Gonna need some help with Jet Black...

H

heffergm

New member
Hi all,
Been away for a while, but I'm picking up a new BMW 135i 'vert shortly. Because inventory is low to make way for the 2011's I was somewhat limited in my color choice and ended up going with Jet Black (BMW's non-metallic black).

My car lives outside.
I don't have millions of hours to spend taking care of it (i.e. I'm employed, married and have kids).
I know it's gonna look dirty most of the time.

That said, it looks damn good when it's clean and swirl free (ish).

I'm a long time PC user/two bucket wash guy, but what I'm looking for advice on is a one step polish/sealant product that will get the car looking 98 or 99% and save me a lot of time I don't have to spend.

As I have no garage, keep in mind that I'll likely be working in the sun. Any suggestions? Or should I just not show up at the dealer :surrender
 
The not showing up part is what I would recommend. Your car is going to look like hell after the first year. I've seen it a million times, beleive me on this one :crazy2:

Either that or get those rugrats out there every weekend doing a 2BM :notme:
 
heffergm said:
Hi all,
Been away for a while, but I'm picking up a new BMW 135i 'vert shortly. Because inventory is low to make way for the 2011's I was somewhat limited in my color choice and ended up going with Jet Black (BMW's non-metallic black).

My car lives outside.
I don't have millions of hours to spend taking care of it (i.e. I'm employed, married and have kids).
I know it's gonna look dirty most of the time.

That said, it looks damn good when it's clean and swirl free (ish).

I'm a long time PC user/two bucket wash guy, but what I'm looking for advice on is a one step polish/sealant product that will get the car looking 98 or 99% and save me a lot of time I don't have to spend.

As I have no garage, keep in mind that I'll likely be working in the sun. Any suggestions? Or should I just not show up at the dealer :surrender
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I won't start out with a question which tugs at the strings of curiosity.

With the parameters you're working (paint color, outside unprotected 24/7/365, limited time to spend, kids) you're going to be pushing a big rock uphill. You may have to lower your expectations.

With the proper washing habits at least you shouldn't be adding to the damage that the paint will ultimately face being constantly exposed to the elements and daily driving. For a one-step, try PB's PwC (Blue would be a good choice with your black paint). As JP mentioned above, maybe follow topping with a glaze like PB's Black Hole and/or Natty's Blue. After the initial polish step the topping shouldn't take too much additional time and can be done on a separate weekend if necessary. Do that every month or every other month and you haven't spent too much time. Anything less and you should probably save your money on the car or hire yourself a good detailer to take care of it for you.
 
I also am a new black car owner lol..... Get some poorboys polish w carnauba blue, black hole and nattys blue!
 
I am a very positive person by nature but here I will be just honest. Why did you go with JB?

If you care about the car, you will be very dissapointed with your decision. Can't you get anything else? JB is the worst color to own let alone with your conditions. :welcome:
 
wallyStang said:
I also am a new black car owner lol..... Get some poorboys polish w carnauba blue, black hole and nattys blue!
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A black Mustang and a Jett Black Bimmer are two totally different situations. The BMW jett black is so soft it marrs if you look at it wrong. Unless they changed it of course.

To the OP for what it's worth , I will be posting up some photos of a training session where I am going to help a fellow DC member figure out a good process for correcting his Jett Black Z435i. The work will be done on this coming Saturday. The pics should be up by Sunday evening with the 50/50 and the processes. it will be on this thread
http://www.detailcity.org/forums/de...z435i-correction-one-only-tuscarora-dave.html
 
Let me tell you how this story will evolve: :hmmm:

Year 1~ You will try your best to maintain your DD but you will soon see how much of a challenge this really is. The car will appear to have held up pretty well at the 1 year old mark. A couple lil scratches here and there, but overall pretty good :rockon

Year 2~ Here is where things start to change rapidlly. The car will have lost that new car feeling, you will wash/wax less frequently and you will even start to consider running it thru a swirl-a-thon. At the end of year 2 you will start noticing all kinda defects in the paint and tell yourself year 3 will be different :huh:

Year 3~ This will put you at April 2013. You are going to preform(or have preformed) a major paint correction in hopes of saving your car. It will look just about as good as it ever has - a few bumps and brusies, but you have hope and a plan in place to keep this from getting worse. However, you will fail at keeping this plan. Between the kids getting older, work getting busier you will not be able to maintain :wall

Year 4~ You will go to preform your spring cleaning of your now 4 year old car. The car will look like it has been beat to hell. All kinda scratches/bird markings/door dings/paint chips/permanent stains in the carpet/leather. This will be the last Full Detail preformed on this vehicle. You will start running it thru the swirl-a-thon every friday and the rest will be history. All kinda new models have come out during this time and you will find you have fallen out of love. Your car will resemble a rolling trash can by the end of year 4 :wow:

I've seen this movie hundreds of times. It very, very, very rarely has a happy ending :howdy
 
On the other hand, my 3 year old Black Saphirre Metallic 335i coupe looks as good as when it was delivered! I will concede it is a different paint and is the traditional medium hard clear.

