# How to machine polish the Wheeler Dealer Way



## Beno (Nov 19, 2010)

Dont ask me why but I was up at 5 this morning and was watching good old wheeler dealers on Turbo. One of my favourite cars of all times the Lancia Delta. I was just thinking what a nice job Ed was doing until I seen him machine polish it :buffer: 



 about 3 mins in please try to not laugh :lol:


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## Turkleton (Apr 18, 2010)

:buffer:
:lol:


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## andye (Apr 15, 2007)

Do you think he got enough wax on there


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2010)

Looks like an srp bottle to me.........

Nice water and sling.....idiot!


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## karl_liverpool (Sep 25, 2008)

anyone notice the front wing holograms at 3:54 lol


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2010)

karl_liverpool said:


> anyone notice the front wing holograms at 3:54 lol


Yes!!:thumb:


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

Love the way that when he's describing the polisher, he sitting there on the paint, which could cause any amount of damage, and then when he puts the bottle back on the paintwork at about 3:03


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## Jem (Aug 10, 2007)

It's the way the car trade is though. 95% of car dealers and traders would look at you blankly if you said 'detailing' and when they refer to 'mopping' a car they mean what you see in that video. They have been doing it for years and don't know any better. And 99% of their customers are happy with the result. while we know the difference between swirls, holograms ect, the vast majority will see a clean and essentially shiny car and say, "That looks fantastic."

Conversely if Mr. China was a bit of an avid detailer and was seen using a nice rotary, 3M pads and polishes, not sitting on the car and we were commending him on doing a great job, on a car traders forum they be posting a thread saying, "Look at this prat mopping a car dry with no water, can you imagine how hot the panels must be getting, he's going to burn the paint doing that!!!"


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## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

I got strangely mesmorised watching that with no sound, soon got bored though


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## MSD1540 (Oct 29, 2010)

If it's as easy as he's making out I might have a go myself!


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## paulmc08 (Feb 3, 2009)

karl_liverpool said:


> anyone notice the front wing holograms at 3:54 lol


and did you also see how quickly the camera moved away from that spot lol


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## Lump (Nov 6, 2008)

jem said:


> It's the way the car trade is though. 95% of car dealers and traders would look at you blankly if you said 'detailing' and when they refer to 'mopping' a car they mean what you see in that video. They have been doing it for years and don't know any better. And 99% of their customers are happy with the result. while we know the difference between swirls, holograms ect, the vast majority will see a clean and essentially shiny car and say, "That looks fantastic."


exactly how it is :buffer::buffer:


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Still watched the whole thing no matter how many times ive seen them.
Great motor, heck as stated the trade needs to move stuff and speed is key, yes bottle also made me thing autoglym straight away.
The times ive seen Edd take parts off and put back on still with surface rust on i know they are tucked away and not realy seen and in the trade makes perfect sense but i would take 6 times longer as the ocd would want to wire brush stabalise and re paint.


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## centenary (Sep 5, 2010)

Love watching wheelie dealies. Great fun.

I dont think they've resprayed a car yet without ruining the new paint work with swirls and the like.

They spent 2 grand doing a porsche in brown metallic and when they showed it having all the brightwork re fitted, it was full of swirls.

Beep, beep:driver:


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## Jem (Aug 10, 2007)

I love the MKI MR-2 one where they need a new front wing, and a local scrap yard has a second hand one that is bodyshop fresh both inside and out:lol:

Skip to 9:30


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## k4ith (Apr 3, 2008)

Edd's a god, its wheeler dealers not detail dealers. Great programme.


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## Leodhasach (Sep 15, 2008)

Poor technique abound.

That said, the likes of Wheeler Dealers does serve a purpose. I used to watch it quite a lot when I was younger, and looking after my parent's cars. This was around the time I discovered Meguiar's products, which also kick-started my detailing obsession. I reckon that, combined with seeing what they were doing on Wheeler Dealers (I used to be really impressed to be fair), did a lot to encourage me to seek out the best ways of looking after and improving the finish on a car, which of course led me to this site :thumb:


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## bigmc (Mar 22, 2010)

The whole show is so stagedit's unreal, I still watch it though. Some of the cars are blatantly not sold for the price.


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## pete5570 (Jun 11, 2010)

Lighten up! It's wheeler dealers and ed is a mechanic. The show crams a lot into 1 hr, you can't expect perfection,just a very tidy motor.It's a great show.


