put my cyclo to the test!

[Donavin629]

Whats up guys.. just thought I would share the latest with a little testing I did today.

Was a nice sunny day today and my roommate has the perfect test car to try stuff out on.. and since she does not care about her car so even if I mess up it wont matter.

Here is what I tested out today.. been trying to cut my scratch removal time during the detail.. and also work on not causing such a mess with splatter by using my Makita high speed buffer.

So I ordered a couple of the yellow wool pads for my cyclo to give it a test.



Here were my steps.

Wash car with ONR.

System one polish with cyclo machine and yellow wool pads.

Now i did have to go over the are a couple times.. I usually go back and forth then up and down and then in small circular motions.

Wipe polish off

Switch to yellow foam pads to remove the swirls from the wool pads.



And boooya.. looks pretty damn good to me.



And I did not even have to brake out the big high speed to get this stuff.. I was pretty impressed.



Let me know if you have any questions.. of course im sure I will need my Makita for the bigger/ deeper scratches.. but I think I can get away with a lot just using my cyclo.



Even shined up the headlights with no problems.



YOUR THOUGHTS OR FEEDBACK IS GREATLY APPRECIATED

BEFORE

After

Roof before

roof after

And of course what is a detailer without his helper

 

[BobD]

I'm a Cyclo guy myself. Always loved working with it.



One word of advice. NEVER put your pads or towels on the ground. I'd probbaly toss my pads if they where on the ground like that.

 

[sparklescarwash]

Wow looks great very impressive

 

[Scottwax]

Nice job. Never tried my Cyclo with the wool pads. Sold it after I got my rotary, figured that a rotary and a G110 was enough. Miss the Cyclo when I am doing full sized SUVs but not the high cost of the Edge pads.

 

[efnfast]

Nice job. Never tried my Cyclo with the wool pads. Sold it after I got my rotary, figured that a rotary and a G110 was enough. Miss the Cyclo when I am doing full sized SUVs but not the high cost of the Edge pads.

Wool pads work quite nicely with it. No idea about the yellow wool, but PFW was decent. Normaly (white/grey) wool was okay, but left lots of compounding swirls.



However, the normal wool looked absolutely retarded - like somebody grabbed a baby sheep and glued it onto the back of the pad :LOLOL

 

[Accumulator]

donavin629- Glad you founda product that works well with the Cyclo via their wool pads.



I'm always a little surprised that few people use the Cyclo/edge 4" wool pads. You do have to find the right product for them, but they can do some serious work.



Oh, and I enjoyed the pic of her helper too



Almost forgot, Welcome to Autopia!

 

[Donavin629]

donavin629- Glad you founda product that works well with the Cyclo via their wool pads.



I'm always a little surprised that few people use the Cyclo/edge 4" wool pads. You do have to find the right product for them, but they can do some serious work.



Oh, and I enjoyed the pic of her helper too



Almost forgot, Welcome to Autopia!

yeah well i wanted to see if the wool pads can maybe help me avoid using the high speed buffer.. one no more risk of burning the paint. i know there are times when the high speed is needed no matter what. but i avoid it if can.



for a couple of reasons

1 spatter. .even though the wool pads on the cyclo left lint everywhere it was easier to get off than splatter on the windows and cracks.



2 no risk of permanent damage to paint job.



3. easier to maneuver the cyclo compared to high-speed.



Cause most customers I run into today just want the shine to come back.. sure they want the unsightly scratch taken out that a car did when they were parked at the mall.. but most the time they don’t care about every single spider web scratch in the paint.. I point it out to them all the time but when I explain how it takes time they say don’t worry about all that.. so I never really go crazy unless customer request.. but I always explain the situation and what I can do for them.. I leave the ball in their court.

 

[Accumulator]

... i know there are times when the high speed is needed no matter what. but i avoid it if can..

Yeah, I'd much rather use my Flex or the Cyclos than either of my rotaries too.



And I like it that you explain things to your customers and let them make the call :xyxthumbs

 

[alloutdetailing]

yeah well i wanted to see if the wool pads can maybe help me avoid using the high speed buffer.. one no more risk of burning the paint. i know there are times when the high speed is needed no matter what. but i avoid it if can.



for a couple of reasons

1 spatter. .even though the wool pads on the cyclo left lint everywhere it was easier to get off than splatter on the windows and cracks.



2 no risk of permanent damage to paint job.



3. easier to maneuver the cyclo compared to high-speed.



Cause most customers I run into today just want the shine to come back.. sure they want the unsightly scratch taken out that a car did when they were parked at the mall.. but most the time they don’t care about every single spider web scratch in the paint.. I point it out to them all the time but when I explain how it takes time they say don’t worry about all that.. so I never really go crazy unless customer request.. but I always explain the situation and what I can do for them.. I leave the ball in their court.

Your the first person on here who says that there customers don't really care about the spider webs. Good to know there are real people on here. lol jk

 

[vtec92civic]

he's not the only one. Most people out here say the same thing. The thing is nobody wants to spend $400 or what not on a correction to just visit the tunnel wash and have them all re-appear again LOL

 

[Donavin629]

trust me i hate letting a car leave my hands with imperfections still on it!!! eats me up inside.. i would rather do the job right and take my time.. but again... when im detailing a soccer moms car she is thrilled on what i can do for the price im giving her.. times are rough.. unless all your clients are upscale.. most people just want the shiny look and call it a day.. they are not looking at the angles we look at...



i have had some upscale clients that do care but its rare.. plus i enjoy working on the regular every day American customers.. they appreciate your hard work more because they dont have the time usually to do it themselves and love how i can come to their work and restore their car.

 

[Junebug]

One hard lesson I learned was not to try to polish a turd, even though you want to do your best, those customers don't look at it like we do, they don't want to pay for your best, they are happy with getting the crud off and a slick finish.

 

[BobD]

One hard lesson I learned was not to try to polish a turd, even though you want to do your best, those customers don't look at it like we do, they don't want to pay for your best, they are happy with getting the crud off and a slick finish.

I sort of agree but I'd say do what the customer wants. If the customer has a "turd" and they want to pay $300 for a full polish on it I'd do what they wanted.

 

[Donavin629]

Whats up guys.. here is the latest nightmare I had.. lol I always like a good challenge though.. so I like doing these kinds of jobs.. lets me push the limit of my products and skill.

Well she did not come out perfect because this customer was not even paying close to what she should be.. but I needed the money and she is getting the scratches I could not take out touched up through my contract paint guy.. so I will get a cut of that sale as well . .so it should even out for the most part.

Again I used the same method as before.. cyclo with wool pads and cyclo yellow cutting foam pads.

Did the car without the use of a highspeed so it cut my cleaning time and steps down.

again I know there are still some scratches left behind but im not killing myself for chump change lol.. and again the customer hardly notices these tiny scratches compared to what it looked like before.

As you can see this baby was in bad shape.

Also I tried to get this scratch out of the plastic but I was not successful.. I did buff it down a lot but could not get it out.. any suggestions?

And last question… this car was really treated like crap so there were a lot of markings that ate through the clear coat.. example bird crap , bugs.. etc.. and this spill on the hood as well.. is there anything I can do with that?

Thanks again for the help