Help Getting Silver POP

I

imported_TheFiveO1

New member
Greetings to all my fellow Autopians and detailers! (Part time detailer here and full time Autopian!!) Anyhow....... is it just me or is silver one of the most ....ehhhhh colors to work on? I detailed out a Mercedez c230 today, silver in color, and although the car is slick as a baby's butt and the owner VERY happy I just can't help but say..... ehhhh.



This is the second silver car I have worked on and the last one, a silver Lexus, seemed to suffer the same ehhhhh principle. I mean they look super, but does silver just lack depth compared to other colors?



Maybe I am just spolied with darker colors? Any suggestions on products or comments? Thanks!!



Oh and lest ya wonder my work product, today's detail is as follows:



Wash-Clay-Wash

Tape off all trim and then.......

----- Sonus SFX-2 Restore (Awesome product David)

----- Sonus SFX-1 Final Finish (See above accolade)

----- 2 thin coats of Megs #21 (Awesome shine)

----- 1 thin coat of S100 (Sweet easy nuba)



All items were applied via PC with yellow and beige Meg's pads.



Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing from you. :thx
 
TheFiveO said:
Greetings to all my fellow Autopians and detailers! (Part time detailer here and full time Autopian!!) Anyhow....... is it just me or is silver one of the most ....ehhhhh colors to work on? I detailed out a Mercedez c230 today, silver in color, and although the car is slick as a baby's butt and the owner VERY happy I just can't help but say..... ehhhh.



This is the second silver car I have worked on and the last one, a silver Lexus, seemed to suffer the same ehhhhh principle. I mean they look super, but does silver just lack depth compared to other colors?



Maybe I am just spolied with darker colors? Any suggestions on products or comments? Thanks!!



Oh and lest ya wonder my work product, today's detail is as follows:



Wash-Clay-Wash

Tape off all trim and then.......

----- Sonus SFX-2 Restore (Awesome product David)

----- Sonus SFX-1 Final Finish (See above accolade)

----- 2 thin coats of Megs #21 (Awesome shine)

----- 1 thin coat of S100 (Sweet easy nuba)



All items were applied via PC with yellow and beige Meg's pads.



Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing from you. :thx
Click to expand...









Just my two cents but Menzerna finishing polishes look great on silver. if it has metalflake it is awesome :woot: . as far as an LSP you will get many ideas for sure. I have had good luck with Z2 pro on silver. have seen some details with AJ on silver and they looked like a good choice as well. hope you find some of this info useful. good luck :xyxthumbs
 
I used UPP followed by Natty's Blue and got

boxlight27gg.jpg




What I've found is that with Silver, it's just all about the angle you look at the car.
 
ResizeWizard-7.jpg




This is after polishing with Menzerna IP/FP.

My favorite on silver so far is AIO/SG/souveran liquid, which doesnt work well on a customers car due to the cure time.

I love how RMG/UPP looks on gold, but I haven't seen it on silver yet, but it sure makes the flake stand out.



Below is AIO/SG/souveran liquid, the reflection of the grass made it look greenish but its my silver Maxima (the same as above).

dfad.jpg
 
Pop on silver is a difficult task. Thru my years I have learned that the more time you spend cleaning the paint, after polishing, in other words. ..........Get your polishing completed as you feel fit. Then use a paint cleaner, like AIO, Sonus Paint Cleaner, Four Star Paint Cleaner etc......If you have issues with swirls you cant remove or just dont want to go any farther, by all means go for , as Scott suggested, VM, RMG or another popular glaze frequently mentioned here. Then seal.......I think your best pop comes with the paint in its most pristine state......cleaned, and free of oils....Just my $.02.

(Im looking forward to hearing other comments about my particular method, lol)
 
Sarcazmo said:
I used UPP followed by Natty's Blue and got

boxlight27gg.jpg




What I've found is that with Silver, it's just all about the angle you look at the car.
Click to expand...





