Making Silver Look Impressive? Dark cars have it easy...

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ahheck01

New member
Time after time I see black cars that have been detailed that just blow me away in their reflectivity, smoothness, and depth.



But I have a friggin silver car! We silver guys can have a detailed-to-perfection car and to most people on the road, it just looks no different from a quick wash and wax.



What can we silver car owners do to make our paint really grab peoples' attention to say "woah - that guy really takes care of his car!"?



-Evan



PS> Silver guys, feel free to chime in with your feelings on this.
 
I have a light silver and a silver blue (real light blue) car I feel for you. I have tried what I feel is the best of both worlds, Souveran and Z2Pro/Z8 on both cars. Both look very good but just don’t match up to the wow factor of black or red cars. I go for durability with looks as second when it comes to light color cars. :hairpull
 
I have a silver metallic DeVille. Cadillac refers to the color as Blue Ice. In low light conditions, it looks pretty much like any other silver car. In bright light, it takes on a blueish hue.



There are plenty of Cadillacs around here that are the same color. I can tell a big difference between mine and theirs. Mine is more likely to take on the blue hue because it is clean.



I don't know if others notice. I imagine they do if they are like you an me. I imagine they don't if they don't take care of their cars.



Personally, I keep my car the way I do for my self gratification.
 
Yes silver cars will never have that 'wow' factor of black cars...but they also don't have the disadvantage of showing every little imperfection at 20 feet away.



You have to take the good with the bad. I have 4 silver cars and I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
My girlfriend has a silver car, I feel for you. For silver and white I like to try to make it look really wet and give it a deep look. Also, perfectly cleaned windows, and dressed tires and trim really make the paint pop out...maybe polish your exhaust to a brilliant shine...My personal preference of course
 
Keep the trim and tires black.

Tint the windows.

Polish the wheels and exhaust system.

Polish all of the marring out. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not preventing your paint from looking its best.



Silver CAN look great, but it takes time. Unfortunately it will never have the reflections of a black car but that's just due to the colors themselves. There's nothing you can do about that.
 
White95Max said:
Me too, but it takes more than a good sealant to make silver stand out.
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I agree, but when it comes to LSP's that is my choise on silver was all. :waxing:
 
Ahheck01 said:
Time after time I see black cars that have been detailed that just blow me away in their reflectivity, smoothness, and depth.



But I have a friggin silver car! We silver guys can have a detailed-to-perfection car and to most people on the road, it just looks no different from a quick wash and wax.



What can we silver car owners do to make our paint really grab peoples' attention to say "woah - that guy really takes care of his car!"?



-Evan



PS> Silver guys, feel free to chime in with your feelings on this.
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What products do you have right now? Would you be open to different products? What kind of car?
 
tdekany said:
What products do you have right now? Would you be open to different products? What kind of car?
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I'm infinitely open. Right now it's the klasse twins, but for the upcoming concours I have been putting together a new list from what I've learned on this site.



It's an Arctic Silver 1996 BMW 328i. Right now the list is:



Wash

Clay

Wash

IP

FP

VM

RMG

Souveran x2
 
After fp, I'd use FK1 #1000 topped with FK1 Pink Wax. Then after each wash apply a coat of PW. You would be getting compliments for sure.



You list looks good too & I am sure others have different and maybe equally as good ideas.
 
Ahheck01 said:
wow.... I may have to give Zaino some thought...
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If your main goal is getting the paint as reflective as possible (after proper prep of course), then Zaino would be a good choice.



IMO Zaino does not create the best overall appearance, but the reflections are virtually unmatched. I have a silverstone car (a warmer tone of the typical silver) and it's tough to make it look as amazing as a black car. However, I spend a lot of time on it and I get decent reflections. I mainly concentrate on getting a wet look though as I feel I will never get the same depth of shine as you can get on black.
 
Gears said:
Yes silver cars will never have that 'wow' factor of black cars...but they also don't have the disadvantage of showing every little imperfection at 20 feet away.



You have to take the good with the bad. I have 4 silver cars and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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I totally agree. For my new car, I had a choice of silver and a dark charcoal color (pretty much black). I really liked the look of the charcoal but knew that the silver would be very easy to care for as my previous car was silver. You could drive it in the snow all weekend and you wouldn't be able to tell that it was filthy until you either got up close or a portion of the grime had been rubbed off. I truly do love the look of a nicely detailed black car. But I don't have the time or want to put in the extra effort to keeping one looking that way.
 
Scottwax, I have silver truck and have been very happy with the Klasse twins. However, I too purchased some Acrylic Jett to try. Will it work over AIO? Or does it have to applied over Prime?





Scottwax said:
The Werkstatt twins (Prime and Acrylic Jett) have become my go to products on silver. Very wet look. :)
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On my silver CR-V, I have been using a VM/RMG combo which you already have and topping that with UPP and have been very happy with the results. For winter, this combo has been topped with Collinite DoubleCoat and IW. I recently tried the direct 1:1 mix of VM/RMG, alias "Pink Moose" on the black trim and it produced a deep satin gloss that enhances the whole vehicle. My V already has tinted windows which helps as well. I have not had a bonding issue with the glazes and the UPP. Adding the UPP to what you have would be the least expensive way to go, but I have been very impressed with the other results posted here utilizing Zaino, the Werkstatt twins (Scottwax's work is always outstanding) and tdekany's suggestions using FK1 (his work is also outstanding). So you have alot of choices out there and have been given some great suggestions.
 
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