirror finish this the second pass will be you sort of let the pressure off a bit yeah so that'll sort of makes it less coarse cutting with a different product uh with the same thing the same same one but just sort of release the pressure a bit go for it mate all right here we go oh we'll spread it first just slowly right just give it a dab just move it around that yup dab it around all right here we go and keep it flat yeah keep it flat i don't know if that works what do you reckon yeah that looks pretty good so just yeah see hey the scratch is gone yeah there's some really light ones still there yeah but i might have done that with the deep scratches removed with the first stage compound the finer compounds will remove any marks left over from the second and again to the third each one a little smoother than the previous to finish it off trung is going to apply some carnuba wax which will help achieve a mirror finish applying it by hand warms it up and it can then be buffed to a shine with a microfiber towel remember the best way to fix scratches is to not get them in the first place don't put stuff on other people's cars be aware of opening doors on windy days return that shopping trolley and just generally try and be a team player when it comes to mad looking rides professional products work because they're made for doing professional things but if you really need to go for a homemade solution then avocado is going to give you a better result than urine we did it so you don't have to and just look at the finished results the mirror is incredible around about 24 hours ago life was a bit lemony i had my mad mirror with big scratches on it because someone dragged something over the bonnet it was upsetting me a lot and because of my good friend here we've now turned it into some some delicious glossy lemonade i don't know if it's because of me i mean we were meant to be doing another episode today of unloading a box full of jdm parts that we got from japan and then marty's like look what happened to my thing and i was like let's just make a video it's a car it's needs work that's kind of what we do how you feeling martin i'm stoked it's it's it's amazing it looks good we learned some stuff with our experimentation that we've been wanting to do for a long time we did my bonnet's fixed chung taught me how to use a buff which i'm still a little bit scared of i'm not going to lie thank you trung by the way thank you very much for coming now still got the big box of jdm goodies right up there that we're going to unpack in an upcoming episode that's right of course if you do want one of the limited edition mirror posters so cool these will be signed and we ship them worldwide you can get them now martin's going to get the previous one these will be individually signed they're not printed or anything if you order one look at exciting sign you want your name on it if you've got one of the previous ones you can hang them side by side but if you don't or you missed out on that one this is your chance they're available right now but they are limited never doing this design again once they're gone they're gone martin i suggest we go feast on some male yak milk really yes i want yak milk ice cream would you go that do you know some people there's human boob ice cream no i'm not gonna love it oh they had that then they banned it you got me booby milk ice cream that would make me yak\n"