So how hard is GM black again?

GlossyTundra

GlossyTundra

Tractor Detailer
I have a massive GMC denali for my best friends mom to do tommorow. She had taken it to a local detailer that did nothing but fill in the swirls and now they are back in full force.



I have heard how hard GM black is, and I have done my fathers denali, but I never do nothing more than AIO+LSP since it is a work truck and I have never tried to polish the swirls/holograms out.



I have at my disposal,

Mezerna IP+FPII

Optimum compound

SSR 1/2.5

Yellow/orange/white/black pads



I was thinking Optimum w/rotary and either orange or yellow pad(depends on how hard is is), and then FPII with a finish pad (maybe some RMG) and some EX by hand.



How about that, look good, or do I need to "fill" some of them in with some RMG and tell her thats all that can be done?



Brandon
 
I did my buds 99 silverado. I used a yellow excel pad and 2.5 and it took out some minor swirls, but left A LOT. After several passes I just decided to deal with it since I've never used a rotary. Still made the truck look good, but it's definately not swirl free. I tried using Megs #80 and then RMG after as well and they didn't do much. The RMG did make the black look more wet, but nothing for the swirls.
 
Two passes with Menzerna IP and an orange LC pad on the PC was enough to get rid of the swirls on my Formula. There's a few scratches that don't come out via PC, but striving for complete perfection on a black car with hard clear (especially by random orbit) will drive you insane.
 
We have a black denali (2004) and the paint is SUPER SUPER soft. The back door had some marks left in the clear coat (like someone touched it when it was drying), so I took my Orange propel pad, megs. #83 and then did a few passes. lets put it this way..The door HAD a lot of orange peel before I touched it. Now? Almost none.
 
Interesting about what z400 posted!



Maybe the Denalis are painted with different stuff than other GM trucks.



When I did the '05 rent-a-Suburban, nothing short of the rotary w/3M PI-III RC would do *anything*. But I was able to get it very nice with that combo, and I doubt her truck is much worse than that rental was. No real need for fillers because the only things that wouldn't come out were the deep problems that fillers won't hide anyhow. But I did use #80 for the last polishing step, so between that and the #16 there was a little hiding going on.
 
I've never had any problem removing imperfections from mine or any of the GM's I've detailed...Grant it, mine the majority of the time never has more then spiderwebbing but I have remove scratches and detailed other GM's with no problem using the PC and DACP, SSR2.5, and IP.



Here is a Suburban I did with PC SSR2.5/cutting pad



02_sub.jpg




03_sub.jpg
 
alright, looks like rotary and mezerna it is.



I did my mothers 2003 denali before we sold it in late 2003 with some mothers cleaner wax, and now that I think of it, there was alot of hazing with that(yes I used microfiber and good methods :D ). Maybe this one wont be as hard as I am hoping.



I will be sure to post B&F pics!
 
oooh just finished 4hr job :hairpull



I cant figure out if the paint is hard or soft, maybe a little of both. I used rotary/cut pad/IP slow passes and it took out some swirls but not all(I tried a few more combos and ended up concluding that with the time I had, the IP was the best it was going to get), and then I put on my FPII to finish it off with a finish pad (read, finish pad!), and I got an immense amount of hazing. :angry



I ended up using that combo followed by some 3M SMR(I know, but she told me to get it as best as I could and then use some fillers), nattys blue, and nanowax spray. Ended up removing/hiding about 85% of the swirls, but hazing was still a tiny issue. Luckily, she was thrilled anyway and her and her husband hired me to keep up their cars, so I may look for something different for her car to work with.



Whew a long afternoon/night, and I still need to go study for my statistics exam.
 
In my personal experiences, I have found GM paint to be high maintainence. Regardless of the number of times my cars have been washed, polished and waxed, if a bird bomb is not removed right away, it would almost always etch the paint. On the other hand, the Chrysler vehicles I have owned could go days without removing the bomb and there would be little or no paint problems. Again, this is just my personal experience.
 
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