Silver - what prep do you guys use?

[gigondaz]

Hi guys and gals!

I would like everyone to contribute their views on:

1. Lighting conditions that help reveal the results of a well-detailed silver car.

2. Your favourite and/or different surface prepping approaches with silver cars.



LIGHTING CONDITIONS

I stumbled upon MichaelSpoot's comment (Feb2010) about well-detailed silver only showing off its potential in certain lighting situations (eg: in the shade, at certain angles, low light situations etc).I've noted this as well for many years, and thought it would be a good discussion topic because unlike dark colours, it's much more challenging to impress a customer with his detailed silver car.



Under bright direct sunlight, silver generally merely looks ultra-bright, sharp and clean with not much reflections if there are no surrounding objects close enough to the vehicle.



SURFACE PREP - SILVER

I'm a firm believer of very extensive prep for silver, because once prepped very well, most reputable LSPs produce good results, albeit with different characteristics.



I hv my own prepping approach (as do all of us). For example: Some might be satisfied with 1 round of compound, followed by Megs 205, and then straight to LSP. No right or wrong...depends on budget, time and so many other factors.



Assuming you're doing your own silver car, and aiming for MAX, and you hv all the time....in general terms, how would u prep your silver? Yes, I know that there are many types of silver, and of course, the hardness of clearcoats might influence your methods:



Let me share one of my favourite prepping approaches for silver (in general):

1. 2500+4000grit sanding

2. Megs 85 Diamond Cut with wool (2rounds)

3. Megs 85 foam pad rotary

4. Megs 205 foam pad rotary

5. Menz PO85RD with PC

6. 3M glaze (jewel with black pad and rotary)

7. LSP application starts.



Heavily-overcast sky, with dark storm clouds overhead. 5-10mins before a thunderstorm started. Greyish silver vehicle. Sanding and compounding done, and pic taken.

Not a photography enthusiast, so pls excuse for amateurish quality pic below. Can be challenging to capture silver's attractiveness via the camera

 

[Accumulator]

gigondaz- Ah, a topic I can relate to as I always have a bunch of silver vehicles (gee, I'm currently down to just four, that's unusual for me).



(Hope the Pros will forgive me for posting on this one; the silver vehicles I do are almost exclusively my own. If somebody takes offense I won't mind deleting this post. But hey, I've owned/detailed literally dozens of silver vehicles and I'm pretty fanatical about them passing the "marring-free in any lighting" test.)



I prep silver the same as any other color, and as you alluded to, the products/approaches I use depend more on the paint than the color (e.g., I don't treat Audis quite the same way as Mazdas because the Audi clear is much harder). Like you, I don't buy into the "silver doesn't show marring, so why bother getting it nice?" mindset :xyxthumbs



Unfortunately, the pros in my area seem to short-change silver vehicles; I just never see that "wow factor" that they obviously aim for on other colors. I've literally had my "before" condition look better than a just-done "after", and that was on an otherwise identical silver S8; my wife and I were simply shocked that the owner thought it looked OK, but he did :nixweiss And here I had thought I was gonna be embarassed by how my car looked as I was planning to do it the next weekend :chuckle:



I do my final burnishing with 1Z stuff more often than not. My correction pads/products just depend on the severity of marring and the hardness of the clear. From my old stand-bys in the 3M PI-III line to M105/M205, with the occasional Hi-Temp or Menzerna product, there always seems to be some product that's just right, even if it's just a matter of my wanting to use a particular approach for subjective reasons (hey, nothing wrong with being subjective IMO, at least when I'm the subject in question ).



One place where you and I differ on this one is that I don't use glazes on silver, never saw any improvement on the cars I do :nixweiss I might change my tune on that after I try DWG or some other newfangled product and I'm keeping an open mind on the subject. And it's a fine line between "glazes" and some of the 1Z stuff I sometimes use as my penultimate product (e.g., Pro MP, WPS). Guess that's true of stuff like Pinnacle PCL too.



Inspection lighting: Halogens for general inspection, fluorescents for "texture" and gloss, incandescents for swirl-spotting/final inspection, SunGun for things like holograms, natural sunlight to duplicate the condition under which the vehicles are normally seen. I find sunlight sorta problematic for inspection after things get really nice as Audi silver just gets so dazzling as to be literally blinding in full sunlight; no such problem with other silvers I've worked on though.



