Y/A How to make Silver "POP"

[LeMarque]

Well, see. I`ve spent hours searching on the products mentioned. 3D has me reaching for my wallet. The Nitro Seal fits the demographics of the Sun and snow (and fires) we get here in NM.



Now to post in the thread about the new Optimum MF pads and chems. Haven`t seen this much excitement since Apple`s new iPhone.

[AlexRuiz]

Silver is a very ungrateful color. We can try very hard, but oh it surely is a b!tch to make stand out. If the finish is dull, the results are noticeable. If the finish is decent, takes some effort to achieve the "wow" effect. What is undeniable, however, is that a decent polish followed up by a decent LSP will look better than the best LSP by itself, but we already knew it.



I just did a car for a friend who is selling it. I spent only 5 hours on the paint, but I was very pleased on the results:



1) Conventional wash, Zymol blue car wash

2) Clay bar, mothers clay with 3D final touch 1:1 as lube

3) Polish, Turtle wax premium rubbing compound via rotary on a green polish pad at 1800 rpm. I chose the TWPRC over HD UNO as the turtle works faster, doesn`t give up too much to UNO on shine, and on silver/white the turtle finishes LSP ready. Not shooting for defect-free, just 80-85% of swirls gone and gloss enhancing, as I was against the clock.

4) Dilema: Mothers FX synway or Collinite 845IW? The 845 is better overall, but FX is shinnier. I picked FX for maximum visual impression.



I know everyone who saw the car was impressed. The owner, however, was not as impressed as I had hoped. Yeah, she said it was shiny and looked very nice, but it didn`t cause the same visual impact on her as, get this, just a wash with HD FREE! The wash with HD FREE after a tunnel-o-swirls wash was a leap in looks, and those who have used it know that is leaves a QD-like finish in shine, gloss and slickness. The leap from HD FREE from tunnel was more impacting to her than a 3 steps correction after HD free. Well, at least I took good pictures, but those untrained eyes









Click on the picture to make it bigger

[LeMarque]

Silver is a very ungrateful color. We can try very hard, but oh it surely is a b!tch to make stand out. If the finish is dull, the results are noticeable. If the finish is decent, takes some effort to achieve the "wow" effect. What is undeniable, however, is that a decent polish followed up by a decent LSP will look better than the best LSP by itself, but we already knew it.



I just did a car for a friend who is selling it. I spent only 5 hours on the paint, but I was very pleased on the results:



1) Conventional wash, Zymol blue car wash

2) Clay bar, mothers clay with 3D final touch 1:1 as lube

3) Polish, Turtle wax premium rubbing compound via rotary on a green polish pad at 1800 rpm. I chose the TWPRC over HD UNO as the turtle works faster, doesn`t give up too much to UNO on shine, and on silver/white the turtle finishes LSP ready. Not shooting for defect-free, just 80-85% of swirls gone and gloss enhancing, as I was against the clock.

4) Dilema: Mothers FX synway or Collinite 845IW? The 845 is better overall, but FX is shinnier. I picked FX for maximum visual impression.



I know everyone who saw the car was impressed. The owner, however, was not as impressed as I had hoped. Yeah, she said it was shiny and looked very nice, but it didn`t cause the same visual impact on her as, get this, just a wash with HD FREE! The wash with HD FREE after a tunnel-o-swirls wash was a leap in looks, and those who have used it know that is leaves a QD-like finish in shine, gloss and slickness. The leap from HD FREE from tunnel was more impacting to her than a 3 steps correction after HD free. Well, at least I took good pictures, but those untrained eyes









Click on the picture to make it bigger

Well it seems everyone has settled on their own experience/technique/products. Would have been interesting to see before pics as well. Perhaps the overcast weather dulled the wow affect?



I don`t follow "The leap from HD FREE from tunnel..." How does she know? Did she do this?

[LeMarque]

I know its been a while and I was going to post some pics, but for some reason the site won`t accept a link to ph0tobucket; oh well...

[AlexRuiz]

Well it seems everyone has settled on their own experience/technique/products. Would have been interesting to see before pics as well. Perhaps the overcast weather dulled the wow affect?



I don`t follow "The leap from HD FREE from tunnel..." How does she know? Did she do this?

I did the HD FREE right before her eyes. She had already taken the car to the tunnel of swirls. The paint was decently glossy. I have a before picture, and as "before" I mean after re-washing with HD Free. I don`t have a true "before" meaning prior to the HD free, but HD Free did a fantastic job on making it look way nicer than tunnel wash. It took me 10 minutes, but she noticed immediately how much nicer after HD free the car looked.



Let me post different angles of the car to show the "pop". That is part of the problem with silver, that you need the right angle to see the effect





Alex