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## -Ashley- (Nov 19, 2010)

"Quite a lot of water . . . this is heavy duty stuff and . . . could burn the paint".

Yes Ed it could, if you're a cretin!!!!

I understand people defending WD and Ed, it's a good programme. But don't act like an expert on something which you clearly know nothing about, the cameraman got drowned poor fella.


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## mk2jon (Mar 10, 2009)

k4ith said:


> Edd's a god, its wheeler dealers not detail dealers. Great programme.


:thumb:


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

Great programme.

He uses G3 which does need to be used with water, I have done enough body shop mops to know. You get an hour to mop the car, so no refining down.

But even thought there is loads of splatter as it it wet is easily wiped up.


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

-Ashley- said:


> "Quite a lot of water . . . this is heavy duty stuff and . . . could burn the paint".
> 
> Yes Ed it could, if you're a cretin!!!!
> 
> I understand people defending WD and Ed, it's a good programme. But don't act like an expert on something which you clearly know nothing about, the cameraman got drowned poor fella.


Hey most folks that catch a wheeler dealer will not have a clue about polishing.

Classic Edd...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/content/articles/2006/08/22/race_that_sofa_feature.shtml

On another point the brand new Audi on 5th gear was covered in swirls


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

Love WD's :thumb:


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## VinnyTGM (May 10, 2010)

That looks like an AG bodyshop polish which is not meant to be used with water!


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## *Das* (Aug 9, 2010)

VinnyTGM said:


> That looks like an AG bodyshop polish


How can you tell??


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## dan1985 (Jun 24, 2010)

Oh dear wheeler dealers strikes again. I love watching this show just for the crap staging. Mike always has a "contact" who will sort him stuff out cheap


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## adam91 (Mar 17, 2009)

I love watching wheeler dealers, but can't see how they shift some of those vehicles on for a profit... 
I watched one this morning which had an old VW Camper Van, which they spent £8500+ on it including a £3000 paint job in a random, not so nice, burnt orange colour; and at the end of the show Mike was saying a soldier has offered him £9400 when he's got back home... 
Good entertainment all the same!


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## Beau Technique (Jun 21, 2010)

VinnyTGM said:


> That looks like an AG bodyshop polish which is not meant to be used with water!


It is.



DasArab said:


> How can you tell??


The typical farecla bottle is yellow and tapers at the top, AG trade polish bottle are identical to 1ltr srp bottles.

Know one would own up to it but i bet a few have polished like this:lol:

As for the usage of farecla, trade refinishing is bish, bash bosh.
You can use water to cool the product but not from the wor go or your defeating the object of the product your using.


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## mas (Oct 4, 2010)

I think WD is great! if i had the chance to buy one of his motors i think i probably would - but i think id get a professional to sort the paint work out!


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## Dipesh (Oct 12, 2007)

It's wheeler dealers chaps, not a detailing program. 

I don't think ed cares too much about sling and the main thing is the car sold so all in all a adequate result.


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## liamsxa (Nov 3, 2007)

Suprising how many people on here really dont have a clue!!! this is what happens in bodyshops and it does improve the finish, as long as you don't spend 100 kwid on a super dooper swirl finding torch the average joe wont know the difference!!! people forget how anal detailing is and time consuming the whole thing is a time consuming hobby and most people dont have time to bother with it.


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## Guest (Dec 6, 2010)

I wish I even had half of Ed's skills.


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## karl_liverpool (Sep 25, 2008)

Beau Technique said:


> As for the usage of farecla, trade refinishing is bish, bash bosh.
> You can use water to cool the product but not from the wor go or your defeating the object of the product your using.


i have seen an oldschool painter use nothin but a polishing pad and water and correct paint to perfection. the guy was 65 when i seen him do it and been painting since has was 14. he said that is how they had to do it before all these modern polih's came out. the finish was stunning.


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## guy_92 (Oct 26, 2010)

When I used to work at a dealership this used to be their process, I managed to educate them a bit so they went with a one stage polish, forgot what it was called now, something from Concept Chemicals, done a good enough job without holograms etc. There is such a high volume of work at dealers so you don't really get time for proper valeting/detailing tbh.


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## Miracle Detail (Jun 4, 2010)

Id love to see the finish in my new Detailing studio under 12 metal halide lamps!