I don't wetsand as I plan on my factory clear lasting for decades and all these vehicles are what I consider drivers.



But FWIW, I oughta point out that I hardly ever do anything to my vehicles these days besides wash 'em and occasionally reapply the LSP. I don't bother polishing/etc. until there's noticeable marring (beyond just random stuff I can spot-correct). As David Fermani has good-naturedly suggested, yeah...they could probably all benefit from a light going over with some finishing polish, but eh, IMO life's not a car show and I'm not gonna spend the time (yeah, I know, more of my Autopian Heresy, but I'm content with how they look).

 

[gigondaz]

....... I don't use glazes on silver, never saw any improvement on the cars I do....I'm keeping an open mind on the subject....

Initially, I also felt that glazing a silver did not yield any improvement.

But when I decided to re-try the classic 3M Perfect It Glaze on a well-prepped silver, I noted a noticeable improvement when the car was parked in a dimly lit basement. From then on, I took the trouble to glaze, if the budget of the job and time allowed it.

.....I find sunlight sorta problematic for inspection after things get really nice as Audi silver just gets so dazzling as to be literally blinding in full sunlight; no such problem with other silvers I've worked on though....

Correct. Under bright sunlight, all silvers, IMO, look uninteresting. A well-detailed one merely looks bright, clean and sharp. Indoors, and under especially under incandescent lighting and metal halides at certain angles, well-prepped silver can look stunning.

.....I don't wetsand as I plan on my factory clear lasting for decades and all these vehicles are what I consider drivers....

For silver, which is so challenging to get that last iota of noticeable difference, I find that even a 2500g light sanding can produce noticeable improvements. The slightly flatter clearcoat now produces lower-distortion reflections, which gives the impression of a "wetter" look.

......IMO life's not a car show and I'm not gonna spend the time.....but I'm content with how they look).

My own silver car has been crazily-prepped and has 3 layers of Japanese coatings on it, as I want something that's very reflective, helps retard stains, extemely durable, and ensures a "just detailed" look everytime after a wash, even without using any QDs. I really don't hv that much time to pamper my own car. So, when it was new in April 2010, I spent 5 days doing it up, knowing darn well I won't hv the time to detail it often.

My 1st priority is always customers' cars:dance

 

[Accumulator]

Initially, I also felt that glazing a silver did not yield any improvement.

But when I decided to re-try the classic 3M Perfect It Glaze on a well-prepped silver, I noted a noticeable improvement when the car was parked in a dimly lit basement...

Which PI Glaze is that? I haven't used any 3M stuff since the old PI-III line :think:

Correct. Under bright sunlight, all silvers, IMO, look uninteresting. A well-detailed one merely looks bright, clean and sharp. Indoors, and under especially under incandescent lighting and metal halides at certain angles, well-prepped silver can look stunning.

Heh heh, actually, you and I might be on opposite sides of the fence on this! I'm impressed by how really well-prepped silver looks in the sun, I just can't really *inspect* it that way.

For silver, which is so challenging to get that last iota of noticeable difference, I find that even a 2500g light sanding can produce noticeable improvements. The slightly flatter clearcoat now produces lower-distortion reflections, which gives the impression of a "wetter" look.

Yeah, I can't argue with that, at least with regard to how it'd look! Knocking down the horrible orangepeel on the Audis would make 'em look a whole lot better (not that I'm gonna do it ).

My own silver car has been crazily-prepped and has 3 layers of Japanese coatings on it, as I want something that's very reflective, helps retard stains, extemely durable, and ensures a "just detailed" look everytime after a wash, even without using any QDs. I really don't hv that much time to pamper my own car. So, when it was new in April 2010, I spent 5 days doing it up, knowing darn well I won't hv the time to detail it often.

That sounds sorta similar to what I do. Once I get 'em prepped I just wash for ages. And yeah, whenever I buy a new vehicle (even one that's "in the wrapper") I'll spend forever getting it better than showroom.

My 1st priority is always customers' cars:dance

Yeah, I always figure that Pros have to prioritize differently. At least you have customers who appreciate good work, around my area it's be casting pearls before swine....nobody knows from nice