Is there a sealant that can protect from hairline scratches on black?

C

cp981

New member
Hi Guy's,

Well.....My OCD behavior and black paint do not work well together. I am literally chasing my tail trying to keep minor straight line scratches taken care of.
This is a garaged 2016 Cayman S (437 miles!!) in black non metallic.

I am anal with my process. 2 buckets, filtered water, foaming gun, lambswool mitt, best MF towels,.....It seems even the lightest faintest touch of anything on the paint leaves a fine scratch/swirl. Currently has Wolfgang DGS on it.

My sister drives a 2 year old black Audi A7 that she abuses with 3 kids, car washes, stickers, leans against the car...You got the idea, and her Audi looks at least the same as my 4 month old Porsche.....

Is there ANY product that forms some type of coating or barrier resistant to these fine scratches?

Thanks guys,
 
cp981- The only sealant that's provided *any* marring-resistance for me is *heavily* layered KSG, and the protection it provided was minimal.

I do best with a three or four stage wash process:
-pressure washer rinse
-BHB/foamgun wash
-mitt/foamgun wash
-rinseless wash as a drying aid (performed basically like a regular rinseless wash)
 
I feel your pain, part of the reason why I got rid of my black truck(avatar pic) . My process was pretty similar to Accumulator's . Wash mitt in one hand and foam gun in the other spraying foam in front of the mitt's path to ensure a heavily lubricated surface and I would wipe in one direction only,constantly rinsing wash media. I actually used a Home Depot grout/sponge at the time (no dirt getting trapped in, like fibers of a wash mitt.) .

Your clear coat might be a lot softer, my truck would get washed at least once a week religiously to minimize the dirt sitting on it at the time of cleaning. Big love/hate relationship.

I'm interested in seeing others' responses regarding the matter since it can be a very tedious task.
 
I even use a Toro thats dedicated to just drying the car so I remove one step of touching the car.
i could see if i was careless.....but this is crazy
 
Love your car !!!

Audi paint is historically hard paint and that may be part of the reason it has less defects in it..

Any Jet Black ( BMW's name for it, sorry) paint will always be softer in my experience...

I know you are not going to like this but one thing that will always help keep the paint clarity perfect is to - leave it alone - :)

In my experiences with this and I have always had several Black vehicles in the driveway, is to use the slipperiest soap with a good, clean , new, chenille mitt, use lots of water and carefully, wipe down a section at a time, use more water, and then use a Master Blaster to remove as much water as possible BEFORE ever touching the paint with anything..

Then, when I do touch it, its with a good Q/Detailer that is also very slippery, and my absolute best, softest, microfiber, that came from Korea, and never from any big box store in the nation...

Additionally, I never do a dry Q/D in the garage between washing.. Its just too easy to scratch the black paint without lots of water flowing on it to help move that fine dirt off...

Years ago, I corrected all the cars, and applied Opti-Guard, which was the name before it became Pro, and now, years hence, following all the travels of thousands of miles (around 14k) up and down the west coast to Texas and back, with long stays each place, my last Black Beauty, still has the coating, and very, very, minor defects anywhere on it...

It isnt always perfectly clean all the time, but again, the less you touch it, the less are the chances to accidentally introduce defects into the paintwork, in my experiences..

I have owned a few Jet Black painted cars in my life and they were always - always, the most beautiful vehicle when perfectly polished.. Nothing beats a Jet Black car going down the road... :)

So, perhaps you might see if you can - or if you want to - not touch it so much - or perhaps look at your process and insure there is always lots of water on the panel you are washing to help insure as much dirt, etc., is not on the panel you are washing...

We are here to help !
Good Luck !
Dan F
 
While a very expensive option, you can always wrap the car with self healing PPF, which is by far the best option right now.

LOL, I actually had a Model S lined up for a coating this weekend and he just decided to wrap the whole car rather then just the full front....2nd car this has happened to me on now, but if you have the means it's the way to go. :/
 
As a pro I would say have it coated with a few coats of modesta of quartz finest, that should help a bunch. If you want to do it yourself you could always do 3-4 coats of Quartz UK. It definitely helped with my own car.

Side note ~ Where are you located, I'm sure a local on here could help you out a bunch.
 
