Making pearls pop

[dfw]

The car is NHBP (Nighthawk Black Peal), basically black with alot of blue pearls. Wondering what should you use to make the pearls "pop" more? This will be worked by hand btw lol...

[Murr1525]

Re: Making pearls pop

Stick with the usual...

Wash
Clay
Clean
Polish
Wax - I think the Nxt 2.0 looks good on my metallic/pearl, I am sure it will be good on that.

[CieraSL]

Re: Making pearls pop

Are you working on a Honda? That sounds like a Honda color to me. Do you have any pics of your car and the condition of the paint? I'm thinking:

Wash
Clay
Swirl X or Ultimate Compound to remove swirls and scratches
Pure polish is optional, you can do a test spot to see if it makes a difference
NXT 2.0 (or M21 2.0, I personally like M21 better)
M26

That would be my process. But again, some pics would be nice.

[Eddie6th]

Re: Making pearls pop

I have that paint color on my Insight.

If you want to make those blue flakes sparkle,use the DC2 Polish. Do as the others have told you but include that step before applying your NXT techwax 2. It does make a big difference!

I've waxed it twice so far. Once with carnaubaDC3 and more recently with the nxt tw2. I thought the techwax2 was better for this car's finish.

[Calais]

Re: Making pearls pop

NXT for sure with pearl/metallic!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Making pearls pop

To make a flake or pearl "pop" you need to eliminate swirls so that the flake/pearl isn't being overwhelmed by them. Swirls are very fine little scratches in the clear coat, with very sharp edges. These sharp edges reflect/refract the light and look white or silvery, especially against black base coats. If there is a high concentration of swirls in a non metallic black paint it can make the paint look gray. When you've got flake/pearl in the paint, it masks the effects because you've got all these white/silvery scratches jumping out at you.

You need to flatten the surface, smooth it out. This is essentially a two step process that prepares the paint by eliminating different kinds of defects in and on the paint. Meguiar's 5-Step Paint Care Cycle outlines the full process but basically you need to do two things:

1. Clay the paint to remove above surface bonded contaminants
2. Use a paint cleaner such as SwirlX or Ultimate Compound to level the paint and remove below surface defects like those flake-hiding swirls, etching, etc

This paint cleaning process will reveal the true nature of the flake/pearl and really make them "pop". Now you can apply a pure polish to the surface to deepen and richen the base color, which will make the flake/pearl stand out even more. Finally, apply a wax to protect all this hard work you've just done. NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0 imparts a very bright shine, which only further serves to bring out that flake/pearl.

Yes, it's a good bit of work, especially by hand, but the result is well worth the effort. Although there is a reason power tools were invented!