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I plan to keep my brilliant black pearl paint job brilliant and swirl mark free so I started to rebuild my supplies of car care products. Any thoughts on creating a sub forum for cleaning discussion, etc?
Van Washing
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1. park it in a garage as much as possible.
2. it has clear coat, so you won't be maintaining the black, you'll be trying to keep the clear coat clear. Grit and pollution are the biggest enemies. So "brilliance" is going to be directly related to how much road dust is hammering at the finish and causing micro or macro pitting and how bad your air is.
3. I would rely on products that have high ratings for durability as opposed to "shine" or "gloss." Despite all the claims, almost no products keep their original shine after about 8-10 weeks. Shine is for car shows, protection is for daily drivers. You need a "wax" that will help keep bird poop, bug splatters and environmental chemicals from permanently marring the clear coat because EVERYTHING shows up on black paint.
Personally I find the discussions on forums about waxes, polishes etc about as useful as the wax companies' advertising. There are simple common sense and time-tested guidelines on maintaining a car's finish. The rest is hype. Above all, nothing beats storing a car indoors as much as possible for longevity.
2. it has clear coat, so you won't be maintaining the black, you'll be trying to keep the clear coat clear. Grit and pollution are the biggest enemies. So "brilliance" is going to be directly related to how much road dust is hammering at the finish and causing micro or macro pitting and how bad your air is.
3. I would rely on products that have high ratings for durability as opposed to "shine" or "gloss." Despite all the claims, almost no products keep their original shine after about 8-10 weeks. Shine is for car shows, protection is for daily drivers. You need a "wax" that will help keep bird poop, bug splatters and environmental chemicals from permanently marring the clear coat because EVERYTHING shows up on black paint.
Personally I find the discussions on forums about waxes, polishes etc about as useful as the wax companies' advertising. There are simple common sense and time-tested guidelines on maintaining a car's finish. The rest is hype. Above all, nothing beats storing a car indoors as much as possible for longevity.
I love keeping my cars clean and the other posters are correct, lots of different opinions and methods. All probably correct. I like using the two bucket method. I also recently found Chemical Guys, and love their stuff. Its hard to navigate their products as its geared towards professional detailers, but if you start from the get go, you won't need correction on your new car, so that should narrow down your choices.
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262 Posts
Also a great resource for tips and tricks is ammo NYC. The guy makes great videos and has product to sell, but doesn't crap on other manufacturers products. It's mostly about technique. The biggest take away is to touch the paint as little as possible and keep it lubricated as you wash. You want to keep from introducing scratches. The metallic black should be more forgiving than a piano black.
You can check out autogeek as well for different products and reviews.
When I had a piano black caddy, I would use the two bucket, only touchless car washes during winter and I'd use a sprayer with distilled water to do a final rinse of it was mid summer to avoid water spots. It all helped, and it stayed pretty decent in the 5 years I had it, but after getting better with the polishes and waxes, I don't stress anymore. Regular car washes in the winter and once or twice a year I give it a full detail. The polishes work wonders and short of real deep scratches, it will get the paint back to near perfect. I figure it's more damaging to leave road salt and debris on my cars in the winter, than it is to be picky about washing during the winter months. Don't stress too much about it. Normally it'll buff out.
You can check out autogeek as well for different products and reviews.
When I had a piano black caddy, I would use the two bucket, only touchless car washes during winter and I'd use a sprayer with distilled water to do a final rinse of it was mid summer to avoid water spots. It all helped, and it stayed pretty decent in the 5 years I had it, but after getting better with the polishes and waxes, I don't stress anymore. Regular car washes in the winter and once or twice a year I give it a full detail. The polishes work wonders and short of real deep scratches, it will get the paint back to near perfect. I figure it's more damaging to leave road salt and debris on my cars in the winter, than it is to be picky about washing during the winter months. Don't stress too much about it. Normally it'll buff out.
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Touchless is also a method that I use. I'll hand clean the windows when I have to, but the touchless keeps the swirls off. Been using touchless for the last 6 years and have no noticeable negative effects on my car's paint.
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148 Posts
anyone use Adam's products before? i use to with my camaro and I was thinking of going back to them but I wonder if they are just overpriced
the consumer product research org "Consumer Reports" which does pretty serious testing basically concludes:
"Before buying a car wax, be aware that premium car wax brands don't necessarily hold up any better than lower-priced alternatives, based on our latest tests. In fact, some moderately priced liquids scored near the top of our Ratings—better than some products costing twice as much.
Still, none of the 19 products tested were good enough to be Rated excellent, with most showing signs of deterioration within a few weeks."
The only waxes scoring "excellent" for durability? NuFinish Paste, (score: 71) and Turtle Wax Ice (score 68) but they only scored "good" for gloss improvement. NuFinish is pretty impressive because its the cheapest- you just have to be careful not to get it on dark plastic or rubber trim.
So I guess you have to choose whether gloss or protection is your primary goal.
"Before buying a car wax, be aware that premium car wax brands don't necessarily hold up any better than lower-priced alternatives, based on our latest tests. In fact, some moderately priced liquids scored near the top of our Ratings—better than some products costing twice as much.
Still, none of the 19 products tested were good enough to be Rated excellent, with most showing signs of deterioration within a few weeks."
The only waxes scoring "excellent" for durability? NuFinish Paste, (score: 71) and Turtle Wax Ice (score 68) but they only scored "good" for gloss improvement. NuFinish is pretty impressive because its the cheapest- you just have to be careful not to get it on dark plastic or rubber trim.
So I guess you have to choose whether gloss or protection is your primary goal.
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