I use multiple sheepskin mitts I scrutinized for softness that are labeled per section of the car coupled with Accumulator's washing technique. No wash instilled marring this way.
 
I have always wondered exactly how a car's finish, especially black, still get swirl marks if it has been ceramic coated (WG Uber, Opti-Coat, etc.)? Isn't the coating hard and supposed to prevent this?
 
Rob4092xx said:
I have always wondered exactly how a car's finish, especially black, still get swirl marks if it has been ceramic coated (WG Uber, Opti-Coat, etc.)? Isn't the coating hard and supposed to prevent this?
Click to expand...

IMO the "hardness" is a relative term and it's also possible to mar paint even though there's something tough on top of it. Like..if you put a piece of saran wrap on a panel and rub it with a stick, you'll get marring on the paint even if you don't tear the saran wrap. The marring happens "through" whatever's on the paint, like the coating/etc. gets "dented". Eh, tricky to explain what I mean.

I think the main point is that most people underestimate just how abrasive/nasty the stuff that gets on cars is, and also how little pressure it takes to scratch (even coated) autopaint. Note that some people here *do* avoid marring by using coatings; they're being gentle enough that the little bit of added insurance from the coating is enough to make all the difference.

In most cases with modern b/c paint (notable exception being BMW Jet Black), black doesn't really mar any easier than other colors; it's the same clearcoat over every color (again, with some oddball exceptions) and the clearcoat is what gets scratched. It's just that black is an easy color to spot marring on without using special lighting and inspection techniques so it looks as good/bad as it really is under most conditions. IMO most silver cars are as marred up as any "trashed black paint" vehicle, it just doesn't show as readily.
 
I wish that you have posted about what colors NOT to get when you were ordering this car. In my book, anyone who cares about the finish like yourself should never buy solid black. But it is too late now - indeed the best option would be a full wrap. Otherwise, a coating should be applied and any of the consumer versions will be superior to ANY sealants.

If going with a "PRO" coating, Opti Coat Pro will provide the hardest finish.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, I wish you good luck.

PS: I recently worked on this jet black Macan that had 120 miles on it and took me a week to correct it. Now with Opti Coat Pro protecting it, the owner can relax a little bit.




cp981 said:
Hi Guy's,

Well.....My OCD behavior and black paint do not work well together. I am literally chasing my tail trying to keep minor straight line scratches taken care of.
This is a garaged 2016 Cayman S (437 miles!!) in black non metallic.

I am anal with my process. 2 buckets, filtered water, foaming gun, lambswool mitt, best MF towels,.....It seems even the lightest faintest touch of anything on the paint leaves a fine scratch/swirl. Currently has Wolfgang DGS on it.

My sister drives a 2 year old black Audi A7 that she abuses with 3 kids, car washes, stickers, leans against the car...You got the idea, and her Audi looks at least the same as my 4 month old Porsche.....

Is there ANY product that forms some type of coating or barrier resistant to these fine scratches?

Thanks guys,
Click to expand...
 
Optimum opticoat pro would be the best shot as it is widely accepted as being the most protective coatings. I have found gloss cost to be very good as fighting marring.
 
WhyteWizard said:
Thomas,

would you mind describing the steps you took in that correction?

Thanks,
Robert
Click to expand...

3 steps, cutting was done a few different ways, because of irregular paint thickness. When I had a lot to work with, I used Optimum's wool/foam pads to cut, or an orange pad, but the hood for example had the worst RIDS and the paint was in the low 80s and I used a mix of Hyper Polish/Adapt/101/Hyper Compound.(adapt on the hood) So I had to be gentle. After cutting, I used Prep Polish on an orange pad (polishing pad on the hood) and finally Prep Polish and a finishing pad. IPA wipe between steps.
 
Hi Guy's,
Original OP here. I have been insanely busy traveling for work and year end stuff. I will address the application of something like Opti Coat this spring. Is this something I can apply myself? I'm in Charlotte NC
Thanks
 
You can try to get a protected film ( after coated with OC or any other coating ). I had a 911 in Black down the street from me and it took 2 days to correct after the owner wash it improper. After that it was taken to shop to apply a film on the car and to this day looks great. But what some of the folks here had mention ( like Thomas or Dan ) you can't go wrong....Remember Black is a full time job...Keep us posted.
 
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