OK - how do I get my black Audi to look as good as this? HOLY CRAP!

[pologuy]

if you`re going for most color saturation (depth) I`d look at a montan/nuba wax like black ice (or for a lot cheaper Natty`s Black is AWESOME)

if you`re going for high glossy shine--- a ceramic coating would be a good bet

now granted there are different hues of glossy shine based on the type of coating

At present I use Pinnacle Souveran and am pretty pleased with how it looks on the black.

Just wondering if I can take it up a few notches.

[Ronkh]

Just wondering if I can take it up a few notches.

Polish to perfection

[512detail]

agree with Ron there...the better you polish it the better it will look BEFORE you go and make it look better with any LSP

you ideally want 100% light reflection through the clear coat onto the paint and back at you

[RaskyR1]

Is it even remotely possible to get my black Audi to look like this...?

WOW!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoNc-7uollE

Proper polishing and especially lighting.

[grungy]

Or, you could just hire THAT guy - Todd Cooperider. Rasky and others on here can get the same end results if you also want to pay for that level of perfection. OTHO, me not so much but I am learning.

[rlmccarty2000]

Great answers! Perfect paint first, then product second for a flawless finish.

[xtremekustomz]

Lighting and image manipulation. This is a little extreme but you get the idea of how photos can be edited to look more glossy

[Ronkh]

Lighting and image manipulation. This is a little extreme but you get the idea of how photos can be edited to look more glossy

Mine are right out of a cell phone. NO MANIPULATION

[xtremekustomz]

Mine are right out of a cell phone. NO MANIPULATION

That was my point. Yours was the original and the bottom was edited. To me that is what happened in the video on youtube. The pictures were edited. Pictures can be edited to look better. A picture taken with a cell phone compared to a high dollar camera will look a lot different too.

[RaysWay]

A Reflection On Perfection

1. Lighting - You have to be able to identify imperfections. If the paint, glass, trim, metal, wheels, rubber, plastic, vinyl etc etc are corrected to as close as perfect as possible under high intensity lighting from every angle possible, it will look perfect under natural lighting. Perfect paint = shiniest paint. This to me is one of...if not the absolute most important. If you can`t see it, you can`t correct it.

2. Tools/Chemicals - You need the right tools for the job. A concours level detail can`t be performed with a single tool. Almost every new client always tell me something along the lines of "man you bring a lot of stuff!", and I wish I could bring more. You want the carpets cleaned as good as possible? You need an extractor. You want the paint polished the best way possible? You need a DA, and you might need a rotary, and of course in a range of sizes. Etc etc

3. A perfect canvas - Some paint cannot be saved. Whether it`s a RID here or a wrinkle there, some paint just comes out of the paint booth destined to never reach that 100% mark. Mike Phillips talked about this in a series following a build ("something in the heartland"....I`ll link it when I find it) for a car that wanted perfect black paint. Perfect paint starts at the paint booth and works it`s way up from the guy who cuts the paint all the way to the final detailer. In the real world I think most of the time perfect paint is unreasonable. I imagine if you take a bulb into every nook and crannie on even something like a Riddler award winner, you`d find plenty of minor imperfections. I know some people who have. So the "chase" is to get the paint as perfect as possible, while usually trying our best to ignore the stubborn imperfections and minimizing them as much as possible.

4. Time/Experience - Rome wasn`t built in a day. Even if your body isn`t tired, sometimes you can start to lose focus or your eyes just start getting tired. It takes time to chase perfection. It also takes experience to know how to use everything you have to achieve perfect paint. You can give someone everything they need in the world to succeed, but they still have to be able to make it happen.

I`ve been lucky enough to hang around arguably some of the best detailers in the industry, and I`ve had to pickup my jaw off the floor on more than one occasion. Robert DiTerlizzi`s CQuartz Finest job on a Miranda Built Chevelle comes to mind. A coworker and I inspected the paint while trying not to drool on it and that paint looked ridiculous. I can`t count how many times I`ve seen Mike Phillips get a car to show car top tier level (seriously that guy is a beast lol). I think with these 4 things you can get your paint looking really really really really really good.

[grungy]

+1 on above. IF you want your car to look its best, hire the best. Some of us (including myself) don`t want that level due to practicality - I own two daily drivers that are not garaged and probably never will be. Maintaining that level on a car is even more critical and unless you get the knowledge and have the proper techniques to keep it that way, you are only going to have that level of `perfect` two or maybe three times in its lifetime. The Pros on here can tell you that black is the biggest pain to keep flawless but when it is, WOW!

[BudgetPlan1]

Lighting and image manipulation. This is a little extreme but you get the idea of how photos can be edited to look more glossy

Absolutely images can be manipulated but I think also the end result is more likely due to a pretty much unlimited budget in time, materials and skill to reach a finish like that.

When stopping in to get some stuff last summer, I saw the Z06 that rec`d the "100 hour detail" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Ofm40OnDo ) and it was absolutely stunning in person, representative of the gloss/clarity of the of the Ferrari mentioned above.

That said, pictures do sometimes hide what doesn`t look nearly as magnificent in person; I know some pics I take in my garage with a cellphone look better than what I`m seeing outside the viewfinder.

On another note, given the initial condition of the paint, I wonder if it was a factory fresh car or had some miles on it. I think if I paid that kinda $$ for a Ferrari, I`d be a little miffed if it showed up in the condition of the `before` images.

[EXPDetailing]

That spinning floor, and with windows all around dramatized the already flawless finish even more so.

[zmcgovern45]

First, you`re going to need to wash the Audi.

Second, you`re going to need to put a "For Sale" sign on the Audi.

Third, (once sold) you`re going to need to purchase a Ferrari La Ferrari.

... I am pretty sure that is the only way to make your Audi look like that

[Raymoche]

according to that video, you just have to put the car on a turn table and buff the same spot for a while. lol