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## Miracle Detail (Jun 4, 2010)

guy_92 said:


> When I used to work at a dealership this used to be their process, I managed to educate them a bit so they went with a one stage polish, forgot what it was called now, something from Concept Chemicals, done a good enough job without holograms etc. There is such a high volume of work at dealers so you don't really get time for proper valeting/detailing tbh.


I got the sack once from a valeting job at a car dealership because I use to spend to much time on each vehicle, my boss even had ago at me for polishing door shuts! lol.


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## JasonPD (Jan 8, 2010)

+1 for being a massive fan of WDs :thumb:

I know Ed doesn't detail cars quite the same as most of us would but as stated above, this is how many folk in the motor trade would 'mop' a car - quickly  

I've always wondered though if they cut corners or don't do things the best way with other areas of the project? Are there mechanics/trimmers etc on other forums having similar discussions? Just a thought...

Still addicted to the show, funny how Mike thinks all the cars are 'straight' when he looks down the side of them!


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

As said above, this is how it is in the "trade"

I was once getting a tyre changed, and whilst waiting the drive through car wash next door had a car in. The customer probably paid £5 extra for a "polish". The guy did the entire side, and boot of a RAV 4 in 5 minutes! He also spat on the car at one point... Guess he needed some lube :lol:


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## JasonPD (Jan 8, 2010)

-Mat- said:


> As said above, this is how it is in the "trade"
> 
> I was once getting a tyre changed, and whilst waiting the drive through car wash next door had a car in. The customer probably paid £5 extra for a "polish". The guy did the entire side, and boot of a RAV 4 in 5 minutes! He also spat on the car at one point... Guess he needed some lube :lol:


Is that what Mike Brewer means when he says to Ed it just needs a bit of 'spit and [email protected] :lol:


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## guy_92 (Oct 26, 2010)

Miracle Detail said:


> I got the sack once from a valeting job at a car dealership because I use to spend to much time on each vehicle, my boss even had ago at me for polishing door shuts! lol.


LOL, they guys here were better than I thought they would be, I had to show them the damage they were doing though to convince them.


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## nickmak (May 29, 2010)

If you educate people about detailing they will start to understand what it is we try to achieve and stop thinking we're oh so anal about cleaning our cars...


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## Dream Machines (Mar 13, 2006)

If it was still the 1980's, I'd say fair enough thats a nice polish job but in this era, no friggin way. Thats way old school

I'm so happy that we don't have to do it like that anymore. No compounds, no pools of water everywhere and so forth. We are blessed

Hey fair enough its not a detailing show but really that is horrific buffing and anyone I saw doing that would get bailed up in the workshop and get a good stern talking too.


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

Miracle Detail said:


> Id love to see the finish in my new Detailing studio under 12 metal halide lamps!


An idea for a new show there, invite him down. They've already done WD revisited........


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## cawsey20 (Sep 10, 2010)

Sorry for being an absoloute plank, What is the purpose of the water ?? is he doing it some old school way or something :S


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## JasonPD (Jan 8, 2010)

cawsey20 said:


> Sorry for being an absoloute plank, What is the purpose of the water ?? is he doing it some old school way or something :S


The water is supposed to keep the panel cooler and also give you longer working times (not that it looked time he needed it). It is seen an an 'old school' way of doing things but many folk still use this method. I used to detail cars last year in a Porsche/Lambo/Aston approved bodyshop last year and this is how they buffed all their cars after a re paint.


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## Dream Machines (Mar 13, 2006)

It works but its so damn messy
Many compounds from the prehistoric age were nothing but rocks in a bottle and had no lubrication. you had to add water to the bottle or to the surface to lubricate them

Thank god for sub micron non diminishing abrasive technology


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## AndyC (Oct 25, 2005)

JasonPD said:


> I've always wondered though if they cut corners or don't do things the best way with other areas of the project? Are there mechanics/trimmers etc on other forums having similar discussions? Just a thought...
> 
> Still addicted to the show, funny how Mike thinks all the cars are 'straight' when he looks down the side of them!


In short, yes. The white 205 they did was a prime example. Aside from the seller and buyer being plants, the plumes of burning oil were apparently down to a worn out gear linkage and the rear wheels were still on the pi55 when Ed had adjusted the torsion beam. Plus the lights and trim were a mismatch of early and late 205's.

Still love the programme whatever though.


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