Not to be a ***** or anything haha but I don't think that is silver. Isn't that Blue Onyx Pearl which resembles the Corolla's moonshadow metallic, which is more dark grey/gunmetal looking?



Back to topic, I noticed KSG worked good for me. I totally agree with Patrick about prep. I noticed the better I prep the paint, the better the end result.
 
Hitting the right angle for silver is definately one thing when taking pics... here is a Mercedes I did Sunday (QEW, OC with a polishing pad, OCW):



post-41-1136769401.jpg




post-41-1136769488.jpg
 
First I get it absolutely marring-free, working primarily with the rotary. Marring-free as in, inspect with magnification under numerous light sources. Then burnish with a product that's almost functionally nonabrasive but not quite (on Audis I use 1Z Pro MP via Cyclo, many light passes). Then apply a "clear" LSP (I used UPP).



IMO it's almost all in the polishing and the inspection (which is at least as tough as the polishing). By the time I applied the LSP to my S8 it was literally blinding in sunlight, something I'd never achieved before in nearly 30 years of detailing. I credit the initial polishing with the rotary and the careful inspection (hours of that when you add it all up). Inspecting with the naked eye is different from inspecting with magnification and what shows under one kind of light won't show under another.



But 99.9999% of people won't notice the difference anyhow and it was so much work that I haven't redone the car since then (spring of '04). For now I'm settling for "marring free with the naked eye", something I can basically maintain on that car year in year out without much work. Very, very nice, but not quite the same. Repeatedly inspecting a single panel for minutes at a time is an incredible pain and it must not be worth it to me or I'd still be doing it ;)



If you want incredible silver, get a rotary, some good polishes (with the 1Z stuff getting hard to find you might try Menzerna, but I couldn't get the same look with FPI), some illuminated magnifiers, and various light sources. And plan on spending a *lot* of time. Or just reconsider the whole thing; life is short and one of the big advantages of silver is that it can look pretty great with very little effort.
 
Thanks for everyones input. Maybe I am being too critical of myself. The car came out looking just like the photo n2_space posted . I guess that I didn't do too shabby then.



I plan on trying out some more of the products recommended in this posting though. Luckily, this is my side job so the money supports my new product habit!



From what everyone says, Klass AIO really IS that good and serves as a basis for all good shines! Time to kick loose with some cash then. I have been very happy with the Mirror Glaze and Sonus line, just seems that sometimes they lack BLING
 
AIO/WG/Nattys:



Hood_AIO_WG_Nattys.JPG




It's all about polishing and paint cleaning. If the paint is free of marring and oxidation, silver can look great. It will never have reflections that match a dark color, but if you want that...get a dark color. :)
 
a.k.a. Patrick said:
Pop on silver is a difficult task. Thru my years I have learned that the more time you spend cleaning the paint, after polishing, in other words. ..........Get your polishing completed as you feel fit. Then use a paint cleaner, like AIO, Sonus Paint Cleaner, Four Star Paint Cleaner etc......If you have issues with swirls you cant remove or just dont want to go any farther, by all means go for , as Scott suggested, VM, RMG or another popular glaze frequently mentioned here. Then seal.......I think your best pop comes with the paint in its most pristine state......cleaned, and free of oils....Just my $.02.

(Im looking forward to hearing other comments about my particular method, lol)
Click to expand...



You made a good point. I just have a few questions. Let me make sure I get this striaght

Wash (rims to)

Clay

Wash

Tape all molding then polish.

Use a paint cleaner

Wax ( I am using CG xtreme carnunuba/syntheic wax)
 
White95Max said:
Yes, that is the right process for your car. Wash/clay/polish/cleaner/sealant(or wax).
Click to expand...





I'd consider skipping the cleaner, depending on how it looks after the polishing. Actually, unless you count AIO (which I only use as a base for KSG), I can't even remember the last time I used a paint cleaner...
 
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