Polish and wax for a black Z...Any recommendations?

[Vette73]

Have a black 91.....Paint is solid, but, it's black and as you know it's not forgiving ...Car really does not need a compound but I hear it's good to polish first than wax....

Can anyone recommend a good polish and wax for a black car? Usually I just use what I can pick up in auto zone, Macguires usually..

I'm not bad with a buffer and I heard when you polish you should use the waffle style pad for polishing.....Anyone use the same?

[2ljd]

I highly recommend Zaino!


Sent from my iPhone using ZR-1 Net Registry

[dredgeguy]

Chemical Guys has V32, V34, V36 and V38 polish. The V32 is most aggressive and my guess is the V38 with a orange (medium) waffle pad will get any and all minor swirls and scratches out in one pass. Then finish with Black Light, Wet Mirror Finish or VO7. If you call Chemical Guys they will give you lots of info and they also have many great videos on their website. Polish away.....

[Vette73]

Hey thanks for the info I will give this a try....

[G-Sting]

I have been very satisfied with the results of this process:

1. Wash car with soap and water. Wipe dry.
2. Clay Bar entire car. (fun)
3. If the car has swirls, yes, this is a good time to get out the random orbital polisher with a Lake Country CCS orange (or the like) pad. The new "Dustless" paint correcting polishes are awesome. I like Adam's Paint Correcting Polish a lot. Watching their videos on doing it properly are important! I've also used Griot's Fast Correcting Cream with good results. The Griot's works out deeper swirls, if needed. BOTH are amazingly dustless when wiping off with a good quality microfiber towel.
4. Apply Chemical Guy's Blacklight Hybrid Radiant Finish. This deepens the black or darker colors really nicely.
5. Apply Chemical Guy's V07 spray.
6. If you want to go one step more... a good Carnauba wax to top it off. (Meguiar's is good)

It takes a good part of a day to do all these things, but can be rewarding if done right. Be sure to get good quality, large microfiber towels. You'll need 5 or 6 of them for the job.

Enjoy!

[Vette73]

Better part of the day? You got that right...Dint think my car needs a compound or the clay bar.....You can see a lot of surface scratches on the hood when the sun hits......Common on a black car.....When it's dusk car looks brand new...

I'm sure a good quality polish with a buffer will remove scratches followed by one of the waxes you guys recommend...

[G-Sting]

Originally Posted by Vette73

Better part of the day? You got that right...Dint think my car needs a compound or the clay bar.....You can see a lot of surface scratches on the hood when the sun hits......Common on a black car.....When it's dusk car looks brand new...

I'm sure a good quality polish with a buffer will remove scratches followed by one of the waxes you guys recommend...

Vette73 -
I'm sure it does look great. I've had two black Vettes. They look nice in the evening, especially. In the direct sun light, about any darker color shows swirls, too.

Clay barring is highly recommended for any places a person wants to use a buffer on. It removes the impurities that one cannot see with the naked eye after a wash. Otherwise, one will buff those impurities (dust, micro grit, etc.) into the clearcoat, creating more problems.

Maybe just wash, clay bar the hood, and then buff? If so, I'd use the Adam's Paint Correcting Polish. (I have no association with the product nor company.) You might be amazed simply after doing that. I was. Especially since in the past I've used the dusty products -- they do well, but take extra time on clean up as dust gets all over the place. With the dustless products, when wiping them off with a microfiber towel, one asks: Where did all of that stuff go?

[Vette73]

Originally Posted by G-Sting

Vette73 -
I'm sure it does look great. I've had two black Vettes. They look nice in the evening, especially. In the direct sun light, about any darker color shows swirls, too.

Clay barring is highly recommended for any places a person wants to use a buffer on. It removes the impurities that one cannot see with the naked eye after a wash. Otherwise, one will buff those impurities (dust, micro grit, etc.) into the clearcoat, creating more problems.

Maybe just wash, clay bar the hood, and then buff? If so, I'd use the Adam's Paint Correcting Polish. (I have no association with the product nor company.) You might be amazed simply after doing that. I was. Especially since in the past I've used the dusty products -- they do well, but take extra time on clean up as dust gets all over the place. With the dustless products, when wiping them off with a microfiber towel, one asks: Where did all of that stuff go?

Hey thanks for the tip.....I will give it a shot....I will at least give the hood a going over with the clay bar.....This time of year is a good time to do this...No humidity and a lot of fresh air...

[DRM500RUBYZR-1]

Originally Posted by G-Sting

I have been very satisfied with the results of this process:

1. Wash car with soap and water. Wipe dry.
2. Clay Bar entire car. (fun)
3. If the car has swirls, yes, this is a good time to get out the random orbital polisher with a Lake Country CCS orange (or the like) pad. The new "Dustless" paint correcting polishes are awesome. I like Adam's Paint Correcting Polish a lot. Watching their videos on doing it properly are important! I've also used Griot's Fast Correcting Cream with good results. The Griot's works out deeper swirls, if needed. BOTH are amazingly dustless when wiping off with a good quality microfiber towel.
4. Apply Chemical Guy's Blacklight Hybrid Radiant Finish. This deepens the black or darker colors really nicely.
5. Apply Chemical Guy's V07 spray.
6. If you want to go one step more... a good Carnauba wax to top it off. (Meguiar's is good)

It takes a good part of a day to do all these things, but can be rewarding if done right. Be sure to get good quality, large microfiber towels. You'll need 5 or 6 of them for the job.

Enjoy!

Completely agree with each of the steps as well as the products.
Only suggestion might be a more multi step polish regimen.
Paint correction (polish) needs to be sufficiently aggressive to remove the imperfections, then less aggressive to remove the finer scratches from the aggressive polish.
Here we go through either a 3 or a 5 step correction process, as light as needed to get out all of the imperfections.
It takes 1-2 days to get the car where I find it acceptable.
The practice of putting a genuine wax product over the synthetic products is what really makes it look absolutely amazing!
The Gloss Enhancer sprays mentioned in the original post take it up even further.
I have no experience with the newer Turtle products.
I avoid ceramic coatings after discussing with my painter. Most need to be sanded off to fix even a scratch. So in a case where you are trying to panel blend, you may need to sand a good portion of the car to repair a simple scratch.
I have found X-Pel to be a far better way to protect paint form damage and it is reversible.
Make it look great!

Marty

[dredgeguy]

If you want to pay somebody to polish and then put on a coating that will last 3 years, check out The Shine Shop in Maryland
http://www.theshineshopautodetailing.com/
I have the Kamikaze coating on my car and just wipe down with plain water, no more wax, detail spray or anything. Takes 10 minutes to get ready for a car show or cars and coffee. Interesting technology that is baked on the car using infrared lights