I will also add that I just did an 09 Jet Black 335i coupe about a month ago and it was harder than my Black Saphirre!!! I have to believe BMW has responded to the complaints about JB and there have been others on other boards confirming what I found i.e. very hard JB on more recent models.

I will say that Black is certainly the hardest to maintain and I baby mine to keep it so good. If you have the time to put into it Black can be extremely rewarding.

As they say, Black is the Doctorate Thesis for detailers!
 
(901) said:
Let me tell you how this story will evolve: :hmmm:

Year 1~ You will try your best to maintain your DD but you will soon see how much of a challenge this really is. The car will appear to have held up pretty well at the 1 year old mark. A couple lil scratches here and there, but overall pretty good :rockon

Year 2~ Here is where things start to change rapidlly. The car will have lost that new car feeling, you will wash/wax less frequently and you will even start to consider running it thru a swirl-a-thon. At the end of year 2 you will start noticing all kinda defects in the paint and tell yourself year 3 will be different :huh:

Year 3~ This will put you at April 2013. You are going to preform(or have preformed) a major paint correction in hopes of saving your car. It will look just about as good as it ever has - a few bumps and brusies, but you have hope and a plan in place to keep this from getting worse. However, you will fail at keeping this plan. Between the kids getting older, work getting busier you will not be able to maintain :wall

Year 4~ You will go to preform your spring cleaning of your now 4 year old car. The car will look like it has been beat to hell. All kinda scratches/bird markings/door dings/paint chips/permanent stains in the carpet/leather. This will be the last Full Detail preformed on this vehicle. You will start running it thru the swirl-a-thon every friday and the rest will be history. All kinda new models have come out during this time and you will find you have fallen out of love. Your car will resemble a rolling trash can by the end of year 4 :wow:

I've seen this movie hundreds of times. It very, very, very rarely has a happy ending :howdy
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I must be very rare then I have a Black car that I have had for 21 years and a Black Ranger for 10 years and last fall I traded a 25 year old Black car for a new Black one.
All look better than new.

Caring for Black is just like any color if you want it to look nice it requires frequent detailing.

Only difference in colors is those who won't properly keep their car clean can drive some colors dirty and it don't show so much.

I have a wine color explorer and I detail it every time I drive it so it is no different than Black if you keep it clean you will spend the same time on any color.

The real difference is that Black looks better when clean than other colors do.
 
black bart said:
I must be very rare then I have a Black car that I have had for 21 years and a Black Ranger for 10 years and last fall I traded a 25 year old Black car for a new Black one.
All look better than new.




I have a wine color explorer and I detail it every time I drive it so it is no different than Black if you keep it clean you will spend the same time on any color.

The real difference is that Black looks better "When" clean than other colors do.
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25 year old paint looks better then new :lmfao

You here the man OP. All you have to do is do a detail every evening when you get home from working all day. Oh yea, and keep it garaged day and night :huh:


As for the last comment....We are all entitled to our on opinion no matter how wrong you are. I personally hate black. I don't care how clean/swirl free it is. On a DD your destined to fail with a black ride :notme:
 
THIS CAR IS 21 YEARS OLD DOES IT LOOK LIKE HELL




ShowPictures020.jpg






THIS TRUCK IS 10 YEARS OLD DOES IT LOOK LIKE HELL






DuraglossonRanger002.jpg


CARING FOR bLACK IS WAAYYYYYYYYYYY OVERBLOWN IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING IT IS NOT DIFFICULT
 
Key statement here 901, I've had two jet black car and most of the other cars I've had where very dark colors.

Do they require more attention than lighter colors, any fool can answer that:D

Currently have a 14 year old Camry very dark green color, and my car stands up to any car, I've been told that many times...I will only agree with you on one point...some people should not buy black cars, they are more work and unless you are up to that then go white!

(901) said:
I personally hate black. I don't care how clean/swirl free it is. On a DD your destined to fail with a black ride :notme:
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(901) said:
If I was there in person. I'm sure I could find flaws all over the place :inspector:

Hey, check this out

www.detailcity.org/forums/auto-detailing-101/16851-self-confessed-newb-new-car-detail-steps.html

Wonder how that dark charcoal Lexus looks today :notme:[/QUOTE
If I was there in person. I'm sure I could find flaws all over the place :inspector:

]I'll bet you can't. 901 just because you can not maintain Black does not mean it is impossible.
When you come home instead of putting your feet up in front of the TV and pop the top on a beer you need to spend 20 minutes and clean the car.

I have 7 vehicles and it don't matter which one I drive when I get home I clean it regardless of color.
I'm not going to drive a scroungy vehicle.
Keeping the undercarriage and the fender wells clean is far more work than the paint.
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Getting back to heffergm's OP, I think he was mentioning that his new 1 series will live outside 100% of the time and with other personal life obligations it might not be the best color choice. I still maintain that black can be maintained to look good as long as you spend some time on it frequently. By that I mean a little time once a week and not a lot of time every few months.

Black Bart, your vehicles look outstanding!!!
 
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