Detailing Products for Black Cars.

[dawgboy]

I would like to get into detailing my own car. (would like my car to look like the black cars on the before and after discussion posts....like glass)



Which steps need to be taken and what are the best products do you suggest on a black car? Thanks for the help.



I currently have these products.



Mother's Clay Bar and Spray Applicator

Mother's Caranuba Liquid Wax

Meguairs Scratch X

3m Rubbing Compound

Microfiber Towels

Applicator Pads

Meguairs spray tire shine

Mothers Paint Cleaner.

Stoners Invisible Glass

 

[SoCalB6]

Flat, swirl free paint is the ticket to get your car looking like those in the C&B section. No wax, glaze or polish will take its place. I suggest buying a PCXP or G110 with pads if you have never machine polished. You will get far superior results than doing everything by hand.



Using what you already have, I would wash, clay, touch up the very bad areas with the 3M compound & Scratch X ( I don't know how it will finish out, so do a test spot first), paint cleaner on the entire car and seal it with the wax.



If you're up for it and the 3M/ScratchX finishes well enough, you can compound and polish the car by hand. I have heard of people polishing entire cars by hand, so it's not impossible.

 

[Bert]

You need a very good car wash. Meguiars Gold Class or Duragloss's wash are fine and can be bought locally. If you want to go the rinseless wash way, Optimum No Rinse Wash and Shine will become your friend. You also need two 5 gallon buckets and two grit guards for them and need to research the Two Bucket Wash Method or otherwise once you get your car the way you like it, with in a few washes, all the swirling and marring will come right back. Frequent (weekly or atleast twice a month) and proper washing is the most important aspect. If you don't get that down, there really is no reason to worry about the other parts of detailing.



You will want to clay your car atleast twice a year, the Mothers Clay is fine.



You will need a buffer of some sort. Alot of newbies are apprehensive about using a buffer but if you want your car to look like the (as you called them) the black cars on the before and after posts, a buffer is pretty much a requirement. Hand polishing will not do it. For a newbie, the new Porter Cable 7424XP is a good choice to start with. So long as you do your homework and do plenty of reading on here and watch several videos on You Tube about buffing with a Porter Cable, you really cannot screw up. Now a rotary is a different matter. Hold off on getting one of those till you get some experience.



You will also need some pads. The most popular are Lake Country (LC). I am assuming your car has swirls and marring so you will need a few cutting pads like the orange LC pads to use a compound with. 3M Rubbing Compound may work, I don't know, I have never used it. I use Megs 105 or Menzerna Super Intensive Polish. After correcting the swirling and paint marring, you will have a haze on the paint that can be cleaned up with a White Polishing Pad from LC. You will probably need to use a lighter polish to clean up with. Scratch X may be a bit too much. A good choice would be Megs 205 or maybe Menzerna 106FA. If you really want to make the paint have a nice gloss, shine, depth, and wetness, you could go one more step and burnish the paint by using a even finer polish like Menzerna PO86RD on a finishing pad like LC Black or Blue.



Once the paint has been fully corrected, polished and burnished, you will want to protect it. Generally people like to use a wax on black paint so the Mother's wax you have may work out fine.



Your glass cleaner should be fine and I assume the Meg's tire product will be fine (I generally just use car wash and maybe some All Purpose Cleaner if need be).

 

[Bert]

Also go up to the (How to) section up top of the page and read all the articles. They are a good starting point.

 

[dawgboy]

So..trying to break down the detailed explanations.*L* Thanks for the information.



1. Wash (2-bucket method)

2. ClayBar (to get rid of contaminants)

3. 3M Rubbing Compound (for swirls, scratches, hard water spots)

Leave Rubbing Compound on paint then proceed to Meguair Scratch X or remove rubbing compound then Scartch X?

4. Meguair Scratch X. (Is this a sealant?..I've seen this alot on the discussion, could anybody explain sealants and what kinds)

5. A Polish product

6.. Wax



I appreciate all the help..Thanks.

 

[Bert]

So..trying to break down the detailed explanations.*L* Thanks for the information.



1. Wash (2-bucket method)

2. ClayBar (to get rid of contaminants).

Doing good so far.

3. 3M Rubbing Compound (for swirls, scratches, hard water spots)

Leave Rubbing Compound on paint then proceed to Meguair Scratch X or remove rubbing compound then Scartch X?.

Once I finish buffing a section, I wipe the compound polish off so I can inspect my work. If you let it dry on, it could be a pain in the butt to remove.

4. Meguair Scratch X. (Is this a sealant?..I've seen this alot on the discussion, could anybody explain sealants and what kinds).

