Routine for dark colors?

rockford33

rockford33

New member
I was curious as to what the more experienced detailers on this list use on darker colored cars. I have one car which is a medium to dark blue (91 Pontiac), and a car which is bright red (91 Spirit R/T). The Pontiac I was told is a repaint. It always seems to look dull, but I think that is the paint under the clearcoat. Anyway, I just got a PC 7424 to replace my Craftsman. At the moment, I have a white foam pad (came with PC), and I also ordered the gray and orange pads from Classic Motoring. Stuff I have in the garage is Mother's Cleaner Wax, Liquid Glass, Meg's Polish, Meg's Clear coat Body Scrub, Meg's Carnuba Wax, 3M Show Car glaze, and 3M Perfect-It Fine Cut. I am trying to use some of the stuff on my parent's and friend's cars to get rid of it. What could I still use, or should I be using, for my red car and my blue car? Can the same stuff be used on my girlfriend's silver car with the same results? I apologize for the long post. Being a newbie to detailing (the correct way), I am thirsty for knowledge.

Thanks,
Neil

P.S. Attached is a not-so-good pic of my red Spirit R/T.
 
Welcome to DC!!

The R/T is one of my favorites.

Read through the post here and I am sure you find the right way to detail and end up spend lots of money on new supplies.


The PC will make detailing easier, and give better results than by hand.

Eric
 
In general, the steps are- cleaner, polish, glaze and wax. You can skip the cleaner if the finish is very good and you can skip the glaze if the finish is acceptable to you after the polish. On some cars, a cleaner-wax applied with a polishing pad can yield excellent results. Not show-car quality, but better than many have ever seen on their car. As to the Liquid Glass, you need to buy a pre-cleaner made for acrylics or it won't bond. You can use Platinum pre-cleaner/polish or some equivalent. Although cleaners and polishes can remove many contaminants, you should definitely invest in a clay bar. It often eliminates the cleaning step and leaves the finish glassy-smooth before you polish, which makes the polishing step come out that much better. There is a lot of info on this on the site. Check out Beemerboy's posts. He is a pro and usually follows, the clay, polish, glaze, wax procedure as I recall.
 
I love my R/T. Bone stock, she dyno'ed at 178 hp and 188 ft-lbs to the wheels! That's more than what a lot of cars nowadays are rated for at the engine. Anyway, I guess the purpose of my original question is are there any products that work better on darker colors? (i.e. in other people's experience, would Meg's #26 look better on red than Zaino, etc.)

Thanks,
Neil
 
My favorite combo on my red truck is SEPC + Meg' 7 + S100. Just ordered EX so I'll be giving that a try soon.
 
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