May buy black car, with my experience, I should be ok???

[Mike Phillips]

Re: May buy black car, with my experience, I should be ok???

We bought a black Honda Pilot, our first black car or technically a S.U.V.

At first we really liked it because we're "car people" and liked having a clear, shiny black finish on our Pilot. After a couple of years of careful washing and frequent waxing however the newness has worn off and the reality is it's an S.U.V., not a "Special Interest" car of some sort and in the future we would not buy another black "Daily Driver".

We would own another black car but it would have to be the "Toy", not the Costco Grocery Getter.

Especially here in the Mojave Desert where it's windy and dusty.

So evaluate your personality type and balance this against the type of car you're buying. That should help you to gauge the color at least a little.

Just my 2 cents for what it's worth.

[aprevo15]

Re: May buy black car, with my experience, I should be ok???

get the black car. yesterday my uncle and i detailed our cars using a g110 and #80. it came out nice. he has a black mercedes cls500 and i have a black honda accord.

it got rid of all the little swirls so we are happy.

[gb387]

Re: May buy black car, with my experience, I should be ok???

OK, I have had two black vehicles - that said I tend to agree with Mike P.

I use to have a Ford Lightning (daily driver) in black and I wouldn't own any other color 'fun vehicle'... you just cant beat the look of black. IMO it was well worth keeping looking its beat all the time.

Now I have a Chevy Avalanche (daily driver) but I will tell you it has a lot of paint and makes for a lot of work. I am not always happy with the way it looks unless its right after a full detail and again its a lot of paint that makes a lot of work. I do enjoy detailing it but its not always possible to spend the time. My next vehicle I think will be white! Another problem is the winter, around Iowa it stays white most of the winter. I do hope to detail it again this Christmas in a nice warm garage in Minnesota to get it back to black!

Would polishing/compounding swirls out every 1-2 months risk thinning the clear too much too soon? His car will get polished/compounded more in one year than my car will get in its 10 year life.

Using a G100/110 removes very little practically unmeasurable amounts of clear coat. There is a post somewhere (don't have the link) that the CC thickness was measured after various polishes and polishing methods. It was a very interesting post, maybe someone on MOL still has the link?

EDIT: I found the link in lost link land!!: How much paint are you removing.

[mb911]

Re: May buy black car, with my experience, I should be ok???

Well, I finally did it. I went ahead and got the black car.

I found one that had better paint than most I could find. There were minimal swirls, not bad at all, hard to find any even with direct light.

However, under certain light I can also see "drops," or something all over the paint. Strange. Maybe it's hard water or something, and I can only see it under certain light. Don't know.

Anyway, this Saturday I'll do my own first detail to it, for now I've just been using my quick detailers to keep it gorgeous. Under the hood, some paint in the engine compartment has bad hard water spots though. It's sad.

So this saturday I'm going to clay, then use DA polisher with either M205 or M83, and then put on some NXT 2.0 2 coats. At least small car = finish quicker!!!!

I'm hoping this paint won't be like the palladium silver on my C-Class, where with the DA polisher M205 & M83 removes no defects, and even M105 didn't make much impact.

Pictures for now as delivered, if I can remember how to do it...2009 Mercedes-Benz SLK 350...

[Mikejl]

Re: May buy black car, with my experience, I should be ok???

Verrrrrry Nice!

Mike

[RaskyR1]

Re: May buy black car, with my experience, I should be ok???

Very nice car!


I you have the time you can definitely keep her looking good.

I like to go over my car with some ColorX/M66 often with the DA and finishing pad. I'm also going to try out some M20, and maybe just use that every other wash instead on NXT.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: May buy black car, with my experience, I should be ok???

Wow! What a wicked looking black Mercedes-Benz.




I'm confident you're already planning on doing a test spot first and dialing in a a recipe or a system that will successfully create a flawless finish on your new pride and joy