Scratch X is a polish not a sealant. I sealant is similar to a wax in that it is meant to be used to protect the finish after you have clayed and polished the paint. If you were to polish after applying a sealant, you would remove the sealant. Scratch X may be a good follow up to clean up after 3M Rubbing Compound, I really don't know, I have never used it.

5. A Polish product.

Assuming at this point you have removed all the imperfections in the paint and have polished out any hazing, you now have the option of using a FINISH polish to really bring the paint to it potential. Examples of finish polishes are: Menzerna PO87, Menzerna PO85RD, Optimum Finish Polish, 3M Ultrafina, etc..

6.. Wax.

Now you would want to either rewash the car to remove the polish lubricating oils or do a wipe down with a mix of water and rubbing alcohol.



Then I like to put down an AIO if I am using a sealant or a glaze if I am using a wax. Not mandatory but optional.



Some people will use both a sealant and a wax on top of that which is fine. Just keep in mind that if go this route, you cannot put more layers of sealant on the car because 90% of sealants will not bond to waxes. Something just to keep in mind.

I appreciate all the help..Thanks.

Welcome.

 

[Accumulator]

PrinceHoliday- Welcome to Autopia!



Just some general advice:



Don't expect a real-world car to look like Click & Brag cars do. At least not in person.



Don't expect perfection. Doing this stuff to a very high standard is *very* challenging, even with the best machines. You simply have to be realistic.



Concentrate on learning how to wash without marring the paint or everything else is a short-term waste of time (and clearcoat). No point in polishing the paint just to scratch it again right away.



Eh...I must be in a mood The preceding probable sounds like some crotchety old guy's lecture and I don't mean to cast a pall.



bert31- Heh heh, maybe you and I can :argue Just kidding :hifive: But in this case I don't see IPA wipes/etc. being the sort of stuff PrinceHoliday oughta be concerning himself with. I'd lean towards keeping this as simple as possible with "much better" as the goal. Something like:



Wash, clay, machine compound, machine polish, and wax. That's as far as I'd take this for now. Which compound and polish would depend on the paint and, to a lesser extent, on the machine.

 

[dawgboy]

Doing good so far.







Once I finish buffing a section, I wipe the compound polish off so I can inspect my work. If you let it dry on, it could be a pain in the butt to remove.







Scratch X is a polish not a sealant. I sealant is similar to a wax in that it is meant to be used to protect the finish after you have clayed and polished the paint. If you were to polish after applying a sealant, you would remove the sealant. Scratch X may be a good follow up to clean up after 3M Rubbing Compound, I really don't know, I have never used it.







Assuming at this point you have removed all the imperfections in the paint and have polished out any hazing, you now have the option of using a FINISH polish to really bring the paint to it potential. Examples of finish polishes are: Menzerna PO87, Menzerna PO85RD, Optimum Finish Polish, 3M Ultrafina, etc..







Now you would want to either rewash the car to remove the polish lubricating oils or do a wipe down with a mix of water and rubbing alcohol.



Then I like to put down an AIO if I am using a sealant or a glaze if I am using a wax. Not mandatory but optional.



Some people will use both a sealant and a wax on top of that which is fine. Just keep in mind that if go this route, you cannot put more layers of sealant on the car because 90% of sealants will not bond to waxes. Something just to keep in mind.









Welcome.

Thanks for the clarification. in rewashing are you talking about using the Ex(Meguairs carwash) again or just rinsing it out? also what glaze do you recommend if I choose to do the glaze then wax method instead of just wax? Thank you all for your help again.

 

[MAXSE2kMT]

As a beginner myself and owner of a black car I would take what Accumulator has said into consideration. I'm still trying tons of products and different techniques. As for black cars aside from my black G35, I have done a black SRT8 Jeep and my friends black 93 Supra which was a ton of fun to do, but due to my wanting it to be perfect turned into almost 17 hours of correction because the paint was so bad. It got to the point where I wanted the car to be more perfect than my friend, the owner. Definitely work on washing technique and take your time with the correction. So far I've been using the following for polishing with a Makita rotary:



Menzerna 106FA

Menzerna P203S

Menzerna PO85RD

Menzerna Powergloss



and getting good results depending on the pad/polish combo. Try the LEAST aggressive method first. That's a huge thing that I have learned.



On the Supra I used 1Z Glanz Wax which gave it a nice wet look.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b220/freeyayo1/detail/IMG_7568.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b220/freeyayo1/detail/DSC00130.jpg

Wish I had better pics, but I haven't uploaded them yet, these were from the rally on Sunday.

Sorry for the long post, good luck with everything. By the way I spent almost a year on this forum reading and reading and researching everything I could come across before I finally started to purchase products and worked on my own car long before I did others.