Calling all black vehicle owners

ptaylor_9849 said:
I have two black cars including a black corvette that scratches just by looking at it. I have 2 great tips for you. Number one: buy a foam gun, it really will eliminate future marring. Number two: switch from Zaino to Clearkote and try their RMG. I love Zaino but it is not forgiving on black and will actually exacerbate your cobwebbing in direct sunlight. RMG will darken your black paint and hide any swirls or cobwebbing. I still use Zaino on my charcoal Tundra but not on my black cars anymore.



Patrick
Click to expand...

Where are you buying the RMG?
 
David Fermani said:
Couple of things come to me about your vehicle. Wash technique & LSP.

-Are you washing it in the hot sun? I've seen it breakdown LSPs quicker and it to me should be avoided.

-If your LSP has broken down, your paint/finish is dry (without oils) which multiply's the marring possibilities.

-Try out a liquid wax that gets sprayed on your clean, wet finish as you dry your car. It give a finish a great build-up of protection.
Click to expand...



What is a LSP? Last step product????
 
Egleone6 said:
If I have soft water and use Potassium Chloride as my softer, why should I need to dry off the car..
Click to expand...



Because it'll still get some spots for the stuff in the water (which will be different from/better than the spotting you'd get without the softener, but not as good as with deionized, let alone distilled, water).



I too have a softener that runs potassium chloride, it's on a dedicated water system for the shop with all new plumbing (so no issues with old mineral deposits). Even with double filtration and the softener, I still get (somewhat minor) spotting.



If you want spot-free drying, you oughta look into a deionizing system.
 
I kinda realize I would never be spot free, just infact I did not have any on my prior car. I have few and far between spots, and I think some of that is that it is so darn hot outside. Thanks for the help
 
How do you guys

A) Blot dry without having spots all over



B) Shoot yourself b/c it takes so friggin long?



I think I'd rather just wipe dry and be done, even if I have to polish once every 4 months or so it will only take me 2-3 hours max. I'll bet with the time invested we'll break about even.
 
staying swirl free on a black car = never ending uphill battle



I've pretty much decided that my wash routine is as refined is its gonna get and I'll be required to polish a couple of times a year no matter what... thus is the curse of black paint.
 
How long did it take him to correct the paint on your truck.



Are you sure he didn't just clean the paint and then glaze it hiding all the swirls??



If he truely corrected the paint, then maybe you should consider replacing your wash mitts every month and wash them regularly as well.



I use one wash mitt for the upper panels and a seperate wash mitt for the lower panels and another serperate wash mitt the for rims and tires and such.



Josh
 
Dylan06SS said:
staying swirl free on a black car = never ending uphill battle



I've pretty much decided that my wash routine is as refined is its gonna get and I'll be required to polish a couple of times a year no matter what... thus is the curse of black paint.
Click to expand...



Agreed. I use a foam gun, 2 buckets, and a grout sponge. Then, I flood the car w/out the nozzle to sheet off the water and use a leaf blower to blow the remaining water off. Then, I use a QD to spray and lubricate the paint as I do touch up drying blots. I still get scratches. Polishing is a reality for black paint. I've faced it.
 
violentveedub said:
How do you guys

A) Blot dry without having spots all over



B) Shoot yourself b/c it takes so friggin long?



I think I'd rather just wipe dry and be done, even if I have to polish once every 4 months or so it will only take me 2-3 hours max. I'll bet with the time invested we'll break about even.
Click to expand...



The sealers make the paint hydrophobic and the water vanishes away and leaves spot free dry sections on all panels

After a rinse I spray my water vanish QD that I formulated and then re rinse

That makes water sheet away even faster and then I just blot a section of each panel where a line of drops has been left behind, then do the door jambs and it's done



That's really hard to do on naked paint.
 
Egleone6 said:
What are drying blots? Is this the same as water spots?
Click to expand...



Sorry for not being clear. After I've blown the car dry I then spray QD on the areas where I still have some residual drops and blot them dry, using the QD to lubricate the area (avoiding long strokes or rubbing).
 
violentveedub said:
How do you guys

A) Blot dry without having spots all over



B) Shoot yourself b/c it takes so friggin long?



I think I'd rather just wipe dry and be done, even if I have to polish once every 4 months or so it will only take me 2-3 hours max. I'll bet with the time invested we'll break about even.
Click to expand...



I agree with *half* of the above :D



Yeah, blotting is an incredible PIA...I fancy myself pretty self-disciplined, but blotting a large vehicle is a real challenge.



Oh, and a little "smudging" of the drying media oughta take care of the "blots" without inducing any significant marring (assuming you get the vehicle pretty clean and use good drying media).



But I can't agree about the 2-3 hours to polish out marring. I guess it depends on the paint, but it takes me *infinitely* longer to polish out my vehicles. I probably average an hour per panel easily on the Audis, even with the rotary, but a lot of that is spent inspecting the (silver) paint, taping aluminum trim, etc. I do think it'd go a lot faster on black, where you don't have to search for five minutes to find a bit of marring that only shows under certain conditions; with black you can simply *see* the flaws, for better and/or worse. Last time I did a black vehicle it seemed pretty easy for that reason (and it was a horribly messed up rent-a-Suburban).



Scorponox said:
Do any of you guys use leaf blowers to dry the car after washing?
Click to expand...



A number of people here do that; I use an AirWand on mine. Just be sure to have a dedicated (car drying only) leafblower, as ones used for yard work are often contaminated with stuff I would't want to blast my paint with.
 
Scorponox said:
Do any of you guys use leaf blowers to dry the car after washing?
Click to expand...



Was wondering that same thing myself. I always like Mult-taskers. (Good Eats)



Accumulator said:
A number of people here do that; I use an AirWand on mine. Just be sure to have a dedicated (car drying only) leafblower, as ones used for yard work are often contaminated with stuff I would't want to blast my paint with.
Click to expand...



Ok, maybe not.
 
For me the addition of a foam gun during washing and a (dedicated) leaf blower during drying has been a HUGE improvement in the amount of marring I do to my car. I still have to polish regularly (I do a couple of panels every month or two to break up the work load), but I see that I'm not doing the damage I used to do. Now I just have to be more disciplined w/ my QD habit and I'll be in good shape...
 
Blottings real easy when theirs not much water to remove

For top of doors I fold the drying towel three times and put the towel in a vertical position and go from left to right



bottom of doors the towel is horizontal

My water vanish technique gives the same effect as video 3 from this site

(please note I have nothing to do with the owners of this site and have not yet purchased their product)



Paint Protection